Group says Wisconsin cities can’t legally accept election grants
A conservative group has asked a federal judge to block Wisconsin’s five largest cities from accepting $6.3 million in grants to help stage November’s elections, calling the money bribes to increase turnout in Democratic strongholds.
The nonprofit Center for Tech and Civic Life announced the grants in July as part of the “Wisconsin Safe Voting Plan.”
But in a lawsuit filed Thursday in federal court, Wisconsin Voters Alliance and seven of its members claim such grants violate federal election law that says only states, not cities, have discretion about how to implement federal election law.
The suit describes Wisconsin Voters Alliance as a group seeking to ensure “public confidence in the integrity of Wisconsin’s elections.” The suit asserts that the Center for Tech and Civic Life has progressive leanings and has given the $6.3 million to cities that tend to vote Democratic.
Under the grants in Wisconsin, Milwaukee is set to receive $2,154,500, Madison $1,271,788, Green Bay $1,093,400, Kenosha $862,779 and Racine $942,100.
“A government’s election policy favoring demographic groups is an equivalent injury to disfavoring demographic groups,” the suit states, and the plaintiffs have suffered “real and concrete” injury. They are represented by lawyers from Minneapolis.
The suit contends CTCL has also given money to cities in five other states, including Michigan and Pennsylvania, whose legislatures would not accept the money.
It details the Wisconsin cities’ plans to use the money for things like helping voters get appropriate ID, gloves, masks and hand sanitizer for poll workers, secure drop boxes for absentee ballots, staffing in-person early voting locations, mailers to residents about how and where to vote and a host of other expenses.
But the plaintiffs say cities accepting the money violates the elections and supremacy clauses of the U.S. Constitution, the National Voter Registration Act, the Help America Vote Act and Wisconsin law against election bribery.
They call the grants constitutionally impermissible public-private partnerships that give an appearance of undue influence on a federal election and ask that a judge block the cities from accepting or using the CTCL money.
The case has been assigned to U.S. District Judge William Griesbach in Green Bay.