Two groups accused of election violations during the August recall election of state Sen. Alberta Darling, R-River Hills, learned Wednesday that Milwaukee County will not file charges against them.
Wisconsin Jobs Now and Wisconsin Right to Life, two groups on opposite sides of the election politically, were both under investigation for election violations.
Mike Lauer, executive director for Wisconsin Jobs Now, said he was “pleased that the DA decided not to file charges, and we’re not surprised at this outcome in the least.”
Lauer said that the conservative, nonprofit watchdog group Media Trackers accused his group of bribing people for votes.
Prior to the recall, Wisconsin Jobs Now held block parties encouraging people in primarily black neighborhoods on the north side of Milwaukee to vote.
Media Trackers wrote in an Aug. 1 blog posting titled “EXCLUSIVE: Source Reports Wisconsin Jobs Now! Engages in Illegal Election Behavior” that the Wisconsin Jobs Now events constituted illegal campaign activity.
“Because there was food and games and prizes at the block parties, the Media Trackers group accused us of bribing people for votes, which couldn’t be further from the truth,” Lauer said.
Wisconsin Right to Life, the other group that was investigated, was accused of violating election laws because it offered to give a gift card to individuals that signed people up for absentee ballot applications.
“We were never handling ballots, we never wanted to handle ballots, we were only working with applications that had been approved by the Government Accountability Board,” Barbara Lyons, executive director for WRL said. “We gave out not a single gift card.”
Lyons is wary of the complaints groups are making toward citizens groups.
She said that if they were charged, the distortion of the law would have infringed on speech and constitutional rights and “would have had a very serious impact on all citizens groups including ours going forward.”
