By M.D. Kittle
MADISON — State. Rep. Janel Brandtjen (R-Menomonee Falls) has announced the issuance of subpoenas for election materials from Milwaukee and Brown counties as the Assembly Campaigns and Elections Committee continues its “top-to-bottom investigation” of November’s election.
“Legislators have been hearing from thousands of disgruntled constituents regarding their concerns with the November 2020 election. From outside money pouring into Democrat-controlled communities, to individuals engaging in questionable activities; from improper guidance given to clerks from the Wisconsin Elections Commission, to clerks illegally prompting voters to declare themselves ‘indefinitely confined.’ The list goes on and on,” said Brandtjen, chairwoman of the Assembly committee.
Brandtjen and others have called for an Arizona-style forensic audit of November’s presidential election. Assembly Speaker Robin Vos (R-Rochester) recently expanded a separate investigation into the election led by former Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice Michael Gableman. Vos has said an audit currently under way is a “forensic audit.”
Brandtjen said many constituents have raised objections to the audit’s duration “and the lack of specifics, as it is open-ended.” She said she appreciates more resources provided to the investigations, but the people of Wisconsin “demand and deserve a transparent, full, cyber-forensic audit as described in the subpoenas submitted to both Milwaukee and Brown Counties.”
“As the Chair of the Assembly Committee of Campaigns and Elections, I am issuing these subpoenas as the first step towards a full, cyber-forensic audit of tabulators and inspection of the physical ballots from the November 2020 fall election,” Brandtjen said.
Democrats have blasted the investigations as nothing more than taxpayer-funded probes into right-wing conspiracy theories. But concerns about third-party groups — funded by Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg — infiltrating election offices in Wisconsin’s largest, Democrat-heavy cities have only intensified.
Emails obtained by Wisconsin Spotlight show long-time Democrat and liberal activists working — even directing — election administration, a clear violation fo state and federal law.
