(The Center Square) – The top Republican on Wisconsin’s Elections Commission isn’t sure President Donald Trump’s plan to end mail-in voting across the country is a good idea.
Commissioner Don Millis was a guest on UpFront over the weekend, and said Republicans in Wisconsin used absentee voting, including voting through the mail, to help the president carry Wisconsin last year.
“Among my many reactions are that if we eliminate mail-in ballots, we’re going to actually make it harder for Republicans who have historically used absentee voting to vote,” Millis said. “And I don’t think that’s good for the base of the Republican Party, so I’m not sure that’s a wise strategy.”
Trump last week took to Truth Social to say he wants to end mail-in voting.
Millis said he understands the lingering questions about ballot security, and the president’s desire to count every vote.
“I understand the impulse to go hand-count ballots,” Millis added. “For me, the most important requirement, the most important consideration, is that we have a hard copy of ballots in Wisconsin. The vast majority of people fill out paper ballots. They are stored. They can be recounted. For those who have a need for accessible touch screens, in one of two ways, there’s a record of that ballot. So that’s the most important thing, and we have that in Wisconsin right now.”
But Millis did acknowledge that there are lingering questions about Wisconsin’s vote-counting-history.
“Listen, I understand the president’s concerns, and I think a lot of us have concerns that there’s a perception that elections aren’t fair,” Millis said. “I think elections have been, (there’s) overwhelming evidence that elections have been fair, that votes have been counted.”
WEC chairwoman Ann Jacobs, who was also on UpFront on Sunday, said moving to hand-counts for every ballot would change elections in Wisconsin, and not necessarily for the better.
“We sure-as-shootin’ wouldn’t have the results late on the evening of Election Day or early the next morning,” Jacobs said. “You would be looking at weeks before ballots could be counted and results announced, and in a swing state like Wisconsin, that would make a big difference for the country. I think it would just be insanity.”
