MADISON, Wis. — Democratic lawmakers worry the election investigation spearheaded by Wisconsin Republicans will lead to more voter suppression laws. However, it's not just lawmakers from Wisconsin who are calling for new protections.
Sen. Tammy Baldwin was home in Madison Wednesday and joined by her Democratic colleague Amy Klobuchar from neighboring Minnesota to tout the 'For the People Act' during a roundtable held at the Urban League of Greater Madison.
The sweeping proposal aims to expand voting rights, reduce the influence of money in politics through campaign finance reform, and create new ethics rules for officeholders.
Democrats continue to point to January's Capitol insurrection as a slippery slope.
“The allegations that this election in November 2020 was somehow stolen from Trump is, in fact, one big lie,” Sen. Baldwin said. “Right now, in the wake of Trump's big lie, voting rights are under attack.”
Senators Baldwin and Klobuchar want consistency across the country when it comes to measures that are already in place in Wisconsin, such as early voting and same-day registration.
“What the bill does is say let's take the best out of places like Wisconsin and Minnesota, let's put them into law, and that way we won't have these efforts every single year to try to undermine, depending on who's in power, undermine the effort to vote,” Sen. Klobuchar said.
However, the proposal would still need to make it through an evenly divided Senate in Washington, D.C., and aside from the strong Republican opposition, some Democrats are in disagreement about whether to change the procedural filibuster rule blocking it.
Earlier this month, Gov. Tony Evers vetoed several Republican-authored bills that would have put new restrictions on absentee voting, which Dane County Clerk Scott McDonell pointed to as a reason for passing a federal voting law.
“It's one thing to be attacked by anonymous Twitter users and pillow executives, but it cuts a little deeper when your own Wisconsin Republican legislators are the ones repeating the same lies, drafting bills that disenfranchise voters, and criminalize being an election official,” McDonell said.
The Republican-ordered investigation into Wisconsin's election could leave a bigger bill for taxpayers than originally planned.
The investigation is now estimated to cost upwards of $680,000, which is more than nine times the original cost of the contracts signed earlier this summer.
Details on those numbers came from Reince Priebus, the former state and national head of the Republican Party.
Priebus revealed details about the expanded cost of the probe during an appearance on the podcast of Steve Bannon, a former adviser to former President Donald Trump.
Wisconsin Assembly Speaker Robin Vos (R-Rochester) originally hired former Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice Michael Gableman to conduct the election probe for $44,000.
“Assembly Republicans have been working with Justice Gableman to conduct a swift, complete and thorough investigation,” Vos said in a statement. “Part of our discussion has been focused on hiring independent contractors to enhance our efforts. We believe a cyber-forensic audit is necessary to ensure issues did not happen in 2020. We have allocated additional resources to Justice Gableman to ensure this investigation gets to the truth.”
Sen. Baldwin raised concerns about the cost of the investigation Wednesday, and how the process could erode voter confidence.
“Right now, we have a faux and partisan investigation being conducted by state Republicans, with taxpayer dollars, that is undermining people's faith in our elections and our democracy,” Sen. Baldwin said.