Wisconsin assembly speaker says Trump called him this month to decertify 2020 election
By Paul LeBlanc, CNN
Wisconsin Assembly Speaker Robin Vos said former President Donald Trump called him last week as part of a fresh effort to decertify the state’s 2020 presidential election results.
“He would like us to do something different in Wisconsin,” Vos, a Republican, explained to CNN affiliate WISN in relaying his phone conversation with Trump. “I explained it’s not allowed under the Constitution. He has a different opinion.”
Trump’s latest effort to overturn his election loss, according to Vos, rests on a recent state Supreme Court ruling that bars the use of most ballot drop boxes in Wisconsin, and states that no one can return a ballot in person on behalf of another voter.
Vos said he explained to Trump that the ruling does not mean the use of ballot drop boxes in the 2020 election were illegal, but that “going forward it can’t happen.”
“I think we all know Donald Trump is Donald Trump,” Vos told WISN. “There’s very little we can do to control or predict what he will do.”
On his social media platform Truth Social Tuesday evening, the former President hailed the Wisconsin Supreme Court ruling as “Great” and “a time to act!” without specifying how.
“Robin, don’t let the voters of Wisconsin down!” Trump wrote.
Drop boxes have grown in popularity in recent elections in the Badger State: More than 520 ballot drop boxes were used in the 2020 general election, with that number increasing to 570 across 66 of Wisconsin’s 72 counties during spring elections in 2021, according to numbers cited in the state Supreme Court decision.
But the court’s majority ruled that the Wisconsin Election Commission — a six-member panel that helps oversee voting in the state — had overstepped its authority when it issued guidance to local election clerks to allow the use of drop boxes to return absentee ballots in the 2020 election, during the height of the pandemic.
Voting rights groups and Democrats have argued that restricting ballot drop boxes will make it harder for some residents to vote, especially those with disabilities. But conservative interests in Wisconsin have maintained that voting practices employed in the state during the 2020 election, such as the widespread use of ballot drop boxes, violated state law and opened the door to potential fraud.
Critics of the 2020 election have not offered evidence that widespread fraud altered the results of the presidential race, and the state Supreme Court ruling comes amid the backdrop of a competitive primary season in Wisconsin and beyond.
Wisconsin will be a key swing state in 2024. President Joe Biden won it by a little more than 20,600 votes in 2020 after Trump captured it four years earlier by fewer than 23,000 votes.
Trump has strongly hinted that he will again run for president in 2024 and that an announcement is imminent, though he continues to rail against the outcome of the 2020 election, often relying on debunked or unfounded claims.
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CNN’s Fredreka Schouten contributed to this report.
