Complaint Filed Cory Mason Mayor City of Racine - Tara Coolidge City Clerk
By M.D. Kittle
New documents obtained by Wisconsin Spotlight show the city of Racine sought hundreds of thousands of dollars in funding for communication efforts targeting “voters with criminal records” and the purchase of a recreational vehicle to serve as a “mobile voting precinct,” among other questionable election initiatives.
Brown, vice chairman of the Republican Party of Racine County, is being represented by the The Amistad Project, a national voter integrity watchdog.
“Racine failed to comply with state laws, including obtaining from the (Wisconsin Elections Commission) a prior determination of the legality” of the conditions the third-party groups placed on the city in return for more than $940,000 in “safe, inclusive, and secure” voting grant funding, the complaint states.
In doing so, the city usurped the constitutional responsibilities of the local election official and the state elections regulator, according to the complainants.
Wisconsin’s Legislature “never gave municipalities the authority to adopt or accept private corporate conditions affecting existing state election laws. The Commission, as the responsible entity in the administration of election laws, never opined on the legality of private corporate conditions affecting existing election laws.”
Racine city officials did not return Wisconsin Spotlight’s request for comment.
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