UPDATE 3:00 p.m. ET:
The RNC announced on Wednesday that, in fewer than 24 hours, it had prevailed in its lawsuit against election officials in Green Bay, Wisconsin. A court in Brown County, Wisconsin, granted the temporary injunction the Republicans' lawsuit requested to have a city clerk stop interfering with the public's right under WI law to observe election processes during in-person absentee voting.
"In less than 24 hours, the RNC successfully sued and won in Green Bay to ensure the city’s Democrat election officials follow the law on the books in Wisconsin," remarked RNC Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel. "Bipartisan poll watching is a constitutional right in Wisconsin, and now the Green Bay Clerk will have to let them in the room to observe. We are grateful the court granted a swift and decisive victory for Wisconsinites, and the RNC will continue to fight for election transparency across the country," McDaniel added.
See the original post below for more details on the RNC's case — it's second legal win for election integrity in the last 24 hours.
ORIGINAL POST:
Fresh off the heels of Republicans' win before the Pennsylvania Supreme Court to prevent the counting of mail-in or absentee ballots that are not completed in accordance with PA election law, the Republican National Committee filed a lawsuit against Green Bay, Wisconsin, seeking to secure access for poll watchers.
Naming Green Bay City Clerk Celestine Jeffreys, the RNC's latest election-related lawsuit highlights Wisconsin law that grants members of the public with the right to observe elections, including absentee voting processes, and a requirement that "observation areas shall be so positioned...to permit any election observer to readily observe all aspects of the voting process."
What's more, the RNC notes that the Wisconsin Elections Commission has explicitly instructed election officials "that observers must be given the opportunity to observe the public aspects of the inperson absentee voting process and that 'additional observer areas may be established in other areas of the polling place to allow for observation of other public aspects of the voting process (challenges, ballot box security, etc.).'"
Yet, as the complaint alleges, "the City Clerk for the City of Green Bay has been prohibiting members of the public from observing all aspects of the in-person absentee ballot voting process that has been underway since October 25, 2022 at the office of the City Clerk for the City of Green Bay."
Continuing, the RNC's lawsuit alleges that "Jeffreys has refused to afford the public with the ability to observe all public aspects of the in-person absentee ballot voting process" because, "[s]ince in-person absentee ballot voting commenced on October 25, 2022, Jeffreys has unnecessarily split the voting process into two different areas: part of the voting process takes place in her office, and part of the voting process takes place along a long stretch in a public hallway outside of her office."
The way Jeffreys is conducting the early in-person absentee voting, the RNC's complaint explains, means that "an elector obtains an in-person absentee ballot, the elector leaves Jeffreys’ office and enters into the hallway in order to vote his or her in-person absentee ballot, then the elector has an individual perform and execute the required witness certification to the in-person absentee ballot out of the view of the observers, and then the elector deposits the in-person absentee ballot into a blue ballot box that is located down the hallway and out of view of the observers."
While using two separate areas for the in-person absentee voters, the lawsuit adds, Jeffreys "has restricted observers to a small area of her office, where they can only observe electors coming into her office to check-in, register to vote, and obtain an in-person absentee ballot—but they are expressly prohibited from observing any aspect of the voting process that takes place in the public hallway including, but not limited to, the witness certification process and depositing the in-person absentee ballot in the ballot box."
When the apparent issue was raised with Jeffreys would still not allow observers to witness the entire process and, according to the complaint, threatened that observers would "be kicked out if they observe in the hallway and that observers must talk to her legal department if they required further explanation."
Additional issues noted in the complaint include the claim that "Jeffreys refused to allow Plaintiffs and other observers to observe the voting process in the hallway—despite the fact that the hallway is a public area and others, who are not present to observe, are free to traverse through the hallway while voting is taking place," along with concerns that "[o]n more than one occasion when observers left the observing area to use the restroom, the blue bin being used as a ballot return box, which was outside of an elevator area, appeared to be unattended and unguarded."
"The RNC is suing Green Bay alongside concerned Wisconsin voters because the city's Democrat election officials are refusing to follow Wisconsin’s election law," remarked RNC Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel. "Poll watchers have a right to poll watch, but Green Bay's Clerk is refusing to let them in the room. This is unacceptable: Republicans are going to court to deliver Wisconsinites the ballot box transparency to which they are legally entitled," McDaniel added.
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