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New Funding Program Launched by Center for Tech and Civic Life Could Sidestep State Bans on Private Funding of Local Elections–Including Bans on Zuckerbucks

Naples, FL—The Center for Tech and Civic Life (CTCL) announced the launch of a new program yesterday, the Alliance for Election Excellence, that will distribute $80 million in funding while providing “coaching” and other support to a select group of local election officials who apply to the program and who pass a “verification and review process.”

Like the $350 million in donations contributed to local election offices during the 2020 presidential race, supporters of the Alliance for Election Excellence claim that the program will provide funds to improve technology and processes in local election offices across the country—many opponents of private funding for election administration remain skeptical of the program’s true intent. 

In a recent report, CTCL executive director Tiana Epps-Johnson emphasized the program would create a network that works with California-based technology experts to implement new solutions for election administration-related challenges, claiming that funding will be distributed differently than it was in 2020. Details on exactly how funding will be distributed, where, and based on what criteria has not yet been released. 

This announcement comes after 17 states have passed bills banning the use of third-party funding in election-related activities, essentially outlawing the practice CTCL engaged in during 2020. Similar bans are progressing forward in at least seven additional states. 

FGA is warning policymakers of yet another attempt by CTCL to provide targeted funding to left-leaning districts the same way it did in 2020 with Zuckerbucks. Creating the new program, according to FGA, is an attempt by CTCL to sidestep state bans on private election funding.

“The evidence is clear. In 2020, the CTCL disproportionately distributed Zuckerbucks across the nation to the benefit of the Left. In response, States focused on protecting future elections have passed laws banning this kind of partisan private funding for election administration,” said Stewart Whitson, Legal Director at FGA. “This program isn’t new at all, but rather a feeble attempt by the CTCL to repackage the same illegal scheme they carried out in 2020 and do it again in 2022 and 2024. State Attorneys General and election integrity advocates across the country should take notice of this new effort, and work together to stop it.”

FGA continues to actively monitor CTCL while providing cutting edge research, analysis, and legal solutions to federal and state partners across the nation to help keep private partisan funding out of the administration of elections. 

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