Michael Gableman said bureaucrats 'stole our votes' before he was put in charge of reviewing 2020 election

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

MADISON - The lawyer overseeing a Republican review of the presidential election is portraying himself as a neutral arbiter who hasn’t reached any conclusions, but last year he told a group of Donald Trump’s supporters that the election had been stolen.

"Our elected leaders — your elected leaders — have allowed unelected bureaucrats at the Wisconsin Elections Commission to steal our vote," former state Supreme Court Justice Michael Gableman told the crowd at Serb Hall in Milwaukee in November.

Assembly Speaker Robin Vos of Rochester hired Gableman at taxpayer expense this summer to review the election that Trump narrowly lost even though recounts and a slew of court rulings showed Joe Biden had won.

The pairing is not an obvious one. Gableman in November blamed Republican leaders like Vos for setting the stage for what he considers a poorly run election, arguing they should have cracked down on the agency that oversees Wisconsin’s voting systems.

"The people who bear the real responsibility for all of this is the legislative leadership," Gableman said in November. "They created the Wisconsin Elections Commission, they pay for it, they write the checks — well, the people pay for it, but the Legislature writes the check to support all these people (at the commission)."

Gableman made the comment on a podcast hosted by Kevin Nicholson, the former Marine who lost the 2018 Republican primary for U.S. Senate and is planning a bid for Senate or governor next year. Gableman sits on the board of the No Better Friend Corp., the political group Nicholson heads.

Also on the podcast, Gableman said he thought Republican lawmakers were unwilling to take on the Elections Commission because they feared media criticism, according to a Milwaukee Journal Sentinel review of comments Gableman' made shortly after the election.

Recently, Gableman has tried to downplay his past comments.

In a recent interview broadcast on WISN-TV, Gableman falsely claimed he hadn’t said the election was stolen.

Gableman did not respond to questions from the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. A spokeswoman for Vos also did not answer questions.

During the WISN interview, Gableman was asked whether he had prejudged his review of the election by saying at the November rally, "I don't think anyone here can think of anything more systematically unjust than a stolen election."

He responded: "I didn’t say it was a stolen election. I stand by every word you just (said). I cannot — and I defy you to — think of anything more unjust than a corrupt or unlawful election in a democracy. Whether that occurred here is very much a question to be examined."

Asked if that meant he was saying that he hadn't told the crowd the election was stolen, Gableman said, "I try to be very careful about my words."

But he didn't address how his claim squared with his other comment at the rally that the bureaucrats had been allowed to "steal our vote."

"I think that's a profoundly unfortunate, false and inflammatory comment," said Ann Jacobs, the Democrat who serves as chairwoman of the commission. "The Elections Commission has been absolutely diligent in fulfilling our statutory duties with regards to elections."

Assembly Democratic Leader Gordon Hintz, D-Oshkosh, said Gableman wasn't credible because he had cheered on the pro-Trump crowd in November. 

"He showed up at the circus. He showed up at a clown show. I mean, he's part of the circus," Hintz said. "He's doing damage by his participation in this. There is no credibility."

The status of Gableman's investigation is unclear. Vos hired law enforcement officers to assist Gableman, but they quit. Vos recently said he has given Gableman more authority and will allow him to hire more help. 

The developments come as state Rep. Janel Brandtjen, the Menomonee Falls Republican who leads the Assembly Committee, is seeking to seize ballots and voting equipment in Brown and Milwaukee counties. She issued subpoenas for that material on Friday, but they appear to be invalid because they were not signed by Vos and Assembly Chief Clerk Ted Blazel. 

Gableman criticizes a leader who is now his boss

Gableman is now working closely with Vos, but nine months ago he had harsh words for legislative leaders like Vos.

In his November podcast appearance, Gableman criticized the Elections Commission for guidance it gave clerks that he considers inaccurate. That’s when he said “the ones who bear the real responsibility for all of this is the legislative leadership.”

Republicans aren’t doing more about how the commission operates because they can't handle public criticism, he said. 

“I think legislators, especially Republican legislators, are afraid that if they do take steps to see that the election laws are followed, that they will be criticized by, among others, most of the editors and most of the reporters at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel and other media outlets for so-called voter suppression when in fact they are just trying to enforce the law,” Gableman said.

The commission consists of six members — three Republicans and three Democrats.

Gableman claimed that when the commissioners deadlock on an issue, the staff’s recommendation prevails. That is not true. The staff can’t take action without the directive of a majority of the commission.

Gableman blasted the commission for its decision not to quickly purge thousands of voters from the rolls in 2019 after notifying them that it believed they might have moved.

He argued the commission was “in clear violation of the statutes" even though an appeals court decision was in place at the time saying the commission had acted appropriately. 

Five months after Gableman claimed the commission was wrong, the state Supreme Court ruled 5-2 in its favor.

Also during his podcast interview, Gableman said he had trouble believing 85% of voters in some wards in Milwaukee had voted for Biden — even though lopsided numbers for Democrats are common in the state's largest city.

"I simply don’t believe those numbers are legitimate based on what I’ve seen and the conversations I’ve had. I just think that President Tump has a lot more support than that," Gableman said.

Results from past elections show Biden’s numbers in Milwaukee were typical.

For instance, in 2016 — when Trump won the state — Democrat Hillary Clinton received 85% or more of the votes in many Milwaukee wards. Similarly, Trump that year racked up close to 85% of the vote in heavily Republican rural areas such as Alto, Leola, McKinley and Herman. 

Bill Glabuer and Hope Karnopp of the Journal Sentinel staff contributed to this report.

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