Outside funding for Wisconsin elections, voters to decide April 2
MILWAUKEE - Wisconsin voters will decide whether to amend the Wisconsin Constitution on April 2 to ban outside groups from giving money to governments for elections.
Mark Zuckerberg funded a group that, in 2020, donated to election clerks around the state. Conservatives called it "Zuckerbucks," and they are now trying to permanently stop that process.
"We think private funding of elections should be of concern to people in either party, right?" said Will Flanders with the Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty, a conservative law firm. "Take your biggest right-wing boogie man, take someone like the Koch brothers. We don’t think folks on the left would like to see those individuals strategically funding elections in conservative-leaning parts of the state."
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"For years and years, municipalities across the state have accepted outside funds to help administer their elections because there’s just not enough funding provided by state and federal governments," said Debra Cronmiller with the League of Women Voters of Wisconsin.
The Zuckerbug-funded Center for Tech and Civic Life donated to more than 200 municipalities across Wisconsin in 2020, with most of the money going to the state's five largest cities. Milwaukee used that money to buy things like absentee ballot drop boxes.
High-speed ballot tabulator machine
Money for Milwaukee
The Milwaukee Election Commission is one step closer to accepting a new grant of $786,000 before the April 2 election.
The money would come from a group called Cities Forward. The group's website does not include a staff list, and its tax forms have not yet been filed with the federal government. A representative said the group is filling in for a lack of government funding for elections.
"I cannot tell you who their specific funders are," said Claire Woodall, the Milwaukee election commission's executive director.
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"They are registered with the federal government Internal Revenue Service. They are registered as a nonprofit, and they’re also registered as non-partisan," said Ald. Michael Murphy.
The Common Council’s Judiciary Committee approved the donation, but the full Common Council still needs to OK it.
"There is a referendum on the ballot on April 2 that would prohibit us from receiving this type of funding in the future," Woodall said. "This proposal was also put together with that knowledge, and that we would expend all of these funds before April 2, as well."
Spending plans
The election commission plans to use almost $300,000 of the money for two high-speed tabulators to help count absentee ballots faster. In its grant request, the commission wrote:
"The City of Milwaukee continues to face the challenge of processing an estimated 100,000 absentee ballots in one single day…The sooner we are able to complete tabulation on Election night, the faster we will be able to transmit results to the County and reducing the accusations of ‘ballot dumps’ late in the night."
Express voter machine
The city would use $211,000 to pay for 50 express voter machines – touchscreen devices that print paper ballots and help voters who have diabilities. Another $147,000 would go toward 210 Android cellphones – to update the commission's current flip phones. Polling places would use them to talk with election commission staff.
The election commission said the phones would give poll workers a camera to document problems. It would also allow poll workers to access the MyVote website to help people find their polling places.
The grant request also noted $50,000 for 20 additional security cameras, which would be used at the election commission's operations center where the city stores voting equipment. Additional building lighting would cost another $10,000.