MUSKEGO, WI — Pete Karas, the Green Party candidate for Wisconsin Secretary of State, filed a response with the Wisconsin Elections Commission (WEC) over the weekend asking it to throw out a challenge that would invalidate thousands of signatures and keep his name off the ballot. The Commission will take up the challenge at a hearing Tuesday, June 9, at 10 a.m., and is expected to rule then.

The challenge was brought by Gregory Walz-Chojnacki, who is affiliated with the Democratic Party. Karas collected 2,937 signatures, well past the 2,000 the law requires. Walz-Chojnacki wants every last one thrown out, though he does not allege that a single signature is fraudulent.

Karas’s response, prepared by Madison attorney Skylar Croy of Hurley Burish, S.C., likens the challenge to Donald Trump’s failed effort to overturn Wisconsin’s 2020 election results: a complaint that cannot name one fraudulent signature yet asks the state to erase thousands.

“Same playbook Trump tried in 2020, and it failed then too,” Karas said. “The Commission has better things to do than deal with pettifoggery. This challenge fools no one. It’s an attempt to uphold the two-party system by disenfranchising the thousands of Green Party voters, independents, and fed-up Wisconsin residents who signed these papers because they’re done with the same tired, corporate choices.”

The challenge rests on two claims, and the response takes both apart. First, it suggests the people who gathered signatures might have lived out of state. Every circulator certified under penalty of law that they live in Wisconsin and wrote a Wisconsin address on the paper. Karas collected hundreds of the signatures himself. He grew up in Racine and lives in Muskego.

Second, it calls dozens of the papers too blurry to read. Wisconsin law does not require flawless paperwork, only substantial compliance, a standard the state Court of Appeals upheld in Hess v. WEC for papers with words that were blurry, obscured, or missing. The challenger never explains what, exactly, he cannot read.

There is also the matter of the rules themselves. The residency law the challenge leans on, 2025 Wisconsin Act 126, took effect only weeks before this signature cycle. Counties across the state, including Milwaukee and Lincoln, were still posting the old nomination forms on their own websites. Karas pulled one of those official forms from a government site and used it. Now he is being told that following the state’s own instructions disqualifies him. The law is already being fought in federal court as unconstitutional.

There is also the matter of the challenger’s own paperwork. His complaint had to be sworn before a notary. It carries no stamp.

“He’s combing my papers for a blurry letter, and his own complaint isn’t even notarized,” Karas said. “No stamp on it. If you want to talk technicalities, start with your own.”

“Wisconsin law calls for substantial compliance, not perfection,” Croy said. “The challenger is demanding a level of precision the law has never required, and he didn’t meet his own burden getting there.”

Out of caution, Karas filed sworn statements from more than a dozen circulators who collected thesignatures, including himself. Each swears the circulator is a Wisconsin resident, is not a felon, watched every voter sign, and stands behind the papers.

Karas, a small business owner and former Racine City Council member, has never voted for a Democrat or a Republican for president. He argues the Secretary of State office is administrative, not partisan, and that a third-party candidate can win it without spoiling the race for anyone.

“There’s a long history of knocking Green candidates off the ballot in this state,” Karas said. “It usually works because nobody’s paying attention. We’re paying attention.”  

The challenge arrived over the weekend with WEC’s offices closed, leaving Karas roughly 72 hours to find a lawyer and respond. The full response and all of the affidavits are available to reporters, and Karas and Croy are available for interviews.

About Pete Karas
Pete Karas is the Green Party candidate for Wisconsin Secretary of State. He is a small business owner, a former member of the Racine City Council, a UW-La Crosse graduate, and a lifelong Wisconsinite. His campaign takes no corporate PAC money. Learn more at petekaras.com