Lawsuit Challenges Wisconsin Ban On Out-Of-State Signature Collectors

Matthew Snorek, one of the organizers of an effort to recall Assembly Speaker Robin Vos, holds up a box of what he says contains more than 9,000 signatures. Shawn Johnson/WPR

A conservative law firm says a new, bipartisan ban on out-of-state residents collecting signatures for candidates running for Wisconsin office is unconstitutional.

In late March, Democratic Gov. Tony Evers signed a bipartisan bill making it illegal for people from outside Wisconsin to collect signatures for launching recall elections or getting state and local candidates on the ballot. The law has an exception allowing those from outside Wisconsin to collect signatures for presidential and vice-presidential candidates.

It was a direct response to failed recall efforts against Assembly Speaker Robin Vos, R-Rochester. Those attempts were driven by supporters of President Donald Trump who attacked Vos for not trying to decertify the president’s 2020 election loss in Wisconsin.

Many of those collecting signatures to try to oust the speaker lived outside of Wisconsin, and Vos claimed they harassed residents and forged people’s names.

During a June public hearing on the bill Evers would later sign, state Rep. Jim Piwowarczyk, R-Hubertus, said the Vos recall effort was not driven by Wisconsin voters.

“It was an orchestrated effort by outside activists to influence our state’s electoral outcomes,” he testified. “Even more concerning, at least one of these out-of-state petitioners had a criminal record and was found to have collected allegedly forged signatures.”

While no individuals or groups registered against the bill, the Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty, or WILL, filed a lawsuit on April 29 on behalf of the Virginia-based Americans for Citizen Voting PAC. The PAC argues the residency requirement is unconstitutional because “petition circulation is core political speech” and therefore protected under the First Amendment. The case was moved to federal court on Tuesday because of the constitutional claim.

WILL is asking for an immediate injunction because the political action committee “wants to engage out-of-state circulators to help Wisconsin candidates that it supports gather nomination signatures—but is prohibited from doing so in Wisconsin because of Act 126.” Time is of the essence, the groups stated, because candidates have been circulating nomination papers since April 15.

“These restrictions shrink the pool of available circulators for Wisconsin candidates, prevent candidates from associating with out-of-state supporters and thus limit the dissemination of political messages,” the lawsuit claims.

In social media posts on May 1, WILL attorneys Lucas Vebber and Dan Lennington noted Wisconsin lawmakers tried to impose a residency restriction on signature gatherers more than 20 years ago, which was struck down by the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in 2003.

“In March Wisconsin decided to bring it back. It’s still unconstitutional,” said Vebber. “Government does not get to pick who you can associate with.”

Americans for Citizen Voting has been involved in Wisconsin elections before. In 2024, the PAC was behind the push to amend the state’s Constitution to specify that “only” U.S. citizens ages 18 and up can vote in elections. The Constitution already required voters to be U.S. citizens before the change.

The PAC named Republican businessman and radio host Will Martin of Racine as the group’s state director in 2024 and sent $77,500 to Wisconsin Diversified Investments for “non-federal radio ads.” State records list Martin as the company’s registered agent. He’s currently running for lieutenant governor.

New Wisconsin law barring out-of-staters from collecting candidate signatures challenged in court was originally published by Wisconsin Public Radio.