From Dan O’Donnell

The Governor’s office told WisPolitics.com that state law mandated that the earliest a special election could have been called is January 21^st, but with a statutorily required primary four weeks earlier, the primary date would have been on Tuesday, December 24^th—Christmas Eve.

This is a bald-faced lie.

The Wisconsin Election Commission confirms that the earliest that the special election could be is actually December 24^th, and that Governor Evers could have scheduled it any day between then and January 31.

“If an [executive] order was issued on the effective date of the vacancy, Sept. 23^rd, the special election could be no earlier than December 24^th, with the special primary on November 26^th,” Elections Commission staff attorney Michael Haas said in an email. “An order could be timed to schedule the special election anytime between December 24^th and January 31^st.”

Evers, then, could have avoided the holiday week altogether by scheduling the special election on Tuesday, January 14^th with a primary on Tuesday, December 17^th or on Tuesday January 7^th with a primary on Tuesday, December 10^th.

He just didn’t want to.