MADISON (WKOW) -- The investigator hired by Wisconsin Assembly Republicans suggested Tuesday lawmakers should pursue decertification of the state's 2020 election results. Legal experts and the legislature's own lawyers have said such a course of action would be illegal.
Labeling the 136-page document a second "interim report," Gableman's team said they're "just getting started." Gableman and his staff, operating on a $676,000 taxpayer-funded budget, had their initial contract end December 31.
Assembly Speaker Robin Vos has publicly said he's "finalizing" a contract extension with Gableman.
In his report, Gableman, a retired state supreme court justice, released a set of recommendations for lawmakers and clerks. While that list did not explicitly call for lawmakers to overturn the 2020 election, Gableman said in his two-hour presentation Tuesday lawmakers should seriously consider it.
"I believe the legislature ought to take a very hard look at the option of decertification of the 2020 Wisconsin presidential election," Gableman said.
Gableman's report concludes by offering a road map for how state lawmakers could reject popular election results and choose their own slate of presidential electors. It's an argument that runs counter to the vast majority of legal experts' views on the question and, in Gableman's report, relied vaguely on "common law" to back up the assertion.
The first recommendation from Gableman is for lawmakers to dismantle the Wisconsin Elections Commission (WEC), which Republicans created in 2015 after dismantling the Government Accountability Board.
Vos has defended WEC as currently constructed. Both he and other GOP leaders have swatted away claims the legislature could overturn the 2020 election.
A series of legal challenges and recounts in the state's two most populous counties have upheld President Joe Biden won the state by more than 20,000 votes in 2020.
Democrats said the complaints raised by Gableman - which mirror what conservatives have said in the 16 months following the election - amount to complaining about the rules of the game once that game's been concluded.
"The fact is there were plenty of opportunities to contest the 2020 election before it was certified," Rep. Mark Spreitzer (D-Beloit) said. "There were audits, there were recounts, there were legal challenges. They all held up and so the election was certified and it will remain certified."
Reviews by the Legislative Audit Bureau and conservative Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty found the Wisconsin Elections Commission issued guidance that ran afoul of state law because issues like drop boxes and nursing home voting should have been established as formal rules instead of written guidance. However, those reviews also both state there was no evidence of widespread fraud that would've changed the election's outcome.
Gableman report raises issues around funding for clerks, access to voter rolls, nursing home voting
Gableman's report claims state and local officials violated numerous election laws. The issued raised center around issues conservatives either did not challenge in court until after the 2020 election, like the placement of dropboxes, or challenges courts had already thrown out, including private grants Wisconsin cities and villages received - the vast majority going to the state's five largest cities.
Gableman's reported said it was "bribery" for the Center for Tech and Civic Live, funded largely by Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, to have more than 85 percent of the more than $10 million Wisconsin communities received go to Milwaukee, Madison, Kenosha, Racine, and Green Bay.
Federal judges in multiple states rejected challenges questioning whether it was legal for clerks to accept the outside donations. Gableman said he rejected the argument that such grants were legal because there are no laws against it.
"No, the law didn't prohibit it because no reasonable person would ever anticipate that such a thing would be done and we didn't think we had to write it down," Gableman said.
The report also targeted guidance from WEC to clerks waiving the Special Voting Deputy requirement for nursing homes. On bipartisan votes, WEC offered that guidance in the spring and summer of 2020 citing pandemic restrictions on non-essential visitors.
During the hearing, Gableman played videos of alleged voters and their family members being interviewed by Erick Kaardal, a Minnesota lawyer who represented that Wisconsin Voters Alliance, which unsuccessfully sued to block the 2020 election from being certified.
The interviews showed elderly people struggling to comprehend what they were being asked. Gableman said it was proof of voter fraud since those nursing home residents cast ballots when they may not have had any idea they were voting.
Wisconsin law states concerned family members must get a judge to order a resident is not lucid enough to vote.
"Whether any of them were taken advantage of in terms of their vote, that is something we should get to the bottom of," Spreitzer said. "But it's important to remember that people retain their right to vote unless a court takes it away."
Gableman's report also called for WEC to make the state's voter list readily available and free of charge to any Wisconsin resident. WEC Chair Ann Jacobs has previously said such a change would need to come from the legislature passing a law eliminate the $12,500 fee currently charged.
Questions over Gableman's contract, authority
Gableman argued his contract, the one that ended December 31, was still active. He offered no evidence as to why that would be the case. Gableman acknowledged he could see why others might believe the initial agreement had expired and added he was in talks with Vos about a new agreement.
Vos has said for weeks he was still finalizing details for a new contract. Lawyers representing the city and state election officials have questioned in court how Gableman can execute subpoena when his only contract on record has expired.
In a statement Tuesday, Vos thanked Gableman for the report but did not comment on the specifics it contained, particularly the call for lawmakers to look into decertifying the election. Vos has previously maintained he would not pursue decertification because it'd be illegal.
However, Assembly Majority Leader Jim Steineke (R-Kaukauna) said he wanted no part of any decertification effort.
"Handing authority to partisan politicians to determine if election fraud exists would be the end of our republic as we know it," Steineke, who's not seeking re-election, said in a tweet.
Gov. Tony Evers and Attorney General Josh Kaul both blasted Gableman's report as a purely partisan effort.
"This circus has long surpassed being a mere embarrassment for our state," Evers' statement said. "From the beginning, it has never been a serious or functioning effort, it has lacked public accountability and transparency, and it has been a colossal waste of taxpayer dollars."
WEC Administrator Meagan Wolfe responded to Gableman's calls for the agency to be dismantled and for her removal from the post. Wolfe maintained she would be willing to meet with Gableman in a public forum to answer his questions about WEC's guidance for the 2020 election.
“The opinions in the Special Counsel’s latest interim report were fixated on topics that have been thoroughly addressed,” Wolfe said. “The integrity of the November 2020 election, and of the WEC, has been shown time and time again through court cases and previous investigations.”
More at WKOW 27 News