FBI tries to interview Milwaukee elections director at her home

The FBI’s attempt to interview Milwaukee County’s elections director at her private home has put election administration back under a harsh spotlight in a state where confidence in the 2020 vote never fully escaped partisan combat.

Milwaukee County Clerk George Christenson said a federal representative visited Elections Director Michelle Hawley’s residence, left a business card and did not go through the Milwaukee County Election Commission office. Christenson said the county will follow up to determine the nature of the visit, and he criticized the choice to approach Hawley at home instead of contacting her at work.

What the FBI wanted from Hawley was not made public. But the interest has been tied to questions surrounding Wisconsin’s 2020 election, including Milwaukee absentee ballots that may still be retained under election-record rules. The Milwaukee County clerk’s office said the incident happened Wednesday, May 13, 2026.

The episode lands in a state that was one of the epicenters of Donald J. Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 result. Wisconsin was decided by about 20,000 votes, and Trump’s legal push to invalidate results in Milwaukee and Dane counties ultimately failed in the Wisconsin Supreme Court. The court rejected a challenge that sought to toss more than 220,000 votes from those two counties, leaving the state’s 2020 result intact.

Milwaukee’s election system has spent years trying to repair the damage from the 2020 cycle. A misplaced flash drive carrying vote totals after Election Day helped fuel false fraud allegations and intense criticism of local officials. In response, Milwaukee election staff adopted a 26-point checklist for ballot-counting procedures meant to reduce the chance of a repeat mistake.

Christenson defended the county’s handling of the presidential election, calling it “fair and transparent” and saying the result was accurate. He pointed to the post-election canvass, the presidential recount, state and federal court challenges, a forensic audit by the Wisconsin Legislative Audit Bureau and two additional independent audits as evidence that the count held up under scrutiny.

The federal visit has now reopened a question that goes beyond one elections office in Milwaukee County: whether new scrutiny of old complaints will strengthen public trust through open, careful review, or deepen the suspicion that has shadowed Wisconsin politics since 2020.