Georgia Election Chief Blasts County for Taking $2 Million From Zuckerberg

Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger (R) slammed DeKalb County for accepting $2 million in private money for election administration — or “Zuckerbucks” — in “violation” in accordance with state law, while proposing a legislative remedy to prohibit counties from receiving such funds.

The DeKalb County Board of Voter Registration & Elections Accepted $2 million From a nonprofit that is connected to Mark Zuckerberg, the founder of Facebook. 

DeKalb’s acceptance to the private money “is a violation of S.B. 202,” Raffensperger spoke to Just the News Thursday about Georgia’s election reform law of 2021.

“The legislative intent of S.B. 202 was to preclude any outside organizations from sending, directly, money to counties for election purposes,” According to the state’s top election official, he stated that “the wording of S.B. 202 is the money should be sent to the secretary of state’s office,” The money was then distributed to the counties.

This is why the funds were disbursed in this manner. “every county was treated uniformly throughout the state,” He explained that both smaller and larger counties are equally eligible for the benefits.

The county was awarded the funds under the Centers for Election Excellence program of the U.S. Alliance for Election Excellence, a Project of the Center for Tech and Civic Life (CTCL). CTCL invested nearly $350,000,000 in local election offices to manage the 2020 election. Most of this money was donated by Zuckerberg to the non-profit. 

CTCL has claimed its 2020 election grants — colloquially known as “Zuckerbucks” — were allocated without partisan preference To make voting more secure during the pandemic.

Critics of the extraordinary amount of private funding that was injected into the election administration offices in 2020 claim that the grants were given disproportionately to increase voter participation in Democratic strongholds. An investigation by the House Republican Committee found that less than one percent of the funds were used for personal protective equipment.

In 2021, Georgia enacted Senate Bill No. 202An election integrity bill that explicitly prohibits private financing of elections. “No superintendent shall take or accept any funding, grants, or gifts from any source other than from the governing authority of the county or municipality, the State of Georgia, or the federal government.”

DeKalb County Board of Elections Chair Dele Lowman Smith told local Georgia news outlet Decaturish.com The county’s finance department applied last month for the grant because election offices are not allowed to directly receive grants.

Kelly Loeffler (R), Former Senator DeKalb investigation to be launched“Say the county “is blatantly skirting that law to get the same money, while undermining trust and fairness in our electoral process.”

In response to Loeffler’s comment, Lowman Smith said in a statement to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution that the former senator’s “baldly partisan accusations do not reflect an accurate reading of state law and undermine the work of already overburdened, underpaid public servants.”

Lowman Smith later stated, “The DeKalb County Finance Department applied under state law for the grant, and our county lawyers conducted a thorough review to make sure that the grant was in line with the law.”

“While the General Assembly has a lot to say about how counties should run elections, they provide no funding to us to meet these legislative burdens,” She went on. “To then try and restrict counties from pursuing the funding necessary to meet our legal obligations — a longstanding practice for many government services besides elections — is a slap in the face and seems to indicate that their intention is to hamstring election administration entirely.”

RITE: Restoring Integrity, Trust and Democracy in Elections You filed a formal complaint With the Georgia State Election Board against DeKalb “was willing to violate state law to secure millions from a progressive dark money organization.”

According to CTCL’s 2020 Form990 reportDeKalb County received grants of $9,625,041 during the presidential year. Early County, Ga. received $37.109. DeKalb’s population was 762,009 in 2020, meaning that CTCL awarded the county  $12.63 per capita. Early, a town of 10,037 people, received $3.70 per head from CTCL. DeKalb voted in favor of Biden Early voted for Trump 52.2% compared to Biden’s 46.2% in 2020.

DeKalb acknowledged that it has been a “different reading of SB 202,” Raffensperger believes that the General Assembly of state can make sure “that there’s no question about what legislative intent was” Adopting a “legislative remedy” During the current legislative session. To find a solution, outside funds would need to be channeled through Secretary of State’s Office. This office could distribute the money per capita or equally among the state’s other 159 counties.

There are “several election bills” He noted that the documents have been read and/or submitted to committees.

Thursday saw the Senate Ethics Committee discuss Senate Bill 222.The bill would tighten restrictions on private funds being used for election administration. The bill would, in particular, “provide that all costs and expenses relating to election administration are paid for with lawfully appropriate public funds” “prohibit certain local governments and persons from soliciting or accepting donations or other things of value to support the performance of election administration.”

“We have to ensure the funding of our elections comes from lawfully appropriated public funds,” said Senate Ethics Chairman Max Burns (R), according The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “The intent is to prohibit third parties’ selective funding of elections.”

Raffensperger still praised S.B. Raffensperger praised S.B.202 for standardizing voter ID across all forms in the state, adding early voting days, and allowing people to vote on Saturdays. He also noted that the state had “record registration” “record turnout” In its midterm elections last Year.

When S.B. S.B. 202 was passed. Major League Baseball moved their All-Star Game From Atlanta to Denver Citing the claim of President Biden That is what the law would allow. “restrict voting access for residents of the state.”

Biden called the law an “anabolic” “atrocity,” Comparing it to “Jim Crow in the 21st century,” as corporations such as Coca-Cola and Delta Airlines publicly decried the law despite its broad support among Georgia voters.

DeKalb County did not immediately respond to a Thursday request for comment.