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Election integrity watchdog calls on WI lawmakers to investigate 'Wisconsin 5’

Group describes how five cities invited unlawful private meddling in 2020 elections

MADISON, WISCONSIN, UNITED STATES, May 6, 2021 /EINPresswire.com/ -- An attorney for The Amistad Project, the leading election integrity watchdog, is delivering testimony today before the Wisconsin State Assembly Committee on Campaigns and Elections. Erick Kaardal will brief lawmakers on complaints he has filed with the Wisconsin Elections Commission (WEC) on behalf of residents of Racine, Kenosha, and Green Bay, as well as forthcoming complaints against Milwaukee and Madison.

The complaints detail how those cities – collectively known as the “Wisconsin 5” – received roughly $6.3 million in election funding from a private organization, the left-leaning Center for Tech and Civic Life (CTCL). In exchange, they accepted outside conditions governing the administration of their election processes and allowed private activists to informally “assist” election officials with tasks such as targeting certain demographics of voters for special outreach, helping to “cure” incomplete or defective absentee ballots, and setting up consolidated counting centers.

“These arrangements were made unilaterally by the mayors of these cities, without any kind of authorization from either the Wisconsin Legislature or the WEC,” Kaardal said in his testimony before the Committee. “This is a big problem, because the U.S. Constitution places state legislatures in charge of managing elections, and the state legislature has placed the WEC in charge of implementing Wisconsin’s election laws. Since neither of those bodies was consulted, these mayors were just making up their own election rules in collusion with partisan activists, in defiance of both state law and the U.S. Constitution,” he added in his testimony.

CTCL, which received $350 million from Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, entered into similar grant agreements with left-leaning urban municipalities in other battleground states, including Pennsylvania, Michigan, Georgia, and Arizona.

“The primary – and intended – effect of these grants was to drive up turnout among reliably Democratic voters by providing resources, outreach, and assistance that was not available to voters elsewhere in those states,” said Phill Kline, director of The Amistad Project of the Thomas More Society, about today’s hearing. “These unauthorized public-private partnerships created a two-tiered election system designed to benefit one candidate in the presidential election, and they achieved that objective.”

The Amistad Project is asking Wisconsin lawmakers to investigate further and hold the “Wisconsin 5” accountable, and to establish protocols to ensure state laws are properly followed in future elections. The group is also calling on CTCL, the “Wisconsin 5,” and any other private organizations that were involved in the 2020 elections to disclose all relevant communications for public scrutiny.

The hearing will be streamed live at www.wiseye.org starting at 10:00 CDT.

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Jillian Anderson
ProActive
media@proactivecommunications.com

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