2 statewide referendum questions approved April 2 with more than 50 percent of the vote
PROTECTED CONTENT
If you’re a current subscriber, log in below. If you would like to subscribe, please click the subscribe tab above.
Username and Password Help
Please enter your email and we will send you a password reset link.
By LeAnn R.Ralph
COLFAX — Two statewide referendum questions on the April 2 ballot were approved with more than 50 percent of the vote to change the Wisconsin Constitution regarding election funding and election workers.
Question 1 was related to election funding and was approved with 638,018 yes votes (54 percent) to 534,126 no votes (46 percent).
The question on the ballot read: “Use of private funds in election administration. 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?”
Since Question 1 was approved, the amendment to the Wisconsin Constitution will read, “No state agency or office or employee in state government and no political subdivision of the state or officer or employee of a political subdivision may apply for, accept, expend, or use any moneys or equipment in connection with the conduct of any primary, election or referendum if the moneys or equipment are donated or granted by an individual or nongovernmental entity.”
More than 200 communities in Wisconsin shared $10.6 million in grant money distributed by the non-partisan non-profit organization Center for Tech and Civic Life in 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic to help keep election workers and voters from becoming infected with the deadly new coronavirus.
Wisconsin Republicans in the Assembly and the Senate took exception to the grant funding from CTCL that some communities used in 2020.
Republicans referred to the grant funding as “Zuckerbucks” because Mark Zuckerberg, founder of Facebook, and his wife, donated $350 million to CTCL.
According to some analyses of the question, since the constitutional amendment also includes a prohibition on the use of any equipment donated or granted in connection with the conduct of any election if the equipment is donated or granted by an individual or nongovernmental entity, it is not clear if the amendment would prohibit absentee voting, for example, being conducted at a privately-owned assisted living facility.
Readers might wonder, then, if the amendment would prohibit absentee voting at Colfax Senior Living, which is a privately-owned facility operated for profit, but would allow absentee voting at the Neighbors of Dunn County, since the Neighbors is owned by a governmental entity.
Question 2
Question 2 pertained to changing the Wisconsin Constitution regarding election officials.
The question was approved by a vote of 684,487 yes (59 percent) to 438,946 no (41 percent).
The question on the April 2 ballot was “Election officials. 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?”
Current Wisconsin law defines and regulates how clerks can designate individuals to serve as poll workers and carry out the tasks needed to conduct elections.
Poll workers, then, are election officials designated by law.
Under current state law, when the provision is added to the Wisconsin Constitution, poll workers, also known as election inspectors, will continue to work as an “election official designated by law.”
Several articles about Question 2 analyzing the proposed amendment to the Wisconsin Constitution said the amendment is so vague that it is not apparent exactly what it is intended to accomplish.
Any task
Since Question 2 was approved, the amendment to the Wisconsin Constitution will read, “(2) No individual other than an election official designated by law may perform any task in the conduct of any primary, election or referendum.”
The amendment contains the words “any task,” and critics of the question say that the amendment to the Wisconsin Constitution is so vague, it could be interpreted to prevent the League of Women Voters, for example, from providing non-partisan election information, such as information on how to register to vote, or that it would prevent neighbors from driving elderly neighbors to polling places to cast their ballots.
Other municipal employees in addition to the municipal clerk and the election workers also perform tasks related to conducting elections, such as public works employees who shovel snow off the sidewalks or remove ice so voters can safely reach the polling place, or public works employees who help bring voting equipment from storage to the polling place.
Critics say both constitutional amendments were intended to make it more difficult for Wisconsin residents to vote.
Supporters of the constitutional amendments say they will remove “dark money” and “interference” from elections.
