Attorneys warn they will take case over fake electors to court if Wisconsin officials don't act soon
MADISON – The dispute over fake presidential electors could soon be headed to a courtroom in Wisconsin.
The bipartisan state Elections Commission for nearly a year has been considering a complaint that alleges Republicans committed fraud when they signed paperwork in December 2020 claiming to be presidential electors even though Democrat Joe Biden won the state.
The commission has offered no signals on when it will decide the case. On Wednesday, the lawyers for those who brought the case sent a letter to the commission saying they would take the matter to court soon if the commission does not act promptly or say how it plans to handle the case.
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"As has been recognized at least since biblical times, justice delayed is justice denied," attorneys Jeffrey Mandell and Mel Barnes wrote.
The letter comes amid a renewed focus on the would-be electors who gathered in Wisconsin and half a dozen other states that Donald Trump lost.
The Republicans have said they filed paperwork as electors in case they won last-ditch lawsuits that sought to overturn the presidential elections. Democrats have said the Republicans committed fraud by posing as public officials and sending federal authorities false documents.
This week the U.S. Department of Justice announced it is looking into the matter. The House committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol has also been gathering information about the fake electors.
In Wisconsin, an arm of the Services Employees International Union filed a complaint in February 2021 with the Elections Commission. The union is represented by Mandell and Barnes, who are part of Law Forward, a liberal non-profit center based in Madison that focuses on voting issues.
The commission has been handling the case in secret and its deliberations have been complicated because one of its members, Bob Spindell, was one of the 10 Republicans who met as presidential electors. Spindell has refused to step down from the case as a commissioner and has claimed his colleagues have tried to force him off of it.
Normally the commission meets privately to consider complaints and after weeks or months issues decisions. Those who lose can then take their cases to circuit court.
With their letter Wednesday, Mandell and Barnes essentially argued the commission's failure to act amounted to a dismissal of their complaint. They said they would have "no choice" but to bring a lawsuit if the commission doesn't act soon or provide information about how it is handling the case.
The union last year also filed a complaint with Milwaukee District Attorney John Chisholm alleging criminal violations. An aide to Chisholm last week said the matter would be better handled by state or federal prosecutors.
Mandell and Barnes sent a letter Wednesday to Democratic Attorney General Josh Kaul arguing he should launch his own investigation. They praised the U.S. Department of Justice's decision to look into the issue but contended Kaul should as well to see if the Republicans violated any state laws prohibiting fraud, forgery and posing as public officials.
"As Attorney General, you have the power — and the obligation — to investigate and prosecute the fraudulent electors and, in so doing, to communicate clearly that this affront to democracy can never recur," Mandell and Barnes wrote.
The union last year also submitted a complaint with the Office of Lawyer Regulation against Andrew Hitt, one of the fake electors who at the time served as chairman of the state Republican Party. That office handles its complaints in secret and has not disclosed how it is handling the matter.
Contact Patrick Marley at patrick.marley@jrn.com. Follow him on Twitter at @patrickdmarley.
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This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Attorneys warn they could take case over fake electors to court soon
