WAUSAU, WI (WSAU) – Eight anonymous Wausau residents filed a formal ethics complaint against Mayor Doug Diny with the City of Wausau Ethics Board, alleging improper conduct in his handling of a ballot drop box before the 2024 election.
According to a press release from the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign, a non-profit political organization that raises funds and promotes grassroots efforts for Democratic causes and candidates across the state, the unnamed residents are concerned about potential violations of local ethics codes and federal voting rights laws committed by Diny when he moved a ballot box from the front of city hall in September of last year. Diny indicated that he moved the box out of concern that the Wisconsin Election Commission’s requirement that ballot drop boxes be properly secured to the ground was not being followed.
“Acting under the color of law to prevent citizens from voting is not just unethical—it’s a crime,” the complaint states. “By preventing the use of a secure drop box during a critical voting period, Mayor Diny deprived voters of their ability to participate in the democratic process.”
“If an elected official is willing to tamper with a secure drop box once, how can we trust they won’t do it again?” The complaint continues.
In a December court filing, Mayor Diny’s attorney Joseph Bugni criticized Wisconsin Attorney General Josh Kaul, saying that his office’s investigation into the matter is about politics instead of facts, saying, “To put it charitably, it’s a political fishing expedition. It’s one that’s being engaged in without legal support, and that has to end with the return of his devices and the destruction of the data gathered from them.” Attorney General Kaul has been seen as the Democratic party’s likely 2026 gubernatorial candidate if Governor Tony Evers were to step aside at the end of his term.
Several Republican legislators have also criticized the investigation, most notably Wisconsin U.S. Senator Ron Johnson, who called the raid on Diny’s home “actions of jack-booted thugs,” while State Sen. Cory Tomczyk termed it as “an infuriating abuse of power.” Rep. Tom Tiffany of the 7th Congressional District has asked the House Judiciary Committee, of which he is a member, to investigate Kaul’s probe due to the allegations that Diny potentially committed federal offenses.
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