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Wisconsin Watch partners with Gigafact to produce fact briefs — bite-sized fact checks of trending claims. Read our methodology to learn how we check claims.

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On Sept. 26, 2022, the Republican Party of Wisconsin and the National Republican Senatorial Committee filed a lawsuit against the city of Milwaukee’s mayor and election commission for failing to release public records related to the administration of the upcoming midterm elections.

In their complaint, the plaintiffs expressed concerns about the city’s collaboration in “Milwaukee Votes 2022” — a privately funded get-out-the-vote mobilization. The plaintiffs submitted a public records request for all communications between the mobilization’s administrators, the mayor’s office and the election commission. The plaintiffs specifically highlighted the involvement of GPS Impact, a “partisan Democratic” organization, in the GOTV mobilization that the mayor has characterized as nonpartisan.

“Public resources should not be used for Get Out the Vote (GOTV) drives that inherently favor one party or candidate over another,” said a group of Wisconsin Republican officials in a press release.

Sources

Wisconsin Public Radio: Wisconsin Republicans sue the city of Milwaukee, demanding information about effort to get out the vote

Wisconsin Legislature: Open records request by Assembly Speaker Robin Vos and state Sen. Duey Strobel

Wisconsin Legislature: Republicans demand the city of Milwaukee cease in highly partisan voting activities

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Jacob Alabab-Moser joined as Wisconsin Watch’s fact checker in September 2022, as part of the effort by The Gigafact Project in partnership with different state-level news outlets to combat misinformation in the 2022 midterm elections. Jacob has several years of experience as a fact checker and research assistant at a variety of organizations, including at The Gigafact Project. He holds a BA from Brown University and is pursuing a MSc from the London School of Economics and Political Science.