The group attempting to recall Wisconsin Assembly Speaker Robin Vos has been illegally employing non-citizens to circulate petitions and has been collecting the signatures of high school students who may not be 18 years old, multiple law enforcement sources confirm.
One source alleges that law enforcement made multiple contacts with Mexican- and Honduran-born petition circulators from the group Recall Vos, which earlier this year organized an effort to remove the Speaker from office. Another circulator (pictured below) identified himself to potential recall signers as Ukrainian.
Wisconsin Statute 8.40(2) requires that petition circulators be American citizens who are at least 18 years of age. Officers were called to multiple locations during last month's Spring Primary for reports of circulators unlawfully electioneering within 100 feet of a polling place. The state's election law, Wisconsin Statute 12.13, makes it a Class I Felony to "falsify any information in respect to...a recall petition."
City of Burlington Police Chief Brian Zmudzinski denied that any officers made such contacts, saying that "no contacts can be found in our records of any contacts with Mexican and/or Honduran born petitioners" but added that multiple potentially unlawful contacts "remain under investigation." One circulator, Zmudzinski noted, was arrested for trespassing at a business following a warning not to return.
Video provided by another source showed a circulator approaching students in the Union Grove High School parking lot and attempted to collect signatures from them without verifying whether the students were 18 years old. Wisconsin law bars anyone who is not a qualified elector from signing a recall petition.
"Today, after school, my sixteen-year-old son was solicited to sign a Recall Vos petition by a man standing in the student parking lot by one of the exterior doors of Union Grove Union High School," one woman said. "They were asking if he was a Junior or Senior to see if can sign the recall petition."
Representatives from Recall Vos have not yet responded to a request for comment.
Recall Vos has until Monday to submit approximately 7,000 valid signatures to trigger a recall election of Vos in the 63rd Assembly District. Last month, however, Governor Evers signed into law new electoral maps that change the composition of Vos' district. If he were to be recalled in his current district, he would still be able to run for and serve in his new district.
Matthew Snorek, who launched the effort to recall Vos in January, said in his filing with the Wisconsin Elections Commission that "Vos is blocking fair elections in WI. Vos misled the WI Assembly in the impeachment of Megan (sic) Wolfe. Vos said he will 'try as hard as I can to make sure Donald Trump is not the nominee in 2024. Vos supported the unlawful drop boxes. Wisconsin must move 'forward' without Robin Vos in power."
Vos called the recall "a waste of time, resources and effort" from people "who cannot seem to get over any election in which their preferred candidate doesn’t win."
Last month, the Wisconsin Ethics Commission recommended criminal charges in connection with a 2022 primary challenge to Vos. Candidate Adam Steen allegedly directed donors to circumvent campaign donation limits by funneling their money through the Langlade County Republican Party. Among those involved in the alleged scheme were former President Donald Trump's political action committee and Republican Assembly Representative Janel Brandtjen.