Wisconsin Republicans Join New Federal Election Lawsuit

Observers watch workers at Milwaukee County’s presidential recount. Photo by Jeramey Jannene.

Legal challenges to presidential election results in Wisconsin and other states have been soundly rejected, but they keep coming. Republicans continue to seek to overturn the election in favor of Donald Trump in advance of a January 6th meeting to count the Electoral College votes.

A new suit was filed Tuesday in federal court seeking to toss the results in Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Georgia, Michigan and Arizona. The Wisconsin Voters Alliance is a plaintiff, as are similar groups in each of the challenged states. The Wisconsin group’s previous suit was rejected by the Wisconsin Supreme Court.

Joining the suit are two Republican legislators from upstate Wisconsin. Representatives Jeffrey Mursau (R-Crivitz) and David Steffen (R-Howard) are listed as plaintiffs alongside six other elected officials from three other states. The plaintiffs are represented by attorney Erick Kaardal, special counsel to Amistad Project of the Thomas More Society.

Also included as plaintiffs are WVA head Ron Heuer, Republican legislative candidate Debbie Jacques and Bonduel resident Richard Kucksdorf.

Similar to other suits, it is riddled with oddities. One of the defendants, Howard Marklein, is listed as the Wisconsin Senate Majority Leader. Mursau and Steffen no doubt know their fellow Republican doesn’t hold that post. The suit also names the Electoral College as a defendant, which observers have noted isn’t a legal entity that can be sued.

“I can’t even describe it. It’s really dumb,” said attorney Marc Elias in a tweet. “Trump and his allies remain 1-59 in post election litigation.” Elias has filed to intervene in a number of the cases on behalf of Democrats.

The suit also names Vice President Mike Pence as a defendant, even though he would benefit from a successful suit. The vice president serves as the tiebreaking vote in the U.S. Senate and presides over the proceedings with Congress set to count the Electoral College votes on January 6th. Pence, as it currently stands, would have to lead the counting of votes in an election in which he lost even as Trump refuses to concede.

The new challenge recycles a number of prior arguments that courts have rejected regarding absentee ballots and drop boxes, including attacking Mark Zuckerberg‘s Center for Technology and Civic Life that provided COVID-19-related grants to fund election equipment purchases.

It also introduces a claim that drop boxes were not distributed evenly by geography in Wisconsin, while ignoring that Wisconsin residents are not distributed evenly.

The opening line challenging Arizona’s results states that the challenge comes from voters in Michigan, a typo. On the next page, it mentions Wisconsin voters challenging Arizona results.

As other suits have, it asks that the Republican-controlled state legislatures be allowed to decide who won the election. But it builds on the request by asking that to become law going forward.

A copy of the filing can be found on Urban Milwaukee.