A voting machine company is refusing to comply with subpoenas issued by an attorney leading the investigation into Wisconsin’s 2020 presidential election results.
Attorneys for the Nebraska-based Election Systems & Software (ES&S) sent a letter to former Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice Michael Gableman on Jan. 21. The letter asserted that their client would not be cooperating.
The company called the subpoenas, which were issued in December, a “quintessential fishing expedition.
As part of his ongoing probe into the 2022 election, Gablemean has subpoenaed both ES&S as well as Dominion Voting Systems, which is based in Colorado.
Subpoenas have also been issued for the mayors of five of the largest cities in Wisconsin, as well as top election officials and the immigrant rights group Voces de la Frontera.
Voces de la Frontera and the mayors of Green Bay and Madison are fighting the subpoenas in court.
In its letter to Gableman, ES&S says it “is under no obligation to respond to any of the subpoenas.”
Attorneys Michael Cox, Daniel Fischer, and Michael Maistelman, who signed the letter on behalf of the company, contend the subpoenas were not properly served. They also claim the company cannot be compelled to turn over records that are in Nebraska and not Wisconsin. The attorneys said it would take weeks or months to produce the documents and that Gableman could not force anyone at ES&S to take part in a closed-door interview.
The subpoena mandated the documents be turned in by the end of January, according to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
ES&S accused those investigating the 2020 election of “casting their nets as wide as possible in the hopes that something which might actually be sought is caught within the net but amidst the thousands upon thousands of other documents and pages that have no relevancy to the matter.”
Katina Granger, ES&S’s senior manager for public relations, reiterated this sentiment in a statement to Newsweek.
“All forms of evidence, including audits, have already clearly shown that Wisconsin votes were accurately counted in the 2020 general election,” she said. “We are confident that any further reviews would confirm the same.”
The company’s attorney said the subpoena was for every communication the company had for two years related to Wisconsin’s election. They also noted the request included proprietary information about the software code for voting machines.
President Joe Biden won Wisconsin in 2020, leading President Donald Trump by 21,000 votes.
