Wisconsin GOP leader rejects election decertification call

MADISON, Wis. (AP) — Wisconsin’s Republican speaker of the Assembly has again rejected calls to decertify President Joe Biden’s win in the battleground state after meeting privately with advocates for making that move that attorneys across the political spectrum have said can’t be done.

Assembly Speaker Robin Vos said following Wednesday’s meeting that he believed there was widespread fraud in the 2020 election but the focus should not be on relitigating that but instead on electing Republicans as governor and attorney general this fall.

Decertification advocates had hoped to convince Vos to change his stance and pursue the move that Vos said again Wednesday was illegal.

Vos called the Wednesday meeting, saying as he walked in to the Capitol hearing room that he meets with anyone who asks. However, the meeting only started after he kicked a fellow GOP lawmaker and candidate for governor out of the closed-door gathering.

But he wouldn’t allow state Rep. Timothy Ramthun, a candidate for governor who has introduced resolutions to decertify the election, into the room. Ramthun called it obstruction.