In a move that had state election
officials sounding the
constitutional alarm,
President Trump threatened in an
all-cap social media post
to get rid of
mail-in ballots and target
highly inaccurate, very expensive
and seriously controversial voting
machines.
He said he would sign an executive
order to do so.
The president went on to post that
mail- in voting results in massive
voter fraud.
Election experts say this
is not true.
The White House Press Office
demurred on Trump's call a day
later saying it could be a subject
for Congress to take up.
But we wanted to check in with a
local election clerk for her
take.
Rock County Clerk Lisa Tollefson
joins us now and thanks a lot for
being here.
So what was your reaction when you
saw the call to abolish mail-in
voting and voting
machines?
Just another piece that's trying
to get some false information out
there.
To get some headlines,
it's not accurate.
Those voting machines are extremely
accurate that we use, been through
nine recounts, and it's now the
machines that have issues.
They're highly accurate.
It's usually somebody didn't sign
the envelope correctly, something
small.
It's human error, not the machines.
Machines are accurate.
Beside that point, can
such a thing be done by
presidential executive order?
I believe Congress has the
authority to change it, not the
president.
And each state actually sets their
own rules for how they run
elections,
not not the President.
So again, in your
experience, does
absentee or mail-in voting result
in fraud or massive fraud?
So there's a check and balance
through our entire system.
Some states mail out absentee
ballots to every person.
But in Wisconsin, we
only mail you an absenteed ballot if
you have requested it.
And to request it, you have to be a
registered voter.
So there're lots of steps and checks
and balances that we go through in
the entire system, so it's
not randomly, you just
mail in a ballot with nothing to
back it up.
There's checks all the way through
the system.
What about voting machines
or tabulators, how
do they work?
So tabulators are not connected
to the internet.
They are highly tested
before they can be certified
at the federal level and then at the
state level.
We do public tests to make sure
everything's working correctly
before the election.
And then after the election, we do
audits to verify that they counted
correctly also.
And again, if we need, we do
a recount. And I've been through
nine and again, they don't,
it's not the machines that are the
errors.
It's human error.
Highly accurate.
Where does all of this leave
clerks who maintain the
integrity of elections when
it comes to assuring voters,
once again, that these
things, as you say, are
highly accurate?
So it means we have to explain
again over and over.
Sometimes the biggest thing we can
do is invite them to the public test
or have them be
poll workers.
Once they learn the system and all
the checks and balances in place,
they feel more comfortable with it
and they understand all the work
that goes into an election.
What is it like to ride
the roller coaster of
election conspiracies?
Well, I don't have
a boring job.
It keeps me very entertained
sometimes, some of the things that
come in.
Yeah, it's up and down.
Boring might be nice every once in a
while, but we keep ourselves very,
very.
We're explaining things constantly
over and over.
And sometimes that
keeps us from doing other things
we'd like to be doing.
Getting ready for another election
or training more poll workers or,
you know, working right now where
everyone's working on their budgets
for next year at all the municipal
levels.
You know, a clerk
does not just do elections.
We are basically in the towns,
they're the administrator of those
municipalities.
There's a lot of other jobs that we
do. We don't just do election.
Is there cause though to be
highly vigilant when it comes
to election security?
We are always highly vigilant.
We are constantly doing checks
and balances.
We are checking security tags
and chain of custody.
There's tons of pieces that we're
always doing. They're always in
place.
So that never goes away.
That's constant.
Alright, well we leave it there and
we wish you luck with attending to
the many duties that
you have on top of all
of this.
Rock County Clerk Lisa Tollefson,
thank you.
Well, I appreciate you explaining
it to us over...