The Center for Tech and Civil Life (CTCL), a nonprofit funded by Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg, granted Texas counties approximately $36.4 million to fund voting expansions such as mail-in ballots during the 2020 election, but most of the money went to Democratic-leaning counties, critics say.
Approximately $15.1 million was awarded to Dallas County, with another $9.6 million to Harris County. Critics have raised concerns that the outside funding could have swayed elections by favoring Democratic-leaning counties.
A white paper from the Public Interest Legal Foundation states that even in the traditionally Republican stronghold of Tarrant County, which received $1.6 million, the reason the county flipped to blue could have been related to how those funds were used.
“The Tarrant County election administrator’s budget for the 2020 election was originally $8.089 million,” the white paper states. “CTCL juiced that budget by almost 21%. Joe Biden also flipped Austin metro area counties Hays and Williamson with raw vote improvements between 70% and 80%.”
Studies by the Capital Research Center (CRC) looking at the influence of the $350 million that Zuckerberg distributed through CTCL found that in Arizona, Nevada and Pennsylvania, noted that the money went overwhelmingly to boost elections in predominantly Democratic-controlled counties, according to coverage by Legal Newsline. In Philadelphia, the grant specifically required that the funds be used to pay for mail-in ballots and increased numbers of drop boxes around the city.
“This matters because drop boxes sidestep basic voting integrity requirements, allowing anyone – without any identification – to drop any number of ballots into a private collection bin with no official oversight and no accountability after the fact,” Hayden Ludwig, senior investigative researcher at CRC, told Legal Newsline. “If a fraudster wanted to flood Philadelphia with phony ballots, CTCL’s 'Zuckbucks' enabled him to bypass USPS mailboxes."
The Texas Legislature has taken notice and introduced legislation to limit outside funds from going directly to local election commissions and boards. House Bill 2283, introduced by state Rep. Phil King (R-Weatherford) will prohibit any election commissions or county election boards from accepting any contributions offered by private parties, including corporations, trusts or private individuals.
“Private parties cannot be allowed to pay for preferred modes of elections in Texas or anywhere else,” J. Christian Adams, president of the Public Interest Legal Foundation, was quoted in the white paper. “Election administration is the most fundamental function of local and state government and must be funded accordingly, full stop.”
While HB 2283 is before the state House of Representatives, Senate Bill 7, which includes similar measures, already has passed the state Senate.
On the federal level there is also legislation pushing to expand election access, according to coverage by Prairie State Wire. The For the People Act, which critics say will loosen restrictions on voter ID requirements and mail-in ballots for all federal elections, has passed the U.S. House of Representatives and is currently before the U.S. Senate.
