Leftist Groups Cancel Cash-Prize GOTV Event After Wisconsin DA Warns Bribery Is Still Illegal
Green Bay leftists were forced to cancel a get-out-the-vote drive with big cash prizes after Brown County District Attorney David Lasee informed them that election bribery is still against the law in Wisconsin.
The initiative, which offered “social media influencers” a top prize of $1,000 to turn voters out to last Tuesday’s Wisconsin spring elections, is the latest example of what leftist groups will do to get Democrat voters to the polls, a Green Bay-area lawmaker tells The Federalist.
United Front for Change promoted its Get Out The Vote Campaign on the social media accounts of its network of left-wing activists. Beyond monetary prizes for the top five social media influencers, the GOTV effort offered free food and beverages and a “FREE Open Bar.”
That all appears to be illegal under the Wisconsin statute that frowns on election bribery.
“I have significant concerns about this event, but more particularly the social media influencer competition as it may run afoul of Section 12.11 of the Wisconsin Statutes which prohibits ‘election bribery’,” Lasee wrote in a letter to the executive directors of the groups that make up United Front for Change: We All Rise: African American Resource Center, Casa ALBA Melanie, and COMSA, as well as 9 to 5 Wisconsin.
“Therefore, I would strongly encourage that whomever may be responsible for the social media competition immediately discontinue that activity,” Lasee continued. “Further, to the extent that you intend to hold the event, which publicizes free food, drinks, and rides to the polls, that you be keenly aware of the restriction set forth in the above referenced statute. Specifically, that making any item of value available based on whether someone votes or does not vote would violate the law.”
Flier for GOTV event.
Soon after, a post on Casa ALBA Melanie’s Facebook page alerted followers that the event had been canceled: “Este concurso se cancela para evitar malos entendidos y conflictos.” Translation: “This contest is canceled to avoid misunderstandings and conflicts.”
It’s not clear whether the community organizers knew about the legal “conflicts” going on or not. Officials with United Front for Change could not be reached for comment.
Screenshot of cancellation notice.
‘Push The Envelope’
State Rep. Shae Sortwell, R-Two Rivers, said the cash consideration GOTV drive was just the latest example of leftist groups “trying to push the envelope and get around state law when it comes to proper ways of doing elections.”
The Green Bay-area lawmaker knows that of which he speaks. He filed an open records request in the wake of the 2020 presidential election that delivered hundreds of pages of communications exposing Green Bay’s Democrat mayor and his staff working hand-in-hand with leftist organizations. It was all part of the Zuckbucks scandal in which Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg and his wife Pricilla Chan dumped hundreds of millions of dollars into local election offices via grants that were supposedly intended to help offset the challenges of Covid-19. The money was administered by the Chicago-based Center for Tech and Civic Life (CTCL), a leftist organization with ties to the Democrat Party and former President Barack Obama.
As The Federalist has detailed, CTCL’s network of left-leaning activist groups infiltrated Green Bay’s election office and those of other large and Democrat-heavy Wisconsin cities. Longtime Democrat operative Michael Spitzer-Rubenstein was even given the keys to the storage room that held Green Bay’s absentee ballots on Election Day 2020.
Sortwell said he’s happy to see the latest suspect GOTV effort shut down so quickly, but he thinks it may have operated long enough to affect the outcome of Green Bay’s City Council election. Leftist Joey Prestley beat conservative incumbent Alder Steven Campbell, helping liberals take back control of the council. Prestley won by just 15 votes (2 percent) in the low-turnout spring election.
Leftist Mayor Eric Genrich, who has been at the center of multiple city election controversies, congratulated Prestley on social media, taking a shot at Campbell.
“…[W]e won’t have to worry about him playing a recording of the Jan 6 Choir during our invocation,” the Democrat wrote on his X account, making a reference to Campbell playing the recording of a group of J6 defendants imprisoned in connection with the 2021 Capitol riots.
The mayor, meanwhile, is being sued in federal court after it was discovered the city had installed surveillance equipment in City Hall, which plaintiffs allege was implemented to spy on political opponents. Genrich and crew did so without the City Council’s permission — or knowledge, according to the complaint.
Sortwell said that Green Bay’s district attorney, a Republican, has been alerted to the election shenanigans of the left. But will leftists learn from their latest contested trick?
“They always like to push the envelope,” the lawmaker said. “It won’t surprise me if they come up with some variation on that and pretend they weren’t doing what we all know they were doing.”
“Trying to have election integrity with certain members of the left is like playing Whac-a-Mole. We come up with a law to deal with a [election integrity] problem and they come up with something else.”
Matt Kittle is a senior elections correspondent for The Federalist. An award-winning investigative reporter and 30-year veteran of print, broadcast, and online journalism, Kittle previously served as the executive director of Empower Wisconsin.
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