The Wisconsin Supreme Court’s liberal majority has dismissed a lawsuit claiming a Racine mobile-voting van is illegal, ruling that the Republican man who filed the challenge didn’t have legal standing to do so.
The battle over the voting van dates back to 2022, when Racine City Clerk Tara McMenamin said it was a way to make voting accessible to as many people as possible during a primary. The van was purchased using money from a grant from the Center for Tech and Civic Life nonprofit, which is funded by Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg and his wife.
Former Racine County Republican Party Chair Kenneth Brown, who was represented by the conservative Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty, filed a complaint with the Wisconsin Elections Commission aimed at prohibiting McMenamin from using the voting van in future elections.
The elections commission dismissed Brown’s complaint, but a Racine County judge ruled in January 2024 that the voting van was illegal. The case was appealed, and the Supreme Court agreed to take it up directly, bypassing a state appeals court.
Writing for the liberal majority, Justice Jill Karofsky said Brown didn’t have legal standing to file his lawsuit because he didn’t show the elections commission’s dismissal of his complaint caused him any injury.
“Brown contends he was injured by WEC’s decision because WEC found no probable cause that the Racine City Clerk violated the law and therefore declined to take corrective action,” Karofsky said. “But Brown does not allege that WEC’s decision personally affected him.”
In her dissent, conservative Justice Rebecca Bradley accused liberal justices of misinterpreting state law on legal standing and leaving Wisconsin “without a decision on fundamental issues of election law enacted to protect their sacred right to vote.”…