Feehan defends role as designated elector for Wisconsin GOP, following lawsuit against “fake” electors

The La Crosse County man who chairs both the county Republican party and the 3rd District GOP is speaking out against a lawsuit claiming that he and other Wisconsin Republicans were “fake” electors trying to steal the 2020 presidential race. 

On the “Fact Check” podcast, Bill Feehan objected to the Wisconsin GOP electors being labeled as fake.

“There was nothing fake about us, or the documents we signed,” Feehan said. “Furthermore, we signed sworn affidavits pledging to cast our votes for the candidate who won Wisconsin.”

“The chairman of the Congressional districts serve as presidential electors,” he added. “So in 2020, in the last presidential election, I was asked to serve as the presidential elector for the 3rd Congressional district.”

The Republicans designated as electors were summoned by the party to cast ballots for Donald Trump, even though Joe Biden was declared the winner in Wisconsin.

Feehan says the intent was to have Republican electoral votes ready, in case a court invalidated Biden’s win in the state.

Plaintiffs in the lawsuit argue that only the electors from the party that wins the presidential race in a state are supposed to cast votes on the day the Electoral College meets, and the electors for the losing side should not be casting votes just because they hope the courts will reverse the election’s outcome.

Two Democratic electors and a voter are the plaintiffs in the suit filed Tuesday in Dane County Circuit Court. They’re seeking up to $2.4 million in punitive damages, saying it’s necessary to deter such conduct in the future.

The plaintiffs say it’s the first such lawsuit in any of the seven swing states where Republican electors falsely declared Trump the winner and cast their votes for him in December 2020.

Feehan accuses Democrats of filing a suit against the GOP electors to distract from their own party’s failures.