Wall Street Journal:

Democrats are pushing election-year lawfare in the states, and a case in Wisconsin is being exposed for its unfairness. Documents unsealed Thursday show that Wisconsin Attorney General Josh Kaul is prosecuting Republicans for actions his Department of Justice and the Wisconsin Election Commission knew about and didn’t object to.

But Mr. Kaul’s office didn’t think this was criminal behavior in 2020. On Dec. 13, 2020, Assistant Attorney General Steven Kilpatrick, a Kaul deputy, emailed Wisconsin Election Commission (WEC) officials Meagan Wolfe and James Witecha, sharing documents from the Trump campaign. Mr. Kilpatrick noted that in one document “there is statement that the Trump electors are going to meet and vote on Monday, Dec. 14, in the event the Supreme court case comes out in their favor after Dec. 14 — to ensure that there is a slate of elector [sic] for Trump on Jan. 6.”

Ms. Wolfe forwarded those documents to her fellow commissioners without comment, and the WEC and state Department of Justice have since acknowledged that the lawyers’ action was acceptable under state law. In a Feb. 9, 2022, memo to the WEC, the state DOJ notes that while complainants say the Dec. 14 meeting was an “unlawful” plot to undermine the election, it wasn’t illegal.

“Based upon the text of the relevant statutes, and in light of the facts, historical precedent, and related federal authorities,” the DOJ wrote, “this memorandum concludes that the Complaint does not raise a reasonable suspicion that Respondents violated Wisconsin election law.” But suddenly in 2024, when Democrats are running to “protect democracy,” AG Kaul files charges.

In July, Mr. Troupis’s lawyers filed a motion to quash a subpoena against him, and the AG asked the court to keep the motion under seal. No wonder: The motion, now unsealed, lays out historical precedent for creating an alternate slate of electors in case they are needed.

In the past, the motion notes, states have handled competing slates of electors while election results were under a legal challenge, as the Wisconsin defendants were trying to do. In 1960 Richard Nixon initially won Hawaii by 141 votes. There was a legal challenge and while the recount was under way, the motion explains, “both the Democrats and the Republicans had their respective (alternate) slates of electors meet and cast their ballots.”

The Republican slate was initially certified and sent to Congress but the judge in charge of the recount ultimately decided more votes had been cast for John F. Kennedy and the Democratic slate was sent to Congress. Vice President Nixon opened the envelopes in front of Congress and directed that Hawaii’s electoral votes for Kennedy be counted.