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    • Hovde has the right to cover the WI Senate race, not spread lies
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    Hovde has the right to cover the WI Senate race, not spread lies

    Online Niel Posted on

    If Eric Hovde loses to Sen. Tammy Baldwin by 1 percentage point or less, he can request a recount. No question and rightfully so.

    Milwaukee Journal Sentinel Editorial Board
    | Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

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    Eric Hovde has every right to consider seeking a recount in his contested US Senate campaign against incumbent Sen. Tammy Baldwin. What the Republican businessman has no right to do is makes false claims about the “irregularities” in the electoral process.

    With 99 percent of Wisconsin votes counted, about 28,958 votes separate the two, with Baldwin leading Hovde 49.4 percent to 48.5 percent. When the final votes are counted and the results are certified, if Hovde loses by 1 percentage point or less, he can ask for a recount. No question and rightfully so.

    Anyone who watched the campaign can appreciate the pain and disappointment he feels. The Associated Press, Fox News and NBC News called the race in Baldwin’s favor the day after the Nov. 5 election. The Democrat gave a victory speech on November 7.

    Hovde makes false claims about 2024 election irregularities

    Hovde did not give up the race and has every right to do so until the last vote numbered and certified by the state. However, his comments in a video posted on social media platform X on Tuesday are dishonest and dangerous. Here’s why:

    He opened the video by saying he’s been quiet since the election because he thinks it’s best not to comment until he knows the facts, but then moved on to presenting false information. For example, he claimed that 90 percent of absentee ballots in Milwaukee went to Baldwin. In fact, the the number is 82% and consistent with other margins between the two in the city race. If Hovde has evidence of wrongdoing, he should present it, claims that are not easily refuted.

    Similarly, his statements about “inconsistencies” in voting in “certain polling places in Milwaukee” reflect thinly veiled prejudices about who should be allowed to exercise their constitutional right to vote. Again, he presented no evidence that the same-day voter registrations he cites as unusually high are improper. Many Wisconsinites stood in line on a rainy day to exercise their civic duty. Why are voters selected from its largest and most diverse city?

    Hovde actually answers that question later in the video when he criticizes Milwaukee for providing final results early Wednesday morning instead of late Tuesday night. Election officials have repeatedly warned that counting absentee ballots would slow the reporting of results because of a state law that says election workers cannot begin counting until 7 a.m. on Election Day. Their decision to reprocess 30,000 absentee ballots delayed results.

    This was no secret to anyone. Wisconsin’s senior U.S. senator and chairman of the GOP party held a press conference outside the central counting center in Milwaukee after officials announced that absentee ballots would be reprocessed and would likely delay the reporting of final results by one to three hours.

    Also, a bipartisan bill that would have allowed clerks to begin counting ballots the day before an election died in the last session of the Wisconsin state Senate. Why did he do it Republicans in the Senate to kill this note? Ostensibly so that candidates like Hovde can continue to make bogus claims about declining voting in Milwaukee when they don’t. Donald Trump made the same false claim when he lost in 2020. One story confirmed the fact, but that didn’t stop the falsehoods from spreading. (Trump was silent in 2024, perhaps because he won the election.)

    As a result of these repeated lies, a significant portion of the public is concerned about the integrity of the election. This is not due to widespread fraud or failures in the system, but due to a pattern of false claims like those made by Hovde in his video. The comments on his social media post illustrate how quickly and widely such corrosive lies spread.

    The Republicans who won the Wisconsin races did not make similar claims

    In the 5-minute video, Hovde identified the most likely reason for his loss: third-party candidates, one with support from Democratswhich siphoned off votes that would reasonably have gone to his campaign. And throughout the countrynotably Arizona, Michigan and Nevada, there were similar splits at the top, with voters selecting Trump and Democrats for the US Senate.

    Editorial: You can trust the Wisconsin election results. We have the proof.

    Election Day in Wisconsin was mostly orderly and efficient. There have been some hiccups, but no undertaking of this magnitude can be completely error-free. The Republicans who prevailed on November 5 made no similar claims about the validity of their own elections.

    The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel editorial board will continue to seek facts and information about the integrity of voting in Wisconsin and speak out against false claims. If the number certified in the US Senate race is 1%, Eric Hovde can request a recount. It is his right to do so, but he is wrong to spread falsehoods that undermine trust in our democratic institutions.

    Editorials are a product of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel’s editorial board, which operates independently of the news department. E-mail: [email protected]. Why we write editorials. Meet the editorial staff.

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