MILWAUKEE, Sept. 26 (UPI) -- Milwaukee prosecutors have opened a secret investigation into voter bribery accusations in Wisconsin's recall elections, people familiar with the inquiry said.
The Milwaukee County district attorney's office is investigating whether Wisconsin Right to Life, an anti-abortion group, broke the law when it gave $25 and $75 gift cards and gasoline cards to volunteers who signed up sympathetic voters in the Senate recall races, sources told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
Prosecutors said in early August they had begun two voter bribery investigations of the anti-abortion group ahead of a specific recall election.
"It is unfortunate that the intense feelings of some individuals involved in the recall elections could result in casting aspersions on the legal activities of responsible organizations like Wisconsin Right to Life," Wisconsin Right to Life spokesperson Susan Armacost said in a statement at the time.
Prosecutors also earlier acknowledged they were looking into complaints about get-out-the-vote block parties sponsored by the liberal group Wisconsin Jobs Now.
But Assistant District Attorney Bruce Landgraf, who investigates election-law violations, told the Journal Sentinel he would no longer discuss either matter.
The current secret investigation is believed associated with an FBI raid this month on the Madison, Wis., home of Cindy Archer, a top official with Gov. Scott Walker, the newspaper said.
