Immigrant rights group Voces de la Frontera sues over GOP election review after receiving a subpoena
MADISON – Immigrant rights group Voces de la Frontera Action filed a legal challenge Wednesday to Assembly Republicans' review of the 2020 election after disclosing it had received a subpoena.
The Milwaukee-based group is seeking to intervene in a lawsuit Democratic Attorney General Josh Kaul brought in October to try to knock down subpoenas that were issued to the state Elections Commission.
Subscribe to our On Wisconsin Politics newsletter for the week's political news explained.
Dane County Circuit Court Judge Rhonda Lanford this month declined to immediately block the subpoenas issued to the commission but raised questions about their legality. She continues to weigh the case and has scheduled a hearing for Feb. 2.
The Assembly Republicans over the summer gave former state Supreme Court Justice Michael Gableman a $676,000 taxpayer-financed budget to look into the election. They have said they believe the election needs scrutiny even though recounts and court rulings determined Joe Biden beat Donald Trump by about 21,000 votes in the state.
Gableman on Jan. 5 served Voces with what it called "an astoundingly broad and invasive subpoena."
The subpoena directed the group to turn over by Wednesday its emails and other communications about the 2020 election. In addition, it sought information about the group's finances and contacts with government officials and nonprofit groups.
"Gableman's subpoena is modern-day McCarthyite political theater designed to perpetuate lies about the 2020 election and silence and intimidate voters of color from exercising their right to free speech and their right to vote," said a statement from the group's executive director, Christine Neumann-Ortiz.
The subpoena to Voces is dated Dec. 28, the same day Gableman sought records from two out-of-state voting machine companies. Also on that day he issued a subpoena seeking to interview Ann Jacobs, the Democratic chairwoman of the bipartisan state Elections Commission.
In its filing Wednesday, Voces asked the court to invalidate the subpoena it received, saying it is overbroad and violates the group’s First Amendment rights to free speech and free assembly.
The group also argued Gableman is trying to go beyond what he was authorized to do by lawmakers. Gableman’s review is supposed to look into the administration of elections — something political groups like Voces aren’t involved in, the group said.
“This ‘investigation’ is no longer (if it ever was) about protecting the integrity of Wisconsin’s elections, for which there is only infinitesimal evidence of voter fraud; it is now overtly targeting organizations that Defendants disagree with politically,” Voces' attorney, Daniel Lenz, wrote in his filing.
Gableman did not respond Wednesday to questions about the filing.
Voces is represented by Stafford Rosenbaum, a Madison law firm, and Law Forward, a nonprofit legal group that focuses on voting issues. The same entities also represent Green Bay, one of the cities that has been targeted by Gableman.
Committee affirms Gableman hiring
Also Wednesday, Republicans on the Assembly Elections Committee gave a stamp of approval to Gableman's hiring. That action could become important in the legal fights over Gableman's work.
Rep. Janel Brandtjen of Menomonee Falls, the Republican chairwoman of the committee, said she worked on the motion in conjunction with Gableman.
GOP Assembly Speaker Robin Vos of Rochester — who was responsible for hiring Gableman in the first place — on Tuesday said he had "no idea" what the committee is doing.
Brandtjen is getting legal assistance from attorney Joseph Voiland, a former Ozaukee County judge, according to a contract she signed with him in November. Vos questioned the validity of that contract, saying the committee doesn't have the power to hire lawyers.
Gableman's contract expired at the end of the year and Vos said he is negotiating with Gableman on a contract extension. He said he wants Gableman to produce a report by the end of February but acknowledged his work may take longer than that because of the litigation over Gableman's review.
Vos said he hoped to keep the cost of the review to $676,000.
The review has cost about $292,000 so far, records show. Much of that money went to salaries and expenses for Gableman and his team.
One of his team's expense reports faced ridicule on social media this week because it was scrawled by hand and misspelled "mileage." The document was used to justify $1,000 in reimbursements for Gableman and two of his staff members even though it provided few details about their travel.
Following Wednesday's committee vote on Gableman's work, a group of Assembly Democrats introduced a resolution to invalidate the contract with Gableman.
The resolution would affirm the results of the 2020 election, denounce efforts to throw out votes and eliminate the Office of Special Counsel that Vos created for Gableman in 2021.
Lies about the election "are no longer fringe ideas in the GOP. They are now mainstream in the Republican Party. Wisconsinites should know where their legislators stand,” Democratic Rep. Gordon Hintz of Oshkosh said in a statement.
Molly Beck of the Journal Sentinel staff contributed to this report.
Contact Patrick Marley at patrick.marley@jrn.com. Follow him on Twitter at @patrickdmarley.
Our subscribers make this reporting possible. Please consider supporting local journalism by subscribing to the Journal Sentinel at jsonline.com/deal.
DOWNLOAD THE APP: Get the latest news, sports and more
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Immigrant rights group sues over GOP election review subpoena
