A ballot access challenge against Pete Karas, the Green Party of Wisconsin’s candidate for secretary of state, was withdrawn Monday, one day before Karas was set to appear before the Wisconsin Elections Commission.
In a statement emailed to supporters, the Karas campaign said attorney Stacie Rosenzweig of Halling & Cayo, S.C., on behalf of challenger Gregory Walz-Chojnacki, notified the commission that the challenge was being dropped. He was expected to go before the body the following day. Karas pinned the source of the challenge on state Democrats, who he said were trying to knock the Green Party off the state ballot once again.
“They couldn’t find a single fraudulent signature. They couldn’t name a single unqualified voter. They couldn’t identify one signer who was confused or misled,” Karas said in the statement. “So they threw hypertechnical garbage at the wall and hoped the Wisconsin Elections Commission would do their dirty work for them.”
Karas previously said the challenge concerned language related to the certification of circulators under 2025 Wisconsin Act 126, which restricts who may circulate nomination papers and recall petitions in the state. The law requires circulators for most Wisconsin offices to be eligible Wisconsin voters, effectively barring most out-of-state circulators. It has since been challenged as unconstitutional, but remains in place.
The Karas campaign said it spent the weekend preparing a “comprehensive verified response” to the challenge, including sworn affidavits from 13 circulators across Wisconsin and retaining legal counsel to help defend the nomination papers. “Every dollar spent on lawyers was a dollar not spent talking to voters. That’s exactly what the Democrats wanted,” Karas added.
Karas previously said he submitted 2,937 signatures by the June 1 filing deadline, adding in his recent statement that they were filed in good faith using forms obtained from municipal websites. Candidates for secretary of state are required to file between 2,000 and 4,000 valid signatures to qualify for the ballot. As the only Green candidate in the race, Karas would advance directly to the general election.
“The Democratic Party would rather spend money on lawyers than earn votes on the merits,” Karas said. “That tells you everything about how confident they are in their own candidate and how much they fear a real alternative.”
The campaign said it hopes to use its showing to help the Green Party of Wisconsin secure ballot access for the 2028 presidential election cycle. Doing so would require Karas to receive at least 1 percent of the total votes cast for secretary of state.
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