Spindell, activist have heated exchange at elections commission meeting

Sign for the Wisconsin Elections Comission. (Wisconsin Examiner photo)

Republican Wisconsin Elections Commissioner Robert Spindell had a heated back and forth with a voting rights activist during a commission meeting Thursday as a group of protesters attended the meeting to call for his resignation because of his participation in the false elector plan to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election and previous comments about discouraging minority turnout in Milwaukee.

Ahead of the meeting, a group of activists and Democratic legislators held a press conference and rally in the state Capitol to call for Spindell’s resignation. Participants included Assembly Minority Leader Greta Neubauer (D-Racine), Sen. Chris Larson (D-Milwaukee), members of Souls to the Polls, All Voting is Local and the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign.

During the public comment period at Thursday’s WEC meeting, a number of people addressed the commission, calling for Spindell’s resignation.

Bianca Shaw, senior campaign manager for All Voting is Local, opened the meeting by saying Spindell should resign because of his history. Spindell responded angrily, saying “don’t talk to me, talk to your Milwaukee white Democrats,” before rehashing an argument he’s regularly made since 2020 about the closure of polling places during the April 2020 elections in which Milwaukee was left with just five open polls in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Spindell asked Shaw if she was aware that the poll closures happened under a Democratic city administration. Shaw responded by saying he has not represented the state of Wisconsin well.

“I am aware that you should not be on the Wisconsin Elections Commission representing any person in the State of Wisconsin,” she said. “It is imperative that you do what is right and resign today.”

Ahead of the first presidential debate Thursday night, disputes have begun emerging.about election administration in the state — which has seen continuous right-wing activism about elections since conspiracies about the system spread following the 2020 election.

Earlier this week, a group of bipartisan current and former Wisconsin public officials joined a national coalition of officials promising to support the right of every American citizen to vote and accept the results of this year’s election. Additionally, more than a dozen Wisconsin business figures joined a group of national business leaders pledging to accept and uphold the results of the election.

Thursday, the elections commission also discussed how WEC will help clerks deal with a number of legal changes to the state’s election systems that have happened this year.

After Attorney General Josh Kaul issued an opinion earlier this week on the interpretation of a constitutional amendment that prohibits anyone other than an election official from working to administer an election, the commission voted to instruct agency staff to begin drafting guidance to send to municipal clerks about the amendment.

Similarly, the commission voted to have agency staff begin working with the state Department of Justice on how to implement a temporary injunction issued by a Dane County judge earlier this week that requires WEC and clerks to create a process by which disabled voters can receive absentee ballots electronically.

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