Barrett Campaign Lashes Out At Election Integrity Monitors
By Collin Roth
On Monday, Tom Barrett’s campaign lashed out at a group of citizen election integrity monitors calling them part of a “voter suppression” plot. The Barrett campaign issued an email announcing that “Texas voter suppression experts arrive in Wisconsin” in reference to the arrival of a Tea Party group known as the King Street Patriots. Phil Walzak, Deputy Campaign Manager for the Tom Barrett campaign wrote:
The “King Street Patriots,” a group of Texas extremists, have arrived in Wisconsin. They believe that voter registration for the poor is “un-American,” and would “destroy the country.” They already came to Wisconsin once and intimidated recall petition signers — and now they’ve dropped so-called “election observers” into polling locations across the state.
The King Street Patriots, viciously maligned by the Barrett campaign, is the same organization that assisted and sponsored the Verify The Recall effort that brought transparency and accountability to the recall process. Verify The Recall assisted in the revelation of numerous journalists and judges who signed the recall and was essential in citizen journalists uncovering numerous examples of errors and fraud, most notably the case of Mark Demet who is being prosecuted by the Racine County District Attorney for forging the signatures of his brother, mother, and neighbors.