{"id":2211873,"date":"2024-04-02T22:25:02","date_gmt":"2024-04-03T02:25:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/voters-prohibit-zuckbucks-style-private-funding-and-staff-from-wisconsin-elections\/"},"modified":"2024-04-02T22:25:22","modified_gmt":"2024-04-03T02:25:22","slug":"voters-prohibit-zuckbucks-style-private-funding-and-staff-from-wisconsin-elections","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/voters-prohibit-zuckbucks-style-private-funding-and-staff-from-wisconsin-elections\/","title":{"rendered":"Wisconsin Voters Say No to Private Funding and Staff Like &#8216;Zuckbucks&#8217; in Elections"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">26<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fvoters-prohibit-zuckbucks-style-private-funding-and-staff-from-wisconsin-elections%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=2211873&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>Wisconsin voters approved \u200dconstitutional amendments\u200d to ban private \u2063funding in\u2064 elections and restrict \u2062election administration to government\u200b officials only. These amendments \u2064aim to prevent\u2062 scenarios like the use of &#8220;Zuckbucks&#8221; by nonprofits during the 2020 elections, which skewed towards Democrat-majority counties. Grassroots efforts played a crucial role\u2062 in\u200b educating voters and \u200cdriving\u2062 the passage of these amendments.  <\/p>\n<p class=\"readmore\">\n    <button onclick=\"showReadMore()\" id=\"readmorebtn\">Read more&#8230;<\/button>\n<\/p>\n<hr id=\"line\">\n<span id=\"more\"><\/p>\n<p><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><\/p>\n<div class=\"article-content\">\n<p>Wisconsin voters approved two constitutional amendment proposals Tuesday that prohibit private money from being used to conduct elections and mandate only legally designated government officials may administer elections.   <\/p>\n<p>According to preliminary results, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/interactive\/2024\/04\/02\/us\/elections\/results-wisconsin-question-1-prohibit-private-funding-of-elections.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Question 1<\/a> is projected to pass. That amendment <a href=\"https:\/\/ballotpedia.org\/Wisconsin_Question_1,_Ban_on_Private_and_Non-Governmental_Funding_of_Election_Administration_Amendment_(April_2024)#Text_of_measure\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">stipulates<\/a> that \u201cprivate donations and grants may not be applied for, accepted, expended, or used in connection with the conduct of any primary, election, or referendum.\u201d <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/interactive\/2024\/04\/02\/us\/elections\/results-wisconsin-question-2-limit-election-conduct-to-election-officials.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Question 2<\/a> requires that \u201conly election officials designated by law may perform tasks in the conduct of primaries, elections, and referendums. It was also approved by voters, according to The New York Times. <\/p>\n<div class=\"fdrlst__b89e9-paragraph-2-long d-flex justify-content-center\" style=\"margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center; \" id=\"fdrlst__b89e9-159601212\">\n<div id=\"div-gpt-ad-1379703300879-0\" class=\"mb-30\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"fdrlst__b89e9-2452c9173820680d51f4d0ee94d445c3 fdrlst__b89e9-paragraph-2\" id=\"fdrlst__b89e9-2452c9173820680d51f4d0ee94d445c3\"><\/div>\n<p>During the 2020 election season, nonprofits including the Center for Tech and Civic Life (CTCL) received <a href=\"https:\/\/www.techandciviclife.org\/100m\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">hundreds of millions of dollars<\/a> from Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg. These \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2021\/10\/12\/the-2020-election-wasnt-stolen-it-was-bought-by-mark-zuckerberg\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Zuckbucks<\/a>\u201d were poured into local election offices in battleground states around the country to change how elections were administered. <\/p>\n<p>Among other things, these funds went to help expand unsupervised election protocols including mail-in voting and ballot drop boxes. To make matters worse, the grants were heavily skewed toward Democrat-majority counties, essentially making it a massive, privately funded Democrat get-out-the-vote operation.<\/p>\n<p>Leading up to the 2020 contest, Wisconsin <a href=\"https:\/\/capitalresearch.org\/article\/shining-a-light-on-zuck-bucks-in-key-states\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">received<\/a> an estimated $10.1 million \u201cZuckbucks\u201d from CTCL, which \u201cdistributed a total of 31 grants above the $5,000 minimum to Wisconsin cities and townships.\u201d Of those 31 grants, 28 went to cities, eight of which were won by Trump and 20 by Biden.<\/p>\n<p>The constitutional amendment stipulating that only officials designated by law may administer elections seeks to prevent a repeat of what happened in Green Bay during the 2020 contest. As my colleague Matt Kittle <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2024\/03\/26\/wisconsin-voters-have-a-chance-to-rid-their-elections-of-zuckbucks-for-good\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">reported<\/a>, \u201cCommunications obtained through open records requests show a longtime Democrat operative who was embedded in the Green Bay City Clerk\u2019s office [during the 2020 election] offered to help \u2018cure\u2019 absentee ballot envelopes and was given the keys to the room where absentee ballots were stored.\u201d<\/p>\n<div class=\"fdrlst__b89e9-a5a7d2cbf52dba66ecc85075e1a98eaf fdrlst__b89e9-paragraph-6\" id=\"fdrlst__b89e9-a5a7d2cbf52dba66ecc85075e1a98eaf\"><\/div>\n<p>In recent years, bills attempting to restrict or ban private entities from interfering in Wisconsin elections twice cleared the Republican-controlled legislature, only to be <a href=\"https:\/\/capitalresearch.org\/article\/states-banning-zuck-bucks\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">vetoed<\/a> by Democrat Gov. Tony Evers. Using the constitutional amendment process permitted Republicans to give voters the final say and sidestep Evers\u2019s efforts to keep Wisconsin\u2019s elections open to private financiers.<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">The Grassroots Take Action<\/h2>\n<p>The passage of the two amendments wouldn\u2019t have been possible without election integrity activists. <\/p>\n<p>AMAC Action Senior Vice President Andy Mangione told The Federalist his group \u201cdeployed a call-to-action to [its more than] 48,000 members in the state \u2026 in a get out the vote effort\u201d and \u201cencouraged [AMAC] members to vote yes on questions one and two.\u201d Ken Cuccinelli\u2019s Election Transparency Initiative PAC ran a six-figure texting campaign targeting GOP voters in nine key counties. The campaign was directed at GOP voters who have strong histories of voting in recent primaries and general elections, but who may not always vote in the spring.<\/p>\n<p>Annette Olson, the executive director of The John K. MacIver Institute for Public Policy, told The Federalist her organization worked with several Wisconsin-based groups to get the amendments over the finish line, including MacIver Impact, Inc., Wisconsin Family Action, Wisconsin Family Council, Wisconsin Firearms Owners, and the Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty. <\/p>\n<div class=\"fdrlst__b89e9-6d9c759f6edc77cb74fe954dd4eb7f14 fdrlst__b89e9-paragraph-10\" id=\"fdrlst__b89e9-6d9c759f6edc77cb74fe954dd4eb7f14\"><\/div>\n<p>Olsen also participated in weekly meetings co-hosted by Kerri Toloczko, executive director of the Election Integrity Network; Lynn Taylor, president of the Virginia Institute for Public Policy; and Sharon Bemis, a policy analyst for the Texas Public Policy Foundation\u2019s Election Protection Project.<\/p>\n<p>Groups that partook in these conferences include the Wisconsin Voter Alliance, Capital Research Center, and Honest Elections Project. Also participating: the Citizen\u2019s Election Research Network, Center for Election Confidence, Wisconsin Ad-Hoc Committee on Election Integrity, America First Works, the Institute for Reforming Government, and Restoration of America. ROA <a href=\"https:\/\/www.restorationofamerica.com\/restoration-news\/eric\/zuck-bucks-grift-was-born-in-wisconsin-voters-must-ban-it-in-2024\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">published<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.restorationofamerica.com\/restoration-news\/eric\/the-lefts-ridiculous-disinformation-on-tainted-zuck-bucks\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">articles<\/a> advocating for the amendments\u2019 passage and highlighting the issue of \u201cZuckbucks\u201d in elections.<\/p>\n<p>Speaking with The Federalist, Toloczko explained how this \u201cmini coalition\u201d made the GOTV effort \u201ceasier, and far more coordinated.\u201d <\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe contacted both state groups and national groups to encourage them to help educate Wisconsin voters and get out the vote,\u201d Toloczko said. \u201cThese groups were on the calls, shared information, graphics, research, and were active both in grassroots and media. On the calls, partners shared names of friendly media for radio, TV, and op-eds. Annette [Olson] and her team at MacIver provided invaluable printed materials \u2014 research papers, press releases, memes.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cEveryone worked so well together, shared all resources, and assisted each other with messaging and dissemination,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n<p>National and state groups such as the Republican National Committee and Republican Party of Wisconsin were also involved in efforts to pass the amendments. The RNC\u2019s Gates McGavick told The Federalist both organizations \u201csent out multiple email campaigns\u201d and helped fill more than 1,000 poll observer shifts throughout the state. <\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Remaining Concerns<\/h2>\n<p>While a welcome development, it\u2019s unclear how the newly enacted \u201cZuckbucks\u201d ban will affect localities that already accepted private election grants ahead of the 2024 election. <\/p>\n<p>Most recently, it was <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2024\/03\/13\/milwaukee-set-to-accept-800k-from-a-cryptic-elections-group-with-democrat-dark-money-ties\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">revealed<\/a> that the Democrat-dominated city of Milwaukee \u2014 which sits in a county Joe Biden <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cnn.com\/election\/2020\/results\/state\/wisconsin\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">won<\/a> by nearly 40 points in the 2020 election \u2014 accepted a nearly $800,000 grant from Cities Forward, a left-wing nonprofit with ties to Democrats\u2019 dark money network. Cities Forward <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2024\/03\/28\/left-wing-nonprofit-interfering-in-milwaukees-2024-elections-got-750k-from-soros-group\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">previously received<\/a> funding from Open Society Foundations, a group founded by leftist billionaire George Soros, back when it was an initiative of the left-wing <a href=\"https:\/\/www.influencewatch.org\/non-profit\/new-venture-fund\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">New Venture Fund<\/a>. <\/p>\n<p>The city of Madison, another Democrat-majority locality, <a href=\"https:\/\/archive.is\/SbVzE\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">accepted<\/a> a $1.5 million grant from CTCL in January 2023 for \u201cplanning and operating safe and secure elections,\u201d according to the Wisconsin State Journal. While the city initially said it planned to spend $500,000 in 2023 and $1 million in 2024, The Cap Times <a href=\"https:\/\/captimes.com\/news\/government\/madison-hasn-t-yet-spent-election-grants-gop-leaders-want-to-ban\/article_e4a68996-7fe4-11ee-a87e-b3c143569143.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">reported<\/a> in November that Madison officials had \u201cnot yet spent any of the funds.\u201d <\/p>\n<p>Madison received the grant as part of its <a href=\"https:\/\/electionexcellence.org\/our-community\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">membership<\/a> with the <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/tag\/u-s-alliance-for-election-excellence\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">U.S. Alliance for Election Excellence<\/a>, a five-year, $80 million <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2023\/01\/20\/inside-democrats-newest-election-takeover-scheme-report-unmasks-dark-money-group-youve-probably-never-heard-of\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">venture<\/a> launched by CTCL in 2022 that\u2019s designed to \u201csystematically influence every aspect of election administration\u201d and advance Democrat-backed voting practices in local election offices.<\/p>\n<div class=\"fdrlst__b89e9-136f2cedacc1958109d13149e2958609 fdrlst__b89e9-after-post-content\" id=\"fdrlst__b89e9-136f2cedacc1958109d13149e2958609\"><\/div>\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\">    \t\t\t\t\t   \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n<p><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Wisconsin voters passed two constitutional amendments restricting private funding in elections and mandating only government officials manage elections. Preliminary results show Question 1 likely passed, stating that private donations cannot be used in elections<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":539,"featured_media":2211874,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/Wisconsin_State_flag_at_the_Capitol.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[546],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2211873","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-federalist"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/Wisconsin_State_flag_at_the_Capitol.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2211873","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/539"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2211873"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2211873\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2211874"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2211873"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2211873"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2211873"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}