As Wisconsinites turned out to vote in the primary election, Milwaukee Mayor Cavalier Johnson defended the city’s election workers and took aim at Vice President JD Vance’s comments casting doubt on Milwaukee’s voting systems.
Johnson called the poll workers “true patriots” and said it “really boils my blood” when people make “far-out-there” claims that the vote count in Milwaukee is fraudulent. He made the comments in the context of the FBI investigation into the 2020 presidential election, which he said consisted of “irrational and unsubstantiated accusations.”
“Our vote count in Milwaukee, it’s accurate,” Johnson said in an address to the Rotary Club of Milwaukee on Aug. 11. “We follow the law. There is nothing nefarious that’s happening in Milwaukee. I wouldn’t allow it.”
Because of the FBI investigation, Johnson had written Vance a letter and invited him to tour Milwaukee’s election facilities and meet with officials. Vance did not agree to it and said during his July trip to Milwaukee, “it was a little bit of ‘he doth protest too much.'”
Vance had said the situation reminded him of when his 6-year-old son tells him, unprompted, that he didn’t steal any cookies, which indicated he did steal the cookies. Johnson, at the Rotary Club, said if he were to use the same analogy, there would be some evidence of the cookie theft – but in Milwaukee, there is no evidence of election fraud, he said.
“He’s intimidating honest public servants,” Johnson said. “It’s just wrong. They’re scaring people.”
The election system is designed to catch any mistakes that result from a complex operation, Johnson said at the Rotary Club, and “the ultimate backstop are recount elections.”
Because ballots can’t be processed until Election Day by law in Wisconsin, votes from absentee ballots often are added to totals in big batches, late at night, fueling conspiracies about fraud. Johnson said he was disappointed that the state Legislature has not yet passed a bill allowing for ballot processing ahead of time, but he is hopeful the Republicans in the Legislature will “play ball” and get the measure passed at the next session.
“I don’t want late night ballot dumps,” he said, but so many votes come into the city of Milwaukee that it’s not possible to avoid under the current rules. He added that he wanted to dispel lies about election fraud.
Milwaukee mayor calls ICE tactics inappropriate, unacceptable
Johnson also used his remarks at the Rotary Club to criticize immigration enforcement under President Donald Trump.
The administration’s tactics, such as masked agents in unmarked vehicles, smashing car windows, have been “entirely inappropriate,” he said. He questioned how someone is supposed to know that the agents are with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and they have not been abducted by an impersonator.
“It is simply unacceptable in a civil society,” Johnson said. “That is terrifying and it’s no way for a law enforcement agency to behave.”
Johnson said he has always condoned the deportation of people who are convicted of violent crimes and felonies. But he called attention to cases that don’t fit that description.
He referenced the immigration detention of Giovanni Sosa, a 20-year-old Milwaukee man who has no criminal record, has a U.S. citizen wife and toddler, and is in the process of getting a green card. He has lived in the U.S. since he was 4. Agents detained him for a month.
“Sometimes I think, what in the world is the federal government thinking? What are they trying to accomplish here other than scaring people?” Johnson said.
In response to a question from a member of the Rotary Club, Johnson said he hoped Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley would be the next governor. But if Republican U.S. Rep. Tom Tiffany becomes governor, he said he would “work with him and try to get the best deal that I possibly could for the city of Milwaukee.”
Sophie Carson is a general assignment reporter who reports on religion and faith, immigrants and refugees and more. Contact her at scarson@gannett.com or 920-323-5758.
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Milwaukee Mayor Johnson defends election workers, slams fraud claims
Reporting by Sophie Carson, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel / Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
By Sophie Carson, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel | USA TODAY Network
