Republicans focus on election grants to five cities that favor Democrats, but more than 200 Wisconsin communities got funds

MADISON - Republican lawmakers focused in a hearing Wednesday on Green Bay and other Democratic strongholds that used private funds to help run last year's elections, but more than 200 communities across the state received grants to facilitate voting during a pandemic.

Election officials say they acted appropriately when they accepted assistance from the Center for Tech and Civic Life and the National Vote at Home Institute to deal with an unprecedented wave of mail voting because of COVID-19. 

GOP lawmakers and conservative groups have trained their anger on five cities that favor Democrats and received the most money, but more than 200 communities across Wisconsin — including reliably Republican ones — received grants from the Center for Tech and Civic Life.

The nonprofit center used donations from Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg and his wife, the pediatrician and philanthropist Priscilla Chan, to fund grants aimed at helping local governments conduct safe elections. 

The conservative Wisconsin Voters Alliance repeatedly sued over the use of the funds, but state and federal courts have rejected its lawsuits. One federal judge has asked a court committee to consider whether the group’s attorney should be professionally sanctioned for filing meritless claims.

In addition to the grant, the National Vote at Home Institute advised some communities on how to run their elections. Milwaukee and Green Bay used those services, while some other communities passed on them, saying they didn’t need the help.

Republicans have targeted the institute’s Michael Spitzer-Rubenstein, in part because he ran an email campaign for Democrats running for Congress for six months in 2012.

Reports from the conservative Empower Wisconsin and its affiliate website, Wisconsin Spotlight, accused Green Bay officials of allowing Spitzer-Rubenstein to take over election planning and run the city's absentee ballot count. Green Bay leaders dispute the allegations and contend the clerk's office and other staff maintained control.

City Clerk Kris Teske, who came under heavy criticism for hours-long waits during the April 2020 election for state Supreme Court, expressed frustration last fall over the use of consultants like Spitzer-Rubenstein and accused the mayor's office of railroading the planning process. Teske resigned in December, claiming her work environment had become hostile, and took a clerk job in neighboring Ashwaubenon. 

Republican lawmakers view the arrangement with consultants as problematic, citing emails that show Spitzer-Rubenstein helped rent the KI Convention Center in Green Bay as a ballot-counting location and was given access to a Wi-Fi network for Green Bay election officials.

Spitzer-Rubenstein could not be reached. Officials with the National Vote at Home Institute did not respond to questions from the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. 

Representatives for the Center for Tech and Civic Life declined to be interviewed but noted in a statement that private funding is often used to supplement government services. 

"We hope that as states consider the issue of private funding, they solve the real long-standing problem, which is making sure that election departments are fully funded so they are able to deliver a professional, inclusive, secure voting process for all of their voters," the group said in a statement.

Before the election and on Election Day, then-Brown County Clerk Sandy Juno complained to the Wisconsin Elections Commission about Green Bay’s use of consultants, according to Meagan Wolfe, the commission's director. 

Wolfe on Wednesday told the Assembly Committee on Campaigns and Elections that clerks can use consultants and she found no problems when she checked on Green Bay on Election Day.

“At no time was I presented with any information that anything was happening outside of their authority in that jurisdiction,” Wolfe said.

Republican Rep. Janel Brandtjen, the chairwoman of the committee, also invited Green Bay officials to the hearing and accused Mayor Eric Genrich of "avoiding the opportunity to appear." City Attorney Vanessa Chavez told the lawmaker via email that she is the "proper person to represent the city" but would be unavailable Wednesday because of a scheduling conflict.

Chavez offered to coordinate for a future date but said she has not yet received a response from Brandtjen.

The Assembly last week gave Brandtjen's committee the power to subpoena documents and force people to testify as part of its probe — authority it could use to bring Genrich before lawmakers. The Legislature has not issued subpoenas in about 50 years.

Election grant money was distributed across state 

The Center for Tech and Civic Life gave about $350 million last year to communities in 49 states ranging from $5,000 to, in the case of New York City, $19 million.

In July, the group announced it was giving $6.3 million to five Wisconsin communities — Milwaukee, Madison, Green Bay, Racine and Kenosha.

But many smaller communities also received grants, including in Republican areas like Waukesha County. Waukesha received $42,000, which it used to help cover increased mailing costs, tables, rolling partitions and equipment. Brookfield used $14,000 to help pay for a high-speed ballot tabulator and Eagle used $5,000 to pay for supplies.

And the grant money reached all corners of the state. Menasha spent nearly $8,000 in grant money on postage, envelopes and a ballot-folding machine, while Wausau used $50,000 to buy voting machines and a ballot drop-box camera and cover other expenses. Kewaunee and Marinette each received around $5,000. 

The largest communities used the money to hire more poll workers and purchase cleaning and safety supplies, cameras, computers, drop boxes, tabulators, ballot envelope-openers and other equipment. Some of the money in Milwaukee was used to greatly increase the pay of poll workers, from $130 to $230 for shifts that typically lasted 14 ½ hours.

Green Bay spent its grant money on a range of expenses, including drop boxes, poll worker pay, heaters, hand sanitizer and "I Voted" stickers, city records show.

Claire Woodall-Vogg, the director of the Milwaukee Election Commission, said she talked to Hillary Hall of the National Vote at Home Institute last year about the best companies for drop boxes and how to improve mailing out absentee ballots. Hall is the former clerk for Boulder County, Colo., and Woodall-Vogg said they spoke as colleagues.

Spitzer-Rubenstein worked on a data tool to help Milwaukee estimate how much time would be needed to process absentee ballots, Woodall-Vogg said. A similar tool helped determine wait times at polling places.

“I never handed any election administration duties over to anyone outside of my staff.  We received technical assistance such as these Excel models and mapping tools,” she told the Journal Sentinel by email.

Woodall-Vogg alerted Wolfe and others at the Elections Commission to the assistance the National Vote at Home Institute could provide. Wolfe then asked her to share that information with other communities, according to emails published by Wisconsin Spotlight.

In Green Bay, city officials say consultants only provided advice for election planning and never made final decisions. Spitzer-Rubenstein helped secure the facility for the city's absentee-counting location but served only as an adviser on Election Day, then as an observer after some expressed concerns about his role. 

An employee of the Green Bay clerk's office ran the absentee-counting center as chief inspector, working closely with other city staff.

Some communities did not use the services offered by the National Vote at Home Institute. For instance, officials in Madison, Brookfield and Eau Claire told the group they didn’t need its help, according to the clerks in those cities.

Republicans who control the Legislature are considering a variety of new election laws, many of which Democratic Gov. Tony Evers has said he would veto. Among the bills being contemplated is one that would require grants for election costs to be distributed to all Wisconsin communities evenly based on population. 

At Wednesday's hearing, Republican Rep. Joe Sanfelippo of New Berlin expressed frustration that the state Elections Commission had alerted the state’s largest communities about the consultants’ services but not others.

“Why wouldn’t you tell New Berlin? My elections people struggled just as much as Milwaukee,” he told Wolfe.

She said she contacted the municipalities that had to process the most absentee ballots but should have let others know about it, too.

Contact Patrick Marley and Haley BeMiller at patrick.marley@jrn.com and hbemiller@gannett.com.