The Government Accountability Board is a joke, but the idea behind it isn’t.
The GAB was set up on good intentions. It was created to centralize the oversight of elections and campaign finance law in Wisconsin under what were supposed to be non-partisan judges on a government panel. Its goal: to maintain the electorate’s faith in the electoral process.
This non-partisan common sense idea has since been shown to fail at its basic functions and has instead been a tool for partisan politics.
In 2014, the Legislative Audit Bureau released a report on the GAB that gave it a big old “F” for a grade.
The audit showed, among other things, the GAB failed to meet its statutory requirements, like reviewing its voter files after every election. These audits are supposed to occur to ensure everyone that is voting is doing so legally — a basic requirement of elections to ensure a legal vote isn’t canceled out by an illegal vote.
The audit showed that between 2010 and 2014, the GAB did not complete a single review of its voter files even though there had been 16 elections in that time.
S-I-X-T-E-E-N.
The audit showed the GAB completely failed another statutory requirement. This statute made the GAB responsible for assessing penalties for late campaign finance reports.
The audit found the staff of the GAB didn’t assess penalties for 655 of 674 violations. Of the 19 fines the GAB assessed, all 19 of them were inconsistent with GAB’s own manual that it created for itself on how to do this.
Ok, so we’ve established that the GAB was very bad at its job. But at least it was non-partisan, right? Wrong.
Remember the campaign for governor in 2014? Remember Mary Burke? (It’s understandable if you don’t.) Well, emails reviewed by the Wall Street Journal revealed, among other partisan things, that Shane Falk, a former GAB attorney, sent an email during the campaign ridiculing a statement by the GAB because it would hurt Burke’s election.
“If you didn’t want this to have an effect on the election, better check Burke’s new ad,” Falk wrote. “Now you will be calling her a liar. This is a no win. I encourage you to roll with it, or tone down the press release a bit.”
Not partisan? Ok. This was also sent from Falk: “We said from day one on Nov. 8, 2012, that the election had already started.”
Mr. Falk is the same guy who, six months before joining the GAB, urged the board to “get around the constitutional right to free speech.”
One more #GABfail. Ever heard of the John Doe investigations? They were the partisan investigations by Democrats that let prosecutors use SWAT teams to barge into Wisconsinites’ homes while telling them they can’t tell anyone anything about what is happening — even an attorney.
The Wall Street Journal reported the GAB worked with the rogue prosecutors to “subpoena and intimidate the major conservative players in Wisconsin politics.”
To recap:
The GAB failed at its most basic statutory tasks like voter list upkeep and assessing penalties.
The GAB worked to make Burke look good, and make Gov. Scott Walker look bad.
The GAB held staff that encouraged the board to “get around” free speech.
The GAB was molded into a tool to coordinate attacks on conservatives in Wisconsin.
The idea behind the GAB is noble in theory, but in reality, it turned into a partisan attack dog for liberals against conservatives. When something fails, it needs to be reformed. The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and still expecting the same results.
If Wisconsin really wants to stand for electoral integrity and a transparent government, then we need to reform the GAB.
If you disagree with everything I said, but believe in the U.S. Constitution, then you still agree we need to reform the GAB.
Because, Mr. Falk, we don’t think it’s time to just “get around the constitutional right to free speech.” Instead, we think it’s about damn time we get around the partisan politics of the “non-partisan” GAB.
Anthony Birch is a senior majoring in political science and strategic communication.
