Georgia Elections Have New Protections Against Out-of-State Billionaires’ Interference
- BY FGA
Where there’s a will, there’s a way. In this case, Big Tech wills a way into local election offices.
Remember how Mark Zuckerberg and the Center for Tech and Civic Life (CTCL) funneled hundreds of millions of dollars into local election offices and may have changed the outcome? Well, CTCL is at it again.
Since the 2020 election, 23 states around the country enacted legislation to ban or restrict “Zuckerbucks” and keep billionaires out of local and state elections—including bipartisan action in states like Virginia and Pennsylvania. CTCL launched the U.S. Alliance for Election Excellence and found a loophole in Georgia’s election law and funneled an additional $2 million grant to dark-blue DeKalb County at the end of 2022. This was in addition to the $10 million that DeKalb County accepted from CTCL during the 2020 election cycle.
Georgia promptly acted and Governor Brian Kemp recently signed a new election integrity bill into law to protect local elections from out-of-state billionaires.
Georgia is now closing its loopholes by requiring that all costs related to elections must be paid for with lawfully appropriated public funds. No government employee may solicit, take, or otherwise accept from any person a contribution, donation, service, or anything else of value for the purpose of conducting elections or performing their election-related duties.
Thanks to the leadership of Governor Kemp, Lt. Governor Burt Jones, Senator Max Burns, and Representative Houston Gaines, Georgia is reasserting its authority to manage its own elections. As states across the country continue working to restore trust and confidence in our representative government, Georgia has become the gold standard.
