One of Wisconsin’s top critics of the 2020 election in the state is not staying silent about the resignation of one of Wisconsin’s Election Commissioners.
Commissioner Dean Knudson on Wednesday resigned his seat on the state’s Election Commission out of frustration with the continued focus on the last presidential vote in Wisconsin.
“Integrity demands acknowledging the truth even when the truth is painful. In this case, the painful truth is that President Trump lost the election in 2020 – lost the election in Wisconsin in 2020. And the loss was not due to election fraud,” Knudson said during Wednesday’s WEC meeting.
Dean Knudson is a former Republican lawmaker and helped create the Wisconsin Elections Commission back in 2015.
“I’ll put my conservative record up against anyone in the state of Wisconsin, and yet now I’ve been branded a RINO,” Knudson added, employing the acronym for Republican In Name Only.
But Republican state Rep. Janel Brandtjen, R-Menomonee Falls, on Thursday questioned Knudson’s conservative bona fides.
“Wisconsin Election Commissioner Dean Knutson resigned yesterday citing lack of support from the GOP. He blamed conspiracy theories and misinformation about the 2020 election, but in reality, he simply didn’t do his job, which was to oversee the agency that Wisconsinites depend on for fair and honest elections,” Brandtken said.
Janel Brandtjen has led one of the investigations into the 2020 election from her Assembly Committee on Campaigns and Elections since early 2021.
Janel Brandtjen said Dean Knudson allowed:
- Bloated voter rolls to continue.
- Madison’s Democracy in the Park”
- Over $8 million in Zuckerberg money for targeted “get out the vote’ efforts.
- Ballot trafficking and drop boxes.
- Illegal suspension of special voting deputies, knowingly.
- WEC lawsuits against Justice Gableman and Brandtjen instead of cooperating with the investigations.
“Stripping our elections of the safety measures the legislature has put into statute is not what we expect from the Elections Commission; in fact, we expect the exact opposite,” Brandtjen added.
Dean Knudson’s resignation means Republicans will have to appoint another commissioner. That search is underway.
His resignation also came as Commissioner Bob Spindell, who is a vocal 2020 election critic, is set to take over as commission chairman. That vote was supposed to happen Wednesday but has now been postponed.
