Gableman Opposed Decertifying Election

Is there any Republican official in Wisconsin who really believes the Big Lie about the 2020 election?

Certainly many have claimed there were irregularities, and most support changes in how elections are done in the state, but none have provided evidence of significant fraud, much less enough fraud to overturn the nearly 21,000-vote margin by which Democrat Joe Biden defeated Donald Trump in Wisconsin.

Now we have learned that one of the most prominent proponents of the Big Lie, attorney and former state Supreme Court Justice Michael Gableman, who has conducted the endless investigation of the 2020 election and has called for decertifying the 2020 election, doesn’t really believe this can be done.

A story by recently hired Washington Post reporter Patrick Marley, formerly with the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, quotes from a memo sent by Gableman to Republican Assembly Speaker Robin Vos, in which Gableman privately contradicts his call for decertification.

“While decertification of the 2020 presidential election is theoretically possible, it is unprecedented and raises numerous substantial constitutional issues that would be difficult to resolve. Thus, the legal obstacles to its accomplishment render such an outcome a practical impossibility,” Gableman wrote to Vos.

“Gableman’s memo was released under the state’s open records law to the liberal watchdog group American Oversight, which shared it with The Washington Post,” the story noted.

“Heather Sawyer, the group’s executive director, in a statement called decertification ‘a fiction designed to advance conspiracy theories and undermine confidence in our democracy.’”

But it is a fiction two of the three Republican candidates for governor support. In last night’s debate between the candidates, state Rep. Tim Ramthun said he supported decertification. “I would sign legislation the nanosecond it hit my desk,” Ramthun said. And businessman Tim Michels, who previously said this wasn’t a priority for him, has changed his view, saying he would consider such legislation. “Everything’ll be on the table,” Michels said. “I’ll make the right decision.”

Only former Lt. Governor Rebecca Kleefisch said she did not support decertification. “It’s not constitutionally possible,” Kleefisch said. “You talk to any constitutional attorney and you consult our Constitution and statute and you’ll see that there is no path to decertifying an election that has already happened.”

The memo by Gableman further undercuts an elections investigation that has dragged on for more than a year, costing taxpayers more than $1 million, while providing no new information on the 2020 election. Yet Gableman, who made comments saying the 2020 election was “stolen” before Vos hired him to conduct the probe, repeatedly pushed the idea that the election was fraudulent. He appeared before the Assembly’s elections committee to urge them to consider decertifying the election, claiming there were “very significant grounds” for decertification. Yet the draft of his report given to Vos didn’t include anything on certification; Gableman added that to the report he released publicly and presented to the Legislature.

Meanwhile, Gableman has been embroiled in lawsuits that failed to advance his investigation in any substantive way, with the most recent ruling by a judge finding Gableman in contempt of court and in violation of open records laws. He was been ordered to pay $163,000 in legal fees, which will be paid by state taxpayers.