Dane Co. judge to order elections commission to reconsider fake elector complaint without Spindell

The Wisconsin Elections Commission will be ordered to reconsider its decision not to sanction the 10 Wisconsin Republicans who cast false Electoral College votes for former President Donald Trump in 2020. 

Dane County Judge Frank Remington said on Monday that the involvement in that decision by commissioner Robert Spindell, one of the ten false electors, makes it unenforceable. 

In the weeks after the 2020 election, as attempts the Trump campaign sought to overturn President Joe Biden’s victory in Wisconsin by about 21,000 votes, a number of Republicans met in secret to cast Electoral College votes at the same time that the duly elected Democratic electors were meeting. The false votes were submitted to Congress, the National Archives, a federal judge and then-Secretary of State Doug La Follette. 

The Republican electoral votes cast in Wisconsin and several other states were used by Republicans to argue the results of the election remained in dispute and were cited in the lead-up to the insurrection at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. 

In March of 2022, the WEC unanimously voted not to sanction the 10 Republicans who cast the electoral votes after a complaint was brought by Madison attorney Jeff Mandell. 

In court, Remington said he’d issue a written ruling stating that the WEC should reconsider the complaint, this time without Spindell’s involvement. Remington’s order comes in a case in which the progressive legal outfit  Law Forward and the Madison arm of the Service Employees International Union argue that the WEC decision should be tossed out because of Spindell’s inclusion in the vote. 

“In retrospect, it was inappropriate for Mr. Spindell not to recuse,” Remington said.