Gov. Tony Evers says Wisconsin's slate of fake electors should face prosecution

NEW GLARUS – The 10 Wisconsinites who participated in a scheme to claim the state's 10 electoral votes for former President Donald Trump in 2020 should be charged and be held accountable, Gov. Tony Evers said Friday.

"Well, no," the Democratic governor said when asked by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel whether he would feel confident in the state's elections going forward if the 10 fraudulent electors don't ultimately face charges.

"There has to be accountability," Evers said after a bill signing ceremony in New Glarus. "What they did was wrong, and so I'm hoping somebody will pick up the banner here, because this has to happen."

Trump is accused by a federal grand jury of organizing a conspiracy to steal the 2020 election from President Joe Biden — with strategies that included organizing slates of fraudulent electors in seven states, including Wisconsin, to claim to be electors for Trump despite the outcome of the election. Wisconsin is among several states highlighted in a sweeping federal indictment handed down Tuesday.

Evers' answer comes the day after Attorney General Josh Kaul, also a Democrat, told reporters he "can neither confirm nor deny the existence of an investigation" in Wisconsin.

"It's critical that people who committed crimes with the intent of overturning the results of an election are held accountable," Kaul told reporters in Madison on Thursday.

Asked about the Trump indictment and the false electors plot during an appearance in Port Washington, Sen. Tammy Baldwin, D-Wis., also said that there “should be some level of accountability” for people who participated in the fake elector plot.

“There has to be accountability for perpetrating the big lie,” Baldwin said. “We know who won the election in Wisconsin. The folks who oversee the election said it was the most secure election we ever had.”

Baldwin was giving Arizona Senator Mark Kelly a tour of Badger Technologies in Port Washington when asked about the indictment.

Kelly added that the attorney general of his state is also conducting an investigation into the slate of fake electors in Arizona that was also part of the indictment against Trump.

“Our attorney general has opened an investigation,” Kelly said about his state’s slate of fake elections. “There is a process. I have full faith in our judicial system to make a decision if those folks should be charged.

Biden defeated Trump by about 21,000 votes in Wisconsin. The results of the election have been upheld by multiple recounts, court rulings and a report from a conservative law firm.

On Dec. 14, 2020, Democrats met in the state Capitol to lawfully cast the state's 10 electoral votes for Biden. At the same time, 10 Republicans gathered in another part of the Capitol to fill out paperwork claiming Trump had won. They submitted their filings to Congress, the National Archives, a federal judge and then-Wisconsin Secretary of State Doug La Follette.

The plan was spelled out after the election by attorney Kenneth Chesebro in a memo dated Nov. 18, 2020 — the same day Trump asked for recounts in Dane and Milwaukee counties. The indictment makes several references to the Nov. 18 “Wisconsin Memo” and a Dec. 6, 2020, “Fraudulent Elector Memo.”

“The memoranda evolved over time from a legal strategy to preserve the Defendant’s rights to a corrupt plan to subvert the federal government function by stopping Biden electors’ votes from being counted and certified,” the indictment reads.

At the time, Wisconsin's false electors said they held the meeting to ensure the state's electoral votes were cast for Trump if a court later determined he was the true winner of the state.

"At the same time I was in the Capitol with nine other Wisconsinites (casting electoral votes) in a legal and thoughtful way, in the building at the same time, unknown to anybody, this was happening to create false electors. That's wrong," Evers said. "People have to be held accountable for that, and I hope to hell somebody does."

Wisconsin's fake electors

Several of the false electors were party leaders in their county or Congressional district at the time but no longer hold those positions.

One, Bob Spindell, remains a Republican appointee to the Wisconsin Elections Commission.

"As the Wisconsin electors have consistently said, all action taken to produce an alternate slate 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," Republican Party of Wisconsin executive director Mark Jefferson said in a statement sent earlier this week.

"We were not informed of any use of the alternate electors contrary to preserving the legal strategy and would not have approved any other use. (The) Trump indictment does not allege that the Wisconsin electors took any steps whatsoever to knowingly join a conspiracy."

Here is a list of the false electors and their current or previous leadership positions within the party:

• Spindell, a Republican appointee to the Wisconsin Elections Commission and current chairman of the 4th Congressional District GOP.

• Andrew Hitt, then-chairman of state Republican Party, now a partner at Michael Best Strategies.

• Kelly Ruh, current chairwoman of the 8th Congressional District GOP.

• Carol Brunner, former vice chairwoman of the 1st Congressional District GOP.

• Scott Grabins, former chairman of the Dane County Republican Party.

• Bill Feehan, current chairman of the 3rd Congressional District GOP.

• Kathy Kiernan, current second vice chairwoman of the state Republican Party.

• Darryl Carlson, former chairman of the 6th Congressional District GOP.

• Pam Travis, former vice chairwoman of the 7th Congressional District GOP and former staffer for Sen. Ron Johnson’s 2022 reelection campaign.

• Mary Buestrin, former national committeewoman for state Republican Party.

Yash Roy of the Journal Sentinel contributed from Port Washington. Laura Schulte of the Journal Sentinel contributed from Madison.

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This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Evers says Wisconsin's slate of fake electors should face prosecution