by Mary Stroka
Claiming government officials violated state election law, a lawsuit was filed Wednesday against the acting mayor, the former mayor and the city clerk of Milwaukee, Wisc.
Milwaukee voter Jim Engstrand, represented by the Thomas More Society, filed the complaint before the state’s Elections Commission.
The complaint alleges Milwaukee Acting Mayor Cavalier Johnson, former Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett, and Milwaukee City Clerk Jim Owczarski violated Wisconsin’s election bribery law, Statute § 12.11, by accepting private money from the Mark Zuckerberg-funded Center for Tech and Civic Life to facilitate in-person and absentee voting and purchase and place absentee ballot drop boxes, a news release from Thomas More Society said. The complaint says Milwaukee’s privately funded absentee ballot drop boxes in the 2020 election were illegal under multiple Wisconsin Statutes and violated federal law.
“The Milwaukee complaint contends that Barrett and Owczarski entered into an agreement with the Center for Tech and Civic Life, a partisan, special interest organization, to accept $3.4 million to facilitate in-person and absentee voting in the city, which is a violation of Wisconsin law. The Center for Tech and Civic Life is a non-profit Chicago-based organization, led and staffed by former Democratic activists and funded by billionaire Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg and his wife, Priscilla Chan, to influence the 2020 election,” the release said.
The Milwaukee filing follows complaints against Racine, Green Bay, Kenosha and Madison, which asserted violations of election law and bribery of election officials by the Center for Tech and Civic Life. Walworth County and Brown County are among counties that have banned or are considering banning the use of what has been called “dark money” for elections, the release said.
Thomas More Society Special Counsel Attorney Erick Kaardal said in the release that 16 states have passed laws to ban or regulate the acceptance and use of private funds by public election officers.
Former Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice Mike Gableman delivered a report March 1 to the State Assembly saying a “election bribery scheme” existed, voting in nursing homes was at an unprecedented high, and multiple incidents involved unlawful election activities. He said he has questions about the Center for Tech and Civic Life and the election operations in the “Zuckerberg 5” (Milwaukee, Madison, Green Bay, Racine, and Kenosha).
The Thomas More Society is a not-for-profit law firm headquartered in Chicago that handles cases regarding life, family, religious liberty, and election integrity issues.
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Mary Stroka is a contributor to The Center Square.
Photo “People Voting” by Phil Roeder CC BY 2.0.
