More questions, more hearings coming in Green Bay election influence investigation

(The Center Square) – The first hearing into just what happened inside Green Bay’s election office in November of 2020 has raised more questions.

Wednesday’s hearing brought together people who watched the November election in Green Bay. Those people testified that outside activists, including former Democratic operative Michael Spitzer-Rubenstein, essentially ran Green Bay’s vote count.

A report at Wisconsin Spotlight dives deeper into Spitzer-Ribenstein’s involvement and influence in Green Bay last fall.

“I think the question we have now is, did the Wisconsin Elections Commission know the level of work that was being done by these outside groups?,” Rep. Janel Brandtjen, R-Menomonee Falls, said after Wednesday’s hearing. “[The groups’] emails speak to their coordination, and not only with poll workers, and giving advice, and working with Milwaukee. The WEC clearly told them what their limits were. And from everything we’ve seen in the mails and the testimony, [the groups] went beyond that.”

Brandjten said one of the questions after Wednesday’s hearing at the Capitol is whether Wisconsin should ban local governments from taking outside money for elections. Spitzer-Ribenstein’s group was paid with a $1.6 million grant from Mark Zuckerberg’s Center for Tech and Civic Life.

“We as a state need to make that determination,” Brandtjen said. “Because last year it was a Democratic group, next year it could be a Republican group. We want to make sure that when people go to the ballot box they know that it is a transparent and fair process.”

Brandtjen said there will be more hearings into what happened in Green Bay, and didn’t rule out issuing subpoenas. She said Republicans at the Capitol will need some time to digest the rest of the story from Green Bay, and to see who needs to come and testify next.

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