MADISON, Wis. (AP) – The leader of Wisconsin’s election board quietly certified Donald Trump’s victory Friday, moving past the chaos that surrounded the 2020 election results in the battleground state.
Commission Chairwoman Ann Jacobs certified results showing Trump won the state by 1,697,626 votes, compared to Democrat Kamala Harris’ 1,668,229 votes during a morning Zoom teleconference that lasted six minutes.
The certification felt almost anticlimactic compared to the aftermath of the 2020 election, when Trump refused to accept that Joe Biden won the state by about 21,000 votes.
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Trump forced a recount in Dane and Milwaukee counties, the state’s two Democratic strongholds, but it did not change the outcome. Trump later sued to disqualify more than 221,000 ballots in the two counties. He moved to disqualify absentee ballots cast early and in person, saying no proper written request had been made for the ballots; absentee ballots cast by people claiming indefinite lockdown; absentee ballots collected by poll workers in Madison parks; and absentee ballots where clerks filled in missing information on ballots.
The state Supreme Court dismissed the case in December 2020, ruling that four of Trump’s claims were filed too late and the other was without merit. A federal judge that same month dismissed another lawsuit filed by two Republican lawmakers, voting rights groups and others seeking to overturn the results.
Under pressure from Trump, Wisconsin Assembly Speaker Robin Vos hired former Supreme Court Justice Michael Gableman in the spring of 2021 to investigate allegations of fraud and abuse related to the election.
The investigation ultimately yielded nothing. The state Office of Lawyer Regulation filed a complaint against Gableman last week, accusing him of violating multiple rules of conduct during the investigation. The state Supreme Court will decide what, if any, sanctions Gableman will face.
The nonpartisan director of the Election Commission, Meagan Wolfe, became the target of conspiracy theorists and election skeptics who falsely claimed she was part of a plot to rig the 2020 election for Biden. Republican lawmakers are trying to fire her, but the committee has filed a lawsuit to keep her post. That case is currently before the state Supreme Court.
Trump’s national victory in November has calmed conservative anger, but a vocal faction of the Republican Party remains deeply skeptical of electoral processes, especially the use of ballots and scanners to count votes. Still, several states that experienced tumultuous certifications during the 2020 election and 2022 midterms have smoothly certified their results in recent weeks, including Arizona, Michigan, Nevada and New Mexico.
