Molly Beck
MADISON - Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers said his administration will resist any efforts by the FBI to seize voting documents if federal authorities expand their probe of the 2020 presidential election to Wisconsin.
Evers made his comments after the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel first reported a potential threat to Milwaukee voters' right to a secret ballot.
The FBI in recent weeks has seized voting data in two battleground states where President Donald Trump lost reelection in 2020. If the FBI takes its effort to relitigate the 2020 presidential election to Milwaukee County, federal authorities will be able to figure out how tens of thousands of residents there voted because of a state law that sets Wisconsin apart from other battleground states.
The law requires poll workers to affix a voter number to all absentee ballots counted in a central counting facility, which exist in Milwaukee and more than three dozen other Wisconsin municipalities.
And because Milwaukee election officials have not yet destroyed the 2020 presidential election ballots, those voter numbers could be matched against poll book information to determine which candidate voters picked that year if such voting documents are seized.
So far, there has not been any movement in Wisconsin by federal authorities on this front.
“In this state, Wisconsinites have a constitutional right to cast a secret ballot, and that’s something we take really seriously — even Kathy and I don’t always talk about who we vote for," Evers told the Journal Sentinel in a statement, referring to his wife.
"So, the idea that the state should somehow turn over sensitive voter information and documents that could enable the federal government to know how Wisconsinites voted and who they voted for is wrong, and we’ll continue fighting to protect Wisconsinites’ right to vote by secret ballot."
"We want to keep our elections safe and secure, and caving to the Trump administration’s demand will do the exact opposite. That’s something we’re going to fight all the way.”
The Democratic governor said he would sign a repeal of the state law that requires absentee ballots in central counting facilities to include a voter identification number given clerks' support for doing so.
But Assembly Speaker Robin Vos, R-Rochester, said he wants to keep the law in place as an added safeguard.
"It’s important we don’t eliminate any law that will prevent double voting or allow anyone here illegally to cast a vote," Vos said in a statement.
"Our number one priority should be keeping our elections secure and ensuring our citizens trust the system."
Senate Majority Leader Devin LeMahieu did not respond to questions about the matter.
State and local election officials were on alert Monday after the FBI issued a grand jury subpoena for voting information in Maricopa County, Arizona − the second battleground state where federal authorities have compelled the release of records related to the 2020 election.
In late January, federal investigators seized hundreds of boxes related to the 2020 election in Fulton County, Georgia.
Election officials are bracing for the probe to expand to Milwaukee, where Trump has repeatedly leveled baseless claims of fraud in the 2020 election − including on the night of the election, when it became clear Trump would lose.
'It gets me PO'd,' Tony Evers says of election conspiracy theories
"It gets me PO’d when President Trump lies and spreads baseless conspiracy theories about Wisconsin’s elections, because what he’s doing is attacking the integrity and hard work of Wisconsinites across our state," Evers said.
Absentee voting skyrocketed in the 2020 presidential election because of the advent of the coronavirus pandemic, which pushed people to avoid public places. In Milwaukee, nearly 180,000 people voted absentee.
Following Trump's loss, his campaign paid for a recount in the liberal Dane and Milwaukee counties and unsuccessfully sought to throw out all absentee ballots cast in those counties, which would have overturned the election result.
Trump continues to falsely claim he won Wisconsin's 2020 presidential contest, despite court rulings and audits showing otherwise.
Molly Beck can be reached at molly.beck@jrn.com.
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