A Waukesha County judge dismissed a Republican challenge to the Government Accountability Board’s template for this fall’s election ballots Wednesday.
Judge James Kieffer said Assembly Speaker Robin Vos’, R-Rochester, and Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald’s, R-Juneau, campaign committees did not have standing to file the suit, according to a WisPolitics.com article.
The judge ruled the two legislators should have filed a complaint with the GAB before filing a lawsuit.
Republicans argued the new ballots favored Democrats and could cause confusion among voters.
Joseph Olson, Vos and Fitzgerald’s lawyer, said in the release the legislators filed the lawsuit because filing a complaint with the GAB was “obviously a futile process.”
Assistant Attorney General Christopher Blythe represented the GAB.
“Even if it would be futile, that is what the statutes say you have to do,” Blythe said in the article. “It’s black-letter law.”
Olson indicated they had not yet decided whether to appeal the county judge’s decision or file the complaint.
