The only explanation for the mandate is that it was implemented to deter right-leaning poll workers from overseeing election procedures.
The city of Madison is requiring that election inspectors and poll workers “Provide proof of being fully vaccinated against COVID-19, proof of a negative COVID-19 PCR test, or obtain a medical or religious exemption in advance of working the polls.”
Mark Jefferson, the executive director of the Wisconsin Republican Party, told The Federalist that Madison originally had a blanket Covid mandate with no exceptions at the start of this year. However, after the Republican Party began pursuing legal recourse, the city backtracked and said it would grant exemptions for applicants with negative Covid tests and religious or medical exemptions.
Unfortunately, we can’t know how many unvaccinated citizens were deterred from poll working and election inspecting because they are unvaccinated or reluctant to go through the trouble of taking a Covid test. We also don’t know whether the city was actually granting exemptions or not. What we do know is that the mandate has nothing to do with health or safety. According to President Joe Biden, “the pandemic is over.” Hardly anywhere are masks, social distancing, or vaccine passports required anymore. More importantly, the Covid vaccine does little to nothing to prevent one from contracting or transmitting Covid.
The Federalist reached out to the city of Madison’s clerk’s office to ask why Madison is requiring poll workers to provide proof of vaccination. A city worker informed us that since Madison has a vaccine mandate for city employees, the mandate extends to election inspectors and poll watchers because they are temporary city employees.
However, places like Chicago also require that all city employees “must, as a condition of employment, be fully vaccinated against COVID-19.” This mandate “applies to all City employees, personnel of contractors, and vendors who have regular direct contact with, or regularly work close to, City employees and volunteers.” Yet the city of Chicago is not forcing its poll watchers or election coordinators to be vaccinated for Covid.
The Federalist asked the Madison Clerk’s Office if their poll watchers and election inspectors are required to take any other vaccines, like the flu or measles shots, given those vaccines actually work, but the clerk’s office said the Covid vaccine was their only requirement.
Since the season of Covid hysteria is, in our Democrat president’s own words, “over,” the Covid vaccine efficacy tanked, and other blue cities with employee vaccine mandates aren’t imposing the jab on their poll workers, why is Madison? Perhaps it has to do with the fact that politically right-leaning individuals are far less likely to get vaccinated for Covid than left-leaning ones, and that Wisconsin — a key battleground state — has become a hotbed for election malpractice.
Federalist Editor-in-Chief Mollie Hemingway explains in her bestselling book “Rigged: How the Media, Big Tech, and the Democrats Seized Our Elections” how the leftist Elias Law Group meddled in Wisconsin (and other state’s) elections by “chang[ing] hundreds of election laws and processes in the months leading up to the 2020 election in order to flood elections with tens of millions of mail-in ballots.” (Mail-in voting is proven to be more susceptible to voter fraud and errors compared to in-person voting, and it is known to favor Democrats over Republicans).
The unprecedented changes to election procedures and rules were then used by left-wing groups funded by Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg to “run Democrat Get-Out-The-Vote operations from inside government election offices,” writes Hemingway. Since the 2020 election, a number of lawsuits have hit Wisconsin courts, striking down Democrat attempts to break down election integrity in the state. In March, a state-appointed special counsel concluded that the nearly $9 million in Zuckerberg grant funds directed to five Democratic strongholds in Wisconsin violated the state’s election code’s prohibition on bribery.
In July, The Wisconsin Supreme Court ruled that unmanned absentee ballot drop boxes are illegal under Wisconsin election law. Last month, the Dane County Circuit Court rejected the Elias Law Group’s attempt to get invalid absentee ballots counted in the upcoming elections. Shortly before that, the Waukesha County Circuit Court judge ruled that Wisconsin absentee voters can no longer change their vote after their ballot has already been cast.
The applications have closed for Madison poll workers and election inspectors, so, unfortunately, Madison got away with its discriminatory vaccine policy this election cycle. Again, we can’t know exactly how this mandate will impact the election results in Madison. We do know that the city’s Covid vaccine requirement has nothing to do with health and safety, though. The only logical explanation for the mandate is that it was implemented to deter right-leaning individuals from overseeing election procedures.
Reporting by The Federalist.
