Wisconsin Right Now

The Wisconsin Elections Commission says there won't be a recall against any Milwaukee Public School board members. Now, Milwaukee's teachers’ union wants answers. The Milwaukee Teachers’ Education Association celebrated the Elections Commission declared MPS recall organizers failed to gather enough signatures to force a recall election against four Milwaukee School Board members. “The people of Milwaukee have emphatically rejected this dishonest effort to remove good public servants from our democratically elected school board,” MTEA President Ingrid Walker-Henry said in a statement. The MPS School Board Recall Collaborative wanted to force a new election against Board President Marva Herndon, Vice President Jilly Gokalgandhi, member Erika Siemsen and at-large board member Missy Zombor because of MPS’s financial problems and the secrecy surrounding them. The Wisconsin Elections Commission found the xollaborative was short by thousands of valid signatures. MTEA said ...

The full Wisconsin Elections Commission is going to have to agree before making any changes to the state’s election rules going forward. A judge in Waukesha County last month ruled that the Elections Commission administrator, Meagan Wolfe, and her staff cannot issue guidance on their own. "In their individual capacity neither Wolfe, nor Rydecki, nor any other WEC staffer has the authority to provide legal advice to municipal clerks or local election officials regarding compliance with Wisconsin Election laws,” Judge Michael Aprahamian said during a hearing on September 21. “In their official capacity, neither Wolfe nor Rydecki nor any other WEC staffer has any authority to provide legal advice or guidance regarding compliance with Wisconsin Election Law except as authorized by a majority vote of the Commission two-thirds vote." Rydecki is Richard Rydecki who is the Assistant Administrator of the Elections Commission. The ruling comes from the legal challenge to the Co...

In addition to challenging WEC’s decision in court, the Wisconsin Voter Alliance plans to go back before the Elections Commission to challenge the 'Zuckerbucks' funding under Wisconsin’s election bribery law. The Wisconsin Elections Commission (WEC) has determined the so-called Zuckerbucks are not technically illegal. Elections commissioners on Wednesday sided with a staff attorney who wrote "the Commission finds that the complaint does not raise probable cause to believe that a violation of law or abuse of discretion has occurred.” Attorney Eric Kaardal, special counsel with the Thomas More Society representing the Wisconsin Voter Alliance, is challenging the $8.8 million the Mark Zuckerberg-funded Center for Tech and Civic Life sent to local election managers in Milwaukee, Madison, Green Bay, Racine, and Kenosha last year. “I don’t think the Wisconsin Elections Commission clarified anything,” Kaardal told The Center Square Thursday. But, Kaardal said the decisi...