Election denialism took hold in Wisconsin even before President Biden’s narrow victory was confirmed. Trump allies immediately began to discredit the process and challenge the results, despite lacking any evidence to support their allegations, and are poised to repeat unfounded claims of fraud in 2024.
- On November 8, the day after the election was called for Biden, Wisconsin attorney Kenneth Chesebro emailed James Troupis, a Wisconsin lawyer involved in the Trump campaign, to say that he “would be happy to volunteer for the Trump legal team.” Chesebro has subsequently been credited as the “architect” of the multi-state fake electors scheme.
- On December 14, 2020, 10 Republican officials in Wisconsin gathered in secret at the Wisconsin state Capitol in Madison to attempt to subvert the results of the presidential election by serving as fake electors and submitting falsified documents to Congress as part of the January 6, 2021, Electoral College certification process.
- On December 24, 2020, Chesebro exchanged emails with other members of Trump’s legal team debating whether to file litigation contesting Biden’s victory in Wisconsin, one of the key swing states the Trump campaign still hoped to overturn. Although he admitted the odds of prevailing in such a case were “1 percent,” he argued that the “relevant analysis is political,” according to emails reviewed by The New York Times.
- In May 2021, Wisconsin Assembly Speaker Robin Vos caved to pressure from Trump and appointed former Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice Michael Gableman as a “special counsel” to oversee a partisan Arizona-style “audit” of the 2020 election results. Gableman is a conspiracy theorist who had already claimed that the 2020 election was “stolen” prior to being hired as a special counsel. His report recommended retroactively decertifying the election, which is legally impossible, despite finding no evidence of fraud and costing taxpayers more than $1 million. Vos ultimately fired Gableman, ending the scandal-plagued investigation.
- In July 2021, far-right state Representative Janel Brandtjen, who chairs the Assembly Campaign and Elections Committee, initiated another audit that she called “a more intensive investigation” of possible election fraud.
- Wisconsin also conducted a nonpartisan audit under the auspices of the Legislative Audit Bureau (LAB). This one involved reviewing 60 tests of voting machines as well as compliance with election laws and procedures related to the training of poll workers and conduct both before and after Election Day. The LAB audit confirmed the security of the voting machines used in 2020 and did not unearth any significant issues with election procedures.
- On May 17, 2022, two of the state’s Democratic electors sued the 10 Republican fake electors for their role in attempting to subvert the outcome of the 2020 presidential election in Wisconsin.
- In September 2023, the state’s Republican lawmakers targeted the nonpartisan Wisconsin Elections Commission Administrator Meagan Wolfe for pushing back against baseless allegations of election fraud made in 2020, with every state Senate Republican voting against her confirmation to a second term. As of July 2024, Wolfe still held the position due to a procedural technicality.
- That same month, Wisconsin Senate Majority Leader Devin LeMahieu (R) rejected calls from Democrats to rescind the appointment of one of the fake electors, Robert Spindell, as vice chair of the Wisconsin Elections Commission.
- In December 2023, the 10 fake electors settled a civil lawsuit filed by the state’s Democratic electors by publicly acknowledging that President Biden won the state and their actions were “part of an attempt to improperly overturn the 2020 presidential election results.” They also agreed not to serve as presidential electors in 2024 or any other election with Trump on the ballot.
- In June 2024, Wisconsin Attorney General Josh Kaul (D) filed felony forgery charges against Kenneth Chesebro, James Troupis, and Mike Roman, Trump’s director of Election Day operations, who allegedly helped submit Wisconsin’s faux Electoral College documents to members of Congress.
- In July 2024, the state GOP sent fake elector Pam Travis as a delegate to the Republican National Convention, with another fake elector, Wisconsin Elections Commission Vice Chair Robert Spindell, serving as an alternate.