A town clerk in key swing state Wisconsin received training from a” Zuckbucks” party on” combating vote misinformation”, records obtained by The Federalist suggest.
In 2020, The Center for Tech and Civic Life ( CTCL ) funneled hundreds of millions of dollars from Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg to public election organizations, helping to boost Democrat turnout and favor left-leaning regions in key swing states. As revealed in an Honest Elections Project statement, the group founded the U.S. Alliance for Election Excellence in 2022 to coordinate with other leftist organizations and” systematically control every aspect of election administration in specific agencies.”
Maribeth Witzel-Behl, the office’s Madison City Clerk, has a history of participation with both the Alliance and CTCL. After participating in a CTCL training aimed at” combating” so-called “election misinformation”, Witzel-Behl continued to participate in the group’s “misinformation” programming in the months leading up to the 2024 election, emails obtained by The Federalist in a Freedom of Information Act request suggest. However, Witzel-Behl’s business just sent out more than 2, 200 record votes to residents last month.
‘ Misinformation’ Education
Witzel-Behl “previously participated in]the group’s ] Combating Election Misinformation training”, according to a June 11 email from Andrea Abbate, a CTCL associate producer and communications manager. Sophie Lehman, a CTCL associate director, also sent the assistant an internet on July 10 promoting an upcoming conference on” Combating Election Misinformation”.
The webinar was advertised in another email sent to Witzel-Behl on July 17 as a “quicker, live version of a longer, self-paced course that was co-developed by the Center for Democracy and Technology” ( CDT), a left-wing group funded by Big Tech companies like Google, Facebook, and TikTok, according to InfluenceWatch. George Soros ‘ left-leaning Foundation to Promote Open Society is even among CDT’s participants. The July 17 internet said this self-paced program was” now available” on CTCL’s site.
According to a program description currently on CTCL’s site,” Combating Election Misinformation” trains leaders to “identify different kinds of propaganda, malinformation, and propaganda and how to answer”. Its latest “lead teacher” is CTCL Government Services Associate Christian Franco, who previously , coached , election authorities on so-called “misinformation” which he claimed had “deeply influenced” governance, as The Federalist reported.
In the same July 17 message, Franco also promoted CTCL’s “misinformation area of exercise” scheduled to launch on July 31. He described this so-called “professional growth opportunit]y ]” as a “monthly, virtual meeting where election officials can come together for an hour to help one another and discuss questions, concerns, thoughts, and answers related to vote misconceptions”.
As Franco sent her a follow-up message on July 29 confirming she had “been accepted to visit,” Witzel-Behl evidently registered to attend in the “misinformation group of exercise.” He noted Witzel-Behl would get meet invites” for each of the regular classes”.
A follow-up message from CTCL Technology Project Manager Nadya Naumann to Witzel-Behl summarized the second treatment. Participants had discussed “misinformation, and how it impacts the communities our participants work with”, the email indicated, and participants were encouraged to” ]c ] ontinue to write out goals for addressing misinformation in 2024 and share them with each other or … coworkers for feedback” before the next meeting.
In the email, Naumann also encouraged “writ]ing ] out goals for addressing misinformation in 2024” and “identify ]ing ] potential projects using the Combatting Election Misinformation Checklist”.
On the Alliance for Election Excellence website, CTCL and the above Center for Democracy and Technology provide strategies for election officials on “getting away of data activities.” It even offers guidance for “responding to control functions”, including the phone to “reframe” so-called “malinformation” — which the checklist identifies as” real but destructive information”.
Witzel-Behl also attended a July” Alliance call”, and received emails promoting the calls, which took place on a monthly basis. The Alliance was described by the Honest Elections Project as” a continuation of CTCL’s scheme to use private funding to impact election policy nationwide.”
Colluding With’ Zuckbucks ‘ Group
Zuckerberg stated recently that his 2020 election funding was “designed to be non-partisan” and that he would not make a” similar contribution” in 2024, despite research showing these contributions had a significant impact on one party over the other.  , But the supposedly “nonpartisan” CTCL and its Alliance for Election Excellence maintain deep ties with leftist organizations. And, as The Federalist previously reported, CTCL has since announced a new round of “rural and nonmetro” grants ahead of November.
Witzel-Behl has been working with CTCL for years. The city clerk accepted grant funds from CTCL for 2020 election administration, according to InfluenceWatch. Till at least July 2021, Wittel-Behl served on the CTCL advisory committee, which is a group whose members are no longer listed on the website.  ,
Witzel-Behl’s office applied” to be considered as a Center for Election Excellence” by CTCL’s Alliance for Election Excellence in 2022, and Madison was selected in January 2023, according to InfluenceWatch. In January 2023,” Madison City Council subsequently introduced a resolution to accept$ 1.5 million in grants from CTCL”, according to InfluenceWatch, before Wisconsin banned private election funding like” Zuckbucks” earlier this year.
Lehman thanked the clerk for” sending Bonnie in person” and for virtual attendance at an event in a December 2023 email. A municipal clerk named Bonnie serves as the city clerk’s office’s representative in Madison, whose responsibilities include voter outreach and in-person absentee voting.
In January, Witzel-Behl confirmed to CTCL staff her desire to become a “premium member” of the Alliance for Election Excellence for 2024, according to the emails. The group invoiced the City of Madison$ 4, 800 in May, citing “membership dues” for the alliance.
On January 2, CTCL sent an email to Witzel-Behl and presumably other election officials informing them of their plans to hold meetings with them to lobby legislators for more election funding. We would like to work with your lawmakers to develop a relationship so that you can lobby for the resources you need to conduct excellent elections, the statement read. If you’re an official in the election who plans to visit DC next week, we can help you arrange and hold meetings with your congressional delegations.
On February 14, CTCL Senior Campaign Manager Colline Miller emailed Witzel-Behl to say that the organization was pushing for an increase in federal security grants for election offices in accordance with the Help America Vote Act. She called on local election officials to either use CTCL’s “template language” or add their “own personal flair” when sending requests to legislators.
According to Miller,” [W]e need a strong showing from local election officials stating why this funding would matter to them.” ” Can we count on you to send a request to your Senators and Representatives”?
Leftist Election Meddlers
CTCL’s Alliance for Election Excellence connects notorious left-wing groups with election officials.
CTCL itself is funded by leftist donors like Arabella Advisors ‘ New Venture Fund, Democracy Fund, the Knight Foundation, and the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, according to InfluenceWatch.
When CTCL launched the Alliance in 2022, it brought together “launch partners” including the left-leaning Center for Civic Design (CCD ), which has partnered with CTCL and the National Vote at Home Institute ( NVHI ) to offer webinars on “vote-by-mail implementation”, according to InfluenceWatch. In 2020, NVHI , worked with the secretary of state in battleground , Michigan to shift voting rules, as the Federalist previously reported.
The Center for Secure and Modern Elections is also a “partners” of the organization. The project , of the New Venture Fund, under leftist dark money behemoth Arabella Advisors,  , advocates for , automatic voter registration in places like Oregon, as noted by InfluenceWatch. The state’s “motor voter” system was recently found to have  , registered , more than 1, 200 potential noncitizens, The Federalist previously reported.
The Elections Group ( TEG), another Alliance “launch partner”, gives “direct management support” to election administrators, and offers “guidance” on issues like mail-in voting, ballot drop boxes, and signature curing and verification, according to InfluenceWatch. CTCL emailed Witzel-Behl multiple times, advertising programming from the group. As of November 2021, TEG was working with CTCL and CCD, according to a no longer available archived page on its website. The group shares leadership ties with the Department of Homeland Security’s CISA program, the federal government’s censorship hub.
The Alliance is also partnering with shadowy group Ideas42 to offer “voter communication materials”, according to the emails. Ideas42 uses “insights from behavioral science” to “drive social change”, according to its website, and “intentionally adopt]s ]” a” socio-economic, race, nationality, and gender-conscious lens” to subvert so-called “unequal systems”. The group partners with powerful governments and groups worldwide, including the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Bloomberg Philanthropies, and the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative — the group behind” Zuckbucks”. According to the Ideas42 website, the group’s project VoterCast” creates custom voter outreach materials for election officials, tailored to the specifications of their jurisdiction”.
The U.S. Alliance for Election Excellence is “delighted to partner with Ideas42 to offer VoterCast through our resource library,” read an email from CTCL and the Alliance sent to Witzel-Behl. ” These resources are rooted in deep research on how best to support voters, providing you with highly effective email, SMS (texting ), social media, radio, and print materials”.
The Federalist reached out to CTCL, the Madison City Clerk’s Office, and Witzel-Behl for comment, but did not receive a response.
Logan Washburn is a staff writer who writes about election ethics. He graduated from Hillsdale College, served as Christopher Rufo’s editorial assistant, and has bylines in The Wall Street Journal, The Tennessean, and The Daily Caller. Logan was born and raised in rural Michigan, but he is primarily from Central Oregon.