WI GOP seeks ban on billionaires' control of elections

FPI / February 5, 2022

Wisconsin Republican state Rep. Tyler August is proposing a constitutional amendment that would ban private donations for election operations in the state.

“[It] would prohibit out-of-state billionaires like Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook from using their deep pockets to control our local election administration,” August tweeted on Thursday.

During the 2020 election, Zuckerberg gifted $350 million to two left-wing groups, the Center for Tech and Civic Life (CTCL) being one of them. The groups then gave the money to government election offices.

The Federalist's Mollie Hemingway detailed the Zuckerbucks controversy in her book “Rigged: How the Media, Big Tech, and the Democrats Seized Our Elections”.

The Zuckerbucks were not an unconditional donation, Hemingway pointed out. There were strings attached, which amounted to Democrat get-out-the-vote efforts, mass mail-in voting, and ballot “curing,” whereby election workers “fix” mail-in ballot problems after the ballot has been submitted.

Zuckerberg and the CTCL are at the center of Wisconsin’s election investigations. Both former Supreme Court Justice Mike Gableman and state lawmakers want answers as to just how Wisconsin’s five largest (and five largest Democrat) cities used nearly $9 million in Zuckerbucks during the 2020 election.

"While CTCL offered Milwaukee, Madison, Green Bay, Racine, and Kenosha grant money as a way to help people vote during the coronavirus, evidence suggests the group did a lot more. There are emails and reports that CTCL all but took over the election operation in Green Bay," Just the News noted in a Feb. 3 report.

State Rep. Gae Magnifici, a Republican, tweeted: “I’ve talked about this attack on public faith and the importance of restoring the integrity of Wisconsin’s elections countless times. I’m proud to co-sponsor Rep. August’s constitutional amendment to prohibit out-of-state billionaires from buying our election.”

Wisconsin Democrat Gov. Tony Evers has vowed not to sign any voter integrity bills such as the one proposed by August.

But the governor does not have any say over a constitutional amendment. If the Republican-led legislature approves the amendment this year, then again next spring, it could go directly to voters soon after that.

Free Press International