Kevin Bae

Non-Social in a Socially Networked World

States got almost $420 million in Zuck Bucks for their elections

Mark Zuckerberg is like a government unto himself. This “donation” is government level in size and scope. I’ve seen a couple of stories about this over the last several months. I didn’t know about it at all before the 2020 election. Seems Zuckerberg and his wife donated almost $420,000,000 to the Center for Election Innovation & Research.

The Center for Election Innovation & Research (CEIR) announced today that Priscilla Chan and Mark Zuckerberg have committed an additional $19.5 million to promote safe and reliable voting and meet the overwhelming demand for support from states across the country.

The lack of public funds and unique challenges of this year due to COVID-19 have resulted in secretaries of state in 23 states applying for funding with CEIR– demand that has surpassed the $50 million Chan and Zuckerberg committed on September 1st. This additional $19.5 million commitment will ensure that every qualified jurisdiction that applies will receive the funds they need to administer the election and ensure that every eligible citizen can vote safely and have their vote counted.

Building on their previous donations of $400 million to CEIR and The Center for Tech and Civic Life (CTCL), Chan and Zuckerberg’s commitment to supporting election infrastructure for this election cycle now totals $419.5 million.

electioninnovation.org – undated press release

I never heard of this organization before either. Who are they? Where did this money go? What was it used for?

What was the end result in the states and counties where the money was spent? Did all those areas flip from red to blue? If so, was the money a corrupting influence?

Republicans in Arizona seem to think there might be a problem.

The Arizona House approved HB 2569 last week in a party-line vote. The legislation would ban election officials at all levels of government — city, county and state — from receiving private funds to help pay for any aspect of election operations, including voter registration.

Republican Rep. Jake Hoffman, the bill’s sponsor, said it’s a matter of election integrity. That means keeping elections free of influence or interference, he said.

NPR

Elections need to be only funded by taxpayers. There should be no outside money involved. How else can we ensure that the people are controlling their election process?


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