State rep says Wisconsin electoral votes may need to be changed

MILWAUKEE (CBS 58) -- One of the Republicans in the state Assembly believes Wisconsin may need its electoral votes changed if an election investigation finds significant fraud.

Republican State Representative Joe Sanfelippo said election laws were not followed this cycle.

He says voters weren't taken off the rolls when they needed to be and absentee rules weren't followed.

Challenges to those laws are in front of the Wisconsin Supreme Court, but changing electors votes may not be possible.

"If we can conclusively determine that the laws that were broken affected the outcome of the election, then we need some remedy," said State Rep. Joe Sanfelippo (R-New Berlin).

He said those remedies could include allowing electors to change their votes or holding another election entirely. He said there were too many irregularities in November 2020.

"You create a cloud of suspicion no matter what the outcome is," said Sanfelippo.

However, electors can't change their votes. State law assigns them to vote based on the popular vote. The US Supreme Court ruled last year on the issue with a sports metaphor. Electors aren't free agents. They have to vote with the team they were assigned. In this case, Trump for Trump and Biden for Biden.

"We went ahead and had the election under the rules we all knew were in place at the time and the election is over, the votes have been counted," said State Rep. Mark Spreitzer (D-Beloit).

Spreitzer also sits on Sanfelippo's committee. He said these allegations of fraud and broken laws are not based in reality.

"I believe the laws have been followed, the Wisconsin Election Commission hasn't reported any issues with this election," said Spreitzer.

Both representatives want Wisconsinites to trust the election. They just disagree on what counts as fraud.

"I think this is a smokescreen because some people don't like the results of this election," said Spreitzer.

"How do we ever trust the results of any election going forward," said Sanfelippo.

The state Supreme Court has yet to rule on the election cases in front of it.

Meanwhile, the state's electors will cast their votes in the Electoral College in December.