Wisconsin GOP leader Vos to meet with election fraud backers

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By SCOTT BAUER
Associated Press

MADISON, Wis. (AP) — Wisconsin Assembly Speaker Robin Vos said Tuesday he is meeting with advocates for decertifying President Joe Biden’s win in the battleground state, hours before he and the state Senate’s top Republican were to discuss the topic with county GOP leaders.

Vos told The Associated Press he was also inviting those who believe the 2020 election cannot be decertified to discuss it along with advocates for decertification on Wednesday.

“I still believe that we do not have the ability to decertify, but I said I would listen to those who are bringing experts to say we can and we will see if they can prove their case,” Vos said in an interview. “I’ve asked people who think we can and think we can’t to all sit in a room and discuss it and that’s what we’re doing tomorrow.”

Vos has been under pressure from former President Donald Trump and other Republicans who support his false claims that the election was stolen and say Vos is not doing enough, including decertifying Biden’s win.

The meetings come after the investigator hired by Vos, former Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice Michael Gableman, earlier this month urged lawmakers to consider decertifying Biden’s win.

Trump himself said last week that he was “confident that Robin will exercise his moral duty” and follow up on Gableman’s finding, including dissolving the bipartisan Wisconsin Elections Commission. Vos has said he does not support that. Trump also said “I would imagine that there can only be a Decertification of Electors.”

Vos and other Republican leaders have repeatedly said that would not be done, citing opinions from the Legislature’s nonpartisan attorneys who have said such a move is illegal. Rick Esenberg, the head of the conservative Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty, has also said that decertification is illegal.

One of those who will at the meeting with Vos on Wednesday is former Menomonee Falls village president Jefferson Davis. He has organized a pair of rallies at the Capitol attended by Tim Ramthun, a Republican candidate for governor and state representative who has introduced resolutions to decertify the vote.

Davis said he and others will be presenting evidence to Vos that shows there were between 250,000 and 300,000 fake ballots cast in the election and that decertification can legally be done.

“Donald Trump won the state of Wisconsin in such a landslide it’s not even funny,” Davis said. “And we will have the evidence.”

Davis said the goal is to convince Vos and other Republicans that Biden’s win should be pulled back or the election should be held again.

“What has to change tomorrow is Robin Vos’s heart and head and soul,” Davis said.

Biden’s win by just under 21,000 votes over Trump has withstood lawsuits, recounts and reviews both by the nonpartisan Legislative Audit Bureau and the conservative Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty.

Gableman’s report, which was panned by both Democrats and Republicans, did not provide any evidence to back up Davis’s claims of more than 250,000 illegally cast ballots. To date, only 24 people out of nearly 3.3 million who cast ballots have been charged with election fraud in Wisconsin. Trump’s own attorney general has said there was no widespread fraud.

Still, some Republicans have refused to back down and Vos has authorized Gableman’s investigation to continue.

On Wednesday night in Plover, Vos planned to join together with state Republican Party Chairman Paul Farrow, Senate Republican Majority Leader Devin LeMahieu to meet with county Republican Party leaders.

Farrow, who called the meeting, said about two-thirds of county chairs will be there. He said he expected about half of the discussion to focus on election integrity issues.

Farrow said he is focused on the fall election — where Democratic Gov. Tony Evers and Republican U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson are on the ballot — not relitigating 2020, and he hopes that following the meeting local leaders will feel the same.

A Marquette University Law School poll of Wisconsin residents released earlier this month found that 67% of respondents said they were very or somewhat confident the election results were accurate. But 61% of Republicans were not confident.

Davis said GOP leaders need to listen more to the concerns of grassroots Republicans who believe the election was stolen.

“This is the No. 1 issue in Wisconsin and it’s not going away,” Davis said.