Ron Johnson calls for having Republican lawmakers take over federal elections in Wisconsin

This story was republished on Jan. 6, 2022 to make it free for all readers

MADISON – U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson is calling on Wisconsin lawmakers to take over elections and tell local officials to ignore the work of the bipartisan Elections Commission they set up six years ago. 

The Oshkosh Republican on Wednesday met privately for an hour with GOP legislative leaders in the state Capitol, less than two weeks after telling the Journal Sentinel in an interview that lawmakers should set aside the commission's work. He repeatedly declined to say afterward whether he'd discussed his views on taking over elections, saying only that he had talked about many issues.

In the earlier interview, Johnson accused the state commission of "systematically" violating the law with the advice it gave to municipal clerks during the coronavirus pandemic last year.

More:Senate Republicans issue subpoena for Madison election records

More:Racine County sheriff seeks charges for 5 Wisconsin elections commissioners

He contended Republicans who control the Legislature could unilaterally take over federal elections and said Democratic Gov Tony Evers couldn't stop them.

"There's no mention of the governor in the Constitution" when it comes to running elections, Johnson said. "It says state legislatures, and so if I were running the joint —and I’m not — I would come out and I would just say, 'We're reclaiming our authority. Don't listen to WEC anymore. Their guidances are null and void.'"

He added: "I think the state Legislature has to reassert, reclaim this authority over our election system."

Attempting to overtake elections without the sign-off of Evers would all but guarantee a legal challenge. The Elections Commission was created by state law and the normal process for replacing it would be for legislators to pass legislation and the governor to sign it. 

In the interview with the Journal Sentinel, Johnson focused on how he believed lawmakers could take control of federal elections, such as those for Congress and the presidency. He said the situation may be different for elections for state offices like the governor. 

Republican lawmakers voted to create the Elections Commission in 2015 over the objections of Democrats. 

Until the commission was formed, elections were overseen by the Government Accountability Board. Republicans believed that agency was biased against them, particularly after it launched a wide-ranging probe of Republicans for alleged campaign finance laws. The state Supreme Court shut down the investigation before it was completed and Republicans quickly dissolved the accountability board. 

Johnson said he had a dim view of the commission, which consists of three Republicans and three Democrats.

"I wasn't involved in that," he said in the interview. "I kind of scratched my head at that as well. I mean, we had GAB and then it seems like they just renamed it."

The commission is significantly different than the accountability board, which was made up of retired judges. The commission is equally divided, has no authority over campaign finance laws and has fewer powers to launch investigations than the accountability board did. 

Johnson said he opposed policies the commission set that allowed clerks to add witness addresses on absentee ballot paperwork if it was missing to ensure the ballots were counted. That policy was set in 2016 at the behest of Republican commissioners.

Johnson said he opposed the commission's decision last year to tell clerks to mail absentee ballots to nursing homes instead of sending poll workers known as special voting deputies to them to assist with casting ballots.

State law requires clerks to dispatch voting deputies to the facilities two times. After that, clerks are to mail absentee ballots to nursing home residents.

The commissioners told clerks not to follow that law and instead mail absentee ballots to nursing homes immediately because they weren't allowing visitors during the pandemic. 

Racine County Sheriff Christopher Schmaling last week said five of the six commissioners should be charged with felonies for advising clerks not to follow the nursing home law.

Democratic Attorney General Josh Kaul has called the Republican sheriff's recommendation a publicity stunt. Racine County District Attorney Patricia Hanson has not said whether she will issue charges.

Johnson has been pushing state lawmakers to take a more active role in federal elections for nearly a year. The day after the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, Johnson said the debate that preceded the attack should serve as a "wake-up call to state legislatures" to investigate election irregularities and "reassert their authority over federal elections and establish controls to restore confidence in our election system."

"The solution lies in the states, not with the federal government," Johnson said in a statement on Jan. 7.

Molly Beck of the Journal Sentinel staff contributed to this report.

Contact Patrick Marley at patrick.marley@jrn.com. Follow him on Twitter at @patrickdmarley.