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MADISON, Wis. — The Wisconsin Elections Fee postponed selecting its new chairman Tuesday after a Republican commissioner who might have challenged for the put up abruptly resigned, saying the state GOP would not need him to steer the fee as a result of he believes Donald Trump misplaced to Joe Biden truthful and sq..
Dean Knudson informed the fee in a farewell speech that Republican leaders have branded him a “RINO,” or Republican In Title Solely, a derogatory time period Republicans connect to members of the social gathering they do not really feel are conservative sufficient.
Knudson mentioned he believes that the GOP has “falsely peddled” conspiracy theories that Biden someway Wisconsin from Trump, regardless that a number of recounts and court docket rulings have discovered no widespread fraud and that Biden beat Trump by about 21,000 votes within the state.
“The painful reality is President Tump misplaced the election in 2020… and it was not as a result of election fraud,” Knudson mentioned. “It’s been made clear to me from the very best ranges of the Republican Celebration of Wisconsin there was a deep need that I not be chair and that’s wonderful.”
Anna Kelly, a spokeswoman for the Republican Celebration of Wisconsin, did not instantly reply to an electronic mail from The Related Press in search of remark.
The fee is made up of three Democrats and three Republicans. The chairmanship rotates between the events each two years. This yr is the Republican flip on the helm.
Beneath state regulation, solely Knudson and Republican commissioner Bob Spindell are eligible for the put up. Spindell has been publicly campaigning for the put up.
Spindell was certainly one of 10 Republicans who forged Electoral School votes for Trump in Wisconsin, regardless that Trump misplaced. He and the opposite pretend GOP electors had been sued final week.
The subsequent chair will maintain the place heading into the November election and within the lead as much as the 2024 presidential election in battleground Wisconsin. The chair by state regulation approves the vote canvass following elections and certifies outcomes. The chair additionally units the agenda for the fee and may exert affect over how questions are framed, an necessary energy on the board that’s evenly divided between Republicans and Democrats.
Knudson instructed the fee maintain off on a vote till Meeting Speaker Robin Vos appoints his successor. Regardless of Spindell’s urgings to take the vote, the fee voted 5-1 to postpone the competition till its June 10 assembly. Spindell was the one commissioner who voted in opposition to the transfer.
Regardless of the findings that the 2020 election was freed from widespread fraud, the fee has come below intense criticism from Republicans for a number of selections it made main as much as the competition, together with not sending particular voting deputies into nursing properties to help residents with casting absentee ballots because the COVID-19 pandemic was raging and increasing using poll drop bins.
The 4 Republican candidates operating for governor all need to dissolve the fee. The final holdout, Tim Michels, initially mentioned he wished to maintain the fee however overhaul its operations however reversed his place on Wednesday and referred to as for abolishing the company. The three Republican candidates operating for secretary of state need to shift election oversight from the fee to that workplace.
Spindell has mentioned he helps protecting the fee in place, however throughout a speech Tuesday night time he mentioned he could be in favor of shifting election oversight to a Republican secretary of state.
He mentioned nobody understands what the fee does and lots of Wisconsin residents nonetheless do not know if the fee’s selections main as much as the 2020 election had been authorized.
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