GREEN BAY (NBC 26) — Court records show a former Green Bay Area Public School District board member has been charged with election fraud and false swearing.
Watch the video below to hear how a current school board member who ran against Lee feels following the charges:
47-year-old Kou Lee has been charged with election fraud and false swearing, which are both felonies. Charges were filed in Brown County on Friday.
Lee resigned in May after community members questioned if he lived inside district borders, which is which is required of a board member.
A few weeks after Lee's resignation, the Brown County District Attorney's office confirmed the former board member was under investigation.
According to a criminal complaint, an investigator with the DA's office met with the owners and residents of the duplex where Lee had listed as his address in his campaign documents. Both the family who owns the property and the current residents confirmed Lee never lived there.
An investigator also contacted a man who claimed to be Lee's neighbor in Hobart since 2015. That neighbor claimed he saw a media report that Lee was running for the Green Bay School Board in April of 2024 and thought it was odd, since Lee resided in the Pulaski School District. The neighbor contacted the Green Bay city clerk with his concerns, the complaint states.
According to the complaint, investigators also confirmed with the Pulaski School District that Lee has four children enrolled in the district, and that his Hobart/Oneida address was the one listed in the school's records.
Green Bay resident Martin Webber wrote in to NBC 26 months ago with concerns about Lee's residency.
"People need to be held accountable," he said during a phone call Friday afternoon. "You know, hopefully it'll wake some people up, you know, in the future and make them think twice if there's going to be any type of election fraud."
Accountability is something Alex Mineau, who currently sits on the school board, also brought up to NBC 26. He said he ran against Lee for a school board seat and lost before being elected to the board in a different race.
Now, Mineau said he feels he potentially lost out on a year of serving the community to a candidate who possibly should not have been on the ballot in the first place.
"If we have somebody on our school board who is not part of our school district, how can we expect them to take all of our best interest in mind when they're making such incredibly important decisions?" Mineau said.
Lee is scheduled to appear in court on Nov. 19.
