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 to “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 Alliance is a front for boosting Democratic 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 Dr. Andy Jackson said, claiming in a statement that the Alliance is a vehicle “for the private funding of elections by left-wing donors.”
By John Haughey
