The Wisconsin Elections Commission has recommended that the Racine County District Attorney file charges against 13 people for unlawful irregularities in the petitions collected during a failed attempt to recall Wisconsin Assembly Speaker Robin Vos in 2024. 

In a letter sent on Friday, WEC said that it was recommending charges against two people who collected signatures on behalf of the recall effort who had listed addresses that aren’t their residences on paperwork they submitted for  the signature drive. WEC recommended charges against another 11 people for turning in petition paperwork that listed signatures from people who later said they did not sign to support the recall. 

However WEC did not recommend charges against recall effort organizer Matthew Snorek. The letter states that in a complaint to WEC, Vos made “vague allegations” against Snorek, but they weren’t enough to confirm that he had broken a state law. 

The recall effort at the center of the allegations was the second failed recall drive against Vos in 2024. A faction of the Wisconsin Republican party, particularly around Vos’ Racine County district, has become especially engaged in conspiracy theories about the 2020 presidential election. The recall drives were started because of what organizers charged was Vos’  failure to adequately investigate claims that the 2020 election was stolen from President Donald Trump. 

This is also not the first time that conservatives have run afoul of the rules while opposing Vos. The state ethics commission alleged that during the 2022 primary elections, a political action committee connected to Trump, the Langlade County Republican Party and then-state Rep. Janel Brandtjen worked to illegally funnel $40,000 to the campaign of Vos’ primary challenger. 

Vos announced last month that he will not seek reelection this year, ending his time as the state’s longest serving Assembly Speaker. For the past eight years under Wisconsin’s divided government, he has been the most powerful Republican in the state. 

In a statement, Vos called the recommended charges “just another example of how these recall attempts were a complete waste of time and money when we hold regularly scheduled elections every two years.”