Wisconsin’s governor has a formal role in the state’s presidential election process: signing and sending the certificate identifying the winning party’s Electoral College electors. That responsibility could fall to Republican Tom Tiffany if he wins the governor’s race this November and remains in office after the 2028 presidential election. Tiffany, a U.S. representative, was the only Wisconsin member of Congress to sign a 2020 letter supporting a Texas-led lawsuit that sought to overturn Joe Biden’s victories in Wisconsin and three other states. The U.S. Supreme Court dismissed the case, finding Texas had no standing to challenge how other states ran their elections. Tiffany also voted to object to certifying results from Arizona and Pennsylvania. Asked about his actions in an August television interview, Tiffany said Biden won the 2020 election. In a statement provided by his campaign for the governor’s race, he said: “In 2028, I’ll certify whoever wins the most votes in Wisconsin.” The statement also cited his support for voter ID and Wisconsin voters’ decision to prohibit private grants for election administration. The Wisconsin Elections Commission, a bipartisan body, handles the main steps of certifying statewide results after an election, said Bryna Godar, a staff attorney with the University of Wisconsin Law School’s State Democracy Research Initiative. The commission prepares a certificate naming the electors selected by the party whose presidential ticket won Wisconsin. The governor signs that certificate and sends it to the U.S. archivist, according to Marquette University Law School professor Chad Oldfather. Oldfather said Wisconsin law indicates the governor’s signature is a duty, not a matter of personal discretion. But he noted that a future governor could still raise an argument about whether the duty applies in a particular situation. Godar said courts could intervene if a governor refused to sign the certificate or attempted to change it. The dispute over the 2020 election reached courts across the country after Donald Trump lost to Biden. Judges appointed by presidents of both parties rejected challenges to the result. Wisconsin’s Supreme Court also rejected Trump’s effort to invalidate results in Dane and Milwaukee counties. In that case, conservative Justice Brian Hagedorn joined the court’s three liberal justices; Hagedorn wrote that the campaign should have challenged election rules before voting, rather than afterward. Tiffany and Democratic Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley are competing for Wisconsin’s governorship in November. The officeholder’s role in the next presidential election is limited compared with the Elections Commission’s work, but the governor’s signature is a required part of the process for transmitting Wisconsin’s chosen electors to Washington.