A group of Trump backers who falsely claimed to represent the state’s valid presidential electors in an effort to overturn Joe Biden’s 2020 electoral victory in th battleground state have been hit with a first-of-its-kind lawsuit, local station WEAU-13 reports.
The lawsuit, filed in state court on Tuesday by a group of Wisconsin citizens, seeks $2.4M in damages from a dozen named defendants it accuses of “perpetrating a fraudulent scheme to undermine democracy by attempting to bypass the will of Wisconsin voters — and to deter similar efforts in the future,” according to the news outlet.
“This is not how we do elections in the United States,” said Mary McCord, executive director of the Institute for Constitutional Advocacy and Protection at Georgetown University, one of the public interest groups backing the lawsuit.
He added: “When your candidate loses, you don’t get to just go and vote and submit your ballots as though your candidate won.”
The 55-page complaint against 10 fraudulent pro-Trump electors claims the alleged scheme violated Wisconsin and federal law even though it was unsuccessful, the report states.
The plaintiffs are seeking a ruling declaring that the defendants illegally usurped the role of Wisconsin’s 10 electors for Biden and undermined voters’ legal authority to elect the candidate of their choosing.
Jeff Mandell, president and lead counsel at Law Forward, another public interest group backing the suit, said in a statement that “the individuals named in this case schemed to hijack Wisconsin’s role in selecting the president of the United States and to override the will of the voters,” adding that “We must hold them accountable for their illegal, unprecedented, and profoundly anti-democratic actions.”
Read the full report on WEAU-13.
