Private money to help fund elections in Wisconsin would be banned under a Republican-backed ballot question voters were deciding in the state spring election.

Wisconsin voters on Tuesday were deciding on two Republican-backed constitutional amendments, one of which would ban the use of private money to run elections in reaction to grants received in 2020 that were funded by Facebook creator Mark Zuckerberg.

The other proposal would require that only election officials designated by law can administer elections. That is already the law, but adding that language to the Wisconsin Constitution would make it harder to repeal.

Democrats opposed both measures, which they argued would make it more difficult to conduct elections in the presidential battleground state.

Polls are open 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. following an early, in-person absentee voting period that began two weeks ago.

  • @whoreticulture
    35•5 months ago

    To me, this headline was misleading. I assumed it was about funding campaigns, but this is for the actual process of voting itself.

    The money was spent in a wide variety of ways — protective gear for poll workers, public education campaigns promoting new methods to vote during the pandemic, and new trucks to haul voting equipment.

    The Republicans keep using the same strategy, restrict voting as much as possible. They won’t adequately fund elections, and they are making it illegal for private funders to do so.