(LifeSite) Wisconsin voted Tuesday to amend the state constitution to curb the influence of private organizations over election administration, preventing a repeat of the so-called “Zuckerbucks” controversy in the 2024 election.
The two proposed amendments state that “private donations and grants may not be applied for, accepted, expended, or used in connection with the conduct of any primary, election, or referendum”; and that “only election officials designated by law may perform tasks in the conduct of primaries, elections, and referendums.”
The Center Square reported that 54% of voters approved the first amendment and 58% approved the second.
The amendments were intended to address the hundreds of millions of dollars Google, Facebook, and others poured into the left-wing nonprofit Center for Technology & Civic Life (CTCL) in 2020, which in turn dispersed grants across the United States ostensibly to “protect American elections” and “bolster democracy during the (COVID-19) pandemic.” Critics said the project was really about buying access that could be used to commit vote fraud.
In Green Bay, Wisconsin, for the 2020 election $1.6 million led to Michael Spitzer-Rubenstein of the National Vote at Home Institute being made a “grant mentor,” functioning as “the de facto city elections chief,” including “access to boxes of absentee ballots before the election” despite his past work for several Democrat candidates, including “fiercely liberal” former New York City Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito.
According to emails, Spitzer-Rubenstein sought and eventually obtained a role to “help” cure (fix errors or omissions on) absentee ballots and was even given keys to the locked room where absentee ballots were stored “several days before the election.” Green Bay City Clerk Kris Teske originally declined the request but was overridden by pressure from the office of Democrat Mayor Eric Genrich and ultimately resigned in October.
