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Center for Tech and Civic Life's (CTCL) grants to election agencies, 2020
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| Select a state from the menu below to learn more about its election administration. |
In the run-up to the November 3, 2020, general election, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and his wife, Dr. Priscilla Chan, donated a total of $350 million to the Center for Tech and Civic Life (CTCL). They announced a first donation of $250 million on September 1, 2020, along with a donation of $50 million to the Center for Election Innovation and Research (CEIR). They announced a second donation of $100 million to CTCL on October 13, 2020.[1][2]
In a Facebook post, Zuckerberg said the money was intended to "support election officials with the infrastructure they need to administer the vote — including voting equipment, PPE for poll workers and hiring additional poll staff."[3]According to CTCL's website, the group used the funds to provide grants to nearly 2,500 jurisdictions around the country during the 2020 election cycle.[4]
The donations by Zuckerberg and Chan sparked debate about the use of private funding for election administration efforts. Following the election, some states introduced legislation related to this activity.
This article provides an overview of CTCL's program, the jurisdictions that received the grants, a timeline of events leading up to and following the allocation of the grants, and a summary of reception and reactions to the grants.
Background
2020 general election
Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, 40 states and Washington D.C. made changes to voting procedures ahead of the 2020 general election. These changes included modifications to absentee/mail-in voting procedures, modifications to in-person voting procedures, changes to filing deadlines, and changes to primary and special election dates.
In the weeks and months before the general election, public officials, authors, and pundits speculated about the effect that changes to election procedures might have on the election's administration and outcome. Ballotpedia catalogued those various possible scenarios and hypotheses. To learn more about them, click here.
For more information about modifications made to election dates, procedures, and administration in 2020, click here.
Cost of the changes on state and local jurisdictions
As a result of the changes states made to voting procedures, the costs of administering the 2020 election increased. Ben Hovland, the chairman of the U.S. Election Assistance Commission at the time, said, "State and local jurisdictions across the country are facing unexpected and rapidly increasing costs to mail ballots, move polling sites, and ensure the safety of voters, staff, and election workers.”[5]
On March 27, 2020, President Donald Trump (R) signed the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (CARES Act) into law. The act included $400 million in Help America Vote Act (HAVA) emergency funds to assist states with election administration efforts in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic.[5]
Center for Tech and Civic Life (CTCL)
As of April 2022, the Center for Tech and Civic Life (CTCL) was a 501(c)(3) nonprofit based in Chicago, Illinois. The group described itself as “a team of civic technologists, trainers, researchers, election administration and data experts working to foster a more informed and engaged democracy, and helping to modernize U.S. elections.”[6]
The organization was founded in 2015 by Tiana Epps-Johnson, a former election administration director for the New Organizing Institute (NOI), Whitney May, a former board of elections official in Durham County, North Carolina, and contributor to the voting information project at NOI, and Donny Bridges, a former election administration research director at NOI.[7]
Leadership
As of April 2022, the following individuals held leadership positions with CTCL:[7]
- Tiana Epps-Johnson, Founder and executive director
- Whitney May, Founder and director of government services
- Donny Bridges, Founder and director of civic data
Finances
The following is a breakdown of the Center for Technology and Civic Life's revenues and expenses as submitted to the IRS for the 2015 to 2020 fiscal years:
| Annual revenue and expenses for the Center for Technology and Civic Life, 2015–2020 | ||
| Tax Year | Total Revenue | Total Expenses |
| 2020[8] | $356,251,345 | $335,429,878 |
| 2019[9] | $3,404,409 | $1,376,946 |
| 2018[10] | $1,414,981 | $1,119,630 |
| 2017[11] | $1,044,134 | $841,577 |
| 2016[12] | $970,937 | $1,002,928 |
| 2015[13] | $1,013,853 | $501,900 |
CTCL's COVID-19 Response Grant Program
Zuckerberg and Chan announced on September 1, 2020, that they were providing a combined total of $300 million in funding to CTCL and the CEIR, with $250 million going to CTCL and $50 million going to CEIR.[1] In a Facebook post, Zuckerberg said the donation to CTCL "would go to provide funding for local counties to have the staffing, training, and equipment they need."[14]
CTCL said in a press release that they planned to use the $250 million in funding to support the following:[1]
- Poll worker recruitment, hazard pay, and training
- Polling place rental
- Temporary staffing support
- Drive-through voting
- Equipment to process ballots and applications
- Personal protective equipment (PPE) for poll workers
- Nonpartisan voter education from cities and counties
Before the September 1 announcement, CTCL had announced various grants it was making to city and county election offices around the country, but it hadn’t specified the funding source for these grants. The New Yorker reported, "Facebook, Google, and major foundations are listed as donors on [CTCL's] Web site, but the center declined to say who specifically funded the recent large grants to cities in battleground states this year."[15]
On October 13, 2020, Zuckerberg and Chan announced that they were providing an additional $100 million to CTCL due to the increased demand for funds from local jurisdictions. In a statement, CTCL said, “Given the lack of public funds and unique challenges to election administration due to the COVID-19 pandemic, demand for the funds is on track to surpass the $300 million Chan and Zuckerberg committed to states and localities on September 1st. … Chan and Zuckerberg’s commitment will ensure that every qualified jurisdiction that applies will be approved for the funds they need.”[2]
At the time, more than 2,100 local election jurisdictions had applied for support from CTCL.[2]
On November 17, 2020, CTCL announced that grant funds would be available to all Georgia counties ahead of the Senate runoffs in that state. [16]
On December 15, 2021, CTCL issued a final report on their 2020 grant program and published a copy of the Form 990 that the group filed with the IRS. The form covered activity from February 1, 2020, to January 31, 2021, and revealed that the group paid out $332,090,669 in grants during that period.[8] The group said it distributed grants to nearly 2,500 U.S. election departments in 49 states. The minimum amount awarded was $5,000, mainly to smaller localities across the country, while the largest grant, over $19 million, was awarded to New York City. The group said that "over half of all grants nationwide went to election departments that serve fewer than 25,000 registered voters."[17]
In their final report, the group said, "CTCL played a critical role in deploying various strategies to support election officials and the voting public in 2020. In addition to providing timely and relevant online training as well as accurate and trustworthy information to millions of voters, CTCL distributed nearly $350 million in grants to local election departments to administer safe elections."[17]
"The COVID-19 Response Grant program came into place because Congress did not fully fund local election departments during the pandemic. The goal of the program was to ensure election officials had the resources they needed to conduct safe, secure elections for their community," the statement said.[17]
Total funds awarded by the Center for Tech and Civic Life in 2020
The Center for Tech and Civic Life filed a 990 financial disclosure form with the IRS detailing the grants it distributed in the period between February 1, 2020, and January 31, 2021.[8] The tables below are based on that data.
Grants by state
The table below lists the total amount of funds that CTCL awarded each state and Washington D.C. in 2020, according to the information on the Form 990 the organization filed with the IRS.[18][19] As of April 2022, the Form 990 published by CTCL for the year 2020 didn't include information about grants awarded to Delaware, West Virginia, or Wyoming.[8]
Grants by jurisdiction
This section lists the total amount of funds received by jurisdictions in nine states selected for analysis by the Capital Research Center (CRC), a Washington-based nonprofit. On its website, the CRC says, "We do have a specific point of view. We believe in free markets, Constitutional government, and individual liberty. But facts are facts, and our journalists and researchers go where the facts lead them."[20]
The tables below are based on data published by the CRC in their report. Ballotpedia did not modify this data. Most, but not all, jurisdictions listed are cities or counties. To view data for a state, click on the appropriate bar below to expand it.[21][22]
Distribution of CTCL grants
This section breaks down the distribution of CTCL grants to states using different metrics such as population, trifecta status, the number of electoral votes in each state that received grants, whether the state was won by Joe Biden (D) or Donald Trump (R), and the average amount of grant funding per capita that each Biden-won and Trump-won state received.
This section is meant to provide Ballotpedia readers with a fuller picture of the impact and distribution of CTCL grants in 2020. The analysis shown in this section is not intended to imply there was a correlation between the amount of funding a state or jurisdiction received and which candidate carried that state or jurisdiction. In their final report on the 2020 COVID-19 Response Grant program, CTCL said, "Election administration is different from community to community, and what election departments needed to make ends meet in 2020 reflected those local differences."
The statement continued:
| “ | Needs differed vastly from election department to election department based on a variety of factors, including the jurisdiction size, how jurisdictions changed their voting program during the pandemic, and their previous funding levels. CTCL COVID-19 Response grants were available to meet those needs wherever they existed. As their program needs changed during the pandemic, many larger urban areas, for example, required capital-intense investments to count a large volume of absentee and mail ballots in a short period of time, tasks that can often be done at lower cost with less equipment (sometimes even by hand) in the smallest jurisdictions."[23] |
” |
| —Final Report on 2020 COVID-19 Response Grant Program and CTCL 990s (December 15, 2021)[17] | ||
Grants awarded to states won by Biden or Trump
CTCL awarded grants totaling $216,988,621.00 to the District of Columbia and 24 states won by Joe Biden in the 2020 presidential election.
CTCL awarded grants totaling $113,682,971.00 to 23 states won by Donald Trump in the 2020 presidential election.
Grants relative to the population in each state
Amount in funding per capita given to each state
CTCL awarded an average of $1.10 per capita to states won by Biden in 2020 and an average of $0.72 per capita to states won by Trump. The chart below shows the funding per capita that each state received.
Grants by state trifecta status
State government trifecta is a term to describe single-party government, when one political party holds the governorship and majorities in both chambers of the state legislature. Ahead of the 2020 election, there were 19 Republican trifectas, 14 Democratic trifectas, and 14 divided governments where neither party held trifecta control.
- There were 14 states with Democratic trifectas ahead of the 2020 election that received grants from CTCL. Those states received a total amount of $96,102,626.00.
- There were 19 states with Republican trifectas ahead of the 2020 election that received grants from CTCL. They received a total amount of $143,898,837.00.
- There were 14 states with divided government ahead of the 2020 election that received grants from CTCL. They received a total amount of $90,052,516.00.
Reception
The donations by Zuckerberg and Chan sparked debate about the use of private funding for election administration efforts.
Support
In a Newsweek op-ed, the Brennan Center's Wendy Weiser and Jennifer Weiss-Wolf, said, "[The COVID-19] pandemic poses a national emergency impacting the very foundation of our democracy, and the Senate adjourned until Labor Day without giving states and local officials the funding they need to run safe and fair elections this fall. … We have reached an extraordinary point where we have no choice but to look to civil society—the business community and other private groups and organizations—to help fill the breach."[24] The Brennan Center for Justice is a nonprofit organization that describes itself as a "non-partisan law and policy institute."[25]
David Becker, the executive director and founder of the Center for Election Innovation and Research (CEIR), said, "Plan A should always be that government pays to provide the infrastructure for our democracy...But we are in unusual times right now. State budgets are particularly strained. Congress has refused to act. And it's not like we can delay the election." CEIR, a nonprofit organization that describes itself as "seek[ing] to build voter trust and confidence, increase voter participation, and improve the efficiency of election administration," received $50 million from Zuckerberg and Chan.[26][27]
Frank LaRose (R), Ohio’s secretary of state, said, “In a time when so much is changing around us, Americans need to know now more than ever how to make their voice heard in this fall’s election. That requires getting them the information they need from trusted sources, and these dollars are going to go a long way to making that happen.”[1]
Criticism
Rachael Cobb, an associate professor of political science and legal studies at Suffolk University, said, "It's really important that it's a one-time thing." She said that while private funding was important in 2020, "over time, it in and of itself is corrosive." She said the continued use of private funds to finance election administration "sullies [the election] in a way that we don't need it to be sullied at all."[28]
Tom Speaker, a policy analyst for Reinvent Albany, said, "Our view is that elections should be funded by the state instead of private interests" He said that private election funding raises the potential for a conflict of interest and "undermines public trust in the system."[27] Reinvent Albany is an organization that describes its mission as "advocating for transparent and accountable New York State government and increased transparency in New York City."[29]
Scott Walter, president of the Capital Research Center, said, "Can you imagine if the Charles Koch Foundation were to become involved with election officials? It would be front page news in The New York Times."[30]
Tom Brejcha, president of the Thomas More Society, said, "This partisan privatization of our elections can't stand."[27] The Thomas More Society is a law firm that describes its mission as "protect[ing] and promot[ing] the culture of life, religious liberty, and traditional family values."[31]
Statement from CTCL on the use of private funding for election administration
In their final report on the 2020 COVID-19 Response Grant Program issued on December 15, 2021, CTCL said:
| “ | CTCL believes that election administration should be fully funded by federal, state, and local governments across the country, and the quality of election administration each voter receives should not depend on the tax base or size of their county. Philanthropy helped alleviate an emergency in 2020, and in “normal years” it can help election offices build capacity, streamline processes, and make capital investments. But philanthropy is no substitute for predictable government funding. CTCL will continue to make the case for predictable government funding through the Election Infrastructure Initiative. We’re committed to securing adequate support for election administration in every jurisdiction across the country, whether it’s a rural township with 600 voters or a city with 6 million.[23] |
” |
| —Final Report on 2020 COVID-19 Response Grant Program and CTCL 990s (December 15, 2021)[17] | ||
Allegations of partisan bias in distribution of grants
In the report released by the Capital Research Center (CRC) in January 2022, the group said CTCL "consistently gave bigger grants and more money per capita to counties that voted for Biden." The authors of the report, Parker Thayer and Hayden Ludwig, analyzed grant data from nine states and concluded there was partisan distribution bias in all of them. The group also said that voter turnout for Biden increased 35% in counties that received CTCL grants when compared to the voter turnout for Hillary Clinton in 2016, while voter turnout for Trump increased by 18% in counties that received CTCL grants when compared to his performance in 2016.[32]
In a statement released in October 2021, CTCL said, "There were no partisan questions in the grant applications. CTCL COVID-19 Response grant funding decisions were not made on a partisan basis, and as demonstrated by the jurisdictions across the political spectrum that received money, partisan considerations played no role in the availability or awarding of funding. Needs differed vastly from election department to election department based on both how jurisdictions changed their voting program during the pandemic and also their previous funding levels, and CTCL COVID-19 Response grants were available to meet those needs wherever they existed."[4]
Introduction of legislation governing private funding for election administration
As state legislatures convened in 2021, lawmakers in several states introduced bills to prohibit or otherwise regulate the use of private funding for election administration. The map below provides the number of relevant bills that were considered in each state in 2021. Hover over a state to see the exact number of bills. A darker shade of red indicates a greater number of relevant bills. In those states shaded in white, relevant bills were not considered. For state-specific details, click a state in the map below or select a state from the drop-down menu beneath the map. On doing so, a list of state legislation will display, including information about bill status and links to full text. This information is provided by BillTrack50.com. To return to the map, click "Back" in the upper righthand corner of the legislation list.
For more information about legislation introduced in 2021 that would govern private funding for election administration in the United States, click here.
See below for a complete list of relevant bills. To learn more about a particular bill, click its title. This information is provided by BillTrack50 and LegiScan.
See also
- Center for Tech and Civic Life (CTCL)
- Capital Research Center
- Center for Election Innovation and Research (CEIR)
- Legislation governing private funding for election administration in the United States, 2021
- Laws governing the private funding of elections
External links
- Capital Research Center website
- Center for Technology and Civic Life's website
- Center for Election Innovation and Research's website
Footnotes
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 Center for Tech and Civic Life, "PRISCILLA CHAN AND MARK ZUCKERBERG COMMIT $300 MILLION DONATION TO PROMOTE SAFE AND RELIABLE VOTING DURING COVID-19 PANDEMIC," September 1, 2020
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 Center for Tech and Civic Life, "Press Release: CTCL Receives Additional $100M Contribution to Support Critical Work of Election Officials," October 13, 2020
- ↑ Facebook, "Mark Zuckerberg: October 13, 2020," accessed March 23, 2021
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 Center for Tech and Civic Life, "10 Facts About CTCL & the COVID-19 Response Grant Program," October 14, 2021
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 U.S. Election Assistance Commission, "EAC EXPEDITING DISTRIBUTION OF $400 MILLION IN CARES ACT ELECTION FUNDING FOR CORONAVIRUS RESPONSE," March 27, 2020
- ↑ Center for Tech and Civic Life, "Our Story," accessed March 29, 2022
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 Center for Tech and Civic Life, "Our Team," accessed March 29, 2022
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 8.2 8.3 Center for Technology and Civic Life, "Annual 990 Filings (2020)," accessed April 26, 2022
- ↑ Center for Technology and Civic Life, "Annual 990 Filings (2019)," accessed March 31, 2022
- ↑ Guidestar, "Center for Technology and Civic Life IRS Form 990 (2018)," accessed September 3, 2020
- ↑ Guidestar, "Center for Technology and Civic Life IRS Form 990 (2017)," accessed September 3, 2020
- ↑ Guidestar, "Center for Technology and Civic Life IRS Form 990 (2017)," accessed September 3, 2020
- ↑ Guidestar, "Center for Technology and Civic Life IRS Form 990 (2016)," accessed September 3, 2020
- ↑ Facebook, "Mark Zuckerbeg; September 1, 2020," accessed March 29, 2022
- ↑ New Yorker, "Battling Anxiety Over Making Sure Your Vote Gets Counted," September 4, 2020
- ↑ Center for Tech and Civic Life, "CTCL COVID-19 Response Grants Available for Georgia Runoff," November 17, 2020
- ↑ 17.0 17.1 17.2 17.3 17.4 Center for Tech and Civic Life, "Final Report on 2020 COVID-19 Response Grant Program and CTCL 990s," December 15, 2021
- ↑ This table is based on information published by the Capital Research Center (CRC). The CRC used the information on the IRS Form 990 released by CTCL to calculate the total amount in grants that each state received.
- ↑ Capital Research Center, "Which States Did CTCL Flood with “Zuck Bucks”?" January 21, 2022
- ↑ Capital Research Center, "About," accessed April 20, 2022
- ↑ The table for Wisconsin only lists grants higher than $5,000, totaling $9,194,152.00. The CRC did not include grants under that amount in their jurisdiction-level analysis of the state.
- ↑ Juan Garcia de Paredes, "Email correspondence with Parker Thayer," 4/1/2022
- ↑ 23.0 23.1 Note: This text is quoted verbatim from the original source. Any inconsistencies are attributable to the original source.
- ↑ Newsweek, "Let the Private Sector Help Save the Election. We Have No Choice | Opinion," September 2, 2020
- ↑ Brennan Center for Justice, "About us," accessed March 31, 2022
- ↑ Center for Election Innovation and Research, "About CEIR," accessed on March 31, 2022
- ↑ 27.0 27.1 27.2 The Fulcrum, "Business gifts to help run the vote expand, along with objections on left and right", October 13, 2020
- ↑ NPR, "How Private Money From Facebook's CEO Saved The 2020 Election," December 8, 2020
- ↑ Reinvent Albany, "Mission," accessed March 31, 2022
- ↑ Legal Newsline, "Center for Tech and Civic Life: Democratic election operatives masquerading as concerned voters’ group, critic says," August 24, 2020
- ↑ Thomas More Society, "About US," accessed March 31, 2022
- ↑ Capital Research Center, "UPDATED: Shining a Light on Zuck Bucks in the 2020 Battleground States," January 18, 2022
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