Judge denies Republican Party request to stop 'Milwaukee Votes 2022'

A Milwaukee County judge on Friday denied a Republican Party of Wisconsin request to stop the city of Milwaukee from continuing a get-out-the-vote effort that the city argues it neither runs nor funds.

Judge Gwen Connolly wrote that the arguments made by the party and Milwaukee voter Elizabeth Burke were "deficient" and that issuing such an order would chill constitutionally protected free speech.

The lawsuit was one of two filed by the Republican Party of Wisconsin and other plaintiffs in the weeks after Mayor Cavalier Johnson made comments Sept. 12 about an initiative dubbed "Milwaukee Votes 2022" and referenced door-to-door canvassing funded by the "private sector." Johnson's spokesman then said the campaign conducting the canvassing is privately funded, and the city's association was "limited to the mayor voicing support for the work."

The first lawsuit, which centered on an open records request, was dismissed earlier this month after the party said it had received the requested records from the Milwaukee Election Commission and Mayor’s Office related to the get-out-the-vote effort.

In the second lawsuit, filed Sept. 28, Burke and Republicans argued that though Milwaukee Votes 2022 is a purportedly nonpartisan get-out-the-vote effort, the city would partner with an organization, GPS Impact, that openly works to elect Democratic candidates and advance progressive causes.

"Defendants' partnership with a private, partisan organization to get out the vote compromises the integrity of the upcoming November 2022 election, and harms the Republican Party of Wisconsin," they wrote. "It also devalues the vote of ... Burke."

They requested that Connolly issue a temporary injunction that would prevent the city in the lead-up to the Nov. 8 election "from continuing Milwaukee Votes 2022, or, alternatively, enjoining defendants from working with partisan groups such as GPS Impact in furtherance of this initiative."

The city responded by calling the claims "frivolous" and "completely without merit."

The city argued the legal standards cited by Republicans either did not apply to Johnson, who was listed as a defendant along with the city government, or could not be enforced by the plaintiffs. The city in its response also said it was not running or funding the initiative, nor did it have the authority to stop others who were not part of the lawsuit from participating in it.

"While the plaintiffs may have 'significant concerns as to whether the City has been or will be administering the upcoming November 8, 2022, election in accordance with Wisconsin law,' such concerns do not equate to a violation of the law," Connolly wrote.

She found that the Republican Party and Burke had not identified any specific law related to government transparency that was supposedly violated, "in essence, asking this Court to make new law and retroactively impose the law on the defendants in order to ameliorate their 'significant concerns.' The Court is unwilling to do so."

The lawsuits come as hotly contested races for governor and U.S. Senate are on the ballot in November.

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This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Judge denies Republican Party request in GOTV lawsuit against Milwaukee