MILWAUKEE (CN) — Wisconsin voters on Tuesday chose to amend their state’s constitution to ban private funding for election administration and enshrine current state law regarding who can serve as election officials, giving quick victories to Republicans who championed approval of the yes-no ballot referendum questions.
With a tally of around 55% in favor and 45% opposed with 43% of votes counted, the Associated Press called the vote for the election officials question at 8:41 p.m.
Four minutes later, it called a "yes" result for the question regarding private elections funding, at which point the totals were 52% in favor and 48% opposed with 44% of votes counted.
As of 8:50 p.m., the election officials amendment was approved by a margin of just under 50,000 votes. The private grants amendment was approved by a narrower margin of just under 20,000 votes, according to the Associated Press.
The amendments were put to voters as questions on the ballot alongside the open presidential preference primary, as well as contests for Milwaukee’s mayor and city attorney and other local races.
The state constitution requires amendments to pass the Wisconsin Legislature in two consecutive sessions to be presented to voters for ratification, a process the Republican-controlled Legislature completed in November 2023 via party line votes.
Governor Tony Evers, a Democrat, previously vetoed bills containing the resolutions, but he has no power to block the constitutional amendments now that voters have approved them.
At a mid-morning conference, Wisconsin Elections Commission Administrator Meagan Wolfe said the bipartisan commission’s six commissioners would decide what next steps would be if the constitutional amendments passed.
The more controversial ballot question asked voters if they wanted to ban municipalities from taking private donations and grants to fund election administration. It stems from theories spread by Republicans that Mark Zuckerberg gave $350 million to the nonprofit Center for Tech and Civic Life, which then strategically dispersed the funds to help the Democrats win the 2020 election.
Republicans objected to the fact that $8.8 million of the $10 million Wisconsin’s 200 plus municipalities received — money used in part for ballot processing equipment and paying and providing protective equipment for election workers amid the Covid-19 pandemic — went to the state’s largest urban areas and Democratic strongholds in Milwaukee, Madison, Green Bay, Racine and Kenosha.
Zuckerberg’s connection to the funds led to coinage of the term “Zuckerbucks,” a pejorative widely circulated by conservatives and election deniers ever since.
At least 27 states, most controlled by Republicans, have outlawed private funding for elections, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. In February, Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives, including Bryan Steil of Wisconsin, forwarded a bill from committee to enact a ban on private elections funding in the federal tax code.
Donald Trump and his supporters have echoed the “Zuckerbucks” theory to support the latter’s continued insistence that fraud robbed him of a second term in office. At a rally in Green Bay on Tuesday, the former president repeated the falsehood that he won Wisconsin in 2020, even though a recount he demanded and multiple reviews of the contest confirmed that he lost by 20,000 votes.
The other ballot measure presented to voters on Tuesday altered the constitution to hold that only election officials designated by law “may perform tasks” in the conduct of elections. Wisconsin statutes already outline who can work as election officials.
There was no substantial public discourse or informational campaign regarding the second proposed amendment and its ramifications, leaving some experts and observers wondering if voters fully understood what they were voting for.
Voters used jackets and umbrellas to shield themselves from cold rain and wind at two polling locations on Milwaukee’s south side Tuesday morning, where the inclement spring weather did not seem to sap turnout.
Poll workers at South Shore Terrace in Bay View and the St. Francis Civic Center in the city of St. Francis said voter traffic had been steady, with around six and seven dozen ballots having been cast by around 8:30 and 9:30 a.m., respectively. Election inspectors in St. Francis said they were also processing at least 172 absentee ballots as voters trickled in and out.
Conversely, at the Milwaukee Public Market in the Third Ward on Tuesday afternoon, chief election inspector Neil Albrecht — formerly the director of the Milwaukee Election Commission — said turnout had been slow all day, with only 119 voters appearing as of 2:30 p.m. The erstwhile city elections boss speculated that the weather, Bay View having “die-hard voters” and the Public Market being a new polling place possibly accounted for the disparity in turnout.
Two more constitutional amendments will be presented to Badger State voters this year. A question asking whether the state constitution should say the governor needs legislative approval to spend federal money will be on the August primary ballot. Another asking if the constitution should be amended to say only U.S. citizens over 18 years old can vote in state or national elections will be on the November general election ballot.
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