GOP review of election underway
After slow start, here are the issues state Republicans are focusing on
MADISON – After a fitful start, the partisan review of Wisconsin’s presidential election is starting to get off the ground.
Its precise scope and timing remain unclear. Assembly Speaker Robin Vos of Rochester this summer hired former state Supreme Court Justice Michael Gableman to examine the 2020 election. Gableman, who last year baselessly claimed the election was stolen, was to complete his work by the end of October but recently said he needs more time.
Joe Biden beat Donald Trump in Wisconsin by more than 20,000 votes, or 0.6 points. Vos and Gableman have said they won’t try to overturn the results, acknowledging they have been upheld by recounts and court rulings.
Instead, they have said they want to identify ways to improve election processes so they can propose new legislation. Any plans they develop could be stopped by Democratic Gov. Tony Evers, who in recent months vetoed a string of Republican election bills that he argued would have made it harder to vote.
Vos gave Gableman a $676,000 taxpayerfunded budget to cover costs through December. Gableman and Vos would need to reach a new contract — and possibly a larger budget — if Gableman’s work continues into next year.
Gableman has not spelled out his precise plans but has said he’s looking at three main issues. Here’s a look at what’s known about his review and how it got started.
Grants to cities
Gableman has put the bulk of his energy into reviewing $8.8 million in grants the state’s five largest cities received from the Center for Tech and Civic Life to help run their elections during the coronavirus pandemic. Republicans have expressed frustration with the grants because they helped turnout in cities with large Democratic populations.
The center — which was funded by Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg and his wife Priscilla Chan — gave smaller donations to about 200 other Wisconsin communities, including many that are home to large numbers of Republicans. Gableman has given no indication he plans to look into those grants.
Courts have concluded there are no laws barring cities from accepting the grants.
Gableman this month subpoenaed mayors and election officials for every document related to the 2020 vote that they have. He quickly backed off and said for now they could give him records they have already made public under the state’s open records law about the grants.
They recently turned over tens of thousands of documents to him. Gableman had access to many of those records months ago because they were provided in the spring to the Assembly Elections Committee. Gableman hasn’t said whether he has already reviewed some records or why he wanted copies of documents that were already available.
Elections Commission guidance
Gableman’s review will also consider guidance the state Elections Commission gave to the more than 1,800 municipal clerks who run Wisconsin’s elections.
The commission was created in 2016 by Republican lawmakers because they believed its predecessor, the Government Accountability Board, was biased against Republicans. The commission consists of three Republicans and three Democrats.
Like election officials around the country, the commissioners faced challenges they had never seen before because of the pandemic. Mail voting surged. Clerks needed masks and cleaning supplies. Finding poll workers — already a difficult task — became much tougher.
It gave clerks advice on how to navigate those issues and others — including by telling them not to send voting assistants to nursing homes that were closed to visitors.
One of the commission’s most scrutinized pieces of advice predates the pandemic.
In 2016, Republicans on the commission advanced a policy that allowed clerks to fill in missing addresses for witnesses on absentee ballot envelopes. Often only a part of an address is missing, such as the city name or ZIP code, and clerks have no trouble making corrections.
Trump narrowly won the state that year and his allies did not question the policy.
After Trump’s 2020 loss, Republicans argued the policy is not in keeping with state law. The state Supreme Court in December ruled such claims need to be brought before an election, not after ballots have already been cast.
Gableman’s review could also examine when voters are allowed to be considered indefinitely confined because of age or disability. Most voters must place a copy of their ID on file with clerks to receive absentee ballots, but confined voters don’t have to do that.
Some clerks suggested last year that voters could identify themselves as confined because they feared the pandemic. The commission disagreed with that conclusion but said it was up to voters themselves to determine whether they should be designated indefinitely confined. Ahead of the election, the state Supreme Court agreed with the commission on how the matter should be handled.
Voting machines
Gableman, who this month said he does not understand how elections work, has said he wants to check whether voting machines performed properly. Routine, random audits of voting machines after the election found no major flaws.
Gableman has not said how he would conduct a review of machines. Members of his team recently got a tutorial on how the machines work from Fond du Lac County Clerk Lisa Freiberg, a Republican who has defended how elections have been run.
In August, Republican Rep. Janel Brandtjen of Menomonee Falls, the chairwoman of the Assembly Elections Committee, attempted to seize voting machines from Milwaukee and Brown counties. The counties refused to give Brandtjen anything because the subpoenas she issued for them were invalid.
Gableman has not said whether he will try to seize voting machines.
Timeline
The Republican review got a slow start and it’s unclear how long it will take.
May. Vos announces he is hiring former law enforcement officers to conduct a review of the election.
June. Two former law enforcement officers quit after working for Vos for a few weeks. At the Republican state convention, Vos announces he has tapped Gableman to oversee the review.
August. Gableman visits Arizona to observe a partisan review of ballots in that state and attends a forum in South Dakota hosted by conspiracy theorist Mike Lindell, the chief executive of MyPillow.
Aug. 21. Vos discusses his plans with Trump as the two fly on Trump’s private plane for a Trump rally in Alabama. Soon after, he said he was widening the review of the election and discloses details of Gableman’s $676,000 budget.
September. Gableman consults with election conspiracy theorists, including one, former Trump administration attorney Andrew Kloster, whom he goes on to hire.
Sept. 9. Gableman says he has started interviews but doesn’t say with whom. He begins sending letters to election officials telling them to preserve records related to the election. The letters cause confusion because they come from a Gmail account listed as belonging to someone named John Delta
Oct. 1. Gableman subpoenas election officials for all their records related to the 2020 election — documents that would comprise hundreds of thousands if not millions of pages.
Oct. 5. In a surprise appearance before the Green Bay City Council, Gableman says he won’t be done with his review by the end of October. He does not give a new deadline for completing it.
Oct. 6. Gableman subpoenas mayors of Wisconsin’s five largest cities for all election records.
Oct. 7. Gableman backs off on his subpoenas, canceling interviews and asking for far fewer documents.
Oct. 8. Gableman says he will eventually require officials to testify but doesn’t say when.
Oct. 10. Facing criticism from the left and right, Gableman pivots to attacking Evers for his criticisms of the review.
Oct. 11. Democratic Attorney General Josh Kaul says Gableman’s subpoenas are improper, in part because they seek to take testimony from officials behind closed doors instead of publicly before the Assembly Elections Committee. Also that day, Brandtjen says she has been left out of the loop by Gableman and doesn’t agree with his decision to subpoena mayors.
Oct. 14. Gableman cancels the last of his interviews, at least for the time being.
Oct. 15. Election officials turn over tens of thousands of documents to Gableman.