Reasonable Inference
[Established Fact – Funding pattern and terms] The five Democratic-plurality “Zuckerberg 5” cities (Milwaukee, Madison, Green Bay, Racine, Kenosha) received 8.8 million dollars in CTCL grants bound by the “Wisconsin Safe Voting Plan.” Funds paid for “voter navigators,” geo-fenced targeting, and specific demographic outreach (e.g., Latinx and African American communities) rather than neutral public-health measures, and local officials were contractually obligated to implement CTCL’s plan or risk clawbacks. The Wisconsin OSC concluded that this scheme facially implicates the election-bribery statute by offering “anything of value” to officials to perform election duties in CTCL-specified ways.
Citations
Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty, “Finger on the Scale: How CTCL Grants to Wisconsin Municipalities Boosted Turnout for Joe Biden in 2020” (p. 5: “$8.8 million” figure and Wisconsin Safe Voting Plan obligation; p. 11, Table 3: per-city grant amounts): https://will-law.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/WillLawFINGER-ON-THE-SCALE.6.pdf
Center for Tech and Civic Life, Wisconsin Safe Voting Plan announcement (July 6, 2020) (confirming initial $6.3M grant to five cities conditioned on WSVP implementation; per-city amounts; use categories): https://www.techandciviclife.org/wisconsin-safe-voting-plan/
Wisconsin Office of Special Counsel, Second Interim Investigative Report (March 1, 2022) (p. 17: “The CTCL agreement facially violates the election bribery prohibition of Wis. Stat. § 12.11”; p. 18: “anything of value” definition; pp. 26–27: verbatim clawback language — “Any amount reduced or not provided in contravention of this paragraph shall be repaid to CTCL up to the total amount of this grant”; pp. 19, 34–35: communities-of-color and demographic targeting documentation): https://bloximages.chicago2.vip.townnews.com/madison.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/6/49/64989810-acbc-5ce7-bdc1-f56d37e7c923/621e4cdc386e7.pdf.pdf
Krumberger et al. v. Wisconsin Elections Commission (Complaint, Sept. 10, 2020) (pp. 9–11: verbatim Green Bay WSVP application: bilingual “voter navigators” $45,000; “geo-fencing” $100,000 multi-channel outreach; “organizations serving African immigrants, ‘LatinX’ residents, and African Americans” $15,000; pp. 14–15: Madison Spanish-language and African American-focused advertising; pp. 15–16: Milwaukee “LatinX and African Americans” communications focus): https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1252440/Wisconsin_Elections_Commission_Complaint.pdf?p=pdf
Foundation for Government Accountability, “The Wisconsin ‘Zuckerbucks’ Problem” (documenting Milwaukee spent less than 6% of grant on PPE; Green Bay spent less than 1% on PPE; Green Bay purchased two Ford trucks and paid a PR firm nearly $150,000 for voter outreach): https://thefga.org/research/the-wisconsin-zuckerbucks-problem/
WILL, “Finger on the Scale” (p. 5: clawback and plan-compliance conditions); see also OSC Second Interim Report, Chapter 1 title: “The Center for Tech and Civic Life’s $8,800,000 Zuckerberg Plan Grant with the Cities of Milwaukee, Madison, Racine, Kenosha and Green Bay (the Zuckerberg 5 Cities) Facially Violates Wisconsin Law Prohibiting Election Bribery.” Note: No Wisconsin court issued a merits ruling affirming the § 12.11 violation; challenges were dismissed on standing or justiciability grounds: https://will-law.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/WillLawFINGER-ON-THE-SCALE.6.pdf | Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty