Eric Lee Peterson, of Kansas City, Missouri, pleaded guilty to knowingly and unlawfully entering the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. In this Department of Justice photo, he is shown during the U.S. Capitol attack. (Photo from U.S. Department of Justice court filing)

WASHINGTON — A Kansas City, Missouri, man who pleaded guilty to entering the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, and expects a pardon from President-elect Donald Trump will be allowed to attend Trump’s inauguration, a federal judge ordered Thursday.

U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan, who presided over Trump’s election subversion case in the District of Columbia, granted Eric Lee Peterson’s request to attend the president-elect’s swearing-in ceremony on Jan. 20 in Washington, D.C., as well as a request to expand his local travel restrictions while on bond.

Peterson’s attorney Michael Bullotta argued in a motion filed Tuesday that his client deserved the exceptions because he does not have a criminal record and “(h)is offense was entering and remaining in the Capitol for about 8 minutes without proper authorization.”

“Apart from being reasonable on their face, these two modification requests are even more appropriate in light of the incoming Trump administration’s confirmations that President Trump will fully pardon those in Mr. Peterson’s position on his first day in office on January 20, 2025. Thus, his scheduled sentencing hearing before this Court on January 27, 2025 will likely be rendered moot,” Bullotta wrote.

Trump repeatedly promised on the campaign trail to pardon the Jan. 6 defendants, whom he exalted as “patriots,” “warriors” and “hostages.”

The president-elect said during a Dec. 8 interview on NBC News’ “Meet the Press with Kristen Welker” that he’s “going to be acting very quickly” to pardon the defendants on day one — though he indicated he might make exceptions “if somebody was radical, crazy.”

During that interview, Trump also threatened imprisonment for former GOP Rep. Liz Cheney of Wyoming and current Democratic Rep. Bennie Thompson of Mississippi, who together oversaw the congressional committee to investigate the Jan. 6 attack.

Peterson pleaded guilty to knowingly and unlawfully entering and remaining in a restricted building or grounds, for which he faces up to one year in prison, plus a fine.

As part of the plea, he agreed to pay $500 in restitution toward the estimated $2.8 million in damages to the Capitol, according to court filings. Peterson also agreed to hand over to authorities access to all of his social media communication on and around the date of the riot.

Approximately 1,572 people faced federal charges following the attack on the Capitol that stopped Congress for hours from certifying the 2020 presidential election victory for Joe Biden.

Lawmakers and Vice President Mike Pence evacuated to secured locations within the Capitol as rioters assaulted roughly 140 police officers and vandalized several parts of the building, including lawmakers’ offices.

Peterson is among the 996 defendants who pleaded guilty to charges, according to the latest Department of Justice data.

Peterson appeared on both surveillance video from inside the Capitol and publicly available third-party video taken outside the building during the riot, according to a statement of offense signed by Peterson on Oct. 29.

Peterson, in a pink t-shirt over a dark hooded sweatshirt, stood among the crowd of rioters outside the locked Rotunda doors “as the building alarm audibly blared from within the Capitol building,” according to the statement.

Further, the court filing states Peterson entered the building at 3:03 p.m. Eastern and “walked right by a police officer posted at the doors.”

While inside the Rotunda, where several U.S. Capitol Police were present, Peterson took cell phone photos. He exited the building at 3:11 p.m., but remained on the Capitol’s restricted Upper West Terrace afterward, according to the statement.

Peterson was arrested in early August and originally faced a total of four charges that included disorderly conduct and parading, picketing and demonstrating inside the Capitol.

From left, former Gov. Tommy Thompson and Republican Party of Wisconsin Chair Brian Schimming speak to reporters after casting their Electoral College votes for President-elect Donald Trump on Tuesday. (Erik Gunn | Wisconsin Examiner)

Wisconsin’s 10 Republican presidential electors — meeting officially Tuesday for the first time since 2016 — cast their votes shortly after 12 noon for President-elect Donald Trump and Vice President-elect J.D. Vance.

Afterward, state GOP Chair Brian Schimming and former Gov. Tommy Thompson cheerfully asserted their party was on a roll and declared that the Democratic Party of Wisconsin was in for a period of soul-searching after having been “completely captured by the left” and taken over by “elitists.”

“I don’t know if everybody realizes this as much as I do, but there’s been a complete transformation of the political parties — in the state of Wisconsin, across this country,” Thompson told a swarm of reporters who gathered in the Legislature’s Joint Finance Committee meeting room on fourth floor of the state Capitol.

“The Republican Party is the party of the working man and woman,” Thompson said. “The Republican Party is the party of the downtrodden and the individuals that need help. The Democrat Party has become a party of elitists, and their policies show that. The Republican Party has been out there asking, what are the problems? What are the questions? Inflation, taxes, regulation. They’re also talking about how you can improve schools, education, and Republicans are there, front and center with ideas and answers, and the Democrats have been vacant. They’ve been vacuous in the last four years.”

The press gaggle followed a formal procedure in which each of the 10 electors signed six copies of the papers documenting Wisconsin’s Electoral College votes for Trump and Vance in 2024. The documents will be forwarded to Washington as part of the Congressional procedure in early January certifying the election results.  

In 2020, 10 Republicans also met in the Capitol and signed forms asserting that Trump, then the incumbent president, had  won Wisconsin’s electoral votes in that year’s presidential race. In fact, President Joe Biden had defeated Trump in Wisconsin by about 20,600 votes, and the state’s official electors were Democrats led by Gov. Tony Evers.

Legal ramifications of the Republicans’ 2020 false electors scheme are still playing out. In June, Wisconsin Attorney General Josh Kaul filed felony forgery charges against three people accused of developing the 2020 plan to have false slates of electors vote for Trump. The defendants had their first court appearance Dec. 12.

Asked his reaction to those latest charges, Thompson said Tuesday  prosecutors and the country should move on.

“Isn’t it about time to turn the page?” Thompson said. “I mean, we can fight over the election of 2020 for the next four years. What does it get us? Isn’t about time to say, you know, we’ve had, we’ve had a lot of differences. This is time to start trying to mend ways in solving America’s problems, Wisconsin’s problems.”

“No one is above the law — not lawyers for former presidents or elected officials themselves,” said Democratic Party of Wisconsin Executive Director Sarah Abel in a statement responding to the GOP press conference. “We can’t move forward unless we learn from the mistakes of the past, and that includes holding accountable those who undermined our democracy and tried to overturn a free and fair election because they didn’t like the outcome.”

Schimming described the Republicans’ victories this year , in which they captured the White House, the U.S. House and the U.S. Senate, as evidence that the party connected with voters  outside as well as inside the GOP. And, he added, those voters remain enthusiastic supporters and volunteers who will power the party forward.

“As I travel across the state, the folks that we identified as Trump voters — not just Republicans, but a lot of people who were concerned about the direction of the country — are extremely motivated,” Schimming said.

“Donald Trump is the face of the Republican Party right now,” Thompson said. “We have control of the Congress and the presidency — we got to deliver to the American people,” he added. “It’s up to us now to show America that we’re going to be able to do it, and I’m confident we’re going to be able to do that without any doubt whatsoever.”

Abel pointed to the divided results in Wisconsin, in which Democratic Sen. Tammy Baldwin won reelection even as Trump was elected by a slim margin and Democrats picked up seats in the state Legislature, to reject the Republicans’ depiction of the outcome. 

“Let’s not pretend that the Republican Party has a monopoly over Wisconsin,” Abel said. “Neither party swept the state in 2024, and the GOP is grasping at straws as they see their grip on power here fading away. Wisconsin Democrats are built to last. We have a progressive identity that exists separately from the leader of our party — and Republicans can’t say the same.”

Thompson, who headed the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services under President George W. Bush, also stood by his previous endorsement of Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Trump’s choice to head the agency.

Kennedy has been widely criticized for anti-vaccine positions. On Dec. 9, dozens of Nobel laureates released a letter opposing Kennedy’s nomination because of his opposition to vaccines as well as to other public health measures.

Thompson said the suggestion that Kennedy harbored hostility toward vaccines is “misreading what he said,” adding, “I’m hoping what he said is not correct.” Kennedy’s past criticisms of vaccines included the “implied” question, “is that based upon science?” Thompson argued. “I think everything has got to be based on science.”

Thompson said he supported Kennedy because the nominee’s stated goals include improving Americans’ health, ensuring foods are healthier, “trying to make sure that all medicines are based upon science — who’s against that?” and that he favors speeding up the process of approving new drugs. “I’m in favor of all of those,” Thompson said, “and that’s why I support him.”

Asked about Democratic Party of Wisconsin Chair Ben Wikler’s campaign to head the national party, Thompson joked, “I’m going to contribute to it,” then later said Wikler “is a very good politician” whom he wished well.

Schimming called Wikler “obviously a talented guy,” but asserted that the party needed more dramatic change. “The Democratic Party has been completely captured by the left, and they can’t seem to figure out that that’s part of their problem,” he said. “And if they continue not figuring it out, that’s fine.”

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An empty high school classroom. (Dan Forer | Getty Images)

Department of Public Instruction Superintendent Jill Underly, who is running for her second term in office with the backing of the Democratic Party of Wisconsin, faces a challenge from Sauk Prairie School District Superintendent Jeff Wright, a Democrat who says he wants to improve DPI’s communication. 

Elections for the state superintendent are technically nonpartisan. Candidates run on the same ballot in the February primary, and the top two advance. The primary is Feb. 18, 2025 and the general election is April 1. No other candidates have entered the race so far.

Underly won her first term in a landslide in 2021, defeating her conservative opponent, a retired superintendent backed by Republican-leaning groups, in a campaign cycle where a record $3 million was spent on the race by candidates and outside special interest groups.

In her September campaign announcement, Underly highlighted some of her accomplishments, and said that students and staff need to be supported in Wisconsin. 

At the helm of the agency, Underly has advocated for increased investments in public education in the state budget, including for special education funding, mental health resources, staff pay and more. She recently announced a budget request that would dedicate an additional $4 billion in state funds to  public education. The DPI under her leadership also helped shape a law that reforms the way reading is taught in Wisconsin schools, though the Legislature has not released the money to support the changes despite Underly’s multiple urgings. 

Underly also highlighted the ongoing politicization of schools in her statement. Throughout her tenure culture war issues have continued to divide voters at the state and local level and she has been an outspoken critic of efforts to cut diversity, equity and inclusion programs and to target LGBTQ+ staff and students. 

“I’ve fought for kids and their teachers to be their true selves in school and stood up to ensure they see themselves represented in their curriculum and in their libraries,” Underly said in a September statement announcing her reelection campaign. “In a second term as superintendent, I want to make sure we continue to make necessary investments in our kids, as well as continue to examine how we evolve education to meet the challenges of the future.”

Prior to winning her first term in 2021, Underly served as the superintendent of Pecatonica School District, a rural district in southwestern Wisconsin. She has also previously worked as a principal, a teacher and a state consultant to Title I schools in Milwaukee and across the state.

Wright, who launched his campaign about a month after Underly, has served as the superintendent of Sauk Prairie School District since 2019 and was named Administrator of the Year in 2024 by the Wisconsin Rural Schools Alliance. He also previously served as a principal in Chicago. He hasn’t held public office before, but has run unsuccessful campaigns in 2016 and in 2018 for the state Assembly. 

Wright said in an October interview with the Examiner that he probably aligns closely with the current superintendent on many issues, but he thinks there is currently a “disconnect” between DPI and schools.

“They’re not bringing the people together from the teachers’ union, the administrators’ associations and other groups to have an active conversation about what concrete steps are we taking right now to get this work done,” Wright said. “Schools want to know what’s happening at the DPI. We don’t want to be surprised by changes. We want to be in conversation so that it’s very clear that we’re working on the same team.”

Wright cited concerns about whether enough effort has gone into recruiting and retaining educators. He said that he’s also heard “palpable frustration” from educators about the change to standardized testing scores and the lack of communication with school districts about it. The agency lowered the proficiency threshold and changed the terms that are used to to describe student performance, which critics said made it difficult to make comparisons to previous years.

Wright said that he would set himself apart from the current administration by trying to minimize partisanship. He said his district has tried to do this “by making sure that we’re listening to everyone and that we make sure that our doors aren’t closed to people, regardless of their opinion, especially if their children are in our schools.” He said that he hopes “it would also allow for more open conversations with legislators of all political stripes.”

Wright noted that DPI wasn’t invited to testify to the JFC during the last budget cycle.

“That hurts the DPI. It also hurts public education when we’re not having that open conversation between the agency charged with leading public schools and standing up for them and the legislators who are creating the budgets that do need to be rewritten,” Wright said. Underly did address lawmakers in person at one of the public hearings held by the committee in Eau Claire, but DPI was not invited to make its budget presentation to the Joint Finance Committee during the last budget process. 

Wright said schools are also facing challenges as the current funding formula, including for special education, has made it difficult for schools to keep up with costs. He said that funding going to voucher schools “worries” him as well because “there aren’t enough resources for public schools at this point.”

Early supporters of Underly and Wright

Wright has said he was encouraged to run by educators and education professional associations. He did enter the race with a notable supporter — the Wisconsin Education Association Council (WEAC) Political Action Committee. 

The Wisconsin Education Association Council is the largest teacher’s union in the state, and its PAC, which aims to help elect “pro-public education” candidates to office, recommended Wright in the race. However, the endorsement process for the full union is ongoing, and it’s unclear when or if a full endorsement will come from the board.

WEAC spokesperson Christina Brey said the PAC’s recommendation is one part of the lengthy endorsement process and said she couldn’t comment on specifics. 

“WEAC is in the process of exploring the candidates for state superintendent, and its political action committee has recommended its support of Jeff Wright; however, the process is still ongoing, with no determined timeline on whether or if a decision will be reached,” Brey said. 

When asked about the specifics on why the PAC recommended Wright, Brey said she couldn’t comment. She also said she couldn’t speak to the relationship between Underly and the union over the last four years due to the ongoing endorsement process. 

Brey told the Examiner that when it comes to the superintendent race, Wisconsin educators are looking for strong and bold leadership and someone that cares as much about students as teachers do. She said some of the issues at play include figuring out how to keep teachers and support staff, how to address the workplace environment, how to handle challenging student behaviors and how to address school funding challenges. She said members will be looking at many things, including policies that have been enacted over the past few years, how those policies have “shaken out” in the classroom, where candidates fall on those issues and who they think will be the best listener, advocate and partner.

Other Wright supporters, according to campaign manager Tyler Smith, include Jim Lynch, Executive Director of the Association of Wisconsin School Administrators. Lynch told the Examiner in an email that the association’s process for endorsing candidates for state superintendent doesn’t begin until later this month, so he couldn’t speak for himself or the association until after the process. 

Smith also named the superintendents of Mauston, Reedsburg, Stevens Point and Poynette school districts and the principals of Sauk Prairie High school and Sun Prairie School Board president as supporters.

Meanwhile, the Wisconsin Democratic Party endorsed Underly for a second term at the end of November. Party Chair Ben Wikler called her a “steadfast advocate” for students, parents and schools in a statement. 

“From fighting to give rural school districts a seat at the table, to expanding mental health services in schools, to ensuring every school, teacher, and student has the resources they need to succeed, Dr. Underly is the proven leader we need championing our kids in the Department of Public Instruction,” Wikler said.

“At every step, Dr. Underly has had the backs of our kids, standing up to attacks on public education, libraries and LGBTQ+ youth, and ensuring that partisan attempts to divide Wisconsin do not undermine our state’s fundamental and uniting commitment to great public schools, available to all,” Wikler continued.

The state party’s endorsement prompted a strong response from Wright, who said it represented party “insiders” deciding to “ignore” the voices of teachers, administrators and other stakeholders and settling “for the division and mismanagement that have marked Superintendent Underly’s tenure, ignoring failures that are isolating DPI from discussions about the future of Wisconsin’s public schools.” 

“Party leaders even ignored the voices of organized educators, a key member of the Democratic coalition, in making this endorsement,” Wright said. 

The endorsement process for the state party was launched by two county parties — Waukesha and Milwaukee. Waukesha County Democratic Party Chair Matt Mareno said in a statement to the Examiner that the party was proud to put Underly’s name forward for the endorsement. 

“We stood with her when she first ran, and in the years since she’s stood with us shoulder-to-shoulder as we’ve faced down far-right attacks on our public schools,” Mareno said. Schools in Waukesha County have dealt with a number of issues in recent years including becoming the target of a bomb threat and a threatened  school shooting after a right-wing social media account publicized  posts made by a local middle school principal, as well as books and songs being banned from schools. 

“From book bans to bomb threats inspired by right-wing influencers, our community and schools have been through a lot,” Mareno said, “and Jill Underly has been there with us at every step fighting for a better future for our kids.”

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Wisconsin voters line up outside of a Milwaukee polling place on Nov. 5, 2024. Wisconsin U.S. Senate candidate Eric Hovde is one of the Republican politicians who sowed doubt about the integrity of this year’s election. (Andy Manis | Getty Images)

President-elect Donald Trump may have quieted his lies about widespread voter fraud after his win earlier this month, but the impact of his effort to cast doubt on the integrity of American elections lingers on.

Although this post-election period has been markedly calmer than the aftermath of the 2020 presidential election, there were isolated flare-ups of Republican candidates borrowing a page from Trump’s playbook to claim that unsatisfactory election results were illegitimate.

In Wisconsin, Republican U.S. Senate challenger Eric Hovde spread unsubstantiated rumors about “last-minute” absentee ballots in Milwaukee that he said flipped the outcome of the race. Though he conceded to incumbent Democratic U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin nearly two weeks after the election, his rhetoric helped stoke a spike in online conspiracy theories. The Milwaukee Election Commission disputed his claims, saying they “lack any merit.”

In North Carolina, Republican state Senate leader Phil Berger told reporters last week he feared that the vote-counting process for a state Supreme Court seat was rigged for Democrats. Karen Brinson Bell, the head of the State Board of Elections, skewered Berger for his comments, saying they could inspire violence.

And in Arizona, Republican U.S. Senate candidate Kari Lake, who has spent two years disputing her defeat in the 2022 governor’s race, hasn’t acknowledged her Senate loss. While she thanked her supporters in a video posted to X, the platform formerly called Twitter, she stopped short of conceding to Democratic U.S. Rep. Ruben Gallego.

Republicans’ disinformation campaigns have caused Americans’ confidence in elections to plummet and exposed local election officials to threats and harassment, and some observers worry about a return of the GOP’s destructive rhetoric the next time they lose.

“We have to turn this rhetoric down,” said Jay Young, senior director of voting and democracy for Common Cause, a voting rights group. “There cannot be this continued attack on this institution.”

Still, many politicians who either denied the 2020 election results or criticized their local voting processes won election. In Arizona, for example, voters chose state Rep. Justin Heap, a Republican, to lead the election office in Maricopa County, home to Phoenix and the largest jurisdiction in the critical swing state. Heap ran on a “voter confidence” platform and suggested at a Trump rally that Maricopa’s election office is a “national laughingstock.”

Trump tapped former Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi to oversee the U.S. Department of Justice. Bondi, a Republican, served as an attorney for Trump while he disputed the results in 2020. She could use her position as U.S. attorney general to prosecute election officials involved in that election, as Trump promised in an X post in September.

While the rhetoric around stolen elections has been somewhat muted among the GOP ranks since Trump’s victory, conservatives attempted to flip the “election denial” script on Democrats in at least one race.

In Pennsylvania, Democratic U.S. Sen. Bob Casey refused to concede defeat until last Thursday, two weeks after The Associated Press called the race for Republican challenger David McCormick. Casey lost by fewer than 16,000 votes, less than half a percentage point.

Casey said he wanted to see the results of an automatic recount and various court cases filed on his behalf, but Republicans jumped on his refusal to bow out quickly.

Last week, Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, a Republican who resisted pressure from Trump in 2020 to “find” votes after he lost the state, lambasted Casey for not conceding the Senate race.

“Election denialism needs to end, now,” Raffensperger wrote in a statement. “We are a country of laws and principles, not of men and personalities. Do your job! Follow the law. Accept election results or lose your country.”

Even as Republicans mostly toned down their rhetoric this year, some left-wing social media accounts repeated a debunked conspiracy theory that Starlink, the internet provider owned by billionaire and Trump supporter Elon Musk, changed vote counts.

Those posts, however, aren’t comparable to GOP election denialism, according to the University of Washington’s Center for an Informed Public, which fights strategic misinformation.

“While the claims are similar, the rumoring dynamics on the left are markedly different due to the lack of endorsement or amplification by left-leaning influencers, candidates, or party elites,” the center posted last week.

Young, of Common Cause, said it’s clear that election disinformation of any kind has a devastating impact on the local officials tasked with administering the vote.

Threats to election workers continued even after Election Day. Bomb threats were called into election offices in California, Minnesota, Oregon and other states, forcing evacuations as workers were tallying ballots.

But this was just a slice of the onslaught many officials faced over the past four years. Local election officials need the resources to beef up the way they fight disinformation and physical attacks, Young said.

“We should be doing better by them,” he said.

Stateline is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Stateline maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Scott S. Greenberger for questions: info@stateline.org. Follow Stateline on Facebook and X.

U.S. Sen. John Thune (R-South Dakota) speaks to the Brandon Valley Area Chamber of Commerce on Nov. 26, 2024, in Brandon. (Makenzie Huber | South Dakota Searchlight)

BRANDON — Incoming U.S. Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-South Dakota) signaled Tuesday he’s willing to push back against potential attempts by President-elect Donald Trump to expand presidential power over federal spending.

“Every president is going to come in and try to do as much as they can by executive action as possible,” Thune said. “Congress, in some cases, is going to be the entity that sometimes will have to put the brakes on.”

Thune spoke Tuesday to the Brandon Valley Area Chamber of Commerce and also took questions from reporters. He said Republicans in Congress will work with Trump to achieve shared policy goals.

“The things we want to achieve at present are by and large the same,” Thune said. “How we get there is another matter, and we’ll have to work through that.”

Trump’s pick for his budget director, Russ Vought, served in the same role during the first Trump administration. Vought has since outlined an aggressive vision for presidential power in Project 2025, a 922-page document from the conservative-leaning Heritage Foundation.

“The President should use every possible tool to propose and impose fiscal discipline on the federal government.” Vought wrote. “Anything short of that would constitute abject failure.”

Trump has meanwhile tried to assert greater control over the Cabinet selection process, calling for the Senate to recess the chamber early next year so he can appoint whoever he wants without having to go through the confirmation process.

Thune said Tuesday he plans to immediately begin committee hearings on Cabinet nominees when Congress is sworn in on Jan. 3, 2025.

That’ll give the Senate a head start vetting Trump’s nominees before his inauguration on Jan. 20. After Trump is sworn in, Thune expects some nominations to quickly hit the floor of the Senate.

“The committees can’t report them out until the president is officially sworn in and they’re officially nominated,” Thune told the audience Tuesday in Brandon. “But they could do hearings.”

Thune told South Dakota reporters after the event that even though some questions have been raised about nominees, they “deserve a fair process” where senators question them on their background, qualifications and whether they “ought to be in these really important positions.”

Thune said he has not taken recess appointments off the table if Democrats try to obstruct or delay the confirmation of nominees when they reach the Senate floor, “particularly if they’re well regarded and they have bipartisan support.”

Top priorities for Republican senators heading into the new session of Congress, Thune said, include extending Trump’s 2017 tax cuts and securing the nation’s southern border.

Thune said he plans to begin drafting a budget reconciliation resolution to push an extension of the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, key provisions of which expire at the end of 2025. The reconciliation process allows tax and spending bills to pass the Senate with 51 votes, instead of the 60 needed for most Senate legislation. Republicans will control 53 seats in the new Senate and will also control the House.

Failing to extend the tax cuts would lead to a $4 trillion tax increase, Thune said.

States Newsroom’s D.C. Bureau contributed to this report.

South Dakota Searchlight is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. South Dakota Searchlight maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Seth Tupper for questions: info@southdakotasearchlight.com. Follow South Dakota Searchlight on Facebook and X.

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The South Portico of the White House is seen Wednesday, Feb. 23, 2022. (Official White House Photo by Adam Schultz)

WASHINGTON — Less than two months before being sworn into office, President-elect Donald Trump has yet to sign the presidential transition paperwork that unlocks critical clearances, information and access to White House resources for his transition team.

Political experts say this is worrisome because history shows the period early in a presidency can be a vulnerable time for a new administration, and the point of easing the transition is so a new president’s staff can access government offices early and avoid problems.

Trump, who has rapidly announced senior staff and Cabinet picks over the last 15 days, has still not finalized multiple agreements that are foundational for his team to begin receiving confidential information and briefings across all federal agencies, as well as millions of dollars in transition resources, including office space and staff assistance.

The Trump-Vance transition team has not responded to multiple requests for a status update on the agreements. Transition spokesperson Brian Hughes told States Newsroom in an email Nov. 11 that the team’s lawyers “continue to constructively engage with the Biden-Harris Administration lawyers regarding all agreements contemplated by the Presidential Transition Act. We will update you once a decision is made.”

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters Thursday that the “teams continue to stay in touch.”

“So we’re going to continue to engage with the Trump transition team to ensure that we do have that efficient, effective transition of power,” she said.

The White House did not respond for further comment Friday.

President Joe Biden met with Trump at the White House on Nov. 13 to discuss the transition.

‘Absolutely critical’

The agreements are “absolutely critical,” said Kathryn Dunn Tenpas, whose expertise as a senior fellow with the University of Virginia’s Miller Center focuses on presidential transitions.

One document missing signatures from the president-elect and his team is a memorandum of understanding with the current White House administration. The agreement allows incoming personnel to meet with designated transition staff at each federal agency.

“Without signing it by law, they cannot access these government offices, so that means zero briefings. To me, that’s really dangerous,” Tenpas said in response to a States Newsroom question Thursday at a Brookings Institution panel on planning and staffing during presidential transitions. Tenpas is also director of Brookings’ Katzmann Initiative on Improving Interbranch Relations in Government.

Tenpas cited the Miller Center’s First Year Project findings that crises have occurred during the initial phases of past presidential administrations. No one could forget that the horrific 9/11 attacks on New York City’s World Trade Center occurred within eight months of President George W. Bush taking office.

Tenpas also noted that a little over one month into former President Bill Clinton’s first term, terrorists exploded a bomb in the World Trade Center’s parking garage. Less than eight months later, fighters in Somalia shot down two American Black Hawk helicopters, killing 18 U.S. troops and injuring dozens more.

Reaching back decades, President John F. Kennedy lost more than 100 troops in the Bay of Pigs invasion in April 1961 and more than 10 times as many were taken hostage. Kennedy had just taken office in January 1961.

“So there are all these historical incidents that indicate that this first year is a really vulnerable moment for the United States,” Tenpas said, adding that current geopolitical events suggest now is “not a time where you need to be lackadaisical.”

Transition process and law

The Presidential Transition Act of 1963, and its subsequent amendments, outline the legal requirements for the hand-off of power between outgoing and incoming leaders.

The process begins nearly two years before an election, when the U.S. General Services Administration designates a federal transition coordinator who later reports to Congress on how the process is going. The GSA becomes a liaison for the process as the election nears, according to the Center for Presidential Transition at the Partnership for Public Service.

Six months before an election, the current administration establishes a White House Transition Coordinating Council and readies each federal agency for the change.

No later than Sept. 1 during a general election year, the GSA and eligible presidential nominees are required to sign a memorandum of understanding to access office space and administrative support.

An agreement between the nominees and White House is then required by Oct. 1. The memo finalizes access to federal agencies and makes public a transition team’s ethics plans and how they will be implemented.

Transition materials from the current administration are required to be in process no later than Nov. 1.

The Trump team has blown past these deadlines.

The memoranda are publicly available, and records show that Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaign submitted an ethics plan and the agreement with the GSA.

A condition for the agreements, and the funding they release, is that nominees must disclose all transition fundraising dollars, which are kept separate from campaign funds. Individual contributions to transitions are capped at $5,000.

Separately, the Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act of 2004 allows eligible candidates to submit security clearance requests for prospective transition team members ahead of the election so that determinations can be made the day after a victory is announced.

U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson, a Louisiana Republican, answers reporters' questions inside the Capitol building on Tuesday, Nov. 12, 2024. (Photo by Jennifer Shutt/States Newsroom)

WASHINGTON — U.S. House Republican leaders said Tuesday voters have given them a “mandate” to enact as much conservative policy as possible once they gain unified control of the federal government in January, but declined to provide details about exactly what policies they’d seek to enact.

“The American people want us to implement and deliver that America first agenda,” said Speaker Mike Johnson. “And we have to do that while we have that energy and that excitement, beginning on the very first day of the Congress in the new year.”

The Louisiana Republican said the election results showed that Americans want lawmakers to focus their attention on “secure borders” and preventing “terrorists and criminals from entering the country.”

“They want and deserve low costs for groceries and gasoline,” Johnson said. “They want us to project strength on the world stage again and not the weakness that we have projected for the last four years. They want an end to the wokeness and the radical gender ideology and a return to common sense in our children’s classrooms and corporate boardrooms and government agencies. We’re going to ensure all that’s true.”

Not at 218 quite yet

The Associated Press, the news organization that States Newsroom relies upon for race calls based on decades of experience, hadn’t called the House for Republicans as of Tuesday, but was expected to in the coming days.

GOP politicians have won 214 seats so far, just short of the 218 minimum needed to hold the majority, though they’ll need a few more seats for safe margins after President-elect Donald Trump nominated a few of their colleagues to posts in his next administration.

Democrats are projected to hold at least 205 seats in the House, with 16 races yet to be called by the AP. That will give Republicans a slim majority when the next Congress begins in January and not much room to lose votes from either centrist or far-right members.

GOP lawmakers will hold 53 seats in the U.S. Senate next year after flipping seats previously held by Democrats in Montana, Ohio, Pennsylvania and West Virginia, according to the AP.

Johnson said during the press conference on the steps of the Capitol building that he expected the GOP will hold a larger majority during the next Congress than the 220 seats it currently has.

But he cautioned that every Republican vote will matter since the party isn’t likely to have a large majority.

“Every single vote will count because if someone gets ill or has a car accident or a late flight on their plane, then it affects the votes on the floor,” Johnson said. 

Republicans in Congress, he said, are coordinating closely with Trump, who is expected to meet with lawmakers on Wednesday at the Capitol before Johnson heads to Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida this weekend to hash out details of a legislative agenda with him. 

“President Trump is going to meet with President Biden at the White House. And so it was suggested … that he wanted to come and visit with House Republicans,” Johnson said. “So we’re working out the details of him gathering with us, potentially tomorrow morning, before he goes to the White House. And that would be a great meeting and a moment for all of us. There’s a lot of excitement, a lot of energy here.” 

Details on reforms to come

Holding unified control of government will allow Republicans to use the complicated budget reconciliation process to pass legislation without needing the bipartisan support that’s typically required to get past the Senate’s 60-vote legislative filibuster.

Johnson said the party is looking to employ that process for any policy areas that comply with the instructions, which allow lawmakers to make changes to revenue, spending, or the debt that are not “merely incidental” as part of the $6 trillion federal budget.

“We have lots of very specific plans to kind of do that, and the details of that will come together in the coming week,” he said.

Johnson said he didn’t want to “get into any details about any specifics with regards to reforms,” after being asked if Republicans would get rid of the Department of Education, one of Trump’s campaign promises.

“There’s lots of ideas on the table, but we got to work together, build consensus, work in coordination with the Trump administration on the order of the reforms and how we do it,” Johnson said. “So I’m not getting ready to give you details on that. But you can stay tuned.” 

President-elect Donald Trump, then the GOP nominee, speaks at the Detroit Economic Club on Oct. 10, 2024 in Detroit, Michigan.  (Photo by Bill Pugliano/Getty Images)

WASHINGTON — Two days before a key meeting with President Joe Biden, President-elect Donald Trump has not yet signed the necessary paperwork to unlock resources for a smooth transfer of power from one presidential administration to another.

Trump’s transition spokesperson Brian Hughes told States Newsroom Monday that “The Trump-Vance transition lawyers continue to constructively engage with the Biden-Harris Administration lawyers regarding all agreements contemplated by the Presidential Transition Act.”

“We will update you once a decision is made,” Hughes said in a statement.

Biden will host Trump at the White House late Wednesday morning, according to his public schedule.

One of the agreements in question includes a memorandum of understanding between the Trump-Vance transition and the U.S. General Services Administration for office space, information technology services, and staff assistance, as outlined in the 2010 update to the Presidential Transition Act of 1963.

The services are available to the president-elect, and to major presidential candidates following nominating conventions, but come with financial disclosure requirements and a contribution cap of $5,000 on transition-related donations from any one person or organization.

The other is an MOU with the White House, negotiated by the incumbent and president-elect, to establish an ethics plan pertaining to members of the transition team and information sharing, including national security matters. The due date was Oct. 1.

‘Peaceful and orderly’ transition urged

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters Friday that Chief of Staff Jeff Zients has reached out to the Trump-Vance transition team’s co-chairs Linda McMahon and Howard Lutnick, both major campaign donors.

“So we’re going to leave that line of communications open. We’re going to be helpful here. We want to have an effective, efficient transition of power,” Jean-Pierre said.

Biden said Thursday from the White House Rose Garden that a “peaceful and orderly transition” is what “the American people deserve.”

The transition memoranda are available online, and the public can view the agreements filed in September by Vice President Kamala Harris, the 2024 Democratic presidential nominee who ultimately lost to Trump.

Raskin calls on Trump to act

Democratic Rep. Jamie Raskin, the top Democrat on the U.S. House Committee on Oversight and Accountability, called on Trump’s campaign in October to complete the paperwork.

“Breaking the precedent set by every other presidential candidate since 2010, you have rejected these resources and refused to commit to a smooth transition,” Raskin wrote in an Oct. 23 letter.

The Maryland Democrat surmised in the letter that the Trump team’s paperwork delinquency “may be at least partially driven” by an attempt to skirt the financial disclosure and limit rules.

“With fewer than three weeks left until an election in which the American people will select a new President of the United States, I urge you to put the public’s interest in maintaining a properly functioning government above any personal financial or political interests you may perceive in boycotting the official transition law and process,” Raskin wrote.

In February 2021, the Biden-Harris administration filed a 1,021-page transition-related donation and expense disclosure.

Packages of Mifepristone tablets are displayed at a family planning clinic on April 13, 2023 in Rockville, Maryland. (Photo illustration by Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)

WASHINGTON — President-elect Donald Trump has several choices to make in the coming months about whether his second administration will keep access to contraception and abortion as it is now or implement changes.

While Trump cannot on his own enact nationwide laws or abortion bans without Congress, he and the people he picks for key posts throughout the federal government will have significant influence on reproductive rights nationwide.

During Trump’s first term in office he barred health care organizations that perform or refer patients for abortions from receiving Title X family planning grants, even though there’s a moratorium on using federal funds for abortions unless it’s the result of rape or incest, or the life of the woman is at risk.

Alina Salganicoff, senior vice president and director for women’s health policy at the nonpartisan health research organization KFF, said on a call with reporters Friday that about a quarter of providers withdrew or were disqualified from receiving federal family planning grants as a result of that policy.

“The Title X program basically funds family planning services for low-income people,” Salganicoff explained. “It’s basically a small program, it’s around under $300 million — but it is a critical program to people who don’t otherwise have insurance.”

Abortions as stabilizing care

Trump will also have to decide whether to leave in place guidance from the Biden administration that says a federal law from the 1980s protects health care providers who perform abortions as stabilizing care during an emergency that would affect a woman’s health or life.

That law, known as the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act, or EMTALA, became one point of disagreement between the Biden administration and Republican states that implemented abortion bans or strict restrictions after the Supreme Court ended the nationwide right to an abortion.

U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra wrote in a letter released in July 2022 that under the federal “law, no matter where you live, women have the right to emergency care — including abortion care.”

EMTALA is at the center of an ongoing lawsuit between the Biden administration and Idaho over that state’s abortion law. Oral arguments in the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals are set for early December.

Abortion pill

The future of medication abortion, a two-drug regimen approved for up to 10 weeks gestation that’s used in about 63% of abortions nationwide, will be another area the Trump administration could alter without congressional approval.

Salganicoff said there’s no way to know just yet if the U.S. Food and Drug Administration will seek to change prescribing guidelines for medication abortion or revoke the 2000 approval of mifepristone altogether.

“We don’t know whether they’re going to actually review the approval, but I will tell you that it is likely that they will revisit the conditions in which medication abortions, which now account for nearly two-thirds of all abortions in this country, can be provided,” Salganicoff said.

The Trump administration, she said, is likely to focus on revisions made during the Biden administration that allow doctors or other qualified health care providers to prescribe the two-drug medication abortion regimen via telehealth and then have mifepristone and misoprostol mailed to the patient.

Salganicoff anticipates anti-abortion organizations will also encourage the Trump administration to address recent findings from the We Count Project, showing 1 in 10 abortions take place after medication abortion is mailed to people in states with bans or significant restrictions from states that have shield laws.

“This FDA protocol is legal to do that, but clearly this is going to be a target,” she said.

Mailing of abortion medication

The Comstock Act, an anti-obscenity law from the late 19th century that once banned the mailing of boxing photographs, pornography and contraception, will also be front and center after Trump takes the oath of office on Jan. 20.

The law, which is still on the books despite not being enforced in decades, could potentially allow the U.S. Postal Service to prevent the mailing of abortion medications or any other instrument or tool used in abortions.

“The Biden administration’s Department of Justice did a review and said that they are not going to enforce Comstock,” Salganicoff said. “Project 2025 sees it very differently, and even though President-elect Trump has said that he is not going to enforce Comstock, it’s not clear, and there will likely be a lot of pressure to do that.”

Project 2025 is a policy map for a Trump presidency published by the Heritage Foundation. Trump has disavowed any connection with it, although former members of his first administration helped develop it.

Salganicoff said enforcing the Comstock Act would affect access to medication abortion throughout the country, even in states that have reinforced reproductive rights during the last two years.

“Clearly that’s going to tee up a lot of litigation and challenges,” Salganicoff said.

Larry Levitt, executive vice president for health policy at KFF, said during the call that the Trump administration’s possible elevation of people who spread misinformation or disinformation could lead to more confusion about research-based health care.

“I think one thing, particularly with the rise in prominence of RFK Jr., you know, is the potential for misinformation,” Levitt said, referring to Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., a prominent vaccine opponent who endorsed Trump and campaigned extensively with him.

“We turn to the government for reliable data, public health information and scientific information,” Levitt said. “And there’s the potential now, for the government to be not only not an effective source for health information, but in fact, an accelerant for misinformation.” 

President Joe Biden delivers remarks on the results of the 2024 election in the Rose Garden at the White House on Nov. 7, 2024 in Washington, D.C. (Photo by Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)

WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden on Thursday reassured the nation that democracy won despite his party’s resounding election losses, and promised his accomplishments will live on, in brief remarks from the White House.

“I know for some people, it’s a time for victory, to state the obvious. For others, it’s a time of loss. Campaigns are contests of competing visions. The country chooses one or the other. We accept the choice the country made,” Biden said in just over six minutes of remarks to his staff and administration officials gathered in the Rose Garden just after 11 a.m. Eastern.

Former Republican President Donald Trump, now president-elect, handily won the 2024 presidential contest Tuesday against Vice President Kamala Harris, earning victories in closely watched swing states, including Georgia, Michigan, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.

Trump as of early Thursday afternoon had 295 Electoral College votes, to 226 for Harris, with 270 needed for victory. He also led in the popular vote.

The Republicans also secured a Senate majority, gaining at least 52 seats while Democrats have 45. Control of the U.S. House remained unclear, though a trend toward GOP victory was emerging as ballots were still being counted.

Biden ran against Trump for the majority of the 2024 presidential race but dropped his reelection bid weeks after a disastrous presidential debate performance sparked a pressure campaign for him to step aside.

Biden phoned Trump Wednesday to congratulate him and arranged an in-person meeting to discuss the White House transition — a step that Trump did not take following his loss to Biden in 2020.

“I assured him I’d direct my entire administration to work with his team to ensure a peaceful and orderly transition. That’s what the American people deserve,” Biden said.

Biden also talked about his phone call Wednesday with Democratic nominee Harris, whom he described as a “partner and public servant.”

“She ran an inspiring campaign, and everyone got to see something that I learned early on to respect so much: her character. She has a backbone like a ramrod,” Biden said.

The president said he told his team that “together, we’ve changed America for the better.”

“Much of the work we’ve done is already being felt by the American people, with the vast majority of it will not be felt, will be felt over the next 10 years,” Biden said, specifically citing the bipartisan infrastructure legislation he signed into law in November 2021.

Harris conceded the race Wednesday in a phone call to Trump.

In a speech to somber supporters at her alma mater Howard University in Washington, D.C., the same day, Harris told the crowd “I get it” when it comes to feeling a range of emotions following the outcome.

“But we must accept the results of this election. … A fundamental principle of American democracy is that when we lose an election we accept the results,” Harris said.

Following the 2020 presidential election, Trump and his allies challenged the results in dozens of ultimately unsuccessful lawsuits. Following his losses in court, Trump and a team of private lawyers continued to deny the election outcome and pressure state officials to manipulate slates of electors.

Trump’s repeated denials of his loss — including a speech on Jan. 6, 2021 where he told his supporters he would never concede — culminated in a violent attack on the U.S. Capitol as Congress met that day to certify the election results. 

Trump-Vance and Harris-Walz signs on neighboring lots in Wisconsin. (Wisconsin Examiner photo)

Is Wisconsin — or the country — really as divided as the maps make it look?

On the spreadsheet of unofficial election totals posted by each of Wisconsin’s 72 counties following the election Nov. 5, a handful showed a clear majority for the Democratic presidential ticket of Vice President Kamala Harris and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz. Many more counties were won by the winning Republican ticket of former President Donald Trump and Ohio Sen. J.D. Vance. Trump garnered enough votes to carry Wisconsin and enough states to return to the Oval Office in January.

A lot of those Trump-voting counties were rural ones, contributing to longstanding stereotypes about a monolithic body politic of deep blue cities and a bright red countryside.

But months before Election Day, on a mild August evening in a quaint round barn north of Spring Green, the writer Sarah Smarsh cautioned against oversimplifying the politics of rural voters — and against turning a blind eye to a part of the country that, she said, has too often been written off.

“I grew up on a fifth-generation wheat farm in south central Kansas,” Smarsh said that evening. It’s a place of “tall grass prairie, which happens to be the most endangered ecosystem … and simultaneously the least discussed or cared about or protected. And I don’t think it’s a coincidence that that’s the ecosystem of the place and people that I also happen to believe have not been given fair attention and due consideration.”

Smarsh made her mark with the book “Heartland: A Memoir of Working Hard and Being Broke in the Richest Country on Earth.” As a journalist and author she has straddled the community of her upbringing and the urbane, academic world that she entered when she became the first in her family to pursue higher education.

The child of a carpenter and a teen mom, Smarsh has explored the socioeconomic divide in the U.S., mapping it to the destruction of the working class, the demise of family farms and the dismantling of public services from health care to public schools. 

“I write about socioeconomic class and I write about rural issues, but that’s because I grew up in working poverty, and that’s because I grew up on a farm,” Smarsh said. And while those identities “are enormously consequential,” she added, she seeks to break down the assumptions that people carry about them. Her message: “You don’t know who my family is, and especially if what we assume is that they’re white trash, worthless.”

It’s a story that gives new context to the election results from 2016 on, and takes on new importance after the election of 2024. The residents of those places dismissed as “flyover country,” Smarsh said back in August, have many of the same concerns of urban and suburban voters, including reproductive rights, public schools, gun violence and other subjects. And understanding them in their diversity and complexity casts politics, especially national politics, in a more diffuse and complicated light.

Where ‘people don’t care about political affiliations’

Concern about climate change and a desire to live more sustainably led Tamara Dean and her partner to move to western Wisconsin’s Vernon County in the early 2000’s, where they built a homestead, grew their own food and became part of the local agricultural community.

Climate change followed them. In their county, extreme weather events became almost the norm, with a 500-year flood “happening every few years or every year,” Dean said in an interview.

“A rural community really coalesces when extreme situations happen and they help each other out,” Dean said. “And when we were cleaning up after a flood, helping our neighbors salvage their possessions or even getting people to safety, no one’s going to ask who you voted for, and people don’t care about political affiliations.”

Dean has written a collection of essays on the couple’s time in the Driftless region of Wisconsin, “Shelter and Storm,” to be published in April 2025 by the University of Minnesota Press.

Distrust of the federal government

Residents, she found, had something of an ambivalent relationship with the federal government. 

For all the complexity of agricultural economics, the U.S. Department of Agriculture programs that provide financial farm support were familiar and well-understood by longtime farmers and easily accessible to them, she said. But when the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) promised recovery assistance for flooding in 2018, “it just took forever to come, and it took a lot of bureaucracy to try to get it,” Dean said. For individual applicants, “getting any kind of assistance might be so daunting that they just wouldn’t think it’s worth it.”

For Dale Schultz, a former Republican state senator who has been thinking at length about politics and government in recent years, the election outcome has prompted contemplation.

Schultz left the Legislature a decade ago after splitting with Republican then-Gov. Scott Walker over legislation stripping public employees’ union rights and weakening Wisconsin’s mining laws.

Since then he has campaigned for redistricting reform and supported the overturning of Wisconsin Republicans’  gerrymandered legislative maps. In October he went public as a Republican supporting the Harris campaign for president.

In his part of the state, he saw a distinct contrast between the Democratic campaign and the Republican one.

“I saw an extremely good Democratic effort to talk to people face-to-face,” Schultz said in an interview. The GOP campaign along with allied outside groups such as American for Prosperity, however, appeared to him to focus almost entirely on mailings, phone calls and media.

“It became clear to me that politics is changing from the time I spent in office, being less people powered and more media powered,” Schultz said.

Ignored by both parties

Schultz said he’s observed a level of anger among some of his one-time constituents that has alarmed and surprised him, a product, he suggests, of having been ignored by both parties.

One target has been regulation, to the point where “they’ve lost track of why regulations are important and why they should support them,” he said. Yet he sees the direct answer to that question where he lives in Southwest Wisconsin.

“In the last 20 years there has been a renaissance in trout fishing, like I could not even have imagined 20 years ago,” Shultz said. He credits the Department of Natural Resources and its personnel for working with local communities to ensure conditions that would turn trout streams into suitable habitat to support a burgeoning population of fish. “That doesn’t happen without water quality and water quality regulations, and land use and land use regulations.”

Schultz has been  spending time in conversation with friends “who are like-minded and similarly curious,” he said. “And then you just watch and wait and see what happens, and try to voice concerns that are real and that need to be dealt with, and [that] we’re not going to be able to hide from as a country.”

He hopes for the return of a time when people like him,  who consider themselves “just to the right of center,” can again “talk to everyone and possibly craft a solution.”

Back in August, Sarah Smarsh offered a gentle warning about the coming election to her audience in the round barn north of Spring Green.

“Whatever happens in November, everybody else is still here — the other side is still here,” Smarsh said. “And so there’s going to be some caring to do, and that’s probably going to be for generations, because we didn’t arrive at this moment overnight.”

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Eric Hovde concedes the 2024 Wisconsin Senate race on social media Monday. (Screenshot | Hovde campaign X account)

Republican candidate Eric Hovde conceded Monday in the U.S. Senate race after losing to incumbent Sen. Tammy Baldwin, forgoing a recount while continuing to criticize the longstanding practice in which absentee ballots in Milwaukee were counted in the early morning hours after Election Day.

Hovde posted his concession speech in a video on social media.

Hovde conceded a few hours before the Wisconsin Elections Commission reported Monday that all 72 counties in Wisconsin had completed their election canvass, triggering a three-day window for Hovde to seek a recount in the race.

A developer and the owner of a West Coast bank, Hovde had declined to concede in the immediate aftermath of The Associated Press calling the race for Baldwin in the early morning hours of Wednesday, Nov. 6.

A week later, he posted a video in which he said he would await the completion of the canvass process while airing complaints about the vote count. His criticisms focused largely on the fact that about 108,000 absentee ballots that were not counted in Milwaukee until the early morning after Election Day changed the outcome of the election total.

Hovde’s remarks drew widespread criticism, with the Milwaukee Election Commission refuting implications of impropriety. Milwaukee’s absentee ballots are consolidated and delivered to the city’s central counting facility to be tabulated, and a bill to allow them to be processed starting the day before the election died after GOP leaders in the state Senate declined to put it on the calendar.

Republican analysts also said, both on Election Day and the next week, that the city’s late-night tabulation of the absentee ballots was standard practice and that its history of having a heavy tilt toward Democrats was predictable.

Nevertheless, Hovde reiterated his complaint Monday in the course of his concession speech.

“The results from election night were disappointing, particularly in light of the last-minute absentee ballots that were dropped in Milwaukee at 4 a.m., flipping the outcome,” he said. “There are many troubling issues around these absentee ballots and their timing, which I addressed in my last statement.”

Hovde said supporters had urged him “to challenge the election results,” but that “without a detailed review of all the ballots and their legitimacy, which will be difficult to obtain in the courts, a request for a recount would serve no purpose because you will just be recounting the same ballots regardless of their integrity.”

Hovde said he had decided instead to concede out of “my desire to not add to political strife through a contentious recount.”

Hovde also criticized Democrats’ support of two third-party candidates, one running on a platform of supporting Donald Trump and the other as a Libertarian, contending that without them he would have won the race.

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Flanked by Sam Liebert, left, and Scott Thompson, center, Nick Ramos of the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign addresses reporters Thursday outside a Wisconsin state office building. The three criticized Republican Senate candidate Eric Hovde for not conceding after vote tallies reported that Democratic Sen. Tammy Baldwin finished the election with 29,000 more votes than Hovde. (Wisconsin Examiner photo)

Voting rights advocates joined the calls Thursday for Republican Senate candidate Eric Hovde to back away from accusations he made earlier this week that something went wrong with vote-counting in the election Hovde lost to Sen. Tammy Baldwin.

“This is a direct attempt to cast doubt on our free and fair elections. And this is not only disappointing, it’s unnecessary,” said Sam Liebert, Wisconsin state director for All Voting is Local at a news conference Thursday morning. The nonpartisan, nonprofit organization advocates for policies to ensure voting access, particularly for voters of color and other marginalized groups.

“The rhetoric of questioning our democracy is more than just words, but it contributes to chaos and confusion, which undermines public trust in our elections and the officials who administer them,” Liebert said.

The news conference, held outside the state office building that houses the Wisconsin Elections Commission, was organized by the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign, a nonpartisan voting rights and campaign finance reform advocacy group.

Speakers emphasized Wisconsin’s history of ticket-splitting and the near equal division of Republican and Democratic voters. For that reason, they said, victories last week by Republican Donald Trump in the presidential race and Baldwin, a Democrat, in the Senate race shouldn’t be viewed as remarkable or suspicious.

“Donald Trump won, Tammy Baldwin won, Kamala Harris lost, and Erik Hovde lost,” said Scott Thompson, an attorney with the nonprofit voting rights and democracy law firm Law Forward. “The people of Wisconsin know it, and I think Eric Hovde knows it too.”

“What you’re doing is creating divisions, and that cannot be accepted here in Wisconsin,” said Nick Ramos, executive director of the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign.

During the campaign, Hovde “said all the right things — he talked about how he would honor the election results, talked about … there’s no time for us to continue these types of conspiracies and lies,” Ramos said. But since the election, he added, Hovde has shifted his attitude.

Hovde so far has declined to concede the U.S. Senate election, although The Associated Press called the race for Baldwin, the Democratic two-term incumbent, early Wednesday, Nov. 6. With 99% of the vote counted, Baldwin had a 29,000-vote lead over Hovde, a margin of slightly less than 1%. She declared victory after the AP call.

Hovde’s first public statement came a week after Election Day. In a video posted on social media Tuesday, he said he was waiting for the vote canvass to be completed before he would comment on the outcome.

“Once the final information is available and all options are reviewed, I will announce my decision on how I will proceed,” Hovde said.

Nevertheless, Hovde questioned the vote totals that were reported from Milwaukee’s central count facility, where the city’s absentee ballots are consolidated and tallied.

About 108,000 absentee and provisional ballots were counted in the early hours last Wednesday, with Baldwin garnering 82% of those votes, according to the Milwaukee Election Commission. In Milwaukee ballots cast in-person Tuesday, Baldwin won 75% of the vote.

Both Republican and Democratic analysts have pointed out that Democrats have disproportionately voted absentee over the last several elections and that the outcome Milwaukee reported last week was in line with those trends.

In his video, however, Hovde highlighted the late-counted ballots. He falsely called Baldwin’s lead in that tally “nearly 90%,” claiming that was “statistically improbable” in comparison with the in-person vote count.

Hovde said that because of “inconsistencies” in the data, “Many people have reached out and urged me to contest the election.”

Ramos pointed out Thursday that Wisconsin lawmakers had introduced a bill with bipartisan support that would have allowed election clerks to begin counting absentee ballots the day before Election Day — ending the late-night tally change  from absentee votes that have become a regular feature in Milwaukee.

The legislation passed the Assembly but died in the state Senate. “We have folks in the state Legislature that would rather play political games and would rather see moments like this than actually fix the problem,” Ramos said.

While Hovde spoke skeptically about the vote count in his video, in a talk radio interview after it was posted he described the election outcome as a “loss.”

Hovde is “talking out of both sides of his mouth right now,” Ramos said. “And so, on the one hand, we get to hear him say things like, you know, ‘It’s going to take me a while to get over this loss,’ and then we get to watch a video that gets broadly disseminated across X and Facebook and Instagram, where … he’s literally talking about how he does not believe what happened in Milwaukee and how the numbers shifted [in the ballot counting] aren’t accurate.”

In his video Hovde said that “asking for a recount is a serious decision that requires careful consideration.”

Counties must send their final vote canvass reports to the Wisconsin Elections Commission by Tuesday, Nov. 19. Candidates then have three days to make a recount request.

State law allows candidates to seek a recount if they lose by a margin of less than 1%, but it requires the candidate to pay the cost if the margin is more than 0.25%.

“He certainly can pursue a recount, although it looks like he’s going to have to pay for it himself,” said Thompson. “[But] Eric Hovde does not have the right to baselessly spread false claims and election lies.”

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Sen. Tammy Baldwin gives a victory speech Thursday at the Steamfitters Local 601 hall east of Madison after winning a third term Tuesday. (Erik Gunn | Wisconsin Examiner)

While a majority of Wisconsin voters helped elect Republican Donald Trump as president this week, one statewide candidate managed to defy the odds that favored the GOP.

Democratic Sen. Tammy Baldwin squeezed out enough votes to overtake Republican Eric Hovde and return to Washington, D.C. for a third term.

Although the victory was much narrower than her last reelection in 2018, the outcome preserved Baldwin’s winning streak.

“2024 marks a continuation of Tammy Baldwin’s record of undefeated elections,” Ben Wikler, chair of the Democratic Party of Wisconsin, said Thursday at a brief Baldwin victory celebration.

“The way we won this race is the way I’ve always approached this job,” a smiling Baldwin said in her 10-minute victory speech. “We did everything, everywhere, all at once. I traveled to red, blue, purple, rural, suburban, urban parts of our state. I listened to people. I really listen to people and then deliver for them, and in turn, these Wisconsinites showed up for me, and I’m so grateful.”

Baldwin is “uniquely good at cultivating her own brand and separating it from the national Democratic Party brand,” said Marquette University political scientist Julia Azari in an interview Thursday.

Democrats in Wisconsin often seem to do better in midterm elections, “where it is a little bit less nationalized and the candidates can cultivate their kind of personal and localized brands,” Azari said. “Baldwin has been pretty successful and she’s running ahead of Democrats statewide in a lot of contests.”

Baldwin got her political start on the Dane County Board, graduated to the Wisconsin Legislature and was elected to the U.S. House in 1998, the state’s first female and first gay member of Congress. After 14 years in the House, she was elected to the U.S. Senate in 2012, the year Barack Obama won his second term.

In 2018, running against a Republican state senator, Leah Vukmir, Baldwin easily won reelection by nearly 11 points, while her fellow Democrat, Tony Evers, won his first term as governor by 1 percentage point.

“She addresses more sort of state priorities, and has become well known in rural parts of the state that we don’t really associate with Democrats,” Azari said. Baldwin’s much narrower 2024 victory came in “a very difficult national environment for Democrats.”

Baldwin held her event Thursday at a Steamfitters union apprenticeship training center on the East Side of Madison.

Steamfitters Local 601 business manager Doug Edwards called Baldwin “a homegrown roots type of person” who has been “just fabulous for working families in Wisconsin” and a staunch union ally.

“Tammy has just been a good advocate for all the people in Wisconsin, and I think that’s what put her over the top, even though it was close,” Edwards said in an interview.

In her victory speech, Baldwin recapped the broad range of issues that she’s made her own as a lawmaker, along with the people behind those issues who have been her supporters.

“It’s the farmers in the dairy industry who I fought alongside, earning the endorsement of the Wisconsin Farm Bureau,” Baldwin said. “It’s the workers on foundry floors who are getting more business because of my Buy America rules — big shout-out to labor.” 

Baldwin has successfully pushed congressional colleagues to include provisions favoring domestic suppliers and manufacturers in bills such as the bipartisan infrastructure law.

“It’s the LGBTQ families who saw through the nasty attack campaigns and knew that I had their back, and it’s the women who’ve had our rights stripped away and saw me on the front lines fighting for their freedom,” she added.

Baldwin has championed legislation to restore a federally protected abortion rights, ended in 2022 when the U.S. Supreme Court overturned the 1973 ruling Roe v. Wade. The bill she authored has stalled in both houses.

Also in 2022, however, Baldwin argued that the loss of Roe meant that the Court’s 2015 ruling legalizing same-sex marriage could be at risk. She spearheaded a successful bill that gained bipartisan support affirming same-sex marriage as well as interracial couples.

Baldwin also highlighted her involvement in the Affordable Care Act, for which she wrote a provision that allows children to remain on their parents’ health insurance plans until they reach the age of 26.

After four years in the Senate as a member of its Democratic majority, in January Baldwin will begin her third term as a member of the minority party. Throughout her tenure in Congress, however, Baldwin has repeatedly joined with Republicans on bills that have aligned with her own stances.

On Tuesday, her margin of roughly 30,000 votes was about the same as the margin by which Harris lost to Trump in Wisconsin. And the senator’s final tally was about 5,000 more than Harris’ — suggesting that some Wisconsin voters who picked Trump split their tickets to vote for Baldwin.

Baldwin diplomatically acknowledged the presidential contest outcome Thursday.

“While we worked our hearts out to elect Kamala Harris, I recognize that the people of Wisconsin chose Donald Trump, and I respect their choice,” Baldwin said.

“You know that I will always fight for Wisconsin, and that means working with President Trump to do that, and standing up to him when he doesn’t have our best interest at heart.”

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Democratic candidate Rebecca Cooke votes in Wisconsin's 3rd CD race | Photo by Frank Zufall

Democratic 3rd Congressional District candidate Rebecca Cooke held a short press conference at Spirit Lutheran Church in Eau Claire Tuesday morning after she cast her ballot.

The parking lot of the church was packed and Cooke was enthusiastic about turnout. “I think we’re going to see going to see some record turnout numbers here,” she said.

Several of young voters at the church said they had voted for Cooke. She was asked if the enthusiasm among younger voters was shared by older voters around the 3rd Congressional District.

“We’ve done a lot of work really … getting around all 19 counties throughout the congressional district, knocking on doors, communities the size of 300 people,” Cooke said. “So we’ve been doing the work outside of urban areas to really motivate people, show them that we’re willing to show up. There’s no community too small or too red that we’re not working to to get out the voting.”

Asked about critical issues in her 3rd CD race against incumbent Republican U.S. Rep. Derrick Van Orden, Cooke said: “I think the things that we focused on all the way along is increasing access to health care and making it more affordable, stopping wasteful spending, taking on the corporations that priced out consumers at the gas pump and at the grocery store and restoring reproductive freedoms — that’s something that I’m hearing about from people across the 3rd Congressional District.”

“The polling place was popping,” Cooke added. “I think people are energized to get out, to exercise their right to vote, but it’s still early, and so we’re going to be doing a lot of work throughout the day, really working to mobilize voters. We’re calling into the electorate, encouraging people to get out there if they don’t have a ride to the polls, helping them figure that out, and working to just, you know, pull out any barriers that might be keeping people from getting out to vote today.”

After voting in Eau Claire, Cooke said she was driving over to Menomonie to encourage students to vote at UW-Stout.

“There’s six UW campuses and universities in this district, and we have teams throughout the 3rd CD working to energize students in particular to get out to vote,” she said, “so I’ll be at UW Stout, then I’m going to hop on the phones and talk to people that we identified as undecided voters and encourage them to get out to vote for me, because it’s really going to come down to a small part of the electorate that’s going to be able to flip this seat.”

She was asked what is the key to appealing to undecided voters.

“When I’m talking to people, I encourage them and remind them that I’m a working-class candidate, that I grew up working class, that we need more regular voices like me in Congress, people that aren’t so far left or so far right, but really working to get things done for working families throughout the 3rd CD,” she said.  “And I think when I talk to people about that, they’re excited to have a moderate voice to represent them in Congress.”

Several of those who voted at the church said they didn’t like the negativity of the campaign, especially remarks by Van Orden, who has taken to calling his opponent Rebecca “Crook.”

“Look, I’ve run a campaign that’s really authentic to myself, and I think Derrick Van Orden has sought to undermine that,” Cooke said, “But I think at the end of the day, people in the 3rd Congressional District know who I am, that I’m somebody that’s going to work to secure our border and make sure that our law enforcement has the resources that they need to keep our community safe. And when I’ve been out talking on doors, and some of our communication that we’ve also been putting up, I think that’s been really clear about where I stand on those issues.”

Concerning Van Orden’s charge that she supports “defunding the police,” Cooke responded, “I support funding police fully.”

Regarding why the two candidates never had a debate, and Van Orden’s criticism that she was avoiding him, Cooke responded: “There were opportunities for debates, but neither race could agree on a date that worked for everyone or a format that worked for everyone.”

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Vice President Kamala Harris joined a bevy of popular music stars in Madison Wednesday night at the Alliant Center to encourage University of Wisconsin students to vote. (Baylor Spears | Wisconsin Examiner)

Vice President Kamala Harris joined a bevy of popular music stars in Madison Wednesday night at the Alliant Center to encourage University of Wisconsin students and other young people to vote for her over former President Donald Trump.

Wisconsin is a key battleground state and both presidential campaigns are spending a lot of  time here with less than a week to go before Election Day. The last two presidential elections were decided by fewer than 20,000 votes in Wisconsin and the vote is expected to be close again this year. The same day Harris appeared  in Madison, one of the largest Democratic hubs in the state, Trump held a rally in Green Bay. Both candidates will return to Wisconsin Friday to hold dueling rallies in Milwaukee.

College students, including those from out of state, are eligible to vote in Wisconsin and could play an important role in deciding the results of the presidential election. Harris spoke directly to them.

“You all are rightly impatient for change. You who have only known the climate crisis are leading the charge to protect our planet and our future. You, who grew up with active shooter drills, are fighting to keep our schools safe. You who now know fewer rights than your mother or grandmothers, are standing up for freedom,” Harris declared from the Alliant Energy Center stage, speaking in front of a massive “Badgers for Harris-Walz” sign. “This is not political for you,” Harris added. “This is your lived experience.” 

Harris encouraged people to use the last six days before Election Day to vote, knock on doors, make calls and reach out to family and friends. Early in-person voting in Madison goes through Sunday and Election Day is Tuesday.

Some of the students at the rally had already voted early for Harris. Maya Wille, a UW-Madison senior who had Harris’ face temporary-tattooed on her bicep, said she’s excited by the prospect of  electing the first woman president of the United States and said Harris is “for the young people.”

“I want to be able to buy a house. I want to be able to raise a family and I think that she has policies that are going to make that a lot easier. I want gun control. I want better funding for public schools,” Wille said. 

The potential impact of voting in a swing state is what encouraged Hannah Tuckett, a UW junior from New York, and Lucy Murdock, a junior from Colorado, to vote in Wisconsin this year.

“I’m from Colorado, a historically blue state. My parents are always like, it’s so much more important for you to vote here than there,” Murdock said. “Both of us voted here, rather than in our home state, because we understand that, like, this is where we’re gonna make a way bigger splash.”

Murdock said human rights issues, including protecting women’s and transgender people’s right to health care, people’s right to marry whoever they want and addressing climate change, are the “guiding forces” behind her politics. 

“I think in this election human rights are more prevalent than they have been in several years,” Murdock said. 

Tuckett said voting in Wisconsin is “empowering” and she has been “inspired” by Harris and her campaign. She said the rally was also an opportunity to be in community with like-minded people and served as a “breath of fresh air” away from campus. She said certain events and political messaging on campus, including a visit from conservative radio host Charlie Kirk, have created a polarized environment.

The campaign brought a line-up of popular musical artists, including folk band Mumford and Sons, singer-songwriter Gracie Abrams, Aaron Dessner and Matt Berninger of The National and singer-songwriter Remi Wolf, to perform ahead of Harris at the rally, in front of more than  13,000 attendees. The campaign is betting the artists can serve as a trusted voice, delivering the message to fans to vote for Harris and to increase enthusiasm.

Tuckett said Mumford and Sons is her dad’s favorite artist. 

“I’m here, listening to them for him. He said he would have flown from New York to be here for this. I’m super excited,” Tuckett said. She said the endorsements from “not just artists, but actors, athletes, any person with some sort of platform coming out and endorsing Harris for president just shows that this election really does mean so much.”

Abrams, who has grown a loyal fanbase and who has opened for artists including Taylor Swift, spoke directly to young people while making the case for Harris. She called Harris “the right leader at a very tricky time.” 

“For many of us, here on this stage and in the crowd tonight, this is only the first or second time that we’ve had the privilege of voting in a presidential election, and as we know, we’ve inherited a world that is struggling and it’s easy to be disconnected and disillusioned. Between the advent of social media in our childhood and COVID and relentlessly targeted disinformation, we’ve been through some things and it’s easy to be discouraged, but we know better,” Abrams said. 

“We know unless we vote and keep our democracy intact there will be nothing we can do to fix it when it is our turn,” Abrams continued. “We have values and ideas that deserve a platform. We know that a better, greener, more fair, equitable and just future is possible. We understand that community matters, that character matters, that basic decency matters. That dignity matters. That democracy matters.” 

Even before the rally began, attendees tapped into the current pop culture moment. A station was set up inside the venue to make friendship bracelets (a trend popularized by Swift fans) and attendees wore ‘Kamala is brat’ t-shirts — a reference to a post by musician Charli xcx. Many in the audience also wore Harris-Walz camo hats.

Emma Heisch, a freshman at UW-Madison and Wisconsin native, was making a bracelet before the start of the rally when she told the Examiner about a conversation she had with her roommates last week about the importance of celebrities joining Harris on the campaign. 

“A lot of people have been saying that they think it’s unprofessional and it’s a silly tactic but I don’t think that at all,” Heisch said. “Their support reaches out to a lot of Gen Z and it can make a lot of young people, who may not have originally been interested in politics, start to show interest. And even people who may not have been very interested in coming to the rally specifically for politics in the first place might come just for a celebrity and then show interest in what Kamala has to say.”

Heisch voted for the first time this year. She said reproductive rights is one of her top issues. The issue was another big point of the night with Harris receiving thunderous applause and cheers during the rally as she committed to signing a bill to restore protections for reproductive health care access if one is sent to her by Congress.

“I’m a woman and I want control over my body and I don’t think anyone should have that control except for me,” Heisch said.

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PHOENIX, ARIZONA - AUGUST 23: Former Presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. gives remarks at the Renaissance Phoenix Downtown Hotel on August 23, 2024 in Phoenix, Arizona.Kennedy announced that he was suspending his presidential campaign and supporting Republican presidential candidate, former U.S. President Donald Trump.(Photo by Rebecca Noble/Getty Images)

With early voting underway in Wisconsin and a week before Election Day, the U.S. Supreme Court denied an effort Tuesday by Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to be removed from the state’s ballots.

Kennedy, an independent, was placed on the presidential ballot after filing paperwork on Aug. 6, which included the signatures of thousands of Wisconsin voters who wanted him to run. He dropped out of the presidential election less than three weeks later and endorsed former President Donald Trump. He then launched an effort to be removed from Wisconsin’s ballot.

The Wisconsin Elections Commission was the first to deny his request to be kept off the ballot; officials cited state law requiring anyone who files the paperwork be placed on the ballot. Kennedy filed an emergency request with the U.S. Supreme Court last week after other appeals failed at appellate and state Supreme Courts. His name had already been printed on ballots with some being mailed out as the effort took place. In-person early voting in Wisconsin also started last week. 

Kennedy argued in his lawsuit that keeping him on the ballot violates his First Amendment right to endorse Trump. His attorneys had also argued that his name could be covered with a sticker, pointing to a state statute that allows clerks to do so if a candidate dies before the election takes place. Election officials warned voting machines hadn’t been tested with stickers and they could cause the machines to break. 

The U.S. Supreme Court did not explain its decision to reject the request. The Court also denied Kennedy’s effort to be removed from Michigan’s ballot on Tuesday.

Six third-party candidates, including Kennedy, Jill Stein and Cornel West, will appear on ballots in Wisconsin, a key battleground state, and are seen as potential spoilers in the presidential election because they could siphon votes from the major party candidates in what appears to be a very close race.

Correction: This story has been updated to correct the number of third-party candidates on ballots in Wisconsin. 

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Ahead of the 2024 presidential election, Farm Foundation hosted a Farm Foundation Forum to examine the agricultural platforms of the candidates for president of the United States. Held on September 9 at the National Press Club in Washington D.C., the Forum was moderated by Kristina Peterson from the Wall Street Journal, with Kip Tom, co-lead of the Farmers and Ranchers for Trump Coalition, representing the Republican platform and Rod Snyder, former senior advisor for agriculture for EPA in the Biden-Harris Administration, representing the Democratic platform. 

The speakers touched on a variety of issues, including the farm bill, tax policy, environmental policy, nutrition, agricultural trade, farm labor and immigration, and biofuels. 

“In such a wonderful Farm Foundation-way, they engaged on some really difficult topics and different perspectives,” said Farm Foundation President and CEO Shari Rogge-Fidler, reflecting on the tenor of the conversation between the two speakers. While not official members of the campaigns, each speaker is closely connected with the campaigns but was careful to anchor their statements on past policies while clarifying where they thought each platform might go on policy in the future. 

The event marked Farm Foundation’s return to in-person Forums at the National Press Club since moving the Forums virtual at the start of the pandemic. It attracted 769 registrants from seven different countries, with 522 attending live either in person or via livestream.  

The two-hour discussion, including the audience question and answer session, was recorded and is archived on the Farm Foundation website.  

Farm Foundation plans to hold another Forum at the National Press Club in 2025 but will maintain its virtual strategy for the bulk of future Forums to preserve greater audience access and reach. Forums are free to watch or attend, due to the generous support from Farm Credit Council. 

The post Farm Foundation Forums Return to Washington D.C. to Discuss the Agricultural Platforms of the Candidates for President of the United States  appeared first on Farm Foundation.

A Dane County judge has rejected a request from Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., shown here campaigning for president in Iowa in August 2023, to have his name removed from Wisconsin's presidential ballot in November. (Jay Waagmeester | Iowa Capital Dispatch)

A Dane County judge on Monday rejected a request from Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to have his name removed from the presidential ballot in Wisconsin this November. 

An attorney for Kennedy said immediately after the decision that he plans to appeal. A separate case on the issue had already been separately filed with the more conservative District 2 Court of Appeals, which covers the suburban counties around Milwaukee. 

Dane County Judge Stephen Ehlke ruled that state law does not allow a candidate to withdraw from the presidential race once they file nomination papers. Ehlke said Kennedy was asking him to make an exception to the law for only him. 

“However, courts are required to apply the law as written, not as some party wishes it were written,” Ehlke said. 

Kennedy dropped out of the race in August, after he’d filed to get his name on the ballot in Wisconsin. After ending his campaign, Kennedy endorsed former President Donald Trump. Polls show that Kennedy’s candidacy likely pulled supporters from Trump. 

Last week in a similar case, the North Carolina Supreme Court ruled that Kennedy’s name must be removed from the state’s ballots, causing a delay of up to two weeks. 

The Wisconsin Elections Commission previously ruled that Kennedy’s name must appear on the ballot, finding that if a candidate successfully files nomination papers to appear on the ballot, the only event that can cause the candidate’s removal is death. 

In Wisconsin, a ruling to take Kennedy’s name off the ballot would cause delays and added expenses to county clerks responsible for printing ballots. Ballots with his name on them have already been printed across the state because county clerks must get them in the hands of municipal clerks by Wednesday. The first absentee ballots for requests that clerks already have on file must be sent this week. 

If a candidate dies after ballots have been printed, the candidate’s name may be covered by a white sticker on the ballot. Kennedy’s attorneys pushed for his name to be similarly covered with stickers. 

Assistant Attorney General Stephen Kilpatrick said that the labor required to cover Kennedy’s name on ballots and the unknown effect the stickers would have on vote tabulating machines made that an impossible request that would also force clerks to miss state and federal deadlines.

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Wisconsin Secretary of State Sarah Godlewski in her office, displays real and fake electors' documents | Wisconsin Examiner photo