The Meg Ellefson Show (WSAU Radio): “WE’VE GOT TO ENCOURAGE OTHERS TO BELIEVE IN ELECTIONS.”

WSAU Radio | July 1, 2024 The Meg Ellefson Show

Former Wisconsin Lt. Gov. and RightCount State Co-Chair Rebecca Kleefisch joined “The Meg Ellefson Show” on WSAU to encourage Republicans to be involved in the election process and get to know their local officials to bolster trust in elections.

What follows is a rush transcript of the interview:

Meg Ellefson: Well, so let’s talk about your, I mean, I know that you obviously are still very much a part of the 1848 Project, but you’ve also got another side gig that you’re working on. RightCount is the name of this organization.

Lt. Gov. Kleefisch: Yeah. And you’ll see I wrote an editorial. I actually wrote two editorials in the last couple of months. One was submitted to more traditional news sources. And so you might have seen that one and I was specifically talking about RightCount, which is an election integrity movement. And then last week, I put an editorial in Wisconsin Right Now. And I know that you do a lot of work with Wisconsin Right Now. And those are really solid journalists, folks who were in journalism way back when I was, so they’ve got a lot of integrity. And I submitted both of these editorials for basically the same reason. To allay my own personal fears and encourage people to vote. One of the greatest fears I have and I know you share it, is that people become so suspicious of elections and the processing of ballots that they stop voting. And the only way we are guaranteed as conservatives to lose elections is if conservatives stop voting. And then America, Wisconsin, is in the deepest danger that they have ever been in. Because if conservatives stop voting and stop participating in elections, we will assuredly be run by liberal interests, and we may lose the very lives that we have worked so hard for. Lives full of freedom, lives celebrating our immovable constitution and the excellence and exceptionalism of our country. And we can’t do that, we’ve got to vote. And we’ve got to encourage others to believe in elections. And the way we do that is by helping people understand that they’ve got to actually participate, not just in voting, but also in the elections themselves. So if you are one of those people who is really suspicious, I encourage you to help administer the very elections you’re suspicious of. I think that there are still a lot of people, maybe fewer of your listeners, but a lot of people across the state who don’t know that the people who are administering elections when you go and cast your ballot, those aren’t like regular county employees, regular municipal or school employees, those are regular people, just like you and me, Meg. And they get trained, and they get paid to be election workers for Election Day. Additionally, the people kind of standing around behind all of the ballot processing and folks taking down addresses, those are poll watchers. Those too are just regular people who are concerned and just want to make sure everything goes correctly. Those too can just be regular folks like us, and our friends, and our neighbors. We’ve got to get involved, we’ve got to be playing those roles on Election Day.

Meg Ellefson: Well, and Rebecca, I guess that can’t be stressed enough, is I think that there are some people that view even your trusted county clerk, who they declare their, or they, when they run for office, they declare their party, their political party. And I mean, I’ve made an effort to get to know our election official here in Marathon County. And I think that I mean, that person, as a public servant, is very accessible to the public. And I would encourage anyone and everyone that has any concerns to get to know that our, you know, your county election official.

Lt. Gov. Kleefisch: 100%. But, Meg, you and I both know that that’s harder than just putting out a post on Facebook. That’s harder than just complaining about it at the bar, or the coffee shop. And I too, would echo your suggestion that you get to know your local election officials. And I know that there are a lot of people who will hear what I say, you know, become a poll worker, become a poll watcher and say, well, that’s fine for, you know, my neck of the woods, but I’m not worried about my local elections. I’m not worried about what goes on, you know, at my local library, I’m worried about what happens in Madison and Milwaukee. Well, you know, this too, is a little bit heavier lift. And you can determine how deeply somebody actually does care and how deeply somebody actually does want to be involved, if they are willing to rally the troops across the state. You know, are you calling friends and relatives in those counties? If you don’t have friends and relatives in those counties, are you on Facebook? Or have you looked into your local organizations that maybe have a chapter in those areas? And have you gotten to know people that you can start encouraging or even badgering to do the exact same thing in their county, to become poll workers and to become poll watchers? Because the greatest fear, again, is conservatives just not voting because of their worries. We cannot let anxiety be the enemy of freedom. This is literally what we’re looking at. This is the big question. Because right now, there are a lot of people who are suspicious. And Wisconsin is a swing state. We’ve got to go into Election Day confident, not suspicious. And you know, I know that there are people who either lack confidence or have legitimate questions about fairness or accuracy, but we’ve got to rebuild trust, and the way we do it, is the heavy lifting done by ourselves.

Listen to Lt. Gov. Kleefisch’s entire interview here: Part I and Part II.

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To learn more about RightCount’s operations in Wisconsin, visit RightCount.org/wisconsin.