Wisconsin County Takes the Lead in Banning Private Funding of Elections

Wisconsin County Takes the Lead in Banning Private Funding of Elections
Facebook co-founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg arrives for testimony before the House Financial Services Committee in Washington on Oct. 23, 2019. Win McNamee/Getty Images
Matthew Vadum
Updated:
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Wisconsin’s Walworth County has become the first local government in the state to ban the acceptance of private monies or grants for use in the administration of elections.

Approval of the measure came after 16 states enacted legislation to ban or regulate the acceptance and use of private funds by public election officials. Good-government advocates have been incensed that a Mark Zuckerberg-funded activist group, the left-wing Center for Technology and Civic Life (CTCL), flooded election offices in Democratic Party strongholds with millions of dollars in an apparent effort to drive up voter turnout for that party in 2020.