Zuckerbucks and clusterfucks

Across Wisconsin during the April 2 primary, all ballots will include two referenda to amend the state Constitution:

• “Shall section 7 (1) of article III of the constitution be created to provide that private donations and grants may not be applied for, accepted, expended, or used in connection with the conduct of any primary, election, or referendum?”

• “Shall section 7 (2) of article III of the constitution be created to provide that only election officials designated by law may perform tasks in the conduct of primaries, elections, and referendums?”

Without context (or a legal understanding of the implications), these seem pretty innocuous. I could completely see why people would read this and think that maybe it’s not a great idea to have private donations or grants involved with election administration, and that it seems pretty common-sense to only have election officials run elections. The fact that it’s being done via constitutional referendum instead of the legislative process might raise a red flag, but based on the referendum language itself, I could see why people might not think much of it. 

But, as always, context is key. And Wisconsin Republicans are hoping that voters’ memories won’t go as far back as April 7, 2020. I know it’s not fun, but let’s go back to that time. Mere weeks into a pandemic, I believe we were at the “no masks, but sanitizing groceries” phase. We knew PPE (a phrase many of us learned for the first time ever and is now ubiquitous) was in short supply, but I’m not sure if we were at the home-made masks phase yet. Maybe for healthcare workers and other public-facing workers, but not the general population.

(I actually scrolled through my social media from this time period. I wrote about lying on the floor of my apartment as a coping mechanism a la a verse of “The Sound Of Silence*,” and decided life was too short to finish The Corrections by Jonathan Franzen. I have no regrets.)

Gov. Tony Evers tried to postpone the spring election until June to give election and public health officials time to get a better handle on the situation, but our Republican-run state legislature, from their self-imposed months-long vacation, said “nah.” Evers tried to issue an executive order forcing the issue, but the then-conservative Wisconsin Supreme Court struck that down.

The U.S. Congress allocated $400 million for elections in late March of 2020, but experts at the time said the actual need was closer to the $4 billion proposed by House Democrats. Wisconsin’s Spring election was proof they were right. 

Unsurprisingly, lots of poll workers (who are often elderly) did not feel safe and quit. As a result, the City of Milwaukee went from 180 polling stations to five. Literally, five. For a city of nearly 600,000 people. Also unsurprising, the long lines in inclement weather disproportionately affected the city’s communities of color and low-income communities.

Meanwhile, Assembly Speaker Robin Vos (R-Rochester) volunteered at a polling place in his district donned in head-to-toe PPE and assured people, "You are incredibly safe to go out."

Anyone who wasn’t a complete ghoul looked at what happened in Milwaukee and felt embarrassed on behalf of the state and infuriated on behalf of voters. But not Wisconsin Republicans. As I said, they were on vacation and didn’t see any need to do their jobs during a global pandemic. They waited until the last minute to pass COVID-19 legislation and decided that was enough. 

(Vos has claimed that the legislature was “one of the first” to pass COVID-19 legislation. I’m sure you’ll be shocked to learn that’s not true.)

In fact, they probably saw this problem as a solution to their problem: urban voters. Even in a state as 50/50 as Wisconsin, Republicans try to paint the partisan divide as Milwaukee and Madison vs. everyone else. Just a few weeks ago, former Gov. Scott Walker trotted out this old trope in the discussion on redistricting (even though he lost in a lot more counties than just Milwaukee and Dane). In her 2016 book The Politics Of Resentment: Rural Consciousness In Wisconsin And The Rise Of Scott Walker, UW-Madison political science professor Katherine Cramer cites research finding that rural voters see urban votes as illegitimate, and even get quotes from her research subjects confirming this perspective:

“Well, we’re very conservative in the Northwoods and they’re very, very, very, very, very, very, very left in those cities," one voter told Cramer. "Just think if Madison and Milwaukee and La Crosse did not vote in an election? What would’ve happened?”

Instead of wishing away Democratic voters, Wisconsin Republicans saw in the spring election debacle an opportunity to make voting more difficult in urban centers by doing what they do best: nothing. No extra funding, no legislative action. Zip, zilch, nada. (Although they would come back from vacation to throw hissy fits about drop boxes and poll workers hanging out in public parks.) 

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That is where the Center for Tech and Civic Life (CTCL) stepped in. The way Wisconsin Republicans describe it sounds like Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg personally swooped into Milwaukee and paid a bunch of people to vote for Joe Biden. In reality, Facebook’s political action committee (PAC) donates somewhat evenly to Democrats and Republicans, but consistently gives more to Republicans, particularly in the 2016 election cycle. Facebook’s goal is not for any one party to win, it’s to donate to both sides so they don’t get regulated and can shape policies that are advantageous to their business. Also, Facebook is only one of several top funders and partners of the CTCL, alongside Google and other democracy organizations. Zuckerberg and his wife, Dr. Priscilla Chan, were probably hoping to gain some goodwill (and tax breaks) with their $350 million donation, but there’s no evidence that they were running the show. 

Anyway, CTCL provided $10 million in grants to over 100 municipalities across the state. And yes, more money went to the bigger cities because they had more people voting and fewer resources. The funds were to be spent on:

• Poll worker recruitment, hazard pay, and training

• Polling place rental

• Temporary staffing support

• Drive-through voting

• Equipment to process ballots and applications

• Personal protective equipment (PPE) for poll workers

• Nonpartisan voter education from cities and counties

Cue mass hysteria from the right and a $2.5 million investigation by Michael Gableman that broke public records laws and produced nothing more than an empty screed.

Anyway, Wisconsin Republicans, never missing an opportunity to take away the wrong lesson, have decided to ban any kind of non-governmental assistance with elections. Not to provide adequate funding for election administration, or even set parameters for what kind of assistance NGOs could provide (which I would not object to). Nope, just cutting everyone else out so they can have the final say in how well-resourced (or poorly resourced) an election is. Because they couldn’t get it done legislatively, they’re bypassing Evers and heading straight to a referendum.

As you read those questions on the ballot box, remember how we got here. And despite the innocuous wording, remember what they’re really trying to accomplish.