Wisconsin Elections Commission dismisses complaint against fake Trump electors

MADISON - The bipartisan Wisconsin Elections Commission this week dismissed a complaint filed against a group of Republicans who posed as electors for Donald Trump in 2020 despite Joe Biden's presidential victory in Wisconsin.

The commission had been ordered by a Dane County judge earlier this year to review the complaint for a second time but without the participation one of its members, who had signed the paperwork himself. The order was part of a civil lawsuit filed against the group of Republicans by Biden electors.

On Tuesday, the commission voted 5-0 to accept an agreement that settled the lawsuit and to dismiss the complaint before the commission. Commissioner Bob Spindell, a Republican, did not participate as ordered by Dane County Circuit Judge Frank Remington in May.

Included in the commission's action was accepting the public statement made by the group of Republicans acknowledging Biden won the 2020 election and that they were not duly elected presidential electors.

The order from Remington vacated the commission's March 2022 decision not to sanction the group of Republicans.

Spindell, a Republican commissioner on the state's top election oversight board, was sued in April and May 2022 in separate lawsuits over his role in the scheme that included similar efforts by Republicans in Arizona, Georgia, Michigan and Nevada. Spindell and other false electors have defended their actions, calling it a legal strategy in the event the election results were overturned by a lawsuit.

Democrats in recent days have called on Spindell to resign from the commission given his participation.

Biden beat Trump by about 21,000 votes in Wisconsin. Trump sought recounts in Dane and Milwaukee counties, which confirmed Biden's win. Trump sued and the state Supreme Court upheld the results on a 4-3 vote on Dec. 14, 2020 -- the same day the Biden electors met to certify the Wisconsin results, and when the group of Republicans met to sign paperwork claiming to be electors for Trump.

Molly Beck can be reached at molly.beck@jrn.com.

This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Wisconsin Elections Commission dismisses complaint against fake Trump electors