The same nonprofit that distributed nearly $420 million in privately funded pandemic and operations grants to election offices nationwide before the 2020 elections is orchestrating a refashioned program for the 2024 election cycle.
The Chicago-based Center for Technology and Civic Life (CTCL) said its U.S. Alliance for Election Excellence will funnel $80 million to local election offices in the form of two-year grants over the next five years as part of what it claims is a bipartisan effort “to create a network for the nation’s thousands of local election officials ... to improve their technology and processes.”
In the wake of the 2020 elections, Republicans raised the alarm over revelations that CTCL had issued private money grants to nearly 2,500 county elections offices across 47 states and the District of Columbia for its Safe Elections Project, including $350 million donated by Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg.
Republicans maintain that CTCL aggressively recruited officials in counties and cities that are traditionally Democratic to participate in its programs and funneled “Zuckerbucks,” or “Zuck Bucks,” disproportionately into Democratic-voting jurisdictions.
CTCL grants and other private contributions to election offices, masked as COVID-19 relief, were geared toward “educating” elections offices about mail-in voting outreach and procedures, which drove the Democratic voter turnout that put President Joe Biden in the White House, conservatives claim.
Election integrity watchdogs, including Virginia-based Honest Elections Project (HEP), North Carolina’s John Locke Foundation, and Florida’s Foundation for Government Accountability, are again raising the alarm about CTCL—this time, a year before the election rather than months after—claiming its program is a front for boosting Democrats’ turnout, especially in Democratic strongholds within swing states.
“No matter what it claims to be, the U.S. Alliance for Election Excellence is nothing more than a dark money-fueled scheme to push liberal voting policies and influence election administration in key states,” HEP Executive Director Jason Snead told The Epoch Times.
“The work of the U.S. Alliance for Election Excellence is ‘Zuck Bucks 2.0,’” John Locke Foundation Civitas Center for Public Integrity Director Andy Jackson said, claiming in a statement that the Alliance is a vehicle “for the private funding of elections by left-wing donors.”
Snead and Jackson collaborated in producing a Jan. 19 Zuck Bucks 2.0 report that claims CTCL’s Alliance “is focused on systematically reshaping election offices and pushing progressive voting policies,” adding, “How state and local governments respond will have ramifications for free and fair elections in 2024 and beyond.”
Over the past two years, 24 GOP-led state legislatures have adopted laws banning or restricting the use of private, third-party grants and other allegedly nonpartisan contributions to “assist” local officials in administering elections.
With 45 of the nation’s state legislatures now convened in 2023 sessions, proposals to ban private money in public election administration have been filed in at least two states and may be filed in at least two more.
“The pace has slowed because most of the states where (a ban) is feasible, it’s already been done,” Snead said. “The key thing to keep in mind is the U.S. Alliance for Elections Integrity is similar to what happened in 2020, but now really is the new and improved version. It is designed to be more insidious and to exert more influence into how these offices function.”
