Whoo Nellie - this morning's mostly-all-caps anti-voting screed from the current resident of the Whitehouse is a true casserole of everyone's favorite conspiracy theories which a bunch of paranoia & authoritarianism thrown in for flavor. A brief 🧵from a swing state: 1/12 Bamboo ballots are back, baby! The "watermark" idea is based on a false claim that [somehow] bad actors are secretly printing ballots, filling them out, and substituting them for real ballots to be counted. How does this happen? Who knows! 2/12

A brief 🧵on why the latest conspiracy theory about China sending drivers licenses to Wisconsin to allow for fake absentee voters to cast an absentee ballot is just a whole lot of nonsense and people shouldn't believe any of it. 1/ Now this conspiracy theory assumes that there are nefarious actors who will take a fake ID from China, register to vote online, then request an absentee ballot online, then return it by mail. There is no claim of an army of live people registering with fake ID's. 2/

Happy to report that there is now a Legal Defense Fund set up for Judge Hannah Dugan! It is created in compliance with the Wisconsin Code for Judicial Ethics & Ethics for Public Officials!

hannahdugandefensefund.org The Fund "will be professionally managed by a separate entity experienced in fund management; its work will be monitored by counsel experienced in professional ethics. [former WI Supreme Ct justice] Janine P. Geske will oversee and serve as a trustee of the fund." 2/

When I first saw the complaint against Hannah Dugan, the facts didn't add up and I discussed them at some length. 1/

https://x.com/AnnJacobsMKE/status/1915857745170796595

She has since been indicted under similar claims. Some as spurious as allowing a litigant to appear by zoom (something that happens all the time).
As Judge Sol Wachter said, a grand jury would indict a ham sandwich if asked. 2/

Let's discuss the *actual* charges against Judge Hannah Dugan using the Complaint against her.
tl;dr - she sent the man in question into the public hallway where agents there to arrest him watched him walk by and did nothing. 1/
storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.usco… ¶12 - They had a 6-member task force including one ICE, one CBP, 2 FBI and 2 DEA agents. Whew!
¶10 - because of courthouse security, they knew he would be unarmed.
6 people for one unarmed guy. OK. 2/

Why do so many people feel like late-night ballot totals are new (when they are not)? Answer: It has everything to do with the difference between “calling” an election, and having complete totals in. A thread: 1/10 When the margins in a race are very large (1 side is winning by a lot) the press calls the race even though all ballots aren’t accounted for. This frequently happens in states that are ‘red’ or ‘blue.’ For example CA gets called even though it takes them a long time to count.2/10

A quick Wisconsin review of Trump’s new executive order:
tl;dr – This does *not* change anything for our upcoming election for Supreme Court on April 1. Here’s why: 1/7 1-State elections are governed by state law, not federal law. The WI Supreme CT race is a state race only (there are no federal elections at all on April 1), so any federal demands do not and cannot affect this race. 2/7

Wisconsin voting: A brief update on the 193 City of Madison absentee ballots that were not counted. The WI Elections Commission (WEC) did not learn about these ballots until 12/18/24, long after the election had been certified (on 11/29/24). 1/6 12/19/24, WEC staff asked for a call with the Madison Clerk and City Atty., which occurred on 12/20. WEC asked the clerk for details on how this happened, and a statement was provided by her on 12/23. That statement gave some information, but left many outstanding questions. 2/6

Important update on Wisconsin: Milwaukee Central Count hit a snafu today. The tabulator machines have doors that are supposed to be locked and sealed before tabulation. Sadly, that did not occur this morning. Both political parties agree that nothing was wrong with the 1/ Tabulation so far. However, in the interest of transparency and so that people can have confidence in the tabulation, the decision was made to re-tabulate the ballots run through so far. That’s about 34,000 ballots give or take. So the machines are being zeroed out, and 2/

A brief primer on Election Day registration in Wisconsin! To register on ED, you need 2 pieces of information. 1st a photo ID to prove who you are & 2nd proof of residence (where you live). Let's dig in a little bit! 1/ The best source for what Photo ID is permissible is ! For most, but not all voters, it will be their WI Driver's license or ID. Students can use their student ID provided it has an expiration date (or, if expired, they have proof of enrollment). 2/bringit.wi.gov

Friday afternoon Wisconsin election update: Friday was a great day for printing labels! We have continued our refreshing of the system and we have not had reports of label printing problems. We know many of you waited in long lines to vote & appreciate your patience!! 1/ We have been reviewing our systems closely and we are not seeing any other problems in our election administration system. This was not a cyberattack. This was an unfortunate printing problem that may have been exacerbated by the amazing volume of voters. 2/

Wisconsin: A thread about challenges to voters at the polls. tl;dr - no, you can't just show up and challenge anyone you want to for any reason or conspiracy theory du jour. Let's dive in! 1/
See WEC memo on the topic here: elections.wi.gov/elector-challe… First - who can challenge? Only an ELECTOR - over the age of 18, US citizen, resident of Wisconsin (that's a big one) and eligible to vote in Wisconsin. So out-of-state people/observers cannot challenge Wisconsin voters. 2/

From your favorite Wisconsin Elections Commissioner: A thread about the difference between *calling* an election and *result reporting* on Election Day. And why it’s important not to confuse the two! With an emphasis on Wisconsin. 1/ What you see on Election Day are *unofficial* results. In Wisconsin, they are sent from the poll sites to the 1,850 clerks, who report those unofficial totals. Those unofficial totals are then used by the media to create the running tallies you see on the news! 2/

Why are drop boxes often superior to the mail for absentee ballot return? A thread on Wisconsin’s recent decision to allow clerks to return to their decades-long use of drop boxes for the return of absentee ballots. First: Your ballot goes directly from you to your clerk! Ballots are retrieved by election workers (or the clerk themselves) and taken directly to the clerk’s office. From your hands to election officials’ hands!

A🧵to try to explain the pending deadlines in the Wisconsin Maps case, and why they are so short, and why that timeline is so important! I will be relying on the court’s scheduling order (which is separate from the opinion) which you can find here (1/8): acefiling.wicourts.gov/document/eFile… Here is the general outline of the timing (I’m leaving out a lot of detail):
12/26/23: Experts tell parties the info the parties need to provide
12/30/23: Parties to stipulate as to the data they are going to use or explain why they can’t (2/8)

The articles of impeachment filed against WEC administrator Meagan Wolfe are a hodgepodge of conspiracy theories, delusions, lies, and have been debunked multiple times. Yet the republican legislature is going to pretend that this is a serious thing. It’s not. 1/ First, read this article by MJS debunking all the claims. @TylerKatzen did a very good job going through the claims one-by-one. 2/
jsonline.com/story/news/pol…

A 🧵about the realities of the Wisconsin Election Commission's (WEC) administrator Meagan Wolfe remaining in her rightful position. Law & citations ahead!!
(I will cite to relevant parts but you can always look up the statutes/cases in full). (it's kind of long). 1/ The appointment of the WEC admin is governed by 15.61(1)(b)1.
"If a vacancy occurs in the administrator position, the commission shall appoint a new administrator, and submit the appointment for senate confirmation, no later than 45 days after the date of the vacancy." 2/

Why you should be skeptical about "Election Uniformity" and ballot questions about it. A 🧵. 1/11 Waukesha WI put this advisory referendum on the ballot: “Should the Wisc. Legislature prepare and place on the statewide ballot a Constitutional Amendment requiring that election administration, access to ballots, and counting of ballots be nearly uniform as practicable?” 2/11

Decertification is the wish of a losing party cloaked in the language of the constitution while violating every principle of our constitution and our nation. A thread: You cannot decertify an election - people who claim otherwise are ridiculous & simply making things up. 1/

I want to spend a moment talking about Voting machines. There appears to be people who think you can just somehow open them up & learn how they work. Or download some software & see how it all works. 1/ At page 43 of the link, you will see the work that the amazing Wisconsin Election Commission staff do to evaluate and consider approval of voting equipment. 2/ elections.wi.gov/sites/election…