Republicans sue to stop Wisconsin vote certification
MADISON, Wis. (AP) — Republicans filed a lawsuit Tuesday asking the Wisconsin Supreme Court to block certification of the presidential election results even as a recount over President-elect Joe Biden’s win over President Donald Trump is ongoing.
The lawsuit echoes many of
the same arguments Trump is making in trying, unsuccessfully, to have
tens of thousands of ballots discounted during the recount. It also
seeks to give the power to name presidential electors to the
Republican-controlled Legislature.
Wisconsin state law allows the
political parties to pick electors, which was done in October. Once the
election results are certified, which is scheduled to be done Dec. 1,
those pre-determined electors will cast their ballots for the winner on
Dec. 14.
“The litigation filed this afternoon seeks to
disenfranchise every Wisconsinite who voted in this year’s presidential
election,” said Democratic Attorney General Josh Kaul. “The Wisconsin
Department of Justice will ensure that Wisconsin’s presidential electors
are selected based on the will of the more than 3 million Wisconsin
voters who cast a ballot.”
The lawsuit also rehashes a claim that a
federal court rejected in September that Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg
tried to “illegally circumvent Wisconsin absentee voting laws” through
grants awarded by a nonprofit center he funds.
At least 10 cases
have been filed across the country seeking to halt certification in
parts or all of key battleground states, including lawsuits brought by
the Trump campaign in Michigan and Pennsylvania. So far none have been successful.
Wisconsin’s election results are scheduled to be certified Dec. 1.
The Wisconsin lawsuit was filed by attorney Erick Kaardal, a former Minnesota Republican Party official who also represented rapper Kanye West in his unsuccessful lawsuit
attempting to get on the ballot in Wisconsin. Kaardal represents a
conservative group called the Wisconsin Voters Alliance and a host of
Republican voters.
Kaardal also filed an unsuccessful federal lawsuit
in Wisconsin that attempted to block $6.3 million from being awarded to
five heavily Democratic cities from the nonprofit Center for Technology
and Civic Life, which is primarily funded by Zuckerberg and his wife. A
judge tossed the lawsuit that argued the money amounted to bribery to
bolster Democratic turnout in Green Bay, Kenosha, Madison, Milwaukee and
Racine.
Many of the same arguments alleging the money was
illegally awarded and therefore the election results should be nullified
are being made in the new lawsuit in state court.
Other claims mirror those by Trump’s campaign.
Those claims allege absentee ballots should not have been counted where
election officials filled in missing information on the certification
envelope that contains the ballot and that voters who identified as
“indefinitely confined” were lying to avoid the state’s photo ID law.
The
Wisconsin Elections Commission advises clerks that they can fill in
missing information on the ballot envelopes, such as the address of a
witness. That’s been the practice for years, and it’s never been
challenged.
The Wisconsin Supreme Court this spring affirmed the
state elections commission’s guidance that it’s up to each voter to
decide whether they are indefinitely confined. More than 215,000 voters
this year said they were confined, which allows them to cast a ballot
without having to present a photo ID. The lawsuit says more than 96,000
self-identified confined voters should not count.
Biden won Wisconsin by 20,608 votes, but the lawsuit claims that more than 156,000 ballots should be tossed out.
The
lawsuit alleges that more than 14,000 ballots “requested in the name of
a registered Republican by someone other than that person” were cast
and that more than 12,000 “Republican ballots” were returned but not
counted. People do not register to vote by political party in Wisconsin
so it is impossible to know how many Republicans or Democrats requested
absentee ballots.
The lawsuit comes as the recount in Milwaukee
and Dane counties has resulted in very few vote changes. As of Tuesday
morning, Trump had gained just 57 votes. Trump paid for a recount in
only the two counties with the largest numbers of Democratic votes.
Nearly
400 absentee ballots cast in Milwaukee that were not opened on Election
Day were discovered Tuesday, a mistake that the city’s top elections
official attributed to human error. The county board of canvassers voted
unanimously to count the ballots as part of the recount, which must be
done by Dec. 1.