Republican-Led Election Reviews Take Shape In Pennsylvania And Wisconsin

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An election worker shows ballots to representatives of then-President Donald Trump during a recount on Nov. 20, 2020, in Madison, Wis. Republican lawmakers in Wisconsin and Pennsylvania have begun new investigations into the 2020 election.





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Republican state Sen. Cris Dush’s committee last week issued a wide-ranging subpoena for the personal information of millions of Pennsylvania voters.





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The investigation spurred by Wisconsin Assembly Speaker Robin Vos, left, seen here in 2019, is the most high profile of the state’s three election inquiries.





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The review got off to a rocky start. Gableman sent an email to local election officials earlier this month, requesting that they retain 2020 election records, but the message was sent via a Gmail account associated with another person’s name and was flagged as a security concern or junk mail by a number of clerks.

This week Gableman said that if necessary he will issue subpoenas to election officials who refuse to release information.

Another election inquiry led by a GOP lawmaker has hit roadblocks as well. That effort is led by Rep. Janel Brandtjen, who chairs the state Assembly elections committee and who also visited the Arizona election review. She calls her inquiry a «forensic audit, however she hasn’t been able to obtain information from election officials after Vos refused to sign subpoenas she recently sent to clerks in two major counties.

Just before rejecting Brandtjen’s subpoena, Milwaukee County Clerk George Christenson criticized the document as «clearly a cut and paste job from similar election-related legal moves from Republicans in other states. The subpoena requested items that don’t exist or aren’t part of required election processes in Wisconsin.

«It’s clear to me that the Republicans are not interested in improving our election processes, but rather desperate to find some type of smoking gun that doesn’t exist, Christenson said. «I would encourage them to educate themselves on how elections work in their own state, rather than flying to Arizona or getting their intelligence from a guy who makes pillows.

The final election review in Wisconsin is being conducted by the state’s nonpartisan Legislative Audit Bureau, and was ordered by the Republican-controlled legislature.

While Wisconsin Democrats have pushed back on all of the investigations, arguing they perpetuate misinformation about the election, they have said they have faith in the integrity of the audit bureau’s work, which is set to be done this fall.

All of the efforts come after Wisconsin completed a series of routine state election audits and a presidential recount in Wisconsin’s two largest counties. None of those reviews has uncovered widespread fraud or wrongdoing. There have also been numerous Republican-backed lawsuits in the state, all of which have failed to result in findings of wrongdoing by election officials or voters.

Laurel White is a reporter for Wisconsin Public Radio. Sam Dunklau is a reporter for WITF in Harrisburg, Pa.