Nearly one in three election officials report being 'abused, harassed, or threatened;' some are ousted from their party

Marge Bostelmann at her home in Wisconsin
(Photo by Taylor Glascock, special to ProPublica)

Republican Margaret Rose Bostelmann of the Wisconsin Elections Commission refused to agree with other GOP members on the outcome of the 2020 presidential election. For that, she has been banished from the party, report Megan O'Matz and Mariam Elba of ProPublica, who cite her as an example of the harassment many local elections officials are facing.

"Fellow Republicans have exiled her and disparaged her, sought to upend her career. . . . Because she refuses to support false claims that Trump won the state in the 2020 presidential election," O'Matz and Elba report.

Green Lake County
(Wikipedia map)

For over 20 years, as Green Lake County's clerk, Bostelmann oversaw its elections "without controversy," ProPublica reports. "But two years into her term in a Republican slot on the Wisconsin Elections Commission, she became a target, denounced and disowned by the Republican Party of Green Lake County, which claimed she had failed to protect election integrity in the state. Now a suit filed in June by a Wisconsin man who promotes conspiracy theories about election fraud seeks her removal from the commission."

The hostility toward Bostelmann is being seen throughout the country, ProPublica notes: "In an April survey of local election officials nationwide, the Brennan Center for Justice, an independent, nonpartisan law and policy organization, found that nearly one in three reported being abused, harassed, or threatened because of their job."

Don Millis, the Republican who chairs the election commission, also "has expressed frustration with the election conspiracy theorists. He said he considered some of the agitators to be 'grifters' who are conning people of goodwill into thinking there is something wrong with the election system," ProPublica reports. He told reporters: "It's not about winning or preventing fraud. It's about getting publicity or attention. It's about grifting, convincing others to donate to their cause. . . . There are many people who believe them, who don't know any better."

Bostelmann is unsure how a system that once flowed smoothly is now steeped in tension, and why lawsuit plaintiff Peter Bernegger, grandson of the founders of Hillshire Farm, the Wisconsin deli meat and sausage company, has targeted her. "But she does know that things in Green Lake began to change in 2020, during Trump's reelection bid," O'Matz and Elba report.