Thread by @benwikler

NEWS: Last week, Trump endorsed candidate Tim Michels for Wisconsin governor. Yesterday, a WI voter filed a legal challenge to Michels’ nomination signatures for failing to follow clear election integrity guidelines.

Read on/retweet to help us hold Trump + Michels accountable.

Context:

To run for statewide office in Wisconsin, a candidate has to meet some key requirements. Chief amongst them is that they have to submit at least 2,000 valid signatures from Wisconsin residents to appear on the ballot.

This is something every candidate for statewide office has to do.

A couple of weeks ago, our great Governor Tony Evers did just that, submitting signatures from across Wisconsin.

https://twitter.com/Tony4WI/status/1530285220796170241

Trump-endorsed Tim Michels, however, failed to submit enough valid signatures to legally appear on the Wisconsin ballot this year.

The challenge filed shows that Michels only submitted 345 legal signatures, which is well below the required 2,000.

Every candidate running for office in Wisconsin has a legal and ethical obligation to make sure that anybody they ask to sign their nomination papers has all the correct information: the candidate's full name, proper mailing address, the office they're running for, etc.

This is to ensure election integrity. To ensure every single voter has correct, valid information before they affix their personal signature to a document to help someone seek the highest political offices in the state.

Makes sense, right?

Well, here's the thing: Tim Michels didn’t include the legally-required mailing address on the vast majority of his nomination papers.

One of these images from his nomination papers shows the legally-required information with “Hartland” listed—the other papers do not. Unfortunately for Michels, this disqualifies almost all of his signatures.

Why two different versions of the nomination signature sheets, one valid and one invalid?

The sheets containing Hartland all came from later in the circulation period, as if the campaign had realized their own error—but then failed to collect enough signatures on valid papers.

Michels was careless when preparing the nomination papers he’s responsible for. On his Declaration of Candidacy, a sworn and notarized statement he signed, he had the proper mailing address. But it’s missing from the vast majority of his nomination papers.

Heck, it's even something that self-serving millionaire Ron Johnson and #RadicalRebecca Kleefisch did, and actually got right.

Which is not something you can say about either of them that often.

Don’t just take our word for it! The Wisconsin Elections Commission has gone to great lengths to list out the steps necessary to legally collect nomination signatures.

docs.legis.wisconsin.gov/code/admin_cod…

They even developed an easy-to-follow video for candidates to make sure they fully understand the legal requirements to make it on the ballot.

Here's a snippet that talks about the exact mistake Tim Michels made:

If you didn’t catch that, they said, “If the mailing address is the same as the residential address except for a difference in the municipality, that difference must be listed.”

Tim Michels failed to do that.

These problems are outlined in the legal complaint filed by a Wisconsin voter yesterday.

Given the clearly documented complaint before them, the Wisconsin Elections Commission should rule that Michels only has 345 valid nomination signatures, well below the 2000 required.

Michels, whose campaign might end this week, could then appeal that WEC decision, and it could end up in one of many courts. But the facts are against him.

The challenge to Michels’ nomination signatures was submitted to the Wisconsin Elections Commission (WEC) yesterday. Next step is for them to review the evidence and make a ruling.

We’ll know more this Friday when they meet to consider this challenge.

In the meanwhile, we're calling on the leaders of the @WisGOP to join us in this effort.

Republicans have spent every day since the 2020 Presidential election pushing false narratives about so-called “election integrity.”

The 2020 election in Wisconsin, as repeated investigations have found, was free, fair, and secure. But election integrity is also about candidates meeting the lawful requirements.

If they care about election integrity, every Wisconsin Republican politician should want our election laws to be upheld—and for @michelsforgov to be held to the same standard.

@RonJohnsonWI @SpeakerVos @RebeccaforReal: will you stand with us for Wisconsin election integrity?