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Ten Republican residents of Wisconsin attempted to subvert the results of the 2020 presidential election by submitting fake Electoral College documents to Congress as part of the Jan. 6. 2021 certification process.
According to the Wisconsin Examiner, then-Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald reserved a room in the Capitol for the Wisconsin fake electors to meet and sign their false votes. On May 17, 2022, two Democratic electors sued the 10 Republican fake electors for their role in the scheme.
According to the Wisconsin Examiner, the 10 fake electors gathered in secret at the Wisconsin state Capitol in Madison on Dec. 14, 2020, and mailed signed, notarized certificates to Congress and the National Archives purporting to be official Electoral College votes for Trump.
“This is unlawful,” writes reporter Mel Brooks. “State law clearly prohibits the impersonation of public officials and the creation of fraudulent state documents. It was also no joke: The fraudulent electors went to great lengths to make their fraudulent documents look like the real ones. They signed their names to certify they were ‘the duly elected and qualified Electors’ from the State of Wisconsin. They declared that they had met ‘to perform the duties enjoined upon us,’ even though state law assigned to others the ‘duty’ of casting those electoral votes. The fraudulent electors then mailed a fake Certificate of the Vote to the U.S. Senate, in the apparent hope that Congress would count that one, instead of the proper one, on Jan. 6.”
Politico reported that on Dec. 13, 2020, Christina Bobb, then a One America News anchor and subsequently a legal representative for the former president, briefed a group of Trump’s lawyers on the scheme.
The Big Lie
- Wisconsin submitted the following 10 fake electors to Congress:
- Carol Brunner: vice chairwoman of Wisconsin’s 1st Congressional District Republican Party
- Mary Buestrin: a former national committeewoman of the Republican Party of Wisconsin
- Darryl Carlson: executive director of the conservative organization No Better Friend Corp
- Bill Feehan: ran for Wisconsin state senate in 2012
- Edward Scott Grabins: chairman of the Dane County Republican Party
- Andrew Hitt: a former chairman of the Republican Party of Wisconsin
- Kelly Ruh: a former alderperson for De Pere, Wisconsin and former chairwoman of the 8th Congressional District Republican Party
- Robert F. Spindell Jr.: a commissioner on the Wisconsin Election Commission who appeared at a “stop the steal” rally at the Wisconsin state Capitol
- Pam Travis: vice chairwoman of Wisconsin’s 7th Congressional District Republican Party
- One other individual was originally intended to act as a fake elector but was ultimately replaced:
- Tom Schreibel: national committeeman of the Republican Party of Wisconsin