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Wisconsin Elections Commission OKs Tim Michels run for governor
Wisconsin elections officials voted Friday to allow Donald Trump’s endorsed candidate to stay on the Republican primary ballot in the presidential battleground state, pushing aside a Democratic challenge to his nomination papers.
MADISON, Wis. - The Wisconsin Elections Commission unanimously voted on Friday, June 10 to validate signatures from Republican Tim Michels and allow him on the primary ballot.
Wisconsin Democrats filed a complaint on June 4, alleging Michels did not follow state law on his nomination papers because he did not include both a mailing and voting address for his Waukesha County home.
"Even if an address does not contain a state or a ZIP code, that does not undo its validity as a mailing address," said Jeff Mandell, Wisconsin Democratic Party attorney.
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"That’s not the case if there is no state. There has to be at least a municipality and a state," Michels' Attorney Matthew Fernholz said.
For about two hours, attorneys involved in the matter presented their definitions of a proper mailing address to the bipartisan commission. Ultimately, commissioners agreed that the alleged discrepancies in Michel's paperwork was not enough to disqualify him from appearing on the ballot.
Tim Michels speaks at the 2022 Wisconsin Republican Convention
The Democratic complaint alleged Michels used the wrong address and that the mistake left him with only about 350 valid signatures; 2,000 valid signatures were needed to qualify for the ballot. The commission's staff report shared guidance from the Post Office, explaining a ZIP code overlap meant the addresses were interchangeable.
Commissioner Mark Thomsen, a Democratic appointee, expressed that he would normally agree with the Democratic Party on any issue – but this time agreed with Michels' attorney on the matter.
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Michels’ campaign acknowledged that some of the nominating forms list his physical address in the village of Chenequa instead of his official mailing address that is in the nearby town of Hartland. But it said all of the forms include the campaign’s post office box mailing address.
"Regardless of whether the mail is sent to the Hartland address, the Cenequa address, the United States Postal Service validated that the mail will get there," said Fernholz.
The winner of the Aug. 9 primary will advance to face Democratic Gov. Tony Evers in the Nov. 8 general election.
The Associated Press' Todd Richmond contributed to this report.
Official statements
Tim Michels:
"The people of Wisconsin won today. But this won't be the last obstacle Madison insiders throw in my way. Let’s be clear, in each step of the process, from the day we turned in our papers, to the staff recommendation earlier this week, and now the unanimous vote of the Commission, our signatures were recognized as valid and sufficient, despite all the howling from the usual suspects. My campaign has not lost a beat throughout this frivolous process. I am a fighter who is undeterred. We drive forward with all hands on deck as we campaign across the state and build an incredible organization that is going to defeat Tony Evers and get Wisconsin back on the right track. Our campaign is surging while growing bigger and stronger every day."
Democratic Party of Wisconsin:
"When entering this race, Tim Michels quickly adopted the extreme language of election fraud favored by his fellow Republicans. On the campaign trail, he often talks about election integrity being a top issue and the importance of enforcing the law.
"It would have been great for Tim Michels to follow his purported values and the law when filing his nomination signatures, and the hypocrisy of Republicans and the Michels campaign should make voters think twice.
"Republicans have a history of trying to remove voters from the voter rolls or invalidate their ballots for minor alleged technical defects in the name of election integrity. At the same time, they want to dismantle the bipartisan commission and undermine free and fair elections.
"Today, Tim Michels was shown leniency for what was a technical error, but under a plain reading of Wisconsin election law, he should have been disqualified. Ultimately, he broke the law.
"The Michels campaign knew a majority of his nomination papers were wrong. They admitted as much in an affidavit. They began circulating a correct version later in the circulation period. Tim Michels is a millionaire who could have run an operation to collect enough new signatures on corrected papers, but instead, he tried to slip by the incorrect ones and did so successfully.
"Let’s hope that Tim Michels and the GOP don’t show hypocrisy this fall by trying to invalidate voters for small technical errors on their ballots that should be allowed to be corrected.
"No matter who comes out on top in the GOP primary, they will be too radical and divisive for Wisconsin. We will be focused on re-electing Governor Tony Evers, who has been a stalwart of democracy against partisan attacks and can always be trusted to do the right thing for Wisconsin."