Posted on 09/15/2026 7:32:30 AM PDT by MtnClimber
While the hypocrites at WaPo write Dem-friendly puff pieces, Milwaukee elections officials won’t let observers see what’s going on.
The Washington Post likes to say that “Democracy Dies in Darkness.” The self-righteous hypocrites behind the accomplice media outlet are part of the dark cloud killing representative democracy. (WaPo is keeping the Pulitzer Prize it won for helping to manufacture the Russia collusion hoax, thank you very much).
We do know that election integrity dies in darkness, and “progressive” organs like The Post have been bludgeoning it for years.
Take Wisconsin’s primary election last month, for instance. The leftist-run Milwaukee Election Commission botched another election, smothered transparency, and came back after a counting delay to announce the Democratic Party’s preferred candidate won a race his opponent had been heavily favored in.
The Democrat in question is Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley, who was politically dead just weeks before the Aug. 11 Democratic gubernatorial primary. He temporarily left the race in the face of overwhelming polling numbers for Madison socialist Francesca Hong.
Despite understandable suspicion about another rigged election in Milwaukee, WaPo and its corporate media ilk did cursory examinations of the suspect activity, taking the word of the incompetent and corrupt Milwaukee Election Commission as gospel. Nothing to see here. They did make sure to cover the Democratic Party-aligned activist groups rallying behind Milwaukee Election Commission Executive Director Paula Gutierrez, who has compiled a record of “errors” that would land most private sector administrators on the unemployment line.
Quickly, the accomplice media turned the page to do what they do best: write glowing pieces about the Democrat in the race. In The Post’s case, absurd stories that murder the truth, painting Socialist Light Crowley as a moderate — pushing the gritty black kid from Milwaukee’s crime-riddled 53206 zip code narrative and disappearing the stunning record of failure in leading Wisconsin’s most-populous county.
Why, David Crowley could make history by becoming Wisconsin’s first black governor, WaPo reporter Karen Tumulty gushed. Of course, she left out some very inconvenient information the Crowley campaign isn’t all that interested in discussing. Like his “Dirt McGirk” days, or that time Milwaukee County employees nearly lost their health care coverage thanks to a benefits lapse on Crowley’s watch. In the words of another bungling lib, that’s a big (expletive deleted) deal. Certainly something a news publication devoted to lighting the darkness might want to include in a hefty profile piece of Wisconsin Democrat candidate for governor. No problem, Crowley’s campaign loved it. So did the Democratic Governor’s Association. And isn’t that what it’s all about.
Meanwhile, a reporter from The USA Today-owned Milwaukee Journal Sentinel jumped on X to snidely downplay an emergency nighttime plane landing in water that injured Crowley’s Republican opponent, Wisconsin Rep. Tom Tiffany, according to The Heartland Post. Tiffany, endorsed by President Donald Trump, and the plane’s pilot were treated for minor injuries suffered in the crash.
Journalistic integrity dies in darkness.
Crowley, many Wisconsin Republicans suspect, can count on The Post and the rest of the corporate media club again on election night when Milwaukee election administrators keep Wisconsin waiting for final results. If history is any indicator, there will be some massive “irregularity” in Milwaukee’s ballot handling that the accomplice media will dutifully explain away, mainly by accusing the suspicious of being “election deniers.” Maybe even “racists” this time around.
‘Wisconsin Government Depends on This Process’
If WaPo really cares about democracy and darkness and all that crap, they’ll take a look at the complaint filed this week with the Wisconsin Elections Commission alleging multiple state election-law violations in Milwaukee. The accusations further lay out, and records show, a Democrat-controlled city with a long history of suspect election administration practices and transparency failures.
The complaint was filed by Milwaukee resident and election observer Justin Gavery with the assistance of the Center for Election Confidence, an election integrity watchdog. Among several allegations, the complaint claims that the two highest-ranking officers of the Milwaukee Election Commission barred election observers from watching ballot-handling and other activities during last month’s primary election day. Observers could not see what election workers were doing in a “blocked-off area” of Milwaukee’s Central Count location.
“Each failure is independently unlawful, an abdication of basic diligence and competence, or an abuse of discretion,” the complaint states. “Taken together, these failures show that MEC could not reliably administer a partisan primary — an election with a fraction of the turnout and operational demand of a General Election.”
Gavery further notes, as The Federalist has extensively reported, that Milwaukee’s primary election day debacle wasn’t anything new. The Milwaukee Election Commission has been a train wreck in administering elections dating back to at least 2018, demonstrating a “persistent pattern that demands the Wisconsin Elections Commission’s … sustained oversight before November 3, 2026,” the complaint alleges.
The feckless Wisconsin Elections Commission — a “bipartisan” panel comprised of three Democrat and three Republican members — has done little to hold Milwaukee election administrators accountable beyond sending a “polite” letter. Don Millis, the chummy Republican-appointed chair of the state Elections Commission, said last week he was satisfied with Milwaukee’s explanations that it was all just “human error.” Best to just “let it lay,” he said, adding that there isn’t “any need for further action.”
Gutierrez, Milwaukee elections director, told the Milwaukee Common Council on Monday that she’s taking corrective steps to prevent similar problems in November. She said central count workers in charge of downloading election results will receive more detailed instructions, including individual steps to confirm points in the process.
Milwaukee Alderman Bob Bauman scolded Gutierrez about the latest “human error” involving absentee ballots.
“It’s not hyperbole to say the future of Wisconsin government depends on this process,” Bauman said. “Because Milwaukee’s absentee ballot count could very well be decisive, could very well swing the balance, very easily, like it has in the past, given the close nature of elections in the state of Wisconsin.”
‘Not a One-Off Mistake’
Gutierrez has said Milwaukee Election Commission Deputy Director Maricha Harris mistakenly selected, downloaded, and transmitted audit log files instead of results on five of nine data sticks. She did so despite having a written copy of the commission’s election procedures manual on hand, according to a recent letter to the WEC, The glitch stalled the release of Wisconsin’s primary election results, including the final tally in the nationally-watched race for the Democrat’s nominee for governor.
“Downloading audit logs instead of vote totals five times in a single night — when the written procedures manual is right there — points to a concerning gap in training and quality control, not a one-off mistake,” Nicholas J. Boerke, the attorney who represents Gavery, said in a press release.
Boerke, an attorney with Atlanta-based election law specialty firm Chalmers, Adams, Backer & Wallen, LLC., is also involved in the complaint against the city of Green Bay involving former City Clerk Celestine Jeffreys. The disgraced election official resigned after sending out two separate batches of duplicate absentee ballots in Wisconsin’s spring and primary elections. The Wisconsin Elections Commission has found Jeffreys likely broke state election law — again. In that case, WEC commissioners voted to end their investigation into the matter and send the city a sternly-worded letter.
Gavery, who served as an observer at the central count location on the day of the primary election, claims Harris took the actions without an election official of another party present, a serious violation of state election law.
But there’s nothing to see here, at least according to some leftist organizations severely allergic to election integrity.
Votebeat, a left-leaning activist organization masquerading as a news outlet, insisted on Monday that “audit logs from those five tabulators show no evidence of tampering between the time officials initially left the facility and returned again to correctly extract results.” How does Votebeat know? “Experts” said so. Who are the experts? Ryan Macias, a left-wing election technology consultant who previously worked for Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs, a far-left Democrat, as her official recount observer alongside other leftist groups, according to nonprofit tracker InfluenceWatch.
‘This Isn’t How We Run Elections in America’
As an election observer since 2022, Gavery said Milwaukee officials have increasingly restricted rooms within central count, blocking them or concealing them from the public. That includes a large room containing thousands of absentee ballots in certificate envelopes near a loading dock. The Milwaukee Election Commission refers to the area as the “Secure Ballot Room.”
“But MEC has done more than restrict access. Over several election cycles, it has worked to conceal that the rooms exist at all,” the complaint states.
As The Federalist has reported, administrators have covered the interior windows, once visible to observers, where ballot handling occurs. Elections officials have stacked crates in front of the windows to block views. By this year’s spring and primary elections, Gavery said he personally observed that the MEC “removed the windows outright and windows once covered or obscured were walled off entirely.”
The complaint also alleges that on at least two separate occasions, the Milwaukee Election Commission failed to notice “vitally important” public meetings, including the public test of election tabulating machines for Wisconsin’s primary election.
“That MEC has engaged in efforts to affirmatively block observers from viewing these ballot-handling rooms is unconscionable,” Boerke said in a statement. “But replacing interior windows with bricks or drywall to conceal even the very existence of these rooms, let alone the activity inside, is unbelievable. This isn’t how we run elections in America.”
It’s how they run elections in Democrat bastion that is Milwaukee. And the Dems and RINOs on the Wisconsin Elections Commission have allowed them to get away with it.
‘A Troubling Message’
As The MacIver Institute reported earlier this year, the commission voted 5-1 to dismiss a previous complaint on the central count issue. The two highly partisan Democrat members pushed the full commission to remove the WEC staff’s recommendation “that observers receive some level of visual access to key ballot-processing areas.” It is the law, after all. “The observation areas shall be so positioned to permit any election observer to readily observe all public aspects of the voting process,” the statute states.
“This outcome sends a troubling message,” The MacIver Institute asserts. “The Wisconsin Elections Commission’s own professional staff recommended modest steps to improve election-day observability into ballot processing to include the intake, scanning of envelopes, sorting into wards, and handling of thousands of absentee ballots. Yet, [former Chairwoman] Ann Jacobs personally led the charge to delete that guidance. Observers are not asking to interfere; they are simply asking to see what the law already requires.”
None of it is good news for open government, and it’s worse for flagging voter confidence. The stakes couldn’t be higher in this midterm election. Higher still in 2028, as Wisconsin most likely takes its entrenched position as an all-important swing state.
Republicans will need more poll workers and observers than ever in Milwaukee, Madison and other deep blue Wisconsin cities if they have any hope of ensuring free and fair elections. But will it ultimately matter if elections officials are free to block out the ballot count? Will it matter if high-sounding news outlets that talk a big game about shining light on darkness fail to cover or twist their coverage of election integrity violations?
Transparency dies in darkness.
Once election integrity is lost, so is the country. We may have just crossed that line.
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