Majority of signatures on pro-Trump Wisconsin recall effort declared invalid

Supporters of former President Donald Trump who organized an effort in Wisconsin to oust the State Assembly speaker did not gather enough signatures Tuesday to force a recall election, despite claiming they gathered more than required.

Republicans are seeking to remove Assembly Speaker Robin Vos, also a Republican, for not decertifying President Joe Biden’s victory immediately following the 2020 election, in which Biden won Wisconsin by fewer than 21,000 votes.

“I stand before you to represent not just Racine County, but all Wisconsinites ready to end Vos’s era of corruption, tyranny, and secretive dealings,” recall organizer Matthew Snorek said at a news conference Monday.

On Tuesday, however, the Wisconsin Elections Commission determined the group fell short by nearly 900 signatures.

In order to recall Vos, 6,850 signatures were needed from the district he was elected in when the recall initially began, and on Monday, Snorek told reporters they collected 4,000 more than required. After the state’s election commission reviewed the signatures, only 9,053 signatures were deemed valid, 5,905 of which were from the district Vos was elected in, the Associated Press reported.

Accurately determining the validity of signatures could’ve been muddled by recent changes in legislative maps. Days before the petition was filed, the Supreme Court decided not to take up Gov. Tony Evers’s (D-WI) request to clarify whether the newly enacted maps were to take effect before November, making it uncertain whether the signatures gathered for Vos’s recall should be counted in his newly drawn district.

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Snorek said Monday that he believed the signatures recall organizers gathered were from voters residing in the district Vos was elected in and not under the maps that were redrawn and recently enacted, AP reported.

Vos, who voted to enact the new maps, was elected as speaker in 2013. Since the 2020 election, he has upset Republicans and Trump by maintaining Biden’s win over Wisconsin and for failing to impeach the state’s top election official. Vos said he planned to put together an effort to “evaluate each individual signature” collected for his recall.

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