After meeting with election conspiracists, Vos says decertification impossible but reaffirms belief in widespread fraud

Wisconsin Assembly Speaker Robin Vos (R-Rochester), after a meeting with a group of 2020 election conspiracists on Wednesday, said he believes there was widespread voter fraud in Wisconsin but again said it’s impossible to decertify the state’s results. 

Right-wing activists and former President Donald Trump have spent the last few months criticizing Vos for not going forward with attempts to decertify the election — which the Legislature’s nonpartisan attorneys have said is unconstitutional. Meanwhile Vos has spent the last year encouraging conspiracies about the election through his continued endorsement of former Supreme Court Justice Michael Gableman’s partisan review of the election. 

“There are some people who think that the Legislature has a unilateral ability to overturn the election,” he said. “We do not.”

“I think there was widespread fraud, and I think we are going to see more and more data that comes out as [Gableman] continues his investigation,” Vos continued.

Numerous lawsuits, audits, investigations, reviews and recounts have confirmed that President Joe Biden won Wisconsin’s 2020 election. Allegations of fraud have regularly been light on evidence and debunked from both sides of the political aisle. 

Vos convened the Wednesday meeting, saying it would give those who believe the election was stolen and that the results should be decertified a chance to prove their case. Also in attendance were people who believe it’s an impossible legal maneuver. 

“I still believe that we do not have the ability to decertify, but I said I would listen to those who are bringing experts to say we can and we will see if they can prove their case,” Vos told the Associated Press on Tuesday. 

Among those who believe the results can be decertified is right-wing gubernatorial candidate Rep. Tim Ramthun (R-Campbellsport). Vos and Ramthun have repeatedly clashed over the last year as Ramthun has committed to election denialism. On Wednesday Vos kicked Ramthun out of the meeting before it even started. 

“More obstruction,” Ramthun said as he left the meeting. “This is what I have been dealing with now for 17 months.”