Tag Archives: GAB

Sen. Mary Lazich Calls for Audit of Wisconsin GAB

by Wisconsin Family Action

ImageStatement from official Facebook page of Senator Mary Lazich:

“Yesterday, as Chair of the Senate Committee of Elections and Urban Affair I renewed my call to audit the Government Accountability Board (GAB) after it was revealed that the GAB will not update voter rolls prior to the April 2, 2013, election. The purpose of notifications to inactive voters is to ensure that voter rolls are filled with active voters and that inactive voters are removed from voting lists.

While GAB graciously assumed the postcard notification duty, they should have gotten the task completed.The fact remains inactive voters are not contacted and timelines required by state law are not achieved. As a result voter rolls will not be current for the April 2 election. It is beyond time for a full audit of the GAB. The law requires election tasks be completed.

State law requires inactive voters be notified by their municipal clerk or local election commission before they are removed from the rolls. It was revealed that less than half of municipal clerks performed the postcard notification tasks. GAB assumed the responsibility of contacting inactive voters following the 2010 November election without authorization from the legislature.

Bottom line, the volleyball mess between the GAB and county clerks needed to end yesterday. This shifting of responsibilities created a process that ignores the law and threatens election integrity. An audit is the only remedy to cure the constant speculation and unrest about GAB’s performance. This is exactly the reason I asked for an audit of the GAB during June 2012 and again during January 2013. Once again I reiterate my call for an audit of the GAB to establish order and provide the legislature with facts to strengthen elections law and election integrity.”

2012: Friend or Foe? Wisconsin’s Year in Review

by Wisconsin Family Action

Hat tip: James Wigderson via MacIver Institute –

“The year 2012 was, as Dickens put it, the “best of times, it was the worst of times.” Another writer might have said it was the year our glorious summer was made the winter of our discontent. For all the hope that conservatives had at the beginning of the year, the darkening days of 2012 held dark promise for the year ahead.

The story of the year in Wisconsin was the unsuccessful recall in June of Governor Scott Walker. Ostensibly over the passage of Act 10, the recall proved to be a “do-over” of the 2010 race for governor. Walker defeated Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett again, this time by a wider margin.”

>>>>>read the rest HERE

Engaged Electorate

by Amy Lewis

This week’s radio commentary…

Finally—some good news! Late last Friday night we learned that the Wisconsin Supreme Court had just issued a ruling saying that Wisconsin’s Government Accountability Board (GAB) cannot implement or enforce the new rules they put in place August 1–rules that would infringe on the free speech rights of individual citizens and organizations during elections.

Read the rest here…

Download/listen to the MP3

No GABbing Allowed!

by Amy Lewis

This weeks’ radio commentary…

It’s something you might expect to find in an Orwellian novel or a communist state like China or a liberal state like New York. But here in the great state of Wisconsin? Never! Well, think again. On August 1, 2010 Wisconsin, which has been dabbling in election censorship for years, officially launched into a new world of restricting free speech during elections.

Six un-elected, retired judges – all appointed by Gov. Jim Doyle and approved by the State Senate– wield incredible power over Wisconsin’s election laws as the members for Wisconsin’s incongruously titled “Government Accountability Board,” or GAB.  In the grand, and entirely un-American, tradition of philosopher-kings, these appointed judges exercise their apparently unquestionable judgment to create, administer and enforce Wisconsin’s election-related law.

Read the rest here…

Listen to/download the MP3 file

Your help needed now! Tell GAB to stop making free speech illegal!

by Amy Lewis

We need your help, and we need it fast!  Time is critical!

The unelected Government Accountability Board (GAB), comprised of 6 Doyle-appointed retired judges, is restricting free speech during elections.  Attorneys tell us GAB’s new rules are breathtakingly sweeping and all-encompassing, affecting individuals and organizations such as Wisconsin Family Action and Wisconsin Family Council.  By clicking on the petition link below, you will go to a page with more details about the new election “rules” and their potential affect on the organizations you rely on for information on candidates and issues as you prepare to vote.

We need to get thousands of signed petitions to the Government Accountability Board by the end of this week.  The more we have the better!  We must do all we can to protect our freedom of speech, especially at election time.

We urge you to do all of the following; but if you can’t, please at least sign the petition (item 1).

1)  Click here to sign the petition to tell the Government Accountability Board (GAB) to stop criminalizing free speech (see below for more details).

2)  Forward this email to every person in your email address book who lives in Wisconsin.  Urge them to join you in signing the petition. This step is critical.  The more petitions we have, the more impact and influence the petitions have.

3)  Call Kevin Kennedy the director of the GAB at 608-266-8005 and politely tell him to use his influence with the GAB board to urge them to revoke the new rules in §1.28 that unconstitutionally restrict both individual and organizational free speech.

Thank you for once again stepping up and speaking up to let your government officials know they are out of line.

If you have questions, please call WIsconsin Family Action at 866-849-2536.
Click the link below to sign the petition:
http://www.votervoice.net/link/target/friwi/c2P8QfB4.aspx