Georgia Committee Passes Bill To Stop Counties From Accepting ‘Zuckbucks 2.0’ Ahead Of 2024 Elections

A Georgia Senate committee passed Monday a bill to ban local election offices receiving or using any type of private funding for elections.

Also known as SB 222All of these provisions are included in the bill. “costs and expenses related to conducting primaries, elections, runoffs, or other undertakings authorized or required by [state law] shall be paid from lawfully appropriated public funds.”

“[N]o county or municipal government, government employee, or election official shall solicit, take, or otherwise accept from any person a contribution, donation, service, or anything else of value for the purpose of conducting primaries or elections or in support of performing his or her duties under this chapter,” It reads: If the measure is signed into law, all local governments and election officials who accepted the funds prior to its implementation would have to return the gift(s). “to the entity which provided such thing of value within 14 days.”

SB 222 was passed Party lines The Senate Ethics Committee voted in favor of the measure by 4-2, with Republicans voting for it and Democrats against it.

DeKalb County is a Democrat stronghold and has recently announced that it was selected to join U.S. Alliance for Election Excellence. It had previously taken actions to protest the county’s commissioners. Accepted The Center for Tech and Civic Life (CTCL) awarded a grant of $2 million. As The Federalist reported previously reportedThe Alliance has a budget of $80 million Venture Launched last year by left-wing non-profits “systematically influence every aspect of election administration” Democrat-backed voting policies should be promoted in local election offices.

Georgia Republicans passed SB 202 in 2021, banning private funding of local elections offices. However, DeKalb officials used a loophole within the statute to accept the grant from Alliance. DeKalb officials requested that the grant be applied to the county’s finances, instead of having the election office accept the funds. Dele Lowman Smith, DeKalb Board of Registration and Elections Chair admittedThis was the result “since election offices are not allowed to receive grants directly.”

“We have to ensure the funding of our elections comes from lawfully appropriated public funds,” SB 222 sponsor and Republican state Sen. Max Burns. “The intent is to prohibit third parties’ selective funding of elections.”

CTCL was one of the many groups that received support during the 2020 election. Hundreds of millions of dollars From Mark Zuckerberg, Meta CEO. These are “Zuckbucks” funds were directed to local election offices in battleground state across the country to improve the administration of elections. This included expanding secure election protocols such as mail-in voting or using ballot drop boxes. The grants were heavily biased towards Democrat-majority countries, essentially making this a huge Democrat get out-the-vote operation.

Meanwhile, the U.S. Alliance for Election Excellence — of which CTCL is a key partner — is attempting to replicate such a strategy ahead of the 2024 elections. You can read more about it here. Recent reportThe Honest Elections Project (and the John Locke Foundation) revealed the Alliance’s goals. skirt Existing “Zuckbucks” Banned or restricted activities