Milwaukee County prosecutors have cleared two groups – a conservative one opposing abortion rights and a liberal labor organization – of voter bribery charges after conducting a five-month John Doe investigation into the allegations.
“There’s no prosecutive merit to these allegations,” Assistant District Attorney Bruce Landgraf said in an interview Tuesday. “In respect to both parties, they were acting in good faith.”
No Quarter first reported on the secret investigation in September.
Wisconsin Right to Life had been accused of offering rewards for volunteers who signed up sympathetic voters in a state Senate recall race. The investigation found that no one ended up requesting or receiving the gift or gas cards being offered.
Barbara Lyons, executive director of Right to Life, said the allegations against her group were unfounded.
“We knew we had done nothing illegal, nor did we ever intend to do anything illegal,” Lyons said in a statement.
Also cleared was Wisconsin Jobs Now!, a coalition of community and labor groups led by the Service Employees International Union. It had held parties on Milwaukee’s northwest side in which it offered voters free food, raffles and free shuttles to City Hall so they could cast absentee ballots in the recall election against Sen. Alberta Darling (R-River Hills).