GREEN BAY, WI (WTAQ-WLUK) – A lawsuit filed in Brown County, appealing a decision of the Wisconsin Elections Commission regarding how Green Bay handled the 2020 election, was dismissed Friday. The state noted it won a similar lawsuit in another county, and the plaintiffs say instead they will focus their efforts on a different lawsuit, challenging how Green Bay used drop boxes.
In April 2021, five Green Bay residents filed a complaint with the Wisconsin Elections Commission against the commission’s administrator, Meagan Wolfe, Green Bay Mayor Eric Genrich, former chief of staff for Genrich and current city clerk, Celestine Jeffreys, and former city clerk Kris Teske. The complaint alleged state and federal laws were violated when the city accepted a $1.6 million grant from the Center for Tech and Civic Life and the conditions that came with the money. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and his wife supplied the money for the grants.
After the Wisconsin Election Commission ruled the residents did not show proof any laws were violated with accepting the grant or how the election was conducted, the residents appealed to the circuit court. No hearings were held in the case, although both sides submitted written arguments.
An order dismissing the case was signed Friday by Judge Tammy Jo Hock, but it does not state the reason for the plaintiffs to drop the suit.
“The parties to the above-referenced action stipulated to the Plaintiffs-Appellants’ voluntary dismissal of the complaint under Wisconsin Statutes section 805.04(1). This case is dismissed with prejudice and without costs to any party,” the order states.
Erick Kaardall, the attorney with Thomas More Society who filed the suit for the Green Bay residents, told FOX 11 “Our focus has turned” to the drop box lawsuit.
Jon Axelrod, an attorney for Wisconsin Elections Commission, noted another lawsuit raising the same issues in Dane County was won by the state.
“Presumably, the Plaintiffs in the Brown County case voluntarily dismissed their action because they concluded that the Court in Brown County would likely follow the Dane County decision,” Axelrod said.
The WEC offered this statement: “We are very pleased that the decisions of the Wisconsin Elections Commission as to Green Bay, Madison, Milwaukee, Racine, Kenosha, and Green Bay accepting grants from a nonprofit and nonpartisan organization have now all become final. The Commission had determined that such grants, which went to hundreds of red, blue, and purple municipalities around the country, did not violate any statutes or constitutional provisions.”
Several court rulings have also upheld the legal nature of the grants. Earlier this year, some state Republican lawmakers proposed a state Constitutional amendment as a way to block such grants in the future.
The residents who filed the complaint were Richard Carlstedt, Sandra Duckett, James Fitzgerald (chair of the Republican Party of Brown County), Thomas Sladek, and Lark Wartenberg.
No hearings have been scheduled in the drop box lawsuit, although the city has asked it for it to be dismissed.
