Private money to fund elections will be banned in Wisconsin after voters Tuesday approved a constitutional amendment put forward by Republicans in reaction to grants received in 2020 that were funded by donations from Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg.
Also on Tuesday, Democratic President Joe Biden and Republican former president Donald Trump, both already their parties’ presumptive nominees, won the Wisconsin primary.
Voters also approved a second question put on the ballot by the Republican-controlled Legislature that amends the constitution to say that only election officials can administer elections. That’s already state law, but putting it in the constitution makes it more difficult to repeal or change.
The first amendment question received about 54% support and the second question received about 59% support.
The Wisconsin Republican Party hailed approval of the amendments.
“Wisconsin has spoken and the message is clear: elections belong to voters, not out-of-state billionaires,” said state GOP Chairman Brian Schimming in a statement.
By adopting the amendments, “voters sent a clear message that they want to keep private money out of election administration,” said Rick Esenberg, president of the conservative Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty.
“Whether you identify with the left or the right, ensuring the fairness and integrity of our elections should be a shared priority,” he said in a statement.
Democrats opposed both measures, which they argued would make it more difficult to conduct elections in the presidential battleground state. They also raised concerns about how the broadly written election workers provision would be interpreted and implemented by local election officials.
Both constitutional amendments on the ballot were in reaction to grant money that came to Wisconsin in 2020 from the Center for Tech and Civic Life, a liberal group that fights for voter access. That year it received a $300 million donation from Zuckerberg and his wife, Priscilla Chan, to help election officials buy supplies and run elections at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic before vaccines were available.
The state’s five largest cities, all of which Biden won, received $8.8 million. They were among roughly 200 communities in Wisconsin that received around $10 million as part of $350 million given out nationally.
Republicans who dubbed the money “Zuckerbucks” complained the bulk of the funds went to Democratic strongholds and claimed it was an attempt by the billionaire to tip the vote in favor of Democrats. The argument came amid false claims made by Trump and his supporters that widespread voter fraud led to Biden’s 2020 win.
Since 2020, Republicans in at least 27 states have outlawed or restricted private elections grants.
The Wisconsin measures were supported by Republicans and conservative groups, including the Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty and Election Integrity for Wisconsin. They are opposed by an array of government watchdog and liberal groups including the American Civil Liberties Union, Common Cause Wisconsin, Wisconsin Conservation Voters and the League of Women Voters of Wisconsin.
Not a single Democratic lawmaker voted for the amendment, which was split into two questions on the ballot. Opponents of the amendments worry they could lead to attempts to stifle current practices enhancing voter participation.
Three courts and the bipartisan Wisconsin Elections Commission rejected complaints challenging the legality of the grant money.
Republicans, who control the Legislature, brought the constitutional amendments to circumvent Democratic Gov. Tony Evers, who almost surely would have vetoed the measures. Amendments are not subject to the governor’s approval.
Wisconsin voters had previously approved 148 out of 200 proposed constitutional amendments since the state constitution was adopted in 1848, according to the nonpartisan Legislative Reference Bureau.
Trump focuses on immigration
Biden and Trump both won their respective primaries in Wisconsin.
Biden faced a coordinated challenge from those who disapproved of his Gaza policy and called for voters to choose “uninstructed delegation.” Results showed the option garnering about 8.4%, a smaller share of the vote than it received in Minnesota and Michigan, which got 19% and 13% respectively.
Trump still faced opposition in the form of Republican primary voters who picked opponents who have dropped out of the race. Results showed Trump alternatives receiving more than 20% of the vote, similar to what they received in other states since Trump clinched the nomination.
Trump, appearing at a rally in Green Bay on Tuesday evening, accused rogue nations of “pumping migrants across our wide open border,” and “sending prisoners, murders, drug dealers, mental patients, terrorists” — though there is no evidence any country is engaged in that kind of coordinated effort.
He also claimed that migrants would cost the country trillions of dollars in public benefits and cause Social Security and Medicare to “buckle and collapse.”
“If you want to help Joe Biden wheel granny off the cliff to fund government benefits for illegals, then vote for Crooked Joe Biden,” he said. “But when I am president, instead of throwing granny overboard, I will send Joe Biden’s illegal aliens back home.”
On Tuesday, the White House emphasized that immigration is a positive for the U.S. economy. They argued that recent gains in immigration have helped to boost employment and sustained growth as the Federal Reserve hiked interest rates to bring down inflation.
“We know immigrants strengthen our country and also strengthen our economy,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said at Tuesday’s briefing, noting that immigrants were the ones doing the “critical work” on the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore when it collapsed after being struck by a ship.
Wisconsin Watch is a nonprofit and nonpartisan newsroom. Subscribe to our newsletters to get our investigative stories and Friday news roundup. This story is published in partnership with The Associated Press.
