Wisconsin Republicans, and a disgraced ex-Missouri governor, tour site of controversial Arizona ballot audit

This story was republished on Jan. 7, 2022 to make it free for all readers

PHOENIX - Four Wisconsin lawmakers toured the site of a controversial audit of Arizona ballots on Saturday alongside Eric Greitens, the former Missouri governor who stepped down three years ago after admitting to an affair and facing a blackmail allegation.

What the four Wisconsin Republicans planned to do with the information they gleaned from Arizona’s ballot examination remained unclear.

Their visit coincides with the Wisconsin Assembly hiring former law enforcement officials — including at least one with a partisan past — to review how the presidential election was conducted.

As the contingent of lawmakers walked through the Veterans Memorial Coliseum in Phoenix, former President Donald Trump appeared by video at an event in western Wisconsin to make a series of false claims about his loss last year to Joe Biden.

Rep. Janel Brandtjen of Menomonee Falls led the Wisconsin delegation to Phoenix. Brandtjen is the chairwoman of the Assembly Elections Committee, which is helping oversee the review of Wisconsin’s election.

During the 40-minute tour, Brandtjen and the other Wisconsin lawmakers stood shoulder to shoulder with Greitens, who has denied the blackmail allegation and is now running for U.S. Senate.

Assembly Speaker Robin Vos of Rochester sanctioned the Wisconsin delegation’s trip. He said Saturday he didn’t know they would be joined by Greitens, who has been criticized by some Republicans for trying to revive his political career.

In an interview last month, Vos showed little interest in what’s happening with more than 2 million ballots in Maricopa County, Arizona’s most populous county. Some Arizona Republicans have called the review a sham rife with errors.

“Do I think they used the wrong kind of marker in Arizona? I have no idea. And it’s irrelevant to me — I don’t care because I don’t live in Arizona,” Vos said in a May 26 interview. “I live in Wisconsin, so I have to work on Wisconsin.”

Nevertheless, two weeks later he approved sending Brandtjen and up to five other lawmakers to Arizona. Ultimately, Brandtjen was joined by three other Assembly Republicans — Rachael Cabral-Guevara of Appleton, Dave Murphy of Greenville and Chuck Wichgers of Muskego.

Biden narrowly defeated Trump in Arizona and Wisconsin, helping cement his claim to the presidency. A slew of court decisions confirmed his victory in both states, but Republicans have insisted more review is necessary.

Critics, including Republicans, have pelted Arizona’s ballot review with disdain, saying it can’t be taken seriously. Launched by Arizona’s Republican-led state Senate, it’s being conducted by cybersecurity firm Cyber Ninjas, which has never previously audited election results.

The U.S. Department of Justice in May raised questions about the security of ballots. Others have mocked the Arizona project because it includes a hunt for bamboo fibers in ballots to try to bolster an unfounded theory that thousands of ballots were smuggled into Arizona from Asia.

Rohn Bishop, the chairman of the Fond du Lac County Republican Party, said Saturday he viewed the Arizona audit as a fruitless waste of time and money, calling the theory about ballots coming from Asia “borderline racist if not completely.”

"I think it's pretty ridiculous that Wisconsin Republican representatives went to Arizona for this thing," said Bishop. "What does it have to do with Wisconsin? I thought they were looking into potential irregularities here."

He sees a potential bright side of the investigations in Arizona and Wisconsin because they may persuade skeptical Republicans that Biden’s victory was valid.

"A good chunk of our base voters think something’s up and question the legitimacy of the election," he said. "That’s not healthy for our democracy and anything we can do to clear the air I think is a good thing."

He allowed that some Republicans may not ever accept Biden’s win, saying the ultimate findings in Arizona and Wisconsin may "give them something to hang their tinfoil hat on."

That's exactly what will happen, said Katie Hobbs, Arizona's Democratic secretary of state.

“We already know the results we certified were accurate, but they’ve created an atmosphere that is primed for cooking the books,” she said.

She said Wisconsinites should “take every legal avenue that you have to try to stop” anything like what’s happening in Arizona.

In Wisconsin, Trump appeared by video at a rally in St. Croix County hosted by MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell, who has been sued and banned by social media sites, television networks and retailers for his false claims of ballot rigging.

As he has in the past, Trump in his 15-minute appearance falsely claimed he won Wisconsin. He downplayed his ties to the Arizona election review, even though Arizona Senate President Karen Fann has said Trump thanked her for launching the effort.

"These are incredible American patriots and let’s see what they do — that’s their audit. That’s not my audit. I have nothing to do with it," Trump said on a Jumbotron serving as a backdrop to the stage at Lindell’s rally in New Richmond.

"The people of the state don’t understand the election and that’s a good thing to be doing what they’re doing because they have to understand. When they don’t believe in the election — that’s a very, very bad thing for our country," he said.

More than 100 workers and volunteers

In Phoenix, supporters of the ballot review sat in a parking lot near the coliseum under a tent festooned with American and Israeli flags and a hand-painted painted banner that proclaimed, "We will not be governed by criminals."

Inside, more than 100 workers and volunteers in brightly colored T-shirts chatted as they went about their work. Teams in red, blue and green placed ballots on easels mounted on rotating tabletops and then spun them past volunteers sitting around the table so they could count them. Teams in yellow and gray photographed ballots and placed them in boxes. 

The Wisconsin delegation’s trip was funded by Voices and Votes, a group headed by Christina Bobb and Chanel Rion of One America News Network, a conservative outlet that has raised money for Arizona’s ballot review on air.

Arizona officials have not disclosed how much has been privately raised for the endeavor.

The privately funded trip to Arizona comes as Brandtjen and other Republicans rail against Wisconsin municipalities for accepting more than $10 million from a private group, the Center for Tech and Civic Life, to help administer their elections last year. Most of the money went to Wisconsin’s five largest, Democratic-heavy cities.

"Listen, this kind of third-party interaction in elections is what gives everybody a pause — should give everybody, both Democrats and Republicans — because transparency and fairness in elections is what people demand," Brandtjen said during a recent interview on One America News.

Brandtjen has not said whether she believes it’s appropriate for Arizona officials to accept private funds for their review of ballots. She has not said why she accepted a privately funded trip in light of her opposition to private donations for administering elections. She and the other Wisconsin lawmakers did not return phone calls Saturday.

Hobbs, the Arizona secretary of state, said she was troubled by the lack of details about who is funding the recount.

“People in Russia could be paying for this for all we know,” she said.

The trip to Arizona comes as Republicans challenge Wisconsin’s election on multiple fronts. They are seeking to change election laws and directed the nonpartisan Legislative Audit Bureau to review how the election was administered.

Last month, Vos hired a lawyer and the former law enforcement officials who may use the Legislature’s subpoena power to gather documents. Among those he hired is former Milwaukee Police Detective Mike Sandvick, who sat on a Wisconsin Republican Party committee and as a detective wrote a report about problems with the 2004 election that was later disavowed by prosecutors and the FBI.

Brandtjen has not said whether she wanted to take Arizona’s approach in Wisconsin.

Dane County Clerk Scott McDonell said he didn’t believe Wisconsin legislators could legally seize ballots and machines from him or other clerks. He will fight them if they try, he said, calling such a move "an existential threat to our democracy."

He said the Arizona review didn’t improve the public’s faith in elections because journalists and most members of the public can't get close enough to see what’s happening. That’s a contrast from recounts in Wisconsin that Trump requested that were closely watched by observers from both parties.

"If you can’t see the ballot and how people are counting them, you don’t have a recount," McDonell said. "It’s a play. It’s a drama. It’s not real."

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.