MILWAUKEE (LN) — Americans for Citizen Voting PAC filed a motion Monday in the Eastern District of Wisconsin seeking a temporary restraining order against enforcement of 2025 Wisconsin Act 126, arguing the state's new residency requirements for ballot-petition circulators violate the First Amendment with the November 2026 nomination-signature deadline fast approaching.
The group, represented by the Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty, is targeting a cluster of statutes — Wis. Stat. sections 8.10(3), 8.15(4)(a), 8.20(3), 8.40(2), and 9.10(2)(em)2 — that impose residency requirements on those collecting nomination signatures for candidates seeking a spot on the general election ballot.
The defendants are seven named Wisconsin Elections Commission officials: Meagan Wolfe, Ann S. Jacobs, Mark L. Thomsen, Carrie Riepl, Don M. Millis, Robert F. Spindell Jr., and Marge Bostelmann.
The motion argues the residency restrictions infringe on First Amendment rights as applied to Wisconsin through the Fourteenth Amendment, and that the group is sustaining irreparable harm while the law remains in effect.
The urgency is concrete: the window to collect nomination signatures for the November 2026 general election opened April 15 and closes June 1, leaving roughly four weeks for the court to act renders any relief moot.
Counsel notified opposing counsel that the motion was forthcoming on the day it was filed, according to the filing, and asked the court to act without waiting for a formal response given the time pressure.
No ruling has been issued.