.@WI_Elections Commission meeting is off to a rocky start, with GOP members arguing for another meeting before @realDonaldTrump recount results are certified
Democrats say there's no point to meet again because the law spells out how certification goes
Commission is split 3-3
@WI_Elections@realDonaldTrump Commission is now arguing over what changes, if any, to make to its recount manual providing guidance to local elections officials
Democratic member Mark Thomsen, from Milwaukee, says "I've never felt so attacked" by Trump seeking recount only in Milwaukee, Dane counties
@WI_Elections@realDonaldTrump Republican commission member Den Knudson is arguing that the order calling for the recount should tell the counties to set aside ballots in bulk that Trump is questioning in expectation of a future court challenge
Democrats say Trump's claims are baseless
@WI_Elections@realDonaldTrump Republican commission member Bob Spindell says thousands of absentee ballots could have been sent out without people requesting them
Chair Ann Jacobs, a Democrat, called such a charge "absurd. It’s factually bizarre.”
Republicans don't want it to reference updates to a recount manual with guidance for local election officials
The law requires the commission to order the recount. They appear now to be deadlocked
Democratic commissioner Mark Thomsen says it will work through disagreements over recount manual and eventually approve recount order, but it may take some time.
“It’s clear some people don’t want us to go home until 1 or 2 in the morning.”
Unable to agree, for now, on what the motion to order the recount should say, the commission is now discussing line by line what changes staff have made in a 2018 recount manual and the new version that includes accommodations for the pandemic, among other things
Commissioner Dean Knudson objects to voting on each change in the recount manual, says that won't help reach a compromise that will lead to it being approved
Chair Ann Jacobs asks what his ideas are:
“I would be delighted to see this commission actually function.”
Commissioner Dean Knudson says Democrats are using the pandemic as a cover to pursue changes they want to election law, "even when it was silly."
He says Democrats in Milwaukee and Dane counties want to make it harder to observe the recount and are using pandemic as "excuse"
More than two hours into WEC meeting where they are to approve an order to start a recount paid for by @realDonaldTrump, they are arguing line by line over changes to a recount manual, making no progress:
Mark Thomsen: “This is clear this is not going to work.”
@realDonaldTrump Republican Bob Spindell says Democrats in Milwaukee and Dane counties don't want Trump observers to view ballots
He says the recount can have "total safety" and also protect rights of observers to see the ballots
@realDonaldTrump On a unanimous vote, the Wisconsin Elections Commission approves adding one sentence to the recount manual saying "ballots and materials must be available for candidates and their representatives to view and offer any objections to a ballot
being counted."
Nearly three hours into WEC meeting, as commissioners continue to wrangle over adding wording to recount manual related to pandemic safety measures, Mark Thomsen muses:
“It’s just remarkable the six of us in a civilized fashion can’t agree to this stuff.”
At 9:07 p.m., as they continue wrangling over changes to the recount manual, the commission takes a 15-minute break.
Commissioner Dean Knudson suggests all absentee ballot requests made via the state's MyVote website, the method used by most voters, may be illegal
“I hope we haven’t created a system at WEC that entices people to request a ballot that actually isn’t in keeping with the law.”
The commission deadlocked on changing the guidance to make clear that state law does not require during a recount that every application for an absentee ballot be reviewed
As it stands, language remains that says written applications for absentee ballots be reviewed
Republican Bob Spindell said whether the guidance relative to absentee ballots was contrary to state law was open to interpretation:
“That’s not something we’re going to determine tonight.”
After spending hours voting on changes to the recount manual, the commission is now arguing over whether to instruct clerks that they should follow only state law or state law and the manual
Republican Bob Spindell:
“What does follow the statute mean? There’s all kinds of interpretations to that.”
Democrat Julie Glancey:
“I don’t really see that. The law is the law.”
Five and a half hours after they started, the Wisconsin Elections Commission votes unanimously on order to be issued tomorrow starting the Trump-requested recount
The order does not refer to the commission's own recount manual they spent hours revising
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“That’s like losing the Super Bowl and then saying ‘I want a review of a certain play using different rules than what applied to the rest of the game.'"
@WI_Elections@realDonaldTrump Dean Knudson, a Republican member of @WI_Elections board, says Trump raised "significant legal questions that have never been adjudicated in Wisconsin.”
But Democratic member Mark Thomsen says Trump is showing the essence of hypocrisy and cheating and dishonesty.”
@WI_Elections@realDonaldTrump Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett on Trump only calling for recount in Milwaukee, Dane counties:
“This is an attack on cities, on minorities, on places that have historically voted Democratic. Don’t let anyone fool you that this is about irregularities.”
@JoeBiden@realDonaldTrump Trump campaign legal adviser Jenna Ellis today stops short of promising a recount in Wisconsin:
“The legal team continues to examine the issues with irregularities in Wisconsin and are leaving all legal options open, including a recount and an audit."
The two leaders of Milwaukee's host committee for the 2020 Democratic National Convention have been fired amid allegations that they oversaw a toxic work environment
The dramatic shakeup comes less than six months before the showcase political event in swing state Wisconsin.
The host committee board issued a statement saying that the group's president, Liz Gilbert, and its chief of staff, Adam Alonso, were no longer employed by the organization effective immediately.
The firings came a day after Gilbert and Alonso were placed on leave
Joe Solmonese, the chief executive of the Democratic National Convention Committee, said the “gravity of the concernd raised” demanded a serious and meaningful response and he was grateful for the board acting promptly to address the issue.
BREAKING: Wisconsin judge sides with conservatives, orders elections commission to deactivate up to 234,000 voters who may have moved
Decision expected to be appealed
The judge said Wisconsin law clearly required the elections commission to deactivate voters who didn't respond to the mailing within 30 days. The commission had no basis to set a different time frame, he said.
Judge Paul Malloy:
“I don’t want to see anybody deactivated but I don’t write the legislation. If you don’t like it, then I guess you have to go back to the Legislature. (The elections commission) didn’t do that."
The case is expected to go to the state Supreme Court
.@ScottWalker tells reporters his interactions with Maria Butina, who is charged with being a foreign agent for Russia, did not extend beyond an NRA convention in 2015 where they had their picture taken together:
"We had no meeting, just so it's clear."
@ScottWalker "What we did is what we do just about every day in Wisconsin. As we go to events, we meet people, they introduce themselves, often they ask for a picture. That's not a meeting. A meeting is where you sit down in a room and have a discussion."
@ScottWalker Walker on pictures of him with Maria Butina:
"I just ask the logical question. If it was something covert, why wold we post that picture on a website? It just seems ridiculous to think that would be the case."