The Threat of Misinformation to Democratic Institutions

Bipartisan Leaders Combat Election Misinformation in Wisconsin as Poll Reveals Growing Distrust

In a striking display of cross-party cooperation, former Democratic state Rep. Jason Fields and Republican activist Tim Higgins recently joined forces to address a troubling trend in Wisconsin: widespread skepticism about election integrity.

A recent Marquette University Law School poll revealed that one in four Wisconsin residents lack confidence their votes will be accurately counted. Even more concerning, 44% of respondents believe local election officials deliberately falsify vote counts at least occasionally.

“Let that sink in for a minute,” the bipartisan duo wrote in their Milwaukee Journal Sentinel column. “If the poll is correct, nearly half of our state is accusing election officials of fraud or incompetence or both. That statistic is striking and one that deserves all of our attention.”

Fields, now chief strategy officer for the Center for Black Excellence, and Higgins emphasized how Wisconsin’s highly decentralized voting system creates natural safeguards against widespread fraud – a point reinforced by election experts.

Madison City Attorney Mike Haas, who previously headed the Wisconsin Elections Commission, has been vocal about this reality. “It’s your neighbors who are conducting elections, not a bunch of shady characters invented by the fraud crackpots,” Haas stated in a post-2020 election speech to the State Bar.

Wisconsin’s electoral system relies on 72 county clerks and 1,850 municipal clerks. Many local clerks work part-time in smaller communities, while larger cities employ full-time professionals. This decentralization creates what Haas describes as a significant barrier to organized fraud, as any conspiracy would require the participation of numerous sworn officials across different jurisdictions.

“I know what voter fraud does and doesn’t look like in Wisconsin, because part of my job for 12 years was to search for it,” Haas noted. “Elections are more secure and accurate than ever before.”

The system isn’t perfect. In November 2024, Madison’s city clerk failed to count 193 absentee ballots in an election with over 160,000 voters. However, officials emphasize this represents a procedural error rather than evidence of fraud.

Fields and Higgins participated in last year’s Pillars of the Community project, which brought together diverse civic and community leaders from both parties to learn about election administration directly from officials. “The officials walked us through the process step by step, and we had the opportunity to ask all the tough questions we could think of,” they explained.

What they discovered was reassuring: a system with multiple safeguards against both deliberate fraud and human error, including paper ballot backups and post-election audits. Their recommendation to skeptical citizens is straightforward – visit local clerks’ offices to see the process firsthand.

The election integrity concerns in Wisconsin mirror a broader national trend of declining trust in institutions, fueled by what experts describe as an unprecedented ecosystem of misinformation. Social media, automated AI bots, unverified digital commentators, and even high-profile political figures contribute to the spread of false narratives.

This pattern extends beyond elections. Dr. Kiran Joshi, chief operating officer of Cook County’s Department of Public Health in Illinois, recently highlighted how health misinformation has led to declining vaccination rates and subsequent disease outbreaks. Utah recently reported 600 measles cases, a disease previously considered virtually eliminated in the United States. Most affected children had unvaccinated parents who had been influenced by anti-vaccination messaging.

The Brookings Institution has warned that this growing distrust represents a fundamental threat to American democracy. As Fields and Higgins demonstrate, addressing misinformation may require unlikely alliances and direct engagement with citizens to rebuild trust in core institutions.

Their collaborative effort highlights a potential path forward: bringing together diverse perspectives to examine systems firsthand and share factual information across partisan divides, potentially countering what has become, as one expert called it, “a sad commentary in what should be an enlightened time in our country.”