{"id":1397533,"date":"2022-03-24T00:59:57","date_gmt":"2022-03-24T04:59:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1397533"},"modified":"2022-03-24T00:59:58","modified_gmt":"2022-03-24T04:59:58","slug":"exclusive-rnc-gop-groups-ask-wisconsin-supreme-court-to-affirm-lower-court-ruling-against-ballot-harvesting","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/exclusive-rnc-gop-groups-ask-wisconsin-supreme-court-to-affirm-lower-court-ruling-against-ballot-harvesting\/","title":{"rendered":"Exclusive \u2014 RNC, GOP Groups Ask Wisconsin Supreme Court to Affirm Lower Court Ruling Against Ballot Harvesting"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">34<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fexclusive-rnc-gop-groups-ask-wisconsin-supreme-court-to-affirm-lower-court-ruling-against-ballot-harvesting%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1397533&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><div><\/div>\n<p class=\"subheading\">The Republican National Committee (RNC) and two other GOP groups <a href=\"https:\/\/prod-static.gop.com\/media\/documents\/File-stamped_Brief_1648059392.pdf\">filed<\/a> a joint amicus brief on Wednesday in a Wisconsin Supreme Court case regarding ballot harvesting in state elections.<\/p>\n<p>The case, <em>Tiegen v. Wisconsin Election Commission<\/em> [WEC], revolves around a WEC policy adopted during the 2020 presidential election that allowed absentee voting via drop boxes and ballot harvesting. The circuit court ruled that the WEC\u2019s memoranda violated the state\u2019s election statutes, which <a href=\"https:\/\/docs.legis.wisconsin.gov\/statutes\/statutes\/6\/iv\/87\/4\/b\/1\">say<\/a> that absentee ballots \u201cshall be mailed by the elector, or delivered in person, to the municipal clerk issuing the ballot or ballots.\u201d The brief, which was joined by both the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC), and Republican Party of Wisconsin, asks the Wisconsin Supreme Court to uphold the lower court\u2019s ruling.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"D-ROS-B1\" class=\"a8d\"><\/figure>\n<figure id=\"M-ROS-B1\" class=\"a8d\"><\/figure>\n<figure id=\"gmxrevmore\" class=\"H\"><\/figure>\n<p>\u201cThe RNC is joining with the NRSC and Wisconsin Republican Party to file a Supreme Court amicus brief in Wisconsin because appointed election officials have no right to circumvent election laws duly passed by state legislatures,\u201d RNC Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel said in an exclusive statement to Breitbart News. \u201cWisconsin has clear laws against ballot harvesting, but activist members of the unelected Wisconsin Election Commission disregarded them in the 2020 election. Republicans will not allow such un-democratic attacks on election integrity to go unchallenged.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>NRSC Chairman Sen. Rick Scott (R-FL) also gave a statement to Breitbart News, emphasizing a \u201cthreat to the integrity of our votes.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe need maximum participation in our elections with zero fraud, but we have unfortunately seen unelected bureaucrats and election officials recently carry out activities across our nation that have threatened the integrity of our votes.\u00a0 In Wisconsin, we are now seeing a rewrite of voting laws to include unsupervised, vulnerable drop boxes which is not only against the law but Americans overwhelmingly reject,\u201d Scott said.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"M-ROS-B2\" class=\"a8d\"><\/figure>\n<p>\u201cAmericans want secure elections and what\u2019s happening in Wisconsin is incredibly concerning.\u00a0 I\u2019m proud to join Chairwoman McDaniel and the Republican National Committee in filing this amicus brief and hope the court acts decisively to protect our elections,\u201d he continued.<\/p>\n<p>According to the filing, the WEC is only authorized to administer and enforce Wisconsin statutes \u201cas expressly set forth by the Legislature\u201d and has \u201cno authority to promulgate new election-related laws.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cTo the contrary, WEC\u2019s new methods of delivery of completed absentee ballots\u2014untethered to any legislative grant, authorization, or safeguards\u2014are ripe for fraud, undue influence, or similar abuse, which is exactly what the Legislature expressly intended to prevent when it authorized voting by absentee ballot,\u201d\u201d the brief contends.<\/p>\n<p>The brief also notes that an administrative rule in the state must be \u201cpublished in official registers\u201d after \u201c<span>public hearings, written input, and a series of complicated bureaucratic checks before being implemented\u201d to ensure that an agency is acting within the bounds of its statutory authority and in an otherwise reasonable manner.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>The brief poses two legal questions for the Wisconsin Supreme Court: whether state statutes governing the methods for delivery of completed absentee ballots mean what they say and whether the WEC can ignore those statutes and create its own method for delivering those ballots.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>The\u00a0GOP groups argue\u00a0that the statute should be interpreted as written and that the new methods of delivery created by the WEC exceed the commission\u2019s statutory authority, violate the separation of powers, and were procedurally improper under the state rule-making process.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAs the circuit court correctly held, WEC has unilaterally created new methods of delivery of a completed absentee ballot\u2014methods that have no trace in the Wisconsin Statutes\u2014despite almost simultaneously publishing contradictory information to the public on the very same topic,\u201d the brief alleges. \u201cIn doing so, WEC has embraced and promoted violations of Wisconsin election laws, created significant confusion about the absentee ballot voting process, and has usurped a core legislative function, or at the very least, failed to follow mandatory rule-making procedures. The circuit court should be affirmed.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The case is <i>Teigen v. Wisconsin Elections Commission<\/i>, No. 2022AP91 in the Supreme Court of Wisconsin.<\/p>\n<p><em>Katherine Hamilton is a political reporter for Breitbart News. You can follow her on\u00a0<a class=\"x5l\" title=\"This external link will open in a new window\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/katherineeeeee2\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Twitter<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Republican National Committee (RNC) and two other GOP groups filed a joint amicus brief on Wednesday in a Wisconsin Supreme Court case regarding ballot harvesting in state elections. The<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":2315279,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1397533","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1397533","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1397533"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1397533\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2315279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1397533"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1397533"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1397533"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}