Republican state representative Jeremy Thiesfeldt says Tuesday’s spring election was necessary to make sure that local elected offices are filled even if it means that people’s health is at risk by going to the polls. The Fond du Lac lawmaker stepped up to help as a volunteer pollworker in Tuesday’s spring election. The National Guard was also on hand to help man polling sites. “It’s a shame that it’s come down to this but we’re all kind of a victim of the circumstances,” Thiesfeldt told WFDL news. Wisconsin asked hundreds of thousands of voters Tuesday to ignore a safer at home order in the midst of a pandemic to participate in the election. Thiesfeldt says he doesn’t know if in person voting will end up spreading the coronavirus around the state. “I don’t know what’s going to happen. But if we waited two months, it could be worse and you would still have that same concern.” Thiesfeldt says he disagreed with the governor’s last-minute order to postpone the election. “What we’re going to end up with here if we didn’t have this election is we are going to have entire town boards that don’t have any leadership, county boards with maybe up to half the county board isn’t in office anymore, cities that don’t have mayors, school boards that have half their members, the Fond du Lac city council would only have three members,” Thiesfeldt said. Fact check: The governor’s order would allow current elected officials to continue to serve until the next election. Thiesfeldt says he might have a different opinion if the governor had asked to postpone the election when he first announced his safer at home order last month.
