Today’s Links
Articles:
Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel – Robin Vos Fires Michael Gableman, Ending $1M Review of the 2020 Election
Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel – Gableman seeks to jail two mayors if they don’t sit for interviews as part of his partisan election review
WisPolitics.com – Vos, Gableman reach verbal agreement to extend election probe contract
Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel – A former Wisconsin Supreme Court justice will oversee the latest election review sought by the state’s GOP leaders
You’re listening to the American Democracy Minute, keeping YOUR government by and for the people.
Last year, the Wisconsin legislature, all hyped up on election fraud conspiracies, hired a retired Wisconsin Supreme Court justice, Michael Gableman, to conduct a review of the 2020 election results. Fourteen months and a million dollars with no fraud to show for it, Gableman’s contract was terminated last week.
In June 2021, Assembly Speaker Robin Vos held a press conference in which the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported him saying, “What we’re after is fairness and honesty.”
What the voters of Wisconsin got was a big bill. Gableman was supposed to have wrapped up his probe by the end of December 2021, but in August 2021, outlined a $676,000 budget without an end date. In January 2022, the contract was again extended to October 31 – without having yet shared any results with the public. The Journal-Sentinel made several public information requests for supporting documents, but those requests were ignored.
Gableman himself received $100,000 in salary, but also hired retired police detectives and outside lawyers to conduct interviews. Two Wisconsin mayors were threatened with being jailed earlier this year for refusing to sit for interviews with Gableman’s team.
Robin Vos, who just fought off a Trump-endorsed challenger in the Wisconsin Primary, said he’s asked for a report from Gableman by February 2023. A member of the Senate Elections Committee said of Gableman’s termination, “It’s about time.”
See links to the Journal-Sentinel articles at AmericanDemocracyMinute.org Granny D said, Democracy is not something we HAVE, it’s something we DO.”
For the American Democracy Minute, I’m Brian Beihl.