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Did groups in Green Bay, Wisconsin, offer free food and a free open bar to voters in the April 2, 2024, election?

By Tom Kertscher
YES

An election-day get-out-the-vote campaign that advertised free food and drink to voters was canceled after a prosecutor said the campaign might violate Wisconsin law on election bribery.

In a social media post on the afternoon of April 2, 2024, We All Rise African American Resource Center said an effort by it and other groups in Green Bay to offer “free food and beverages” and a “free open bar” to voters that day was canceled.

Also advertised were cash prizes of up to $1,000 for “social media influencers” who got voters to the polls.

The post included an April 2 letter from Brown County District Attorney David Lasee to the groups.

“I would strongly encourage” that the influencer incentive be stopped, the letter said, and offering anything of value based on whether someone votes “would violate the law.”

This fact brief is responsive to conversations such as this one.
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Wisconsin Watch, the news arm of the nonpartisan, nonprofit Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism, increases the quality and quantity of investigative reporting in Wisconsin, while training current and future investigative journalists. Its work fosters an informed citizenry and strengthens democracy.
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