Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg says he has sworn offWhile Big Tech executives can bankroll local election administration, they are also positioned to play a part in future elections.
The Center for Tech and Civic Life provided $350 million in Zuckerberg funded election grants to localities in 2020. This was to encourage mail-in voter registration, drop boxes, and other projects. The center has now launched the U.S. Alliance for Election ExcellenceWith six other nonprofits, to provide advice to local officials on how to run elections.
The largest funder of the alliance’s $80 million, five-year initiative is The Audacious ProjectThis project was financed largely through people connected to the Big Tech sector including Amazon and Microsoft.
Although 21 states have banned private actors like Zuckerberg financing election administration, critics claim that the Alliance for Election Excellence could work around such laws to help the left win more victories.
“Zuck Buck bans are a great step forward, but leftists are already moving on to the next step in federalizing our elections: creating a permanent vote-by-mail mess,” Hayden Ludwig, senior investigative researcher at Capital Research CenterThe Daily Signal was informed by, a Washington-based thinktank that monitors non-profits.
Tiana Epps Johnson, Donny bridges, and Whitney May created the Center for Tech and Civic Life. They were previously colleagues at The New Organizing Institute which The Washington Post called The New Organizing Institute. referred to as “the Democratic Party’s Hogwarts of digital wizardry.”
Although the Alliance for Election Excellence hasn’t been specific about its goalsThe Center for Tech and Civic Life in 2021 urged Congress to provide funding $20 billionStates to cover the rising cost for paper ballots. Ludwig pointed out that paper ballots are primarily used for mail-in voting.
This means that federal funds are used to subsidize mail-in ballots, thereby turning the U.S. The Postal Service has been turned into a machine that delivers ballots and takes away the constitutional authority of states to hold elections. That’s the only way to build in an unfair advantage for Democrats in 2024 and beyond. The worst part is they’re using tax-exempt nonprofits to do it.
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The $350 million in funding for local election administration in 2020 formally came through the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, established by Facebook’s Zuckerberg and his wife Priscilla Chan.
Critics point out that the money was heavily used to elect Democrat-leaning jurisdictions. An investigation by Wisconsin special counsel produced a report finding that the funding led to an improper, government-sanctioned, get-out-the-vote campaign that favored Democrats.
In April, Zuckerberg said that he won’t donate to election administration in the future after a public relations fallout that led to the state bans of such activity.
But there are other wealthy Big Tech executives are financing the U.S. Alliance for Election Excellence, according to Inside Philanthropy, which describes these donors as “a tech-heavy group of funders that lean liberal in their grantmaking.”
The alliance is among nine grantees The Audacious ProjectTAP, also known as TAP, is a network of donors that includes:
—The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, aligned to the Microsoft founder and his exwife.
— MacKenzie Scott, the former wife of Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, and her current husband Dan Jewett.
—Ballmer Group, the charity of retired Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer.
—The Laura and John Arnold FoundationJohn Arnold, a hedge fund manager, and his wife started the company.
—Pivotal Ventures, a charity started by Melinda Gates.
—The MacArthur FoundationOne of the largest foundations in America, which supports mostly left-leaning causes.
—Bridgespan Group, which consults for nonprofits such as Planned Parenthood or NPR.
The Center for Secure and Modern Elections is another major partner in the alliance, which is a project of the Arabella Advisors-sponsored New Venture Fund.
Arabella has sponsored many liberal organizations across the nation, including pop-up groups that are only active for one election cycle and others that grow into independent non-profits.
The Alliance for Election Excellence also includes the following:
—Center for Civic Design, an election-administration policy organization that frequently partners with left-of-center groups.
—The Arabella-sponsored Center for Secure and Modern Elections, which supports automatic voter registration.
—Hasso Plattner Institute of Design at Stanford, part of the California university’s school of engineering.
—The Elections Group, which provides consulting to election officials and was established in 2020 in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
—Prototyping Systems LabUniversity of California Davis focuses on technology design.
—U.S. Digital Response, which was created during the pandemic to assist local and state governments with their digital needs.
The Center for Tech and Civic Life will handle press inquiries for the Alliance for Election Excellence. The Daily Signal reached out to it and other partners for comment, but they did not respond.
The Daily Signal inquired about this report and was not able to reach the Alliance for Election Excellence.
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