Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and his wife gave nearly $420 million to nonprofits that helped with administration and infrastructure. 2020 election — and according to a new report, Democrats overwhelmingly supported the counties.
Zuckerberg, 37, and his wife Priscilla Chan, 36, donated $419.5 million to The Center for Technology and Civic Life (CTCL) and The Center for Election Innovation and Research (CEIR), nonprofits that provide grants to counties. and helped fund the administration. Election.
CTCL and CEIR provided funding to local governments and helped implement administrative practices, voting methods, data-sharing agreements and outreach programs, according to a report published in federal.
The Chan Zuckerberg Initiative gave CTCL $350 million in benefits in 2020 – while the nonprofit’s budget in 2018 was only $1.4 million.
But Biden-winning counties were three times more likely to receive funding than Trump, and Democrats were reportedly given a significant boost in swing states.
According to an analysis by the Caesar Rodney Election Research Institute in Irving, Texas, Zuckerberg’s funds may have helped bring more voters to the polls in Arizona, which Biden won by 10,000, and Georgia, which he won by 12,000.
‘We have good reason to speculate that the results of our work will show that the participation of CTCL and CEIR in the 2020 election led to an election that, when independent, was not justified,’ Dr. wrote William Doyle, the researcher behind the theory analysis.
In the report he concluded, ‘The 2020 election was not stolen – it was bought with money poured in through legal loopholes.
The CTCL reportedly sought to promote mail-in voting practices—which was heavily backed by Democrats—and helped fund polling personnel and temporary workers, and unsupervised private parties for mail-in votes. Quick growth of drop box.
and funds funded by ‘Vote Navigators’ in Wisconsin that ‘assist voters, potentially at their front door, to answer questions … and look up absentee ballot signatures.’
Zuckerberg’s contributions to the groups roughly matched federal and state funding for election expenses related to COVID-19, which totaled $479.5m during the 2020 election.
Mark Zuckerberg, 37, and his wife Priscilla Chan, 36, funneled $419.5 million into two nonprofits that largely funded Democratic fields in the 2020 election.
The CTCL grant, which went largely to Democrat-heavy counties, raised the dollar per vote value of a Biden voter. A Biden-winning county was 3.5 times more likely to be funded by CTCL and Trump, and on average was $2.85 per vote for Biden, compared to only $0.59 for Trump. In Philadelphia, the most funded Biden county, the average dollar per vote was $6.32 compared to Burks, the most funded Trump county, which was only $1.12.
Zuckerberg’s contributions to the groups roughly matched federal and state funding for election expenses related to COVID-19, which totaled $479.5m during the 2020 election.
Despite CTCL and CEIR being registered as non-partisan organizations, the institute’s analysis found that the groups allocated their money primarily to Democratic areas.
CTCL provided grants of $1 million or more to 25 counties in Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Texas, and Virginia, with a total grant of $87.5 million. Biden won 23 of these counties in the election.
Brown County in Wisconsin, which Trump won, received a $1.1 million grant from the nonprofit, only 1.2 percent of the total grants given within 25 counties.
But within the county, funding disparities were stark.
The Wisconsin legislature gave the city of Green Bay approximately $7 per voter to administer the election, while rural areas received $4 per voter.
But the CTCL increased resources in Green Bay, a Democrat-heavy area, to $47 per voter, while rural counties typically stayed at the $4 mark.
According to the report, similar disparities were found in Detroit, Atlanta, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Flint, Dallas and Houston, which received larger grants from nonprofits.
CTCL provided 25 grants in Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Texas and Virginia that were worth more than $1 million during the election, totaling $87.5 million. Of the 25 counties, Biden won 23. Brown County in Wisconsin, which Trump won, received a $1.1 million grant from the nonprofit, which was only 1.2 percent of grants given within those 25 counties.
Preliminary studies of CTCL spending showed that states such as Texas received larger amounts of money per vote than Democratic counties such as Dallas, Webb, Cameron and Harris—all of which Hillary Clinton won in the 2016 election.
The most money per vote by the CTCL group was allocated to Hays County at just under $2, compared to the highest Democratic county, which received $10 in Webb County.
Republican strongholds such as Denton and Colin counties were not included in the institute’s study because they did not receive CTCL funding.
The institute also found that Biden counties were 3.5 more likely to receive funding from CTCL. In addition, Trump counties received an average of $0.69, while Biden counties received an average of $2.85 per capita.
In Georgia, the average Trump counties received an average of $1.91, while Biden counties received more than $7. Similarly, in Philadelphia – the most funded Biden county – received an average of $6.32 per capita compared to just $1.12 in Burks – the most funded Trump area.
Zuckerberg (pictured with his wife) donated money to The Center for Technology and Civic Life (CTCL) and The Center for Election Innovation and Research (CEIR), nonprofits that provided grants to counties and helped with elections Of
As the institute reports, similar analyzes from Georgia and Wisconsin had similar effects.
A total of $64.2 million in Zuckerberg’s money was distributed by CEIR to 22 states and the District of Columbia.
The Post’s report was blasted by Republicans who accused Zuckerberg of influencing the outcome of the election.
Wisconsin Senator Ron Johnson said: ‘I continue to question whether Mark Zuckerberg’s highly partisan 2020 election spending was legal.’
And Kentucky Senator Rand Paul tweeted: ‘Are our polls for sale? Did Mark Zuckerberg buy Wisconsin’s presidential election?’
Nonprofits defended their roles.
“These grants helped states inform voters about election procedures, changes to polling locations, and recruiting election workers in response to the pandemic,” said David Baker, CEIR’s founder and executive director.
CTCL spokesman Ben LaBault told the Post: ‘While Mark and Priscilla provided an overall grant to CTCL. [to] To ensure that funds were available, they did not participate in the process of determining which courts received the money, and as [nonprofit organization] CTCL is prohibited from indulging in partisan activities.
Funding and managing elections is generally a government function, not a private one. Private organizations like CTCL and CEIR are not required to follow the same rules as public institutions.
They are not required to hold public hearings, cannot be monitored through open-record requests, or are subject to government checks and balances.
Biden won the popular election with 81,283,098 votes (51.3 percent), while Trump had 74,222,958 (46.8 percent).
Facebook has come under repeated scrutiny for its impact on democracy.
Last year, US intelligence officials warned House lawmakers that Russia was interfering in the 2020 campaign to re-elect then-President Donald Trump, even while there was a well-documented campaign to interfere in 2016.
The social media behemoth – and the potential for police misinformation – has been at the center of discussion around such election interference, with Mark Zuckerberg himself saying that his company has shut down attempts to intervene from Russia.
In another example, a data leak from trumpThe 2016 presidential campaign revealed that it targeted millions of black Americans with a ‘preventive’ campaign using Facebook ads – what critics call voter suppression.
Reported by Leaks, UK channel 4 news, described the deterrent element of the campaign voter file, which contained information about 200 million Americans that the campaign had shredded and duped for potential electoral gains.
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