{"id":1437419,"date":"2022-04-14T10:29:37","date_gmt":"2022-04-14T14:29:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1437419"},"modified":"2022-04-14T10:29:59","modified_gmt":"2022-04-14T14:29:59","slug":"alabama-beefs-up-election-safety-with-zuckbucks-ban","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/alabama-beefs-up-election-safety-with-zuckbucks-ban\/","title":{"rendered":"Alabama Beefs Up Election Safety With Zuckbucks Ban"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"float:left\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">16<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Falabama-beefs-up-election-safety-with-zuckbucks-ban%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1437419&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><div><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/800px-Facebook_F8_2017_San_Jose_Mark_Zuckerberg_33740310520.jpg\" class=\"ff-og-image-inserted\" alt=\"image\" \/><\/div>\n<p>Alabama is the latest state to pass legislation that will bar local and state election officials from accepting and using private funding for election operations, with Republican Gov. Kay Ivey signing the bill into law on Wednesday.<\/p>\n<p>Passed <a href=\"http:\/\/alisondb.legislature.state.al.us\/Alison\/SESSBillStatusResult.ASPX?BILL=HB194&#038;WIN_TYPE=BillResult\">overwhelmingly<\/a> in the state House and Senate, the measure (<a href=\"http:\/\/alisondb.legislature.state.al.us\/ALISON\/SearchableInstruments\/2022RS\/PrintFiles\/HB194-enr.pdf\">HB194<\/a>) seeks to \u201cprohibit certain public officials responsible for the conduct of an election, or their employees, from soliciting, accepting, or using certain donations from an individual or nongovernmental entity for the purpose of funding certain election-related expenses.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The law later goes on to define \u201celection-related expenses\u201d as \u201c[p]ayments, salaries, or bonuses for election officials, boards of registrars, and poll workers,\u201d as well as expenses relating to \u201cequipment, ballots, printing, mailing, or transportation,\u201d and \u201csignage of media production.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Expenditures pertaining to \u201clectures, educational seminars, or events to train election officials, boards of registrars, or poll workers\u201d are also prohibited under the law.<\/p>\n<p>While speaking with The Federalist, bill sponsor and Republican House Rep. Wes Allen celebrated the legislation\u2019s passage, saying it \u201cis an important bill for Alabama voters and for the integrity of [Alabama\u2019s] elections.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt will now be illegal for any private money to buy our elections equipment or supplies or to pay our elections administration officials or their staffs,\u201d he said. \u201cThis bill gives notice to the world that our elections are not for sale.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Ivey expressed similar sentiments when signing the legislation, with the governor noting that her state is \u201ccommitted to ensuring the integrity of our election process remains second to none.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBig tech\u2019s efforts to undermine the integrity of our elections has no place in our country, and I\u2019m proud to have signed legislation that ensures Alabama\u2019s election process remains air-tight,\u201d she said in a <a href=\"https:\/\/governor.alabama.gov\/newsroom\/2022\/04\/governor-ivey-strengthens-election-integrity-signs-zuckerbucks-bill-into-law\/\">statement<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>The signing of HB194 will officially prohibit outside funding from left-wing advocacy groups such as the Center for Technology and Civic Life (CTCL), which received upwards of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.techandciviclife.org\/100m\/\">$400 million<\/a> from Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg to overhaul local and state election operations in key battleground states during the 2020 election cycle. According to figures from the <a href=\"https:\/\/capitalresearch.org\/article\/which-states-did-ctcl-flood-with-zuck-bucks\/\">Capital Research Center<\/a>, the group poured nearly $2.5 million in \u201cZuckbucks\u201d into Alabama leading up to the 2020 contest.<\/p>\n<p>While a representative for Zuckerberg <a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/politics\/zuckerberg-elections-wont-donate-2022\">recently<\/a> claimed that the tech billionaire and his wife have no intention of repeating their election financing operations, CTCL and other activist groups are planning to increase their involvement in future elections. Earlier this week, CTCL <a href=\"https:\/\/www.techandciviclife.org\/us-alliance-for-election-excellence-launch\/\">announced<\/a> it is launching the\u00a0U.S. Alliance for Election Excellence, \u201ca five-year, $80 million strategy to envision, support, and celebrate excellence in U.S. election administration.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cEvery American voter, no matter their zip code, should have access to a process that is fair and trustworthy,\u201d said\u00a0Tiana Epps-Johnson, executive director of CTCL.\u00a0\u201cUnfortunately, years of under-investment means many local election departments often have limited capacity and training. The U.S. Alliance for Election Excellence will bring together world-class partners so that local election officials no longer have to go it alone.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Additional groups involved with the initiative include the Center for Civic Design, The Elections Group, and the Center for Secure and Modern Elections, among others.<\/p>\n<p>As Federalist Editor-in-Chief Mollie Hemingway detailed in her New York Times bestselling book \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.barnesandnoble.com\/w\/rigged-mollie-hemingway\/1139396959\">Rigged: How the Media, Big Tech, and the Democrats Seized Our Elections<\/a>,\u201d funds from groups such as CTCL allowed unelected Democrat operatives \u201cto embed in government offices and actually take over election administration duties in crucial battleground states.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhile there are always activist groups on both the right and the left fighting over candidates and election rules, the battles over electioneering in the 2020 election were substantially different,\u201d Hemingway wrote. \u201cIt was as if the Dallas Cowboys were allowed to hire and train their own family members to serve as referees and then got angry the losing team didn\u2019t publicly accept a narrow loss with several controversial calls.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis privatization of election administration tainted the entire election,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\" \/>\n<p>\n  Shawn Fleetwood is an intern at The Federalist and a senior at the University of Mary Washington. He also serves as a state content writer for Convention of States Action and his work has been featured in numerous outlets, including RealClearPolitics, RealClearHealth, and Conservative Review. Follow him on Twitter @ShawnFleetwood<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Alabama is the latest state to pass legislation that will bar local and state election officials from accepting and using private funding for election operations, with Republican Gov. Kay Ivey<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":539,"featured_media":1891763,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1437419","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1437419","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/539"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1437419"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1437419\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1891763"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1437419"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1437419"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1437419"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}