In recent months, the FBI has started to contact state and Milwaukee County election officials. It seems the FBI could be looking into potential voter fraud in the 2020 presidential election. That's despite the fact that independent reviews, audits and a recount all show that Joe Biden won in Wisconsin.
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reporter Mary Spicuzza has been covering this story and talked with WUWM’s Jimmy Gutierrez. She says President Trump’s allegations of voter fraud from nearly six years ago are at the heart of the probe.
This conversation has been edited for length and clarity.
Mary Spicuzza: None of those claims have been substantiated in any of the reviews from conservative former Supreme Court Justice Michael Gableman, there was a recount as you may remember in Milwaukee and Madison, and everything indicated that former President Joe Biden beat President Donald Trump by about 21,000 votes.
Jimmy Gutierrez: If these votes were to get turned over, the thing that makes it particularly problematic here in Wisconsin is that it would expose a lot of personal information about Milwaukee voters.
Spicuzza: It's unusual here, but the way that the ballots are processed there's a real concern that people would be able to essentially see how voters voted. And, how you vote is private information and widely considered to be private information, to the point where after my mom passed away, I realized my dad did not know how she was voting. So if your spouse doesn't know how you're voting, it's jarring for a lot of people to think that a complete stranger might see how you're voting.
How is the state bracing for what is happening? What have we heard from electeds and others?
Spicuzza: It's definitely falling largely along partisan lines.
Congressman Tom Tiffany, who is running for governor says, "Whatever they're searching for, the investigation should be allowed to continue. And let's find out what happened there."
Milwaukee elected officials, the county executive, the mayor have really slammed the review. I know they were critical of FBI agents going to election officials' homes to try to talk with them.
Milwaukee County Executive, David Crowley says, "The fact that we continue to relitigate the 2020 election, quite frankly, is mind blowing for me."
Someone from the Wisconsin Elections Commission was interviewed by an agent. And I think that officials here are really concerned about it. And I think that there's concern from critics that this is somehow setting the stage for the 2026 election — if it doesn't go President Trump's way — of denying a future election. That’s been a concern that's been raised to me.
Last year we saw the U.S. government suing the Wisconsin Elections Commission for voter rolls and information. And earlier this month, as you brought up, the FBI questioned the administrator from the commission and then visited the home of Milwaukee County's election director and reached out to two other 2020 election staffers. So, is this just getting started?
Spicuzza: It's my understanding that this investigation is in its preliminary phases and I have not heard of any new complaints coming in, so (it's) largely focused on investigating these claims and accusations that have been circulating for years. So it's possible that the FBI could look at this and say there's no there there. This is all misinformation. It's possible that we really don't know where the investigation is going to go. And, I guess we'll all just have to stay tuned and see where it heads.
