Brown and Kenosha counties are expected to approve resolutions later this month banning election officials from accepting private money to help underwrite the cost of running elections, according to Ron Heuer, president of the Wisconsin Voter Alliance (WVA), the group behind the effort.
The counties would join Walworth, Lafayette and Ozaukee counties, which earlier approved resolutions banning officials from accepting the money. Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg funneled millions in funding through nonprofits to state and local election officials leading up to the 2020 general election.
Heuer said that the WVA is working county-by-county to ban the money since Gov. Tony Evers, a Democrat, twice vetoed legislation banning the practice statewide.
“Banning the money on the county level doesn’t necessarily mean the cities have to follow,” Heuer told The Sconi. “But it sends a strong message to the cities and throughout the state that there must be a good reason to do it if the counties are doing it.”
The largest share of the Zuckerberg money – nearly $400 million – went through the Center for Tech and Civic Life (CTCL), a nonprofit headed by former Barack Obama operatives. The money was then doled out to election officials in battleground states who were required to follow a set of voting guidelines, including expanding the use of mail ballots and drop boxes. Critics have called the effort a get-out-the-vote drive for the Democratic Party masquerading as an organization promoting safe voting practices during the pandemic.
The WVA is being assisted in its effort by the public interest law firm, the Thomas More Society (TMS).
In June, TMS attorney Erick Kaardal announced that the Michigan county of Livingston was the first local government to ban private funding for elections.
“This is a win for the voters of Livingston County,” Kaardal said in a statement at the time. “And will hopefully lead the way for other local governments to optimize election integrity in their regions. When there is an absence of any insistence on election integrity from the top, it is incumbent upon counties and municipalities to protect the right of voters entrusted to them.”
Twenty-one states have thus far approved legislation banning or restricting private money for elections, according to latest update on the issue from the Capital Research Center. Six governors have vetoed legislation banning the money.
Last week, Pennsylvania lawmakers sent Gov. Tom Wolf, a Democrat, legislation banning the money. The governor is expected to sign the bill into law.
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