Elections
La Crosse County clerk predicts record turnout, challenges election integrity doubters to get involved
After an all-time high voter turnout in 2020, La Crosse County clerk Ginny Dankmeyer sees it happening again.
“I think it’s going to be record turnout,” Dankmeyer said this week on La Crosse Talk PM of the fall election (5:50 into podcast below). “We’re already seeing record turnout with in-person absentee voting and I think that’s going to carry over to election day.”
La Crosse Talk PM airs weekdays at 5:06 p.m. Listen on the WIZM app, online here, or on 92.3 FM / 1410 AM / 106.7 FM (north of Onalaska). Find all the podcasts here or subscribe to La Crosse Talk PM wherever you get your podcasts.
Back in 2020, La Crosse County saw nearly an 89% voter turnout among registered voters.
If there’s doubt, however, about anything election integrity, Dankmeyer welcomed — even challenged — those skeptics to get involved.
“To say that the ballots are being stuffed and the votes are being changed, that just doesn’t happen and we can prove it to you,” she said. “We always say, ‘If you don’t trust what’s happening at the polls on election day, get involved. Go be a poll worker. Go be a poll observer. Just sit there for one election day and watch what’s happening, and then tell us that what you think is happening.’ All those stories out there about this happening and that happening — because once you watch it, or once you get involved, you’re going to say, ‘There is no way this is actually happening at the polls.’”
Dankmeyer welcomed anyone to come take her three-hour training.
One thing Dankmeyer would like to see evolve with Wisconsin elections is counting ballots sooner.
She wants the Wisconsin state Legislature to pass a bill, that already had bipartisan support, which would allow clerks to start county absentee ballots the Monday before the election.
“We are pushing to get processing of absentees done on Monday,” she said. “So the clerks can concentrate on getting the monday processing of the absentees so, then on election day, all they’re worried about is the voters coming in.”
She added that doing that would also get results to the public faster.
“That would significantly help the bigger municipalities that have central counts, where the central count numbers usually come in well after midnight and then the totals get updated when that happens,” Dankmeyer said. “So, that would be a great help if we can get that bill passed here this next term.”
The Republican-led state Legislature only got the bill halfway home. Republicans passed it in the Assembly, but it didn’t even get a vote in the state Senate.
In February, Republican state Senate leader Devin LeMahieu refused to bring it to the floor for a vote — despite his authoring a similar bill in the past.
The state Legislature adjourned for the rest of the year soon after that and has been out of session ever since — taking almost the last nine months of 2024 off.
Lastly, Dankmeyer also reminded voters to bring the right form of ID to the polls and, if registering to vote that day, bring proof of residency. Plus, double check where you’ll cast a ballot on Tuesday, because some locations may have changed with new maps.
John Q Public
November 1, 2024 at 6:29 am
Counting votes early is yet another democrat trick to make sure they have enough fake ballots for election day.
Kevin
November 1, 2024 at 6:36 am
These challenges just kill me, come and watch, and when we watch and see will something be done? Will the authenticity of ballots be checked if there is doubt about the signer being eligible to vote?
Illegal immigrants, non-citizens have been granted drivers licenses, IDs, etc… that in the ‘hurry’ of registering to vote, could look like a standard license or id. I ask why does the democrat political leadership and those in the executive branch (DOJ) sue to disallow removal of non-citizens from the voting rolls? Why would you not remove those folks that are NOT ALLOWED to vote from the rolls that say they are registered to vote, unless you want them to vote, wink wink nod nod? I know why, you know why, we all know why, it is the guise of ‘plausible deniability’.
Why grant voting rights, even at the local level, to those individuals that are not citizens?
Why would you not investigate the signatures and origins of the people casting the votes if there is doubt, why fuel the fire, Trust but Verify? You have a bunch of black robed folks, that ‘we’ don’t trust telling us to trust them.
You have not done one thing to further trust in the election systems. Come and watch, bullshit, prove the ballots are legitimate, quit fighting ‘voter id’, allow surveillance of the drop boxes if you must have them, you folks are full of all kinds of excrement and claiming you are full of integrity and righteousness doesn’t cut it.
Bill Clinton didn’t sleep with all those women, there were weapons of mass destruction, the border is secure, police are hunting black men, etc, etc, etc….right!
It is your job to prove your systems have integrity, it isn’t our job to catch the fouls ups, we don’t have all the rights and privileges that would allow that…..Do your job!
Roy
November 1, 2024 at 8:20 am
The Dankmeyer woman gets a little testy when it is questioned if all security measures have been implemented. She sounds like “I don’t make mistakes nor does any of the volunteers who work for me”.
Hardly a day goes by when there isn’t a case of improper voting in the news somewhere in this country. I think the voting procedures locally are done efficiently and, for the most part, accurately. But, you’re an elected official, ma’am. We voters will ask the questions and we’d prefer you answer them without any snippy replies that tell us to “come and check if you don’t believe me.”
walden
November 2, 2024 at 1:51 am
News 8 reported last week that only one of the early voting locations had the full complement of electronic equipment to handle the early voting. After an anonymous tip to the media, Dankmeyer added the equipment to the other locations.
I’m not saying anything nefarious happened, but the human factor is part of the equation whether we like it or not. The process needs to have full transparency.
The Dems have filed hundreds if not thousands of lawsuits across the country in attempts to gain advantage. The Dems sued to keep RFK Jr on the WI ballot after he requested, then sued, to have his name removed. The court said there isn’t enough time to remove his name…so voila, the ballots are compromised even before the first ballot is marked.
A
November 2, 2024 at 6:55 pm
RFK jr screwed himself, no one sued to keep him on the ballot. State law just doesn’t allow anyone to remove themselves unless they die. Check the facts instead of taking what the politicians say at face value.