MADISON, Wis. (AP) – The Republican candidate in Wisconsin’s closely watched battle for the U.S. Senate emphasized this week that he is not opposed to older people voting, after initially saying that “almost no one in a nursing home” is at a point in the life where they are able to vote.
Erik Hovde facing Democratic Sen. Tammy Baldwin in the race that is essential for Democrats to win to maintain their majority in the Senate. A Marquette University Law School poll this week found the race about even among likely voters.
Baldwin and Democrats have attacked Hovde over comments he first made on an April 5 Fox News radio program about nursing home voting. Who can vote in a nursing home and how they cast their ballots has been a hot issue in Wisconsin since 2020, when supporters of former President Donald Trump claimed that people were voting illegally.
No charges have been filed and President Joe Biden’s victory over Trump has withstood a nonpartisan audit, numerous lawsuits, a partial recount and an investigation by a conservative law firm.
But Hovde raised the issue of nursing home voting when discussing what he said were problems with the 2020 election.
“We had nursing homes where the Racine sheriff was investigating, where you had 100 percent voting rights in nursing homes,” Hovde said.
That claim of 100% nursing home voting, first made by former Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice Michael Gableman in a discredited report, has never been verified. Voting data showed that nursing home participation was far lower than 100% across the state.
“If you stay in a nursing home, you only have a life expectancy of five, six months,” Hovde said last week on the “Guy Benson Show.” “Almost no one in a nursing home is eligible to vote.”
Baldwin said last week in response to Hovde’s comments that “thousands of Wisconsinites live in nursing homes.”
“Eric Hovde has no idea what he’s talking about,” she said on MSNBC.
In two subsequent interviews this week, when asked to clarify his comments in the wake of the Democratic criticism, Hovde accused his opponents and the media of “political hits.”
“They tried to say I didn’t want older people to vote,” Hovde told WISN-AM on Monday. “I don’t even know how they came up with that.”
Hovde reiterated that his issue was based on reports from people wondering how their seriously ill relatives in nursing homes had voted.
Racine County Sheriff Christopher Shmaling, a Trump supporter, said in 2021 that the families of eight residents told investigators they thought their loved ones couldn’t vote, but the vote was cast for them.
Hovde said this week that “a large percentage” of nursing home residents “are not in the mental capacity to (vote).”
But he said that doesn’t mean he thinks older people shouldn’t vote.
“I think older people should absolutely vote,” he said on WSAU-AM on Wednesday.
Voting in nursing homes became a focus for Trump supporters after his narrow loss in Wisconsin in 2020.
State law requires local election clerks to send so-called special voting representatives to nursing homes to give residents a chance to vote.
The Wisconsin Elections Commission, in a bipartisan 5-1 vote in March 2020, determined that poll workers could not be sent to nursing homes to assist with voting due to a safer-at-home order issued by Gov. Tony Evers early in the COVID-19 crisis. -19 pandemic. The order came at a time when nursing homes were severely restricting access to their facilities, often not allowing even immediate family members inside.
An audit by the nonpartisan Legislative Audit Bureau found that the election commission broke the law when it ordered clerks not to send or attempt to send deputies to nursing homes.
Schmaling, the sheriff and a Trump supporter, called for criminal charges against the commissioners who voted not to send voting delegates. But the Racine County district attorney declined to file charges, citing a lack of jurisdiction. The Milwaukee County district attorney also declined to charge two commissioners in his county, citing a lack of evidence that a crime had been committed.
Republicans in the House have tried to tighten rules on voting in nursing homes, but the measures either failed or were vetoed by Evers.
