Advocates for good government say they hope a deal involving so-called fake electors who met in Madison after the 2020 presidential election will reduce false claims about that race, and the 2024 contest.
Ten supporters of then-President Donald Trump met in the state Capitol a month after Democrat Joe Biden carried the state. The 10 signed paperwork aimed at allowing them to be electoral college delegates for Trump. Two actual Democratic delegates sued.
A partial settlement announced Wednesday has the group acknowledging Biden won, and bans them from serving as delegates next year or in any other race Trump is on the ballot. Jay Heck, of Common Cause in Wisconsin, says he hopes the deal leads to good things.
"Hopefully, that will pour cold water on these continuing attempts by election deniers and conspiracy theorists to continue to cast doubt on 2020, and more importantly, currently, to try to destroy the Wisconsin Election Commission, to continue these false allegations against Administrator Meghan Wolfe," Heck tells WUWM.
The Republican Party of Wisconsin continues to suggest the fake electors did nothing wrong. The GOP says, "All action taken to produce an alternate slate of electors was only done to preserve an ongoing legal strategy, and only to be used in the event a court of law gave the alternate slate meaning."
But one of the fake electors, Milwaukee County Republican Bob Spindell, is facing new heat to resign or be taken off the state election commission.
Mike Browne is with the progressive advocacy group A Better Wisconsin Together. He tells WUWM, "We believe strongly that it is unacceptable and it's inappropriate for someone who admitted they tried to improperly overturn a presidential election to have any role of public trust administering elections in the state of Wisconsin going forward."
State Senate Majority Leader Devin LeMahieu (R-Oostburg) recently backed Spindell for another term on the election commission. The senator's office did not respond to WUWM's request for comment.
The fake electors case may also continue on other fronts. GOP attorneys Jim Troupis and Kenneth Chesebro, portrayed as architects of the electors scheme, so far do not have a settlement deal and are scheduled for trial in September. A Better Wisconsin Together wants Troupis, a former judge, booted from a state committee on judicial conduct.
