Wisconsin election probe may last longer because liberals impeding progress, Speaker says

Wisconsin’s Assembly Speaker is not guessing when he'll wrap up his investigation into last year’s vote.

Speaker Robin Vos, R-Rochester, on Tuesday, said he had hoped to finish the investigation before the New Year, but now he's not sure.

“We wanted to try and have things wrapped up sometime relatively soon,” Vos told reporters at the State Capitol. “But when we see liberals doing everything they can, especially our attorney general, to stop progress on getting to the bottom of the problems. [The investigation] may have to go longer.”

Vos also blamed uncooperative local election managers for adding to the investigation’s cost and delay.

“We saw here in Madison that they wouldn’t even turn over the basic ballots to the Legislative Audit Bureau,” Vos explained. “And we now see that the attorney general is trying to stop our ability to do something that is a basic Constitutional right, which is to use the investigative power of the legislature to get to the bottom of things.”

Attorney General Josh Kaul who has criticized the idea of an election investigation, is now asking a Dane County judge to toss the subpoenas issued in Vos’ investigation. Former Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice Mike Gableman has subpoenaed the mayors of Milwaukee, Madison, Green Bay, Racine, and Kenosha, as well as the head of the Wisconsin Elections Commission as part of his review of last year’s vote. Kaul says they are unenforceable because Gableman wants to interview the mayors in private.

Vos, on Tuesday, didn’t rule out issuing more subpoenas in the case.

“If there is a need, and Justice Gableman comes back and says we want to continue with the investigation by issuing subpoenas, I certainly believe that in spite of Josh Kaul’s efforts to stymie the investigation, we have the constitutional responsibility to do so,” Vos added.

Vos’ comments come one day after Republicans in the Wisconsin Senate announced their own investigation into the 2020 election. That probe would be in addition to the investigation from Vos and Gableman, and the investigation from Rep. Janel Brandtjen’s election’s committee.