MADISON, Wis. — Republicans in the Wisconsin Assembly approved a resolution Tuesday directing a state committee to investigate elections administration in the state; Democrats opposed the resolution. The vote comes after a state committee ordered an audit earlier this year of November’s election, a process that Assembly Speaker Robin Vos said would continue behind the scenes while the Assembly’s investigation would happen publicly.
The investigation would give lawmakers subpoena power over records and individuals if necessary, elections committee vice-chair Republican Rep. Joe Sanfelippo said. He added that he hoped that would not be necessary.
“I would expect that we really don’t have to come to that,” Rep. Sanfelippo told reporters Tuesday. “I can’t understand why any elected official in the state would not want to talk openly and publicly about the administration of elections in their areas.”
The vote comes after every state and federal court has found no legal basis for claims of widespread fraud in Wisconsin’s presidential election in November, after the state elected President Joe Biden on a margin of fewer than 21,000 votes. Republicans have raised new concerns about elections administration in Green Bay, which the city’s mayor has defended as being within the state’s election laws.
The resolution accuses the state’s election officials of jeopardizing the election through “failing to adhere” to and encouraging noncompliance with election laws, but only directs the committee to focus on elections after January 1, 2019.
“This is important because over the past year, year and a half, we’ve heard allegations of improprieties not being done, specifically state laws on the books not being followed,” Rep. Sanfelippo said.
The Assembly has already held two public hearings over November’s election results, but did not invite election officials to testify. Rep. Mark Spreitzer said lawmakers shouldn’t be jumping to subpoenas before hearing from election administrators.
“The underlying resolution makes some very serious claims,” Rep. Spreitzer said during debate over resolution. “I take great objection to the characterization of our election officials. That would be our clerks, our poll workers…our national guard.”
Republicans have maintained that their efforts are designed to improve the public’s confidence in the state’s elections, while Democrats argue the efforts do just the opposite.
“Republicans seem to be making a concerted effort with both that resolution and the vaccine bills to undermine the public’s confidence and trust in those very things; democracy and vaccine and public health at the time when we can least afford them,” Assembly minority leader Gordon Hintz said Tuesday in a call with reporters.
A legislative audit is already ongoing by the nonpartisan Legislative Audit Bureau, authorized by a different state committee earlier this year to determine whether state and local election officials had adhered to existing election laws.
“The auditors go out and look for the information, they don’t necessarily have the public hearings or receive the public input. They’re going to do the behind the scenes work which is very valuable,” Vos said. “We’d like to have one that is a more public process where people can actually come in and we can do a better job investigating than just having a simple hearing.”
Key issues Republicans have disputed in the November election was the increase in indefinitely confined voters, a class of absentee voter that is not required by law to have a photo ID on file (about 80% of them have one on file or showed an ID anyway, the Wisconsin Elections Commission reported). 2020 saw a more than-triple increase of voters classified as confined, due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Other issues include election clerks filling in partial information for missing addresses for witnesses on absentee ballot envelopes, a practice in place since 2016 but only questioned in the November election. Additionally, lawmakers have accused Madison of illegally holding Democracy in the Park events where voters brought completed ballots to poll workers in Madison parks, an event that the city has defended as legal.
Vos said Tuesday that both the audit and the investigation will inform new election legislation. Republicans have already introduced a number of bills that would limit absentee ballot dropboxes, indefinitely confined voting, and other parts of the state’s law.
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