“We have an absolutely insane request from the Legislature,” Jacobs, a Democrat, said. “It’s a ridiculous request and we need to be able to let them tell us what they actually want because we can’t give them what they’re asking for.”
Rep. Janel Brandtjen and five other Republican lawmakers made the request December 22 for the “who, what, where and when” of the state’s election databases and voter rolls.
Included in the request were 20 years of voting technology contracts and bids, locations of servers that hold voter data and records for address, plus name and voting status changes for over 7 million voters.
Meagan Wolfe, the top elections official in the state, said the request was the largest she’s ever seen, and is likely impossible considering some of the data was recorded by previous elections agencies that no longer operate, so she said there’s no way to be sure the data exists as far back as the lawmakers are requesting.
Instead, the commission said the lawmakers should be told how much it would cost, how long it would take, and what information can’t be provided. Meagan Wolfe, the state’s top elections official, told commissioners it was “the most broad request we’ve ever seen.”
Democratic commissioners said the Dec. 22 request was designed to grind operations at the elections commission to a halt, and frustrate and overwhelm those who work for the nonpartisan agency that is overseen by a bipartisan board.
The lawmakers that made the request have been leading voices in questioning President Joe Biden’s win in Wisconsin, pushing conspiracy theories about the election and how it was run in the state. Some Republicans have even called for members of the commission to resign and be charged with felonies.
“We cannot let requests undermine your ability to oversee the 2022 election,” Democratic commissioner Mark Thomsen said. He called the request “overbroad and unreasonable” and an attempt to “shut us down.”
Republican commissioner Dean Knudson called it “the broadest records request I’ve ever seen or heard of.”
The information requested could amount to “hundreds of millions if not billions of data points,” that would require the elections commission computer servers to take days, if not weeks, to generate, Wolfe said. It would also include a bevy of personal information such as birthdates and social security numbers that can’t be released under state or federal law, Wolfe said.
“They’re asking for illegal stuff,” Thomsen said. “Let them go get a judge to order us to produce it. I don’t see that happening.”
Wolfe said it would not be appropriate to waive the estimated $100,000 in costs associated with finding the requested records because of the hundreds of hours it would likely take. Typically, the agency does not charge for locating records, she said.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
