Minocqua Brewing Co. owner Kirk Bangstad told WisPolitics he will sue to force his way onto the gubernatorial ballot after the Elections Commission voted unanimously that he had failed to turn in enough signatures.

The commissioners didn’t discuss Bangstad’s nomination papers during yesterday’s hearing, lumping his case in with the 67 other candidates they found were ineligible for the fall ballot.

The commission staff’s initial review of Bangstad’s nomination papers found he had 1,504 valid signatures with 2,000 needed to qualify.

Ahead of the meeting, Bangstad sought to correct a series of issues with his signatures, including circulators who failed to list the city in which they live when putting their address on nomination papers. There were also missing dates and municipalities from signers.

Some circulators signed and dated the nomination papers when they began collecting signatures rather than after they finished the sheet as required.

Bangstad said in a phone interview he made that mistake as well, calling it a “simple error.” 

He wanted to know how many of the signatures he sought to rehabilitate were accepted by the staff to know how close he came to the 2,000 needed. Bangstad added he wanted to know if the ones that were thrown out were rejected for subjective reasons or objective ones.

Bangstad estimated his original filing included 2,200 signatures.

“If there’s a path forward, we’re going to fight it,” Bangstad said. “We worked hard to get 2,200 signatures.”

In other races, the commission voted to deny ballot access to Dem secretary of state candidate Eileen Newcomer and GOP 21st AD contender Veronica Diaz after challenges were filed to their nomination papers. 

Commission staff found Newcomer was short of the 2,000 signatures she needed after an initial review of her nomination papers. The commissioners yesterday then agreed to strike other signatures after reviewing a challenge to her papers that left the former deputy director for the League of Women Voters of Wisconsin with 1,958 signatures. 

That means Milwaukee Ald. JoCasta Zamarripa, a former member of the state Assembly, is the only Dem in line to be placed on the ballot.

The commission also rejected challenges to the nomination papers of GOP secretary of state candidates Nate Pollnow, a Dodge County farmer and small business owner who’s been endorsed by the state GOP, and Cindy Werner, who ran for lieutenant governor four years ago.

Pollnow misspelled “secretary” as “secetary” on his declaration of candidacy, but the commissioners found that wasn’t enough to keep Pollnow off the ballot.

While the commission voted unanimously to find Werner had enough signatures for the ballot after she turned in supplemental signatures, Chair Ann Jacobs said some were “sketchy” and gave her pause. 

The staff notified Werner May 29 — two days before the filing deadline — that she had turned in 1,633 signatures. Werner then filed supplemental signatures, and agency staff found 2,219 valid signatures after reviewing the challenge, which argued some of the signatures appeared to be written by the same person.

Jacobs noted the challenge suggested some signatures were forged, though it didn’t include testimony from a handwriting expert. But a look at eight pages suggested there were some “real issues here.” She said commission practice has not been to void signatures “based on our gut assumptions.”

“We’d have challenges on every signature,” she said.

Wisconsin Green candidate Pete Karas is also running for secretary of state; a challenge to his nomination papers was withdrawn ahead of yesterday’s hearing.

With Diaz out in the Milwaukee-area’s 21st AD, Dylan Pfaffenbach, a former legislative aide and current college student, is the only Republican the commission staff found had enough valid signatures to qualify for the ballot. 

On the Dem side, Daniel Bukiewicz, a former president of the Milwaukee Building and Constructions Trade Council, and David Liners, a community organizer and former priest, filed to run.

Rep. Jessie Rodriguez, R-Oak Creek, opted against seeking reelection, leaving open one of the toughest seats for Assembly Republicans to hold this fall.