Wisconsin election clerks confused by investigation email

By SCOTT BAUER
September 14, 2021

MADISON, Wis. (AP) — Wisconsin election clerks are reacting with a mixture of concern and confusion to the first inquiry made by a special investigator hired by Republicans to examine how the 2020 presidential election was run in the battleground state.

Based on an Associated Press survey of all 72 county election clerks, the email Monday from the lead investigator landed in the junk folders of at least seven counties and wasn’t received by at least 11 others. Several that did get it flagged it as a security risk.

Clerks for at least six counties said they would not be forwarding the email to municipalities in their jurisdiction as the investigator, former Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice Michael Gableman, requested. Gableman is a conservative who last year told a group of Trump supporters that the election had been stolen.

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On Monday, an email signed by Gableman was sent to at least 25 of the state’s 72 counties, based on the AP tally. The email included an attachment addressed to clerks, asking them to preserve “any and all records and evidence” related to the 2020 presidential election. It also asks the county clerks to share the email with more than 1,800 municipal clerks who run elections.

Even though Gableman’s name was in the body of the email and on the attached letter, the email itself came from someone named “john delta” at a gmail.com address. The pdf attachment lists “Andrew Kloster” as the author. He is a former Trump administration official and an attorney who describes himself as an “ecumenical rightist” on Twitter. Neither he nor Gableman responded to a request for comment.

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