— The GOP-controlled Assembly along party lines directed the Campaigns and Elections Committee to review the way Wisconsin administers elections.
Resolution author and Committee Vice-chair Joe Sanfelippo, R-New Berlin, ahead of the session said he hopes the committee will never need to use its subpoena power after calls for officials to willingly speak before lawmakers.
While the committee may already conduct an investigation without full Assembly approval, Sanfelippo said he needed the resolution in order to conduct an “official” investigation and to gain subpoena power.
“This is important because in the past year we heard allegations of improprieties being done,” he said. “I hope that we never have to use this process. This just gives us the necessary tools we need going forward.”
But Rep. Lee Snodgrass, D-Appleton, slammed Republicans for holding “sham hearings” and sowing doubt in the integrity of the electoral process.
“While Republicans may be in the majority in Wisconsin, they do not benefit when the majority of people vote,” she said. “Today’s resolution is quite simply the latest effort of my Republican colleagues to perpetuate the myth of election fraud.”
Dem President Biden defeated former GOP President Trump in the state by fewer than 21,000 votes. Election officials have found no credible evidence of widespread fraud or interference in the election, and the courts had dismissed most Trump lawsuits seeking to overturn the results.
Republicans have lately focused on allegations related to the way Green Bay conducted its election after receiving a private grant to cover some of the costs related to putting on an election during a pandemic. More than 200 Wisconsin communities received funds from the Center for Tech and Civic Life, though the state’s five largest cities received the biggest grants.
