{"id":1614725,"date":"2022-08-18T13:04:33","date_gmt":"2022-08-18T17:04:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1614725"},"modified":"2022-08-18T13:06:02","modified_gmt":"2022-08-18T17:06:02","slug":"montana-election-officials-conspired-to-kill-legislation-banning-zuckbucks-new-report-shows","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/montana-election-officials-conspired-to-kill-legislation-banning-zuckbucks-new-report-shows\/","title":{"rendered":"Montana Election Officials Conspired To Kill Legislation Banning Zuckbucks, New Report Shows"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">24<\/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%2Fmontana-election-officials-conspired-to-kill-legislation-banning-zuckbucks-new-report-shows%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=1614725&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--><p>A newly released report details previously unknown efforts by local Montana election administrators to kill legislation that would have prohibited state officials from accepting and using private funds in the conduction of elections.<\/p>\n<p>Issued by the Public Interest Legal Foundation (PILF) earlier this month, the <a href=\"https:\/\/publicinterestlegal.org\/featured\/final-frontier-zuckbucks-in-montana\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">report<\/a> unveils extensive conversations among county election officials detailing collective efforts to squash a bill (<a href=\"https:\/\/laws.leg.mt.gov\/legprd\/LAW0210W$BSIV.ActionQuery?P_BILL_NO1=335&#038;P_BLTP_BILL_TYP_CD=SB&#038;Z_ACTION=Find&#038;P_SESS=20211\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">SB 335<\/a>) filed in the state legislature that would have effectively outlawed funding of election offices from groups such as the Mark Zuckerberg-backed Center for Technology and Civic Life (CTCL), which distributed approximately $1.7 million across 21 Montana counties in the lead up to the 2020 election. <\/p>\n<p>As previously reported by Federalist contributor William Doyle, CTCL\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2021\/10\/12\/the-2020-election-wasnt-stolen-it-was-bought-by-mark-zuckerberg\/\">spent millions<\/a>\u00a0on \u201cfinancing the infiltration of election offices at the city and county level by left-wing activists, and using those offices as a platform to implement preferred administrative practices, voting methods, and data-sharing agreements, as well as to launch intensive outreach campaigns in areas heavy with Democratic voters\u201d in the months prior to the 2020 contest. <\/p>\n<p>Following the measure\u2019s introduction in the Montana Senate in early 2021, the listserv emails sent between local election administrators and documented in the PILF report reveal a lobbying effort led by the Montana Association of Counties and Yellowstone County to convince legislators \u201cto try and kill\u201d legislation such as SB 335 that sought to further bolster election integrity in the state.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI am writing in opposition to SB 335,\u201d an email sent to Montana state senators by a Yellowstone County official read. \u201cYellowstone County saved the taxpayers $320,593.00 in fiscal year 20-21 by accessing nongovernmental grants and this bill would disallow a critical avenue of funding in the future. \u2026 Passage of this bill only puts more of a burden on local tax payers via unfunded mandates. \u2026 Please vote no!\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Following the death of SB 335 in the Senate, the communication logs obtained by PILF show county officials celebrating the bill\u2019s demise, while simultaneously congratulating Yellowstone County on their successful lobbying efforts in preventing the measure\u2019s passage.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cGreat job [Yellowstone County]!\u201d said messages from Sanders and Fallon County officials.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYeah! That is so awesome! Great work [Yellowstone County]!\u201d said another from a Prairie County representative.<\/p>\n<p>The report goes on to debunk arguments made by county election officials in their support for private funding, such as the claim that the CTCL grants saved taxpayers money. As noted by PILF, the aforementioned counties are \u201csometimes operating with $250,000 to $750,000 annual budgets for election operations\u201d and \u201conly learned about what they thought were $5,000 grants one month before [Election Day], according to the initial email chatter.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe taxpayer savings argument is even more disingenuous when reading the terms of the CTCL grants,\u201d the report reads. \u201cIn every letter to a jurisdiction receiving funds, recipients must agree that they will \u2018not supplant previously appropriated funds. The Grantee shall not reduce the budget of the [Election Department] or fail to appropriate or provide previously budgeted funds to the Election Department for the term of this grant.\u2019 In other words, using the grant to give a direct break to the local taxpayer would violate the CTCL\u2019s own rules and eventually force a refund.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Moreover, of the seven Montana jurisdictions that received more than the average $5,000 CTCL grant, \u201conly one (Lewis and Clark) managed to spend all funds before the first deadline.\u201d So, while \u201ca minority of counties were documented to be pressuring the Montana Senate to kill the Zuckbucks ban by arguing how the grants saved their collective necks in 2020, they still had not spent all the money they were given.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt is deeply troubling how addicted election officials are to this Zuckerberg money,\u201d\u00a0said PILF President J. Christian Adams in a <a href=\"https:\/\/publicinterestlegal.org\/press\/report-the-final-frontier-zuckbucks-in-montana\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">statement<\/a> on the report. \u201cAn important bill banning the private funding of elections failed to pass in large part because of these officials\u2019 opposition to the bill. Montanans\u2019 election process is still up for sale to the highest bidder.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>While Montana election administrators may not have known it at the time, Zuckerberg\u2019s targeted election funding played a greater role in the 2020 election than previously realized. As detailed by Federalist Editor-in-Chief Mollie Hemingway 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 Zuckerberg \u201cdidn\u2019t just help Democrats by censoring their political opponents,\u201d his financing of \u201cliberal groups running partisan get-out-the-vote operations\u201d was ultimately \u201cthe means by which [Democrat] activists achieved their \u2018revolution\u2019 and changed the course of the 2020 election.\u201d <\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt was a genius plan,\u201d Hemingway said. \u201cAnd because no one ever imagined that a coordinated operation could pull off the privatization of the election system, laws were not built to combat it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>As of August 2022, <a href=\"https:\/\/capitalresearch.org\/article\/states-banning-zuck-bucks\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">24 states<\/a> have either banned or severely restricted the use of private funds in the conduction of state and local elections.<\/p>\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\" \/>\n<p>\n  Shawn Fleetwood is a Staff Writer for The Federalist and a graduate of 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<div class=\"article-comments mt-30 mt-sm-60\">\n<div class=\"article-comments-container d-flex flex-column align-items-center py-30\">\n    <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"110\" height=\"106\" src=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/fdrlst-mark.svg\" class=\"img-fluid mb-20\" alt=\"The Federalist logo eagle mark\" \/>    <\/p>\n<p>Unlock commenting by joining the Federalist Community.<\/p>\n<p>    <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/plans\/pricing\/\" class=\"btn btn-on-white\">Subscribe<\/a>  <\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A newly released report details previously unknown efforts by local Montana election administrators to kill legislation that would have prohibited state officials from accepting and using private funds in the<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":539,"featured_media":2315279,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1614725","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1614725","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=1614725"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1614725\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2315279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1614725"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1614725"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1614725"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}