Rev up your motors, Wisconsin, you've got missing computers, subpoenaed Republicans, and redistricting issues to contend with. The subpoenas are being used to force GOP officials to reveal where the mystery computers, external hard drives, discs and documents are located, and the groups who are making these demands want the answers under oath.
It's been months and months, but the state of Wisconsin never told the plaintiffs, who want to search said computers, where the computers were, and made every effort to block them from finding out, so now the Dems are playing hardball. They want those documents, and they want them now.
The fun never ends in Scott Walker's state...
Groups involved in a long-simmering legal fight with Republicans have subpoenaed Assembly Speaker Robin Vos (R-Rochester) and other officials in an attempt to track down computers they want to search.
The move came a week after a panel of three federal judges ordered that two sides and the state quickly resolve their differences. The groups sued the state in 2011 over election maps drawn by Republicans, but for months the case has focused on documents that were improperly withheld from the plaintiffs.
For five months, the plaintiffs have been seeking to forensically search computers used for redistricting to find out why they did not receive documents that were supposed to be turned over to them and to learn if any other records were improperly withheld. So far, they have not been able to learn where the state computers are located, let alone search them.
The groups involved are asking why these records were withheld, and exactly how many records were there? Republican Governor Walker, along with the Republican-controlled legislature, approved redistricting maps that benefited their party in a big way. So what else is new, right? Especially in light of Scott Walker's fascination with the new RNC-backed plan to rig blue state electoral votes in favor of future GOP presidential candidates.
Democratic and immigrant rights groups sued, and in 2012 a three-(federal) judge panel ruled that the way two districts were drawn had violated Latinos' voting rights, so they made some changes.
But lawyers for the legislature did what they could to obstruct the release of documents and were fined. After that, more documents were discovered, and the plaintiffs asked for permission to search three state computers that were used to draw the maps. GOP anti-union Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald, who survived a recall election, is one of those who could be subpoenaed.
Remember him?
Stay tuned.
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