Wisconsin Assembly Speaker meets with decertification supporters, says 2020 election will stand

The top Republican in the Wisconsin Assembly continues to say there is no way to overturn the 2020 presidential election.

Assembly Speaker Robin Vos met Wednesday with a group of conservatives who continue to demand the legislature decertify the vote, recall Wisconsin’s electors, or in some way change the outcome of the November 2020 election.

“We don’t have the ability to unilaterally overturn the election,” Vos said. “It can’t happen.”

Vos has been saying the same thing for months, but a small group of conservatives at the Capitol and around the state don’t want to hear it.

Rep. Tim Ramthun, R-Campbellsport, leads the group. In fact, he is basing his campaign for governor on the idea that Vos and other Republicans are choosing not to decertify the election results.

Ramthun was at Wednesday’s meeting at the Capitol, but he says Vos kicked him out.

“[He said] ‘Tim this is my meeting, you need to go,’” Ramthun told reporters Wednesday morning. “He said ‘We don’t want to turn this into a campaign event,’ which to me is an excuse.”

Ramthun said Vos’ meeting was more ‘obstruction.”

Vos has said for months that there are questions about the 2020 election, and on Wednesday said he believes there was some fraud during the vote.

But Vos has consistently said the solution to Wisconsin’s election questions is to pass reforms, not continue to focus on the vote from two years ago.

"I think we should focus on ... the ability to have, as we move, forward solutions that can actually become law, as opposed to ideas which again are totally untested, never been done in the history of our country,” Vos told reporters.

Republicans in the Wisconsin legislature have passed two rounds of election reforms since the end of the 2020 election. The first was vetoed by Gov. Tony Evers. The second is expected to be vetoed as well.