Lacking widespread fraud evidence, election deniers seek widespread affirmation

The dogged efforts for widespread fraud believers to continue fighting for their cause, a social psychologist and cognitive dissonance expert said, are in line with people’s tendency to double down on beliefs even when evidence suggests otherwise.

On Thursday, members from the self-proclaimed “election integrity” group True the Vote will speak in a hearing before the Assembly elections committee.

Last Thursday, Jefferson Davis told a packed room of supporters that True the Vote would “drop a bomb” proving the existence of widespread fraud at this week’s hearing. That’s despite no evidence coming before legislative committees — or anywhere else — leading to any finding of widespread fraud that would suggest former President Donald Trump won Wisconsin in 2020.

A taxpayer-funded partisan 2020 election investigation by conservative former Supreme Court Justice Michael Gableman was the latest to fall far short of proving widespread fraud. Gableman claimed 100% turnout in Dane and Milwaukee county nursing homes, insinuating votes were cast fraudulently by others, but a closer look found only one nursing home where all 12 registered voters cast ballots.

Some have focused more on the issue of fairness, pointing to grants from the Mark Zuckerberg-funded Center for Tech and Civic Life for pandemic-related election administration assistance, which went disproportionately to the state’s five largest cities. But multiple courts have ruled the grants were legal and were not denied to any municipalities that requested them.

Deniers also have called for jailing members of the bipartisan Wisconsin Elections Commission for advising local clerks they could fix minor errors on ballot envelopes and use ballot drop boxes, which aren’t addressed in state law. But both Republicans and Democrats on the commission issued those directives, leaving it unclear how or why both parties would be involved in some kind of criminal scheme.

Assembly elections committee chair Rep. Janel Brandtjen, R-Menomonee Falls, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

A recount and court decisions have affirmed that President Joe Biden defeated Trump in Wisconsin by almost 21,000 votes. A review by the nonpartisan Legislative Audit Bureau as well as the conservative Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty found no evidence of widespread fraud and multiple court rulings have also found no evidence of irregularities. 

Only 24 people out of nearly 3.3 million who cast ballots have been charged with election fraud in Wisconsin, The Associated Press reported last week.

The events come after Assembly Speaker Robin Vos, R-Rochester, said last week that the election can’t be decertified, even as he spread baseless claims of widespread voter fraud.

Vos and his spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Many election skeptics’ strategy, according to public statements and messages, appears to be threefold: decertify the 2020 election, which is legally impossible; have the Legislature enact stricter voting laws, a task all but certain to fail under Democratic Gov. Tony Evers; and draw media attention to their cause.

In an online chat, election skeptics are calling for folks to take the day off and rally to the Capitol for the True the Vote hearing on Thursday.

“We want to pack it out and show the liberal media and press that we support election integrity, Justice Gableman, Rep. Brandtjen, Rep. Ramthun and True the Vote,” said a statement Davis signed that was sent to a group on the messaging platform Telegram.

“Standing room only and packing the hallway would be excellent optics,” the statement continued.

In May, alleging that unfair elections have led Wisconsinites to become slaves, a different group is scheduled to head in a “Canadian Trucker Style” convoy to the Capitol “Where the Start of the End of Our Enslavement Will Begin!!!”

The group is calling on Wisconsin to ban voting machines, prohibit outside grants for election administration and decertify the 2020 election, among other requests. It’s also calling for the “Arrest, Prosecution, and Severe Punishment for those who have and would violate these and existing voting laws.”

The group — calling itself Grandma and Grandpa — is calling upon Evers to sign legislation that will meet its demands after members occupy the Capitol grounds May 5, saying it will remain there until he does. The group also wants the Legislature to resume for a special session May 6.

“The longer you wait to have these needed sessions the longer Grandma and Grandpa and their supporters will stay camped in Madison at the Capital,” one demand letter states.

Evers has said he won’t sign legislation that would make it harder to vote, and he almost certainly wouldn’t order a special session focused on passing strict election laws.

Speaking at a WisPolitics luncheon last week, Evers, who is up for reelection in November, said repeated claims of fraud in the 2020 election by top Republicans, including Vos, have only amplified the call for decertification — something that has also been urged by Gableman, who Vos hired last year to conduct a one-party review of the election at a cost to taxpayers of $676,000.

“I think he’s one of the smartest people I’ve ever met and I think this is one of the dumbest things he’s ever said,” Evers said in reference to Vos’ claim of widespread fraud.

Additionally, some of Grandma and Grandpa’s demands, like eliminating voting machines entirely, have not been proposed, and the legislative session already concluded.

In a Rumble video on a page posted March 17 with around 450 views Tuesday morning, the only named group member is Audrey Polhamus of Sparta, though she doesn’t appear in the video. Reached for comment, Polhamus, 83, said she is the matriarch of her family but that it was her son, Samuel, who’s in charge of the group.

Polhamus said she believes Trump won the 2020 election in Wisconsin.

Asked whether the group will stay until election laws are enacted, like the group demand letter suggests, Polhamus said, “I don’t know. For that part you have to ask Sam.”

Reached for comment, Samuel Polhamus, who confirmed he’s the man speaking in the video, said he has a full-time job but that he plans on at least one member of the group staying at the Capitol each night. He said two people outside of the family already said they’ll join him, and that he hopes others will, too.

The Grandma and Grandpa group, referring to itself in third person, has considered itself to be the last line of defense to save the United States.

“It is now up to them and their time is now; for after them there is no foreseeable person, entity, or event that can save our Republic,” a statement from the group’s website reads. “In short, they have discovered the hill to either win or die on.”

Samuel Polhamus said that statement was metaphorical. He added that he wanted Wisconsin’s 2020 election to be decertified, even if it wouldn’t change anything. 

He also said his was a nonpartisan effort, and the goal he seeks is fair elections.

“We want to come up with the rules where we can go to bed at night knowing our vote will not be stolen,” he said.

Cognitive dissonance

Widespread fraud believers continue to boost, spread and trust their baseless claims because they are resolving cognitive dissonance after making the decision to believe in fraud, social psychologist Carol Tavris said.

In a statement, Tavris said political ideology almost always trumps evidence, for both Democrats and Republicans.

“People don’t arrive at most of their beliefs through reasoned reflection or even the best science; they rely on the opinions of their ‘tribe,’ and nowadays the most salient tribes in our country are political camps,” she said.

In that long tradition, she said, there’s “nothing unique about delusionally believing that voter fraud is widespread,” especially as Republicans nationwide peddle that claim. Tavris added that the belief is deadly for democracy.

But the reason people don’t easily change their beliefs, even when presented with contrary evidence, is because they’re resolving cognitive dissonance: “‘I was wrong’ is harder to admit than ‘they are wrong’!” Tavris said.

Tavris uses the “pyramid of choice” to visualize how people react after making mistakes. For example, a person at the top of the pyramid chooses whether to believe in widespread voter fraud — or not. After making the decision, the theory goes, the person will seek more evidence to support it and reject any information that questions it.

The initial decision, Tavris said, can be made for impulsive or trivial reasons.

“But over time,” Tavris said, “throwing more justifications at that decision, it’s harder to change your mind without feeling you were stupid at the outset.”

Still, with no evidence supporting widespread fraud, more Republicans are becoming confident in the accuracy of the 2020 election, with 38% saying they are confident now while 29% said they were confident in August 2021, according to the latest Marquette Law School Poll.