Wisconsin GOP pumps new life into scrutinizing the 2020 election

CHIPPEWA FALLS, Wis. — The cash bar was open for business, the Lilydale Dance Hall decked out in holiday garland, but Michael Gableman wasn’t here with good tidings.

The attorney stood in front of Republican activists to share horror stories he’d heard in his investigation of the 2020 election: ballot harvesting, dead people left on state voter rolls and private grants to operate COVID-era elections used to get out the vote for Joe Biden, some claims misleading, some unsubstantiated. Gableman admitted he doesn’t think China or Russia hacked into voting machines, but they easily could have.

“I don’t think there’s anything too confusing about taking the dead people off of the voter rolls,” Gabelman said under the holiday lights, a stark reminder that more than a year had passed since Donald Trump lost the presidency.

Scenes like this are playing out across Wisconsin in the most aggressive effort by Republicans in any battleground state to pump new life into scrutinizing the last election. While some of the players are the same, their aim is different than it was a year ago, when groups unsuccessfully tried to overturn results that elected Biden….