Billionaire Recruited Election Officials to Accept Zuckerberg Grants

Billionaire Recruited Election Officials to Accept Zuckerberg Grants

June 29, 2021

Breitbart News reports that a lawsuit filed alleged that an obscure nonprofit organization operated as part of a larger nonprofit largely funded by Silicon Valley billionaire Pierre Omidyar attempted to recruit local election officials to apply for grants from the Center for Technology and Civic Life (CTCL), funded by Facebook techno-totalitarian Mark Zuckerberg.

Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry filed the lawsuit in October 2020 against CTCL; New Venture Fund DBA Center for Secure and Modern Elections; Dawn Maisel Cole, a private individual; and Full Circle Strategies LLC, “to prevent the injection of unregulated private money into the Louisiana election system.”

The lawsuit alleged that these entities worked an unlawful grant scheme contrary to the methods for election funding established by law in the State of Louisiana, and argued that such contributions should be declared illegal and permanently enjoined.

The lawsuit highlighted the role an obscure organization called the Center for Secure and Modern Elections, which describes itself as a “fiscally sponsored project of the New Venture Fund,” played in advancing the efforts of CTCL in privately funding the administration of the 2020 election. The New Venture Fund, in turn, is part of Democracy Fund, founded and financially backed by Pierre Omidyar.

As Breitbart News reported: “Private funding of election administration was virtually unknown in the American political system until the 2020 presidential election, when Facebook CEO and founder Mark Zuckerberg and his wife Priscilla Chan donated $350 million to the Center for Technology and Civic Life (CTCL), which provided funding to county and municipal governments around the country for election administration, and $69 million to the Center for Election Innovation and Research (CEIR), which provided funding to 23 state governments, primarily through the Secretary of State’s office, also for the funding of election administration.”

In late October, a Louisiana judge ruled against Landry and in favor of the defendants.

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