Add Wisconsin to the list of GOP-led states that are using taxpayer dollars to probe the results of the settled 2020 presidential election.
Robin Vos, the top Republican in the Wisconsin State Assembly, plans to hire three retired detectives and an attorney to investigate claims of impropriety during the 2020 presidential election. They’ll have subpoena power, although Vos says he doesn’t expect any criminal charges to stem from the investigation. He adds that he’s accepted Joe Biden’s win – the president captured the Badger State by 20,000 votes – but he insists that questions remain that undermine faith in the electoral system.
“Is there a whole lot of smoke or is there actual fire? We just don’t know yet,” Vos said.
Vos’ uncertainty notwithstanding, Wisconsin courts have already examined claims of voter fraud and have found them lacking. One lawsuit filed by the Trump campaign was called “unreasonable in the extreme” by a conservative Wisconsin judge.
But Vos wants his team to probe suspicions of double voting, improper use of grant money, and whether clerks inappropriately fixed problems with absentee ballots.
Ann Jacobs, a Democrat who leads the Wisconsin Elections Commission told The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, “I think it’s unfortunate that the Legislature is using its resources to investigate what has already been thoroughly investigated and it is my hope that instead they could work toward expanding opportunities and ease of voting for Wisconsin voters.”
The Wisconsin State Journal provides important context on claims of voter fraud in Milwaukee:
In January, the Wisconsin State Journal reviewed thousands of such complaints through the Wisconsin open records law, and found the majority of them were mass-generated form letters making nonspecific claims. The State Journal was able to identify just 28 allegations of election fraud or other irregularities that were specific enough to attempt to verify, but could only partially substantiate one, involving 42 votes. Interviews with dozens of prosecutors, election officials and people who lodged complaints made clear that most, if not all, of the allegations could be chalked up to hearsay or minor administrative errors.
Jeffrey Mandel, a voting rights attorney added, “Separate and apart from the fact that this is a fishing expedition in a dry lake, to look for fraud in 2020, I also just think that trying to perpetuate the big lie and continuing to give oxygen to this is just bad for democracy.”
Audits and probes similar to the work Vos has commissioned in Wisconsin have been used to justify new laws that make it more difficult to vote. According to the the Brennan Center for Justice, at least 14 states enacted 22 new laws that restrict access to the vote between January 1 and May 14, 2021.
“Americans’ access to the vote is in unprecedented peril,” the Brennan Center for Justice claims.