Six fake Democrats will remain on the recall election ballots after the state election board unanimously approved its staff recommendations to do so at a meeting on Tuesday.

The Government Accountability Board unanimously ruled no election fraud was occurring and the board did not have the authority to decide the validity of the candidate’s intended party affiliation. 

“There’s no legal basis for us to question whether they are real Republicans or real Democrats,” GAB Executive Director Kevin Kennedy said. “Even if those preferences have been made public about why these candidates are running, the board points out that the public should make these decisions in the elections.”

Kennedy said he did not believe this lack of legal precedent was “a hole in the system” and said it would be very hard to create any legal litmus test for testing one’s party affiliation. 

The decision by the GAB confirms the primary recall election date of May 8 and general election date of June 5. 

The Republican Party of Wisconsin said in a statement the party was pleased with the GAB’s certification and said the candidates were running so there is one primary and one general election date for all candidates facing a recall.

Jeremy Levinson, the attorney challenging the Republican-backed Democrats’ ability to appear on the ballot, was discouraged by the decision.

“This is a situation where the Republican Party was clear that this was a scam to get an advantage by changing the date and protecting the incumbents,” Levinson said. “Unfortunately today, the GAB found for the first time in history that if you provide fraudulent information of some kind, it doesn’t count. ”

Levinson added the next likely step would be bringing the GAB’s decision into the court system and challenging it there. He said it was unlikely the future challenges in court would be made in time to affect the recall elections.

Attorney Joe Olsen, who represented the Republican-backed Democrats’ ability to appear on the ballot, said he refuted the idea that the candidates were committing any kind of fraud.

“For the argument to be made that the candidate is somehow defrauding the signer with the nomination paper is completely backwards,” Olsen said. “The elector tells the GAB who they want to see on the ballot. We have an open primary system … the GAB doesn’t decide who represents what party, the people do.”

Lori Compas, who is running against Sen. Scott Fitzgerald, R-Juneau, in one of the six recall elections, appeared before the board before it made its decision. She questioned what impact the decision would have on the integrity of the ballot.

Compas said while she understood why Republican incumbents would fear standing for reelection on the same day as the Democratic primary, she said a greater issue of voter trust in the system was at stake.

“Just this past weekend a woman asked me for some sort of proof that I was the real candidate,” Compas said. “She asked me if the ballot would indicate which candidates were fake. This is a truly bizarre situation. People need to be able to trust the information that appears on their ballot.”