Here & Now

Explaining the 2020 Election Probes

Frederica Freyberg:

Full seem ahead on the Republican election investigations in Wisconsin. This week, state GOP lawmakers approved authorizing former Supreme Court Justice Michael Gableman to spend at least $680,000 of taxpayer money to investigate the 2020 election. This, of course, is met with derision on the part of Democrats, including the governor. This latest push is one of several investigations into the election in this state. Wisconsin Public Radio Capitol Reporter Laurel White joins us from the Capitol to break this down. Laurel, very nice to see you.

Laurel White:

Thanks for having me.

Frederica Freyberg:

So this investigation, employing former Justice Gableman is backed by Speaker Vos. Does it then take the front seat over the other investigations?

Laurel White:

Well, I think it’s really important to note that it does have the support of the speaker, it was called for by the speaker, and that really does elevate it in terms of kind of attention it’s going to get, how people are going to talk about it. Now is it going to be given more weight in the end than other ongoing investigations like say the Legislative Audit Bureau investigation that’s also ongoing? I think we’re going to have to see as these two things kind of play out, side by side and results come out eventually in the timing of that which comes first, what’s following up, just what it all ends up looking like in the end.

Frederica Freyberg:

So other than the audit bureau and this Gableman investigation, there are others as well, is that right?

Laurel White:

So there are some pending investigations. There’s an effort that state Representative Janel Brandtjen is trying to spearhead. She sent some subpoenas to Milwaukee and Brown Counties, trying to get some election information from those counties to kind of do her own investigation. She’s the chair of the state Assembly Elections Committee. So we have that. We also have an inquiry led by some private citizens. So as you said, several kind of ongoing or pending efforts happening all at the same time.

Frederica Freyberg:

So for his part, what is Robin Vos trying to show former President Trump and his supporters?

Laurel White:

Well, he’s trying to show the president that he’s taking claims of election fraud or wrongdoing seriously. You know, the speaker has really over the past several months taken strong criticism from the former president, from many other people from his party that say he hasn’t done enough to really look into the 2020 election in Wisconsin, and that’s despite required state audits that have taken place, the partial presidential recount that we had in Dane and Milwaukee Counties. Obviously, those several Republican-backed lawsuits that failed to turn up any widespread voter fraud in Wisconsin. So despite all of that, there really is a continued push, especially from the former president, that, you know, we haven’t looked into it enough. Wisconsin hasn’t looked into voter fraud or wrongdoing enough, and Speaker Vos is saying, “I’m going to do that.”

Frederica Freyberg:

Meanwhile, we know former Justice Gableman traveled to Arizona to check in on its Republican investigation and to an event with the My Pillow CEO. What have you learned about where Gableman wants to take the Wisconsin investigation?

Laurel White:

So I haven’t spoken with former Justice Gableman at all about his particular intentions for his investigation. But we did get some new information this week that is pretty interesting. It’s the budget for the investigation, which obviously tells us a lot, and what we found out there is that a very sizable portion of the budget, the entire budget is about — just shy of $700,000, is going to be spent on data analysis, so we know that there’s going to be a firm that’s hired to look at data. We don’t know exactly what that means, but I think it’s kind of safe to say that means, you know, ballots, voting machines, data from voting machines.

Frederica Freyberg:

So with all of the discussion around subpoenas, which you mentioned earlier, being issued to election officials for access to ballots and voting machines, they have to be signed off on by Vos, but what is the status on these subpoenas right now?

Laurel White:

So it’s a very, very good point that you mention that Speaker Vos has to sign these subpoenas that were issued by Representative Brandtjen for them to be valid. That’s according to two different memos from the Legislature’s legal office. The speaker has not signed the subpoenas, so we’re kind of going to see how this plays out in terms of, you know, Milwaukee County and Brown County, whether they reject or accept the calls to release this information. We do expect Milwaukee County to reject the subpoena request and to not release that information.

Frederica Freyberg:

Meanwhile, what are Democrats saying about all of these efforts?

Laurel White:

Well, you know, they really reiterate that we’ve had a lot of investigations into Wisconsin elections so far. They mentioned those things that I mentioned before, the state audits that have already taken place, the partial presidential recount, all of the lawsuits that we saw after the election, none of which have turned up widespread voter fraud. They say that, you know, continuing to investigate, continuing to launch new investigations sends a message that there’s something to find. And in their opinion, there just isn’t anything to find.

Frederica Freyberg:

All right. We leave it there. Thanks for your coverage of it. Laurel White, nice to see you.

Laurel White:

Thank you.