Wisconsin City Accused Of Electioneering During Early Voting

Facing accusations of electioneering, officials in an eastern Wisconsin city say they have removed from voting booths what voters described as copies of a Yahoo.com news article on two constitutional amendment ballot questions.

Election law experts say it’s a win for election integrity but another glaring example of the “maternalistic arrogance of a clerk” who believes it her duty to explain to voters how they should vote. 

‘It Is Not Your Job to Explain’

The Milwaukee-based Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty (WILL) on Wednesday sent a warning letter to Neenah City Clerk Char Nagel after receiving multiple reports about the news article being placed within each voting booth. 

Wisconsin voters are in the midst of early voting ahead of next Tuesday’s statewide primary elections. The ballot includes two related referendum questions asking voters whether the Wisconsin Constitution should bar the state legislature from ceding its “sole power to determine how moneys shall be appropriated” and prevent the governor from having broad discretion on spending significant federal funds granted to the state. The issue came to the foreground when leftist Gov. Tony Evers unilaterally made spending decisions on billions of dollars in federal pandemic relief, paying for a host of liberal, big government initiatives. Nothing in the law stopped him from doing so, even as he was accused of effectively buying votes with federal taxpayer dollars.  

The article, according to WILL, “characterizes the question as partisan, pitting Republicans and ‘conservative groups’ against the Governor, Democrats, ‘and liberal groups.’”

While activist groups, especially on the left, have dumped a mountain of money into ad campaigns attempting to sway voter sentiment, the ballot questions are ultimately nonpartisan. Wisconsin liberals might well be quite happy to have the check on the executive branch the next time a Republican controls the governor’s office. 

Regardless, it is not the business of local election clerks to “educate” voters on who supports ballot initiatives and why. State law is pretty clear on that. 

WILL’s warning letter notes some Neenah election workers were urging voters to “read it carefully.” One voter who accused the city clerk’s office of “unlawful electioneering” was told that “voters don’t understand” what the ballot questions mean so elections officials “have to explain” them, according to WILL.

“It is not your job to ‘explain’ referendum questions to voters,” Rick Esenberg, WILL’s president and general counsel, and deputy counsel Dan Lennington scolded the clerk in the letter. “And it is certainly not your job to suggest to voters that this is a partisan issue that pits ‘Democrats’ and ‘liberals’ against ‘Republicans’ and ‘conservatives.’ It is your job to administer elections according to the law.”

‘Cease and Desist’

State law prohibits such interference by election officials. It’s called electioneering, and it relates to any activity “intended to influence voting at an election,” the attorneys explained. 

“Wisconsin state law also prohibits posting and distribution of election-related materials ‘at the polling place, at locations where absentee ballots may be cast, or near the entrance of such locations,’” the letter noted. 

Placing a Yahoo.com news article opining on the partisan nature of a ballot question most definitely falls into the category of electioneering, WILL warned. Violators may face up to six months in jail or a $1,000 fine — or both. 

“We demand that you cease and desist this unlawful activity immediately. If you do not confirm that you have stopped this unlawful practice by noon, August 8, we will refer your conduct to the appropriate authorities,” the demand letter states. 

It definitely got the city’s attention. Albeit begrudgingly, the clerk was ordered to take down the news article. 

“While we respectfully disagree with your appraisal of both the facts and the applicable law as may relate thereto, in the interest of maintaining election integrity and avoiding even the appearance of impropriety, the subject material was immediately removed at the request of the citizen and will not be permitted to be re-posted,” wrote city attorney David Rashid in a letter dated Aug. 8. The clerk and the city’s mayor were copied. 

“Moreover, nothing other than ballots and marking instruments will be present in our voting booths,” the attorney concluded. 

But Lennington said some damage has already been done. Absentee in-person voting began last week. 

“We are very concerned it’s already impacted voter decisions,” the attorney told me. 

‘Not Satisfied with Following the Law’

Lennington said the Neenah incident is just the latest example of elections officials pushing beyond the law to administer elections as they see fit. 

“We’re now moving to a place where one side is just not satisfied with following the law,” he said. “Progressives and liberals think they should do extra legal things to ensure their view of democracy prevails.” Hence illegal drop boxes and voting vans rolled out in left-leaning areas and unconstitutional universal mail-in voting and turning federal agencies into Democrat get-out-the-vote machines … and the list goes on and on. 

“The narrative that, ‘Voters are too dumb to take care of themselves so we have to go outside the law so that they vote the way we want them to,’ which includes ballot harvesting or placing electioneering materials in voting booths, is part of that overall trend we’re seeing,” Lennington said. 

The shenanigans and law-breaking in critical swing state Wisconsin, expected to again play an outsized role in November’s presidential election, never end. 

As The Federalist reported in May, controversial Green Bay City Clerk Celestine Jeffreys conceded that she did not understand election law regarding the voter rolls. In response to a complaint filed by the Public Interest Legal Foundation on behalf of three Green Bay citizens, Jeffreys “concedes that she has not been strictly adhering to the statutory requirements in Wisconsin Statutes … but the failure to do so was inadvertent and due to a lack of awareness of the statutory requirements.”

In April, Green Bay leftist groups were forced to cancel a get-out-the-vote drive with big cash prizes after Brown County District Attorney David Lasee informed them that election bribery is still against the law in Wisconsin. United Front for Change offered monetary prizes for the top five social media influencers as well as free food and beverages and a “FREE Open Bar.” 

Neenah, a city of some 27,000 residents located about 40 miles south of Green Bay, is part of the crucial Fox Cities area. The vote-rich region includes the cities of Appleton, Kaukauna, Menasha, and several villages along the Fox River. The Fox Valley has traditionally leaned conservative, but it has proved to swing bluer, particularly in Winnebago County, home to Neenah. The so-called BOW counties — Brown, Outagamie, and Winnebago — have played a key role in deciding Wisconsin elections. 

Matt Kittle is a senior elections correspondent for The Federalist. An award-winning investigative reporter and 30-year veteran of print, broadcast, and online journalism, Kittle previously served as the executive director of Empower Wisconsin.