Truth is a strange thing. It may be hidden for a time, but it eventually comes out. Information about the 2020 presidential election continues to leak out. Virginia Allen at The Daily Signal interviewed Matt Kittle concerning some “disturbing facts about presidential election in Wisconsin.”
Kittle is the executive director of
Empower Wisconsin, a “conservative information hub.” He recently “obtained
emails that reveal questionable activity” during the 220 election in Wisconsin.
In particular, it seems that a Democratic operative had unusual access to the
conference center in Green Bay, Wisconsin, while ballots were being counted on
election night. Allen and Kittle discussed the situation after Kittle shared
information about Empower Wisconsin and its mission.
Empower Wisconsin is a conservative news organization
based in Madison, Wisconsin – the heart of liberalism. Kittle is also the
executive direction of Wisconsin Spotlight, the investigative arm of Empower
Wisconsin. He claimed to have “a lot of records” from “good sources” that
involve “what clearly has become an election scandal in Green Bay, and it looks
like across the state of Wisconsin.”
Allen noted that Wisconsin went for Donald
Trump in 2016 and then went to Joe Biden in 2020 in a close election – “Biden won
49.6% of the vote and Trump won 48.9% of the vote.” Allen wanted to know why
Kittle chose to take a closer look at the election results. Kittle explained
that it actually started before the election with “vote harvesting, community
drives sorts of things in Madison.” Then Wisconsin experienced “a huge, massive
uptick in voting at home and absentee ballots” like other parts of the nation.
That all raised a bunch of questions.
“Many more questions surfaced” on Election
Day when Wisconsin, particularly Madison and Milwaukee, were targeted in
recounts. There were “a lot of questions” from observers on election night and
during the recounts “about how things were handled in places like Milwaukee and
Madison.”
But it wasn’t until, I would say early
March, that we started to get an indication from sources that things were worse
than thought at first, particularly in Green Bay, Wisconsin, where there had
been some real concerns about these third-party groups that were funded by
Facebook’s CEO and founder, Mark Zuckerberg, to the tune of hundreds of
millions of dollars, and what those third-party groups indeed were doing in
places like Green Bay.
Allen wanted to know what happened
in Green Bay since Kittle had “recently published a piece in the Wisconsin
Spotlight” about “a Democratic operative was ‘given access to “hidden”
identifiers for the internet network at the hotel convention center where
ballots were counted.’” She wanted to know who the Democratic operative was and
what access he was given.
Kittle gave the name of Michael
Spitzer-Rubenstein for “the long-time Democratic operative” and voting activist
– “particularly on the tech ends of these things.” Spitzer-Rubenstein was “the
Wisconsin lead for the National Vote at Home Institute” – “one of many
left-leaning groups” in the Center [for]Tech and Civic Life (CTCL) network.
This same group received $350 million from Mark Zuckerberg, beginning in June
2020. The money was intended for the largest cities in battleground states. In
Wisconsin, $8 million plus went to the “Wisconsin 5” – Milwaukee, Madison,
Green Bay, Kenosha, and Racine.
Well, Spitzer-Rubenstein was basically a
partner in CTCL’s network. And the funding, I think it’s important to note the
grant funding came with clawback provisions. Basically, a lot of strings
attacked that said, “If you don’t follow the terms of this contract, we can
take this money back from you.”
For cash-strapped election agencies and
city clerks in Wisconsin, it was very enticing. This money, in some cases, like
in Green Bay, it more than quadrupled their amount of election funding that
they received in taxpayer funds. So this was a lot of money and it made a huge
impact.
Kittle explained that Spitzer-Rubenstein
was “integrally involved.” He suggested there is evidence that indicates that “he
infiltrated a lot of the election administration that went on. He was doing
everything in other groups that he was working with, doing everything from
communications and get out the vote to PSAs and promos, to actually curing the
ballots. We have emails showing him offering to do this in Green Bay.”
Kris Teske, the clerk but now the
former Green Bay clerk, kept saying, “There is a problem here. This doesn’t
seem to be within the confines of the law.” She was so frustrated and concerned
about what was happening that she resigned. However, the emails show that the
frustrations and concerns came from how the liberal mayor and his office
handled the election. In addition, there were “the liberal organizations,
outside groups funded by Mark Zuckerberg” that were doing things that “they
should not have been doing.”
Allen asked Kittle what he was doing
to “follow the money,” what he had learned as he investigated the Zuckerberg
funds, and how the money potentially influenced the election in Wisconsin.
Kittle explained that the “Wisconsin 5” received “a massive amount of money to
do everything from buy election equipment to hire poll workers.
What we found as well is that these
groups, these outside groups, were responsible for helping locate poll workers
for places like Milwaukee and Green Bay. We know in Milwaukee that they were
using this funding to pay for hazard pay, if you will, significantly higher for
poll workers.
But they were using poll workers recruited
form the [Service Employees International Union] and other local unions, and the
League of Women Voters, and these left-leaning groups that create some serious questions
about the handling of absentee ballots and the administration of the election
in the state’s largest city in general.
Allen read an email from Trent Jameson,
director of event technology at Green Bay’s Hyatt Regency and KI Convention
Center (where the ballots were to be counted) to Spitzer-Rubenstein shortly
before the election. The email “refers to an SSID. Essentially, a Wi-Fi
network, more or less.” The email said: “One SSID will be hidden and it’s
2020vote. There will be no password or splash page for this one and it should
only be used for the sensitive machines that need to be connected to the
internet.”
Allen wanted to know why a Wi-Fi network
or SSID would need to be hidden and only available to Spitzer-Rubenstein. She
also wanted to know what was meant by “sensitive machines.”
Kittle acknowledged that Allen had some
good questions. He then said that those questions had been “put to the Green
Bay Mayor’s Office and to officials who should have knowledge of that. They
have not returned any of our requests for comments.”
Now, in talking with tech people and
experts on this subject, really what you have here is, it’s the SSIDs are
basically when you hit your laptop and all of those area networks pop up that
you can click into and be a part of. Well, in this case, you would obviously
want some security on that ….
The question is, why does an outside
individual from a left-leaning group have access to these things? And the
sensitive machines, a lot of folks are concerned about, were the sensitive
machines that involve voting.
We know that Spitzer-Rubenstein had access
to live-time vote numbers. And again, the question keeps coming up, why? This
is also a gentleman who was given the keys to the KI center room where the
absentee ballots were kept. The question again is, why?
And state lawmakers are asking those
questions related to his access to technology on election night, as well as his
access to absentee ballots in the days leading up to and on election night.
According to Kittle, he has emails showing
that Spitzer-Rubenstein was in the rooms at the convention center where the
ballots were being counted on election night. “We have contracts that say he
received four of the five keys to these areas that had the ballots and the equipment
and all of this stuff. And he’s in there by himself, talking to a Green Bay
official in this email, trying to get information on where ballot boxes should
be placed and all of these sorts of things.”
Election observers saw
Spitzer-Rubenstein and began asking questions about him and about why he was “at
Central Count, where all of the ballots were counted on election night.” He was
eventually asked to leave “by the city.” This was “curious” because he was put
there by the mayor’s chief of staff and city officials, and he was the guy
developing “the program about how things would run on election night.”
Allen then asked Kittle how he had
obtained all the emails – the “critical information that’s now coming out to
the public.” Kittle said that he could not talk about the sources, but he thanked
two members of the Wisconsin Assembly election committee. State Rep. Shae
Sortwell (R-Green Bay) “had filed an open records request along with state Rep.
Ron Tusler.” Kittle also had emails from several concerned citizens “about what
took place on election night.” These people made it possible “to obtain some
very key information surrounding what happened in Green Bay.”
We also filed a number of open records
requests, and we have many out as well. We filed an open records request to get
the information from the Wisconsin Elections Commission, for instance, which
shows the administrator of that regulator not only enthusiastic about the work
of Michael Spitzer-Rubenstein, but promoting it to cities in Wisconsin, which
raised some serious questions, as was noted this week in a complaint that was
filed with the Wisconsin Elections Commission.
Allen questioned if there was “any
sort of precedent for a non-election official having the kind of involvement
that Spitzer-Rubenstein did?” Kittle admitted that it was unprecedented and “problematic
… for a couple of reasons.”
It’s problematic because, do we want
third-party groups, whether they’re conservative or liberal, involved in the
administration of our elections? But more so, it’s problematic because there
really aren’t any laws in this area.
And that’s what we see now, after the
investigative reporting, after the emails have been released. We’re seeing the
state Legislature now saying, “We need to address this because we cannot have
this sort of thing continue to happen.”
It is a huge voter integrity question. It puts the
integrity, it puts transparency, just the concept of election fairness in
doubt. And that’s the last thing that we need, especially after what happened
in November of 2020.
Allen and Kittle discussed the Green
Bay City Clerk Kris Teske, who resigned at the end of 2020. “On August 26,
2020, she sent an email to her boss and she wrote this: ‘There is one more
thing I want to say: If I am ever asked to do anything against the law, the
answer will be NO,’ in all caps.” She eventually resigns. Allen asks, “What do
we know about her and what she was being asked to do that made her
uncomfortable?”
Kittle explained that the municipal
clerks run the elections under the broad oversight of the Wisconsin Elections
Commission. Teske’s emails show that she was “growing increasingly frustrated
by the constant meddling and the bullying of the mayor, his chief of staff,
Celestine Jeffreys, who is in many of these emails.” Kittle said that “the
point of real concern is about, not only her involvement, the mayor’s
involvement, the city’s involvement with these third-party groups,
Spitzer-Rubenstein.”
In one email, Teske wrote concerning
“the third-party groups, particularly this individual, in the clerk’s office,
counting or looking over ballots.” She was particularly concerned about COVID,
but she also mentioned that she was hearing from “folks outside” about this “left-leaning
group and that’s making us look bad.” She repeatedly raised concerns and
finally said, “Enough is enough.” She went on family medical leave on October
22, 2020, and resigned at the end of the year. However, she filed a complaint
in October alleging “workplace harassment, a hostile work environment” likely caused
by the situation with the third-party groups.
Going back to the investigation, Allen
mentioned that the Wisconsin Assembly Campaigns and Elections Committee are “taking
action to investigate what happened.” Kittle explained that two hearings have
been held. “One of the hearings included the administrator for [the] Wisconsin
Elections Commission having to explain some of these very concerning things we
saw from the top at the Wisconsin Elections Commission.
… Also, the Republican-controlled Legislature in
Wisconsin has now taken the step that they haven’t taken in decades. I think
this actually is something they haven’t done since the ‘50s or ‘60s. They’ve
given this committee subpoena power to go after documents and to compel
witnesses to testify under oath.
Just as we see so often in the halls of Congress, we’re
seeing that now for the first time in a long time in Wisconsin. And I think
that is a very crucial tool to get to the bottom of this mess in Green Bay. And
quite frankly, in Milwaukee, and Madison, Racine, Kenosha, and wherever else
CTCL has left its footprints.
Allen asked Kittle if he and Empower
Wisconsin will continue their investigation and keep calling for transparency.
Kittle replied “absolutely” and then added the following.
We never allege in any of our reporting that there was
voter fraud or election fraud. What we are saying is, “Look at the emails, look
at the documents.” And what those emails and documents are showing, really, is
a pattern of concern. That if there wasn’t voter fraud, if there was no
election fraud, there certainly was the opportunity presented.
And there certainly is a bad smell coming out of all of
this. It just does not pass the smell test. But this is just the tip of the
iceberg. Like I said, we have numerous open records requests into these
municipalities in Wisconsin….
You know how it goes with investigations. I know The
Daily Signal has the same experience. Once you start exposing some of these
areas, then other people step forward and say, “Hey, I have some information.”
So we’re vetting through that information. We’re going through that. And then
we will indeed continue to follow this story.
I personally believe that there was
enough election fraud to change the results of the 2020 election. However, I am
open to change my mind when the investigations are complete. I am grateful that
numerous states are investigating questionable happenings during the election.
Like Kittle said, if election fraud and/or voter fraud did not happen, there were
plenty of opportunities for it to happen. The 2020 election may have been a
practice run to see if it could be done. States must be sure that their
elections are secure and honest. The integrity of our elections is essential to
maintaining our liberties.
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