Lawsuit alleges nonprofit giving $6.3 million in grants to Wisconsin cities to hold elections is a bribe

A conservative voting group has filed a lawsuit to stop some of Wisconsin’s largest cities from using about $6 million in grant money to help run elections, alleging the initiative violates federal election law. 

Wisconsin’s five largest cities were granted $6.3 million earlier this year by the Center for Tech and Civic Life, a nonprofit, in order to run safe elections despite budget shortfalls and other concerns related to the coronavirus pandemic. 

Under the Center’s “Wisconsin Safe Voting Plan,”  the cities of Kenosha, Madison, Green Bay, Milwaukee and Racine will receive funding to run their elections. 

On Thursday, a conservative group called the Wisconsin Voters Alliance filed a lawsuit alleging the grant money amounts to a bribe, citing the need to maintain “public confidence in the integrity of Wisconsin’s elections,” according to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

“A government’s election policy favoring demographic groups is an equivalent injury to disfavoring demographic groups,” the suit argues, according to the Sentinel.

The grants, which have been approved by the state, would still need to be voted on by each city that receives money.  

Wisconsin is seen as a pivotal battleground state ahead of the November election. President Trump narrowly won the state in 2016, and most statewide polls show Democratic nominee Joe Biden with a slim lead there.