After six Republican lawmakers in Wisconsin requested large quantities of election knowledge from the state's bipartisan elections fee, a number of members of the fee identified the vagueness and broad nature of the request Tuesday, with fee chair Ann Jacobs saying it is "insane."
"We've a completely insane request from the Legislature," Jacobs, a Democrat, mentioned. "It is a ridiculous request and we'd like to have the ability to allow them to inform us what they really need as a result of we won't give them what they're asking for."
Rep. Janel Brandtjen and 5 different Republican lawmakers made the request December 22 for the "who, what, the place and when" of the state's election databases and voter rolls.
Included within the request have been 20 years of voting expertise contracts and bids, areas of servers that maintain voter knowledge and data for tackle, plus title and voting standing adjustments for over 7 million voters.
Meagan Wolfe, the highest elections official within the state, mentioned the request was the most important she's ever seen, and is probably going not possible contemplating among the knowledge was recorded by earlier elections companies that now not function, so she mentioned there isn't any manner to make sure the information exists way back to the lawmakers are requesting.
As a substitute, the fee mentioned the lawmakers needs to be instructed how a lot it could value, how lengthy it could take, and what data cannot be offered. Meagan Wolfe, the state's prime elections official, instructed commissioners it was "probably the most broad request we have ever seen."
Democratic commissioners mentioned the Dec. 22 request was designed to grind operations on the elections fee to a halt, and frustrate and overwhelm those that work for the nonpartisan company that's overseen by a bipartisan board.
The lawmakers that made the request have been main voices in questioning President Joe Biden's win in Wisconsin, pushing conspiracy theories concerning the election and the way it was run within the state. Some Republicans have even known as for members of the fee to resign and be charged with felonies.
"We can not let requests undermine your skill to supervise the 2022 election," Democratic commissioner Mark Thomsen mentioned. He known as the request "overbroad and unreasonable" and an try to "shut us down."
Republican commissioner Dean Knudson known as it "the broadest data request I've ever seen or heard of."
The knowledge requested might quantity to "lots of of tens of millions if not billions of information factors," that will require the elections fee laptop servers to take days, if not weeks, to generate, Wolfe mentioned. It will additionally embody a bevy of private data resembling birthdates and social safety numbers that may't be launched beneath state or federal legislation, Wolfe mentioned.
"They're asking for unlawful stuff," Thomsen mentioned. "Allow them to go get a decide to order us to supply it. I do not see that taking place."
Wolfe mentioned it could not be acceptable to waive the estimated $100,000 in prices related to discovering the requested data due to the lots of of hours it could doubtless take. Usually, the company doesn't cost for finding data, she mentioned.
The Related Press contributed to this report.
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