See link https://voterga.org/studies/
Capital Research Center report on 2020 “ZuckBucks” funds in battleground states This updated Capital Research Center report defines how $330 million was distributed from CTCL disproportionally across the country to change the results of the 2020 Presidential election in violation of Equal Protection clauses in Georgia and U.S. Constitutions. The Georgia SOS office never objected to this $45 million violation of state and federal law.
he latest in a series exposing Mark Zuckerberg’s influence on the 2020 election.
The Capital Research Center was among the first to unearth hundreds of millions of dollars in “Zuck bucks” flowing from the family of Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg to, first, the Center for Technology and Civic Life, (CTCL), and then on to thousands of local government election offices in 2020.
We were also the first to report on the secrets hidden in CTCL’s financial disclosures in December 2021, which confirmed the flood of private money used to skew 2020 election turnout and unseat President Trump.
Now, after an entire year of exposing how one billionaire privatized a presidential election, we can re-examine our original findings in nine battleground states that were essential to placing Joe Biden in the White House. The results are striking—and in many cases, even worse than we initially feared.
For an ongoing list of states banning or restricting private funding of elections, go here.
For answers to common Zuck bucks questions, go here.
Jan. 18, 2022: Our Zuck Bucks reporting was featured in the Wall Street Journal Editorial Board’s condemnation of using private money to fund elections:
“Zuckerbucks Shouldn’t Pay for Elections“ CTCL “consistently gave bigger grants and more money per capita to counties that voted for Biden, ” says an analysis by the Capital Research Center. Its tally for Georgia, to pick one state, shows average grants of $1.41 per head in Trump areas and $5.33 in Biden ones. A conservative group in Wisconsin suggests that extra voter outreach funded by CTCL could have boosted Mr. Biden’s turnout there by something like 8,000 votes. It isn’t hard to see why they’re concerned. . . . Yet among the “advisory services” that CTCL made available to Green Bay, one consultant was from the Brennan Center, a highly ideological outfit that supports Democratic legal and election causes. What if conservatives underwrote “voter outreach” by town clerks, while sending in experts from the Heritage Foundation? This isn’t how elections should be run, especially in the current era of partisan mistrust.
For convenience and transparency, we’ve grouped the nine states CRC examined in 2020 below, with links to our original reports and data sets so the facts can speak for themselves.
December 30, 2021: This article will be updated as we finish analyzing the data. January 3, 2022: Analysis completed for all states except Michigan and Wisconsin, where CTCL’s grant reporting makes it difficult to complete on a county level. January 18, 2022: Added analysis for Michigan and Wisconsin.
Pennsylvania
(Updated December 30, 2021) | (Our original report) | (New data set)
Total Grants:
Our estimate: $22 million
Their disclosed data: $25 million
Average Per Capita Grant:
Our estimate: $0.57 Trump; $3.11 Biden
Their disclosed data: $0.60 Trump; $2.85 Biden
Key Findings:
Partisan distribution bias:
CTCL gave grants to 10 of the 13 counties Biden won statewide, one of which (Erie County) flipped from Trump’s 2016 column.
Together, these 10 counties received $20.8 million, or over 83 percent of all CTCL grants to Pennsylvania.
In contrast, CTCL gave grants to 12 of the 54 counties Trump won statewide.
These 12 counties received just $1.73 million, a mere 7 percent of all CTCL funds in the Keystone state.
Turnout:
CTCL-funded counties provided Biden with 2.5 million votes, nearly 73 percent of his statewide total.
These same CTCL-funded counties provided Trump with 1.8 million votes, or 53 percent of his statewide total.
Overall, in CTCL-funded counties Biden turnout surged by an additional 20 percent over 2016 turnout…
But Trump turnout surged by only 15 percent in these same counties.
Per capita bias:
The 5 biggest grants per capita in CTCL-funded counties all went to counties which Biden won:
Philadelphia: $6.56
Centre: $5.46
Chester: $4.79
Delaware: $3.77
Lehigh: $2.04
The largest per capita grant to a Trump county, however, went to Berks County ($1.10).
Other oddities:
The Pennsylvania Department of State received $2.44 million from CTCL. How those funds were spent remains unclear, though it is possible that they were eventually distributed to counties. Early research suggests that an allied organization which received $69.5 million from Zuckerberg, the Center for Election Innovation and Research (CEIR), distributed its funds to secretaries of state.
The Foundation for Government Accountability reports a CTCL grant of $37,104 to Somerset County, unlisted in CTCL’s IRS Form 990 filing (possibly an error). CTCL’s preliminary grants list includes a grant of unknown size to Somerset County.
Georgia
Updated Dec. 31, 2021 | (Our original report) | (New data set)
Total Grants:
Our estimate: $27.8 million
Their disclosed data: $45 million
Average Per Capita Grant:
Our estimate: $0.98 Trump; $5.06 Biden
Their disclosed data: $1.41 Trump; $5.33 Biden
Key Findings:
Partisan distribution bias:
CTCL gave grants to 17 of the 31 counties Biden won in Georgia.
Together, these 17 counties received $42.4 million, or over 94 percent of all CTCL funds in the Peach state.
CTCL gave grants to 26 of the 128 counties Trump won statewide.
But these 26 counties only received $2.6 million from CTCL—less than 6 percent of all grants distributed across Georgia.
Turnout:
CTCL-funded counties gave Biden 1.96 million votes, a little over 73 percent of all votes he received statewide.
Trump, however, only received 1.35 million votes across these same CTCL-funded counties, or just over 55 percent of his statewide total.
Biden turnout surged by an impressive 35 percent in CTCL-funded counties in 2020 as compared with Hillary Clinton’s turnout in the 2016 election, netting him an additional 510,000 votes.
Trump turnout only increased by 18 percent in these same counties over his own 2016 performance, netting him another 203,000 votes—less than half that of Biden.
Per capita bias:
CTCL’s 10 biggest grants per capita all went to counties which Biden won, 6 of which are part of Atlanta:
Clayton: $12.88
DeKalb: $12.59
Douglas: $11.53
Fulton: $10.01
Cobb: $7.39
Gwinnett: $6.69
Macon-Bibb: $4.78
Muscogee: $3.50
Chatham: $3.49
Dougherty: $3.44
Together these 10 counties gave Biden 1.49 million votes, 60 percent of his total across Georgia and nearly 378,000 votes over Clinton’s 2016 turnout here.
In contrast, Trump only received 691,000 in these counties in 2020, an increase of just 92,000 votes over his 2016 performance.
The biggest per capita grant to a Trump county went to Early County ($3.42), where Trump earned just 2,710 votes. Clayton County, CTCL’s biggest per capita target, netted Biden over 95,000 votes.
Arizona
Updated Dec. 31, 2021 | (Our original report) | (New data set)
Total Grants:
Our estimate: $5 million
Their disclosed data: $5.1 million (a difference of roughly $142,000)
Average Per Capita Grant:
Our estimate: $1.29 Trump; $5.83 Biden
Their disclosed data: $2.16 Trump; $3.47 Biden
Key Findings:
Partisan distribution bias:
CTCL gave grants to 4 of the 5 counties Biden won in Arizona.
These counties received $3.9 million, 75.5 percent of all CTCL grants to the Grand Canyon state.
In contrast, CTCL gave grants to 4 of the 4 counties Trump won.
Trump counties received just under $671,000, or 13 percent of all CTCL grants statewide.
Critically, only one county in Arizona flipped in 2020: Maricopa County, centered on Phoenix and the state’s most populous county, which broke for Biden after Trump won it in 2016. Maricopa received $1.84 million from CTCL.
Turnout:
CTCL-funded counties gave Biden 1.55 million votes in 2020, a staggering 92.5 percent of his statewide total.
Biden grew his turnout by nearly 694,000 votes over 2016 turnout in CTCL-funded counties, an average increase of 81 percent.
CTCL-funded counties gave Trump 1.42 million votes, an equally impressive 85 percent of his statewide total.
Trump’s turnout in CTCL-funded counties grew by 563,000 votes over his 2016 performance, an average increase of 66 percent.
Per capita bias:
8 of Arizona’s 15 counties received CTCL grants in 2020, listed below by CTCL’s per capita spending:
Apache (Biden): $8.93
Navajo (Trump): $5.56
Coconino (Biden): $3.62
Pinal (Trump): $1.11
La Paz (Trump): $1.06
Pima (Biden): $0.91
Yuma (Trump): $0.89
Maricopa (Biden): $0.42
Nevada
Total Grants:
Our estimate: $2.7 million
Their disclosed data: $2.7 million
Average Per Capita Grant:
Our estimate: $0 Trump; $0.89 Biden
Their disclosed data: $0 Trump; $0.89 Biden
We were dead-on in our Nevada report’s figures. Nevada received two CTCL grants, which went only to the counties that reliably vote Democrat—Washoe County and Clark County. None went to counties won by Trump. The two funded counties also fit the urban bias of CTCL: they contain the state’s eight largest cities.
North Carolina
Updated Jan. 3, 2021 | (Our original report) | (New data set)
Total Grants:
Our estimate: $5.4 million (including $1 million to the secretary of state)*
Their disclosed data: $7.2 million (including $4.3 million to the secretary of state)*
*CTCL’s 2020 Form 990 report claims it gave a grant to the North Carolina Department of State treasurer; however, the address listed is that of the state Board of Elections.
Average Per Capita Grant:
Our estimate: $0.73 Trump; $1.46 Biden
Their disclosed data: $0.61 Trump; $1.44 Biden
Key Findings:
Partisan distribution bias:
CTCL gave grants to 6 of the 26 counties Biden won in North Carolina.
These 6 counties accounted for 64 percent of all grants paid to counties in the Tar Heel state, totaling just under $1.9 million; if we include CTCL’s huge grant to the secretary of state, however, it drops to 26 percent.
Of the 74 counties Trump won, CTCL funded 21 of them.
These counties received almost 36 percent of all CTCL grants to counties ($1.04 million), or 14.5 percent of all funds statewide if we include the secretary of state’s grant.
Turnout:
CTCL-funded counties gave Biden over 691,000 votes in 2020. That’s an increase of nearly 139,000 votes over Hillary Clinton’s performance in the 2016 election.
However, this only accounts for 26 percent of Biden’s overall votes in North Carolina—a vastly lower share than in any other state we’ve examined.
CTCL-funded counties gave Trump 782,000 votes, an increase of 125,000 votes over his 2016 turnout.
Again, this only accounts for 28.4 percent of his statewide vote total.
Yet our original estimate found that CTCL-funded counties provided Biden with 47 percent and Trump with 41 percent of their statewide vote totals, respectively.
What caused this large discrepancy? One possible explanation is the mysterious $4.3 million CTCL gifted to the secretary of state, funds which (theoretically) could’ve been redistributed to counties without being reported on CTCL’s IRS disclosures.
Per capita bias:
The top 10 counties by per capita funding in 2020 were:
Durham (Biden): $4.13
Orange (Biden): $1.96
Lenoir (Trump): $1.09
Hoke (Biden): $0.94
Jones (Trump): $0.91
Beaufort (Trump): $0.73
Craven (Trump): $0.70
Swain (Trump): $0.69
Pamlico (Trump): $0.69
Alleghany (Trump): $0.66
Biden won just 3 of the top 10 counties in this list. But that obscures a bias in the actual distribution favoring the Democratic candidate.
Those 3 counties together received nearly $1.7 million from CTCL and provided Biden with 220,000 votes.
The remaining 7 counties only got $196,807 from CTCL and gave Trump less than 79,000 votes.
Other oddities:
We originally reported a $1 million CTCL grant to the North Carolina secretary of state; CTCL’s disclosures instead report it as a $4.3 million grant. Precisely how that money was spent is still unclear, but it’s possible that the funds were redistributed by the secretary of state to county elections offices.
A handful of populous counties are missing from CTCL’s IRS Form 990 filing, despite county documents showing they received CTCL grants. Wake County, for instance, reportedly got $1 million from CTCL according to this draft agreement from October 2020, but no such grant appears in CTCL’s disclosures.
It’s also possible that these missing jurisdictions received their grants via the North Carolina secretary of state. Why CTCL would choose this roundabout route instead of its modus operandi of paying direct grants is a mystery.
Yet despite these discrepancies the per capita spending remains shockingly close to our original estimates—and in fact worsened for Trump from $0.73 to $0.61 on average.
Texas
Updated Dec. 31, 2021 | (Our original report) | (New data set)
Total Grants:
Our estimate: $35.2 million
Their disclosed data: $38.6 million
Average Per Capita Grant:
Our estimate: $0.55 Trump; $2.95 Biden
Their disclosed data: $0.66 Trump; $2.03 Biden
Key Findings:
Partisan distribution bias:
CTCL gave grants to 16 of the 22 counties Biden won in Texas.
Three of these counties—Williamson, Tarrant, and Hays—flipped from Trump in 2016 to Biden in 2020. No CTCL-funded counties flipped to Trump.
Biden counties received a stunning 94.5 percent of all CTCL grants flowing to Texas ($36.5 million).
CTCL gave grants to 67 of the 231 counties Trump won statewide.
Yet Trump counties only received 5.5 percent of CTCL’s grants to Texas ($2.1 million).
Trump flipped 8 traditionally Democratic counties, none of which received CTCL grants: Zapata, Val Verde, Reeves, La Salle, Kleberg, Kenedy, Jim Wells, and Frio Counties. (Although we originally believed Zapata County received a grant, CTCL’s disclosures show otherwise).
Turnout:
CTCL-funded counties gave Biden 4.04 million votes in 2020, or 77 percent of his votes statewide.
Biden turnout increased by over 1.04 million votes over 2016 turnout for Clinton in CTCL-funded counties, an average of 24.8 percent.
CTCL-funded counties gave Trump 3.6 million votes, 61 percent of his statewide vote total.
Trump’s turnout also increased by 768,000 votes over his 2016 turnout, an average of 27.8 percent.
This is one of the very few instances we’ve discovered where Trump outperformed his Democratic opponent in CTCL-funded counties in the 9 states we’ve examined.
Per capita bias:
Per capita spending was more mixed in Texas than in most other states we’ve looked at, with lower per capita figures overall in the top 10 counties:
Webb (Biden): $8.80
Dallas (Biden): $5.79
Cameron (Biden): $4.38
Refugio (Trump): $2.50
Harris (Biden): $2.04
Bee (Trump): $1.91
Duval (Biden): $1.51
Dimmit (Biden): $1.48
Brooks (Biden): $1.30
Hidalgo (Biden): $1.13
Yet the presence of 2 Trump counties in this list is somewhat misleading, since together they only gave him just under 39,513 votes.
Altogether, Biden netted 1.76 million votes in these counties while Trump only netted 1.2 million votes here.
Other oddities:
In its preliminary grants list from late 2020, CTCL reported grants to 116 Texas counties. However, its IRS Form 990 filing from late 2021 reveals grants to just 83 counties. The reason for this discrepancy is unknown.
Virginia
Updated Jan. 3, 2021 | (Our original report) | (New data set)
Total Grants:
Our estimate: $4 million
Their disclosed data: $3.7 million
Average Per Capita Grant:
Our estimate: $0.72 Trump; $1.14 Biden
Their disclosed data: $0.66 Trump; $1.11 Biden
Key Findings:
Partisan distribution bias:
CTCL gave grants to 14 of the 46 counties Biden won in 2020.
Two of these jurisdictions, James City County and Lynchburg, narrowly flipped from Trump in 2016 to Biden in 2020.
These 14 counties received $3.4 million, over 90 percent of all CTCL grants in Virginia.
CTCL gave grants to 22 of the 87 counties Trump won.
However, these 22 counties only received $358,910, a mere 9.6 percent of all CTCL grants in the Old Dominion. This is the second-most lopsided bias in favor of Democratic-leaning counties we’ve identified (after Texas).
Fairfax County, the most populous spot in Virginia, received nearly 3.5 times ($1.24 million) as much from CTCL as every Trump county combined.
Turnout:
CTCL-funded counties gave close to 1.2 million votes to Biden, 49 percent of his statewide total.
Turnout for Biden in these counties increased by 206,000 votes (17 percent) over Hillary Clinton’s 2016 turnout.
CTCL-funded counties gave just 699,000 votes to Trump, or 36 percent of his statewide total.
Trump’s turnout increased by a tiny 68,319 votes (12 percent) over his 2016 performance here.
Democratic turnout increased most dramatically in D.C.-influenced Northern Virginia, where just 4 counties contain 25 percent of Virginia’s entire population and the core of the state’s liberal voters.
Loudoun County, for instance, saw a 37 percent increase in Democratic turnout (37,577 votes), with Biden defeating Trump by more 56,000 votes.
Per capita bias:
Breaking down CTCL’s grants per capita reveals a deep bias towards Biden:
Petersburg (Biden): $2.45
Charlotte County (Trump): $1.74
Halifax County (Trump): $1.62
Prince William County (Biden): $1.31
Alexandria (Biden):$1.26
Manassas (Biden): $1.26
Henrico County (Biden): $1.23
Emporia (Biden): $1.15
Charles City County (Biden): $1.09
Fairfax County (Biden): $1.08 And for kicks:
Arlington County (Biden): $1.08
Franklin (Biden): $0.96
Biden won 9 of the 11 counties most richly funded counties (>$1.00 per person) went to Biden, while Trump won 20 of the 25 least-funded (<$1.00 per person).
Other oddities:
Fairfax County’s follow-up report to CTCL notes it spent its grant on the following:
$967,294 for “temporary staffing support”
$59,850 for “vote-by-mail/absentee voting equipment or supplies”
$102,765 for “election administration equipment”
$54,802 for “voting materials in languages other than English”
$58,530 for “security for office and polling locations”
Our original report identified grants to 38 jurisdictions across Virginia. CTCL’s preliminary grants document from late 2020 notes the same number of grants (without identifying grant sums). Yet CTCL’s 2020 disclosures only reveal 36 grants. The 2 discrepancies come from Hanover and Carroll Counties, the former of which applied for a CTCL grant in October 2020 and a separate grant from the Center for Election Innovation and Research (CEIR) that same month. Since CEIR’s IRS disclosures for 2020 won’t be released until July 2021, we won’t know for certain if it received a grant from that group.
Wisconsin
Updated Jan. 18, 2022 (Our original report) | (New data set)*
For an in-depth report of CTCL’s activities in Wisconsin, see the Rodney Institute’s analysis in “The Wisconsin Purchase” (The American Conservative, Dec. 2021).
CTCL’s grants to Wisconsin primarily went to cities and townships, not counties, making it difficult to give useful per capita statistics. Most grants CTCL distributed here were the $5,000 minimum, which further skews statewide figures. In the interest of transparency and clarity, our analysis uses grants of $5,000+ to give a better picture of CTCL’s influence in Wisconsin.
Total Grants:
Our estimate: $7.6 million
Their disclosed data: $10.1 million*
* Includes $9.2 million listed in our data set plus approx. $940,000 in minimum grants ($5,000) paid out to 188 jurisdictions (not listed in data set but available in the Form 990)
Average Per Capita Grant (for grants over $5,000):
Our estimate: Inconclusive
Their disclosed data: $0.55 Trump; $3.75 Biden
Key Findings:
Partisan distribution bias:
CTCL distributed a total of 31 grants above the $5,000 minimum to Wisconsin cities and townships. Three of these grants went to counties, while 28 went directly to specific cities.
Out of those 28 grants just 8 of the recipient localities were won by Trump, while 20 were won by Biden.
Together, these 20 cities received $9 million or 90 percent of all CTCL funds in Wisconsin.
Meanwhile, cities that voted for Trump overwhelmingly received CTCL’s minimum grant ($5,000), and a few received even less.
Per capita bias
For grants over $5,000, 9 of CTCL’s 10 largest per capita grants went to cities which Biden won. The top ten cities were:
Racine: $21.83
Green Bay: $11.60
Kenosha: $8.63
Milwaukee: $5.91
Madison: $4.71
Janesville: $2.79
Cottage Grove: $1.37
Wausau: $1.25
Rice Lake (Trump): $1.11
West Allis: $1.03
Turnout
Across all CTCL-funded cities (receiving grants over $5,000), Biden received over 608,000 votes; Trump received just over 286,000.
Biden’s margin of victory across the state in 2020 was just 0.7 percent: 49.6 percent for Biden vs. 48.9 percent for Trump.
Yet Biden’s margin of victory in CTCL-funded cities was roughly 36 percent: 68 percent for Biden vs. 32 percent for Trump.
Michigan
Updated Jan. 18, 2022 | (Our original report) | (New data set)
CTCL’s grants to Michigan primarily went to cities and townships, not counties, making it difficult to give useful per capita statistics. Most grants CTCL distributed here were the $5,000 minimum, which further skews statewide figures. In the interest of transparency and clarity, our analysis uses grants of $5,000+ to give a better picture of CTCL’s influence in Michigan.
Total Grants:
Our estimate: $9.5 million
Their disclosed data: $16.8 million
Average Per Capita Grant (for grants over $5,000):
Our estimate: Inconclusive
Their disclosed data: $0.45 Trump; $1.83 Biden
Key Findings:
Partisan distribution bias:
CTCL distributed a total of 135 grants above the $5,000 minimum to Michigan cities and townships. Out of these grants just 45 of the recipient localities were won by Trump, while 90 were won by Biden.4
Together these 90 municipalities received $14.6 million or 86 percent of all CTCL funds in Michigan.
Meanwhile, Trump won municipalities overwhelmingly received CTCL’s minimum $5,000 grant, though some received even less.
Per capita bias
CTCL’s 39 largest per capita grants all went to cities which Biden won. The top ten were:
Benton Harbor: $13.27 (Benton Harbor voted 94 percent for Biden)
Detroit: $11.64 (Detroit also favored Biden over Trump by 94 percent to 5 percent)
Muskegon: $11.32
Saginaw: $9.11
Pontiac: $6.58
Southfield: $5.82
Ypsilanti: $4.86
Lansing: $4.34
East Lansing: $4.19
Flint: $3.84
Within the top 39 municipalities by average per capita funding, Biden received an average of 75 percent of all votes cast.
These 39 cities gave Biden approximately 1 million votes, a little under one-third of all votes he received across Michigan.
The biggest per capita grant to a Trump municipality went to Macomb Township ($0.86) where Trump won 62 percent of the vote.
Patterns Emerge Across States
CTCL consistently gave bigger grants and more money per capita to counties that voted for Biden.
Some outlets, like the normally right-leaning Washington Examiner, have pointed out that more Republican counties received CTCL grants than Democratic counties, an unhelpful data point since it obscures the overall pattern of CTCL grantmaking—and the partisan turnout it created. It’s no surprise CTCL funded more Republican than Democratic counties, given that Trump won about five times as many counties as Biden did.
In multiple states, per capita grants to Trump counties averaged around $0.60 per capita. Is that a coincidence, or did CTCL have per capita guidelines when making grants to Republican-heavy counties?
There seems to be a semi-discernible pattern to grants from CTCL and the Center for Election Innovation and Research (CEIR), a separate but allied organization which spent heavily in the 2020 election thanks to a $69.5 million grant from Zuckerberg.
What Else Is New?
Late 2021 brought the revelation that the roughly $400 million Zuckerberg and his wife, Priscilla Chan, had funneled to CTCL and an allied group—the Center for Election Innovation and Research (CEIR)—was moved through the couple’s donor-advised fund housed at the Silicon Valley Community Foundation.
We’ve reported extensively on that foundation’s financial and #MeToo woes. It was originally established to help local communities in the greater San Francisco Bay Area but has effectively become the private pass-through for a handful of left-wing billionaires, who largely fund political causes. Zuckerberg is likely the foundation’s biggest donor, dumping roughly $2 billion into it since 2010.
We also discovered CTCL’s second-biggest donor: the New Venture Fund, which moved nearly $25 million into CTCL. How that money was spent remains unknown. But the Arabella network’s funds originate with outside donors, so it’s possible that this donation also came from Zuckerberg, though why he would use two conduits to fund CTCL is unclear.
The New Venture Fund is part of a $1.7 billion “dark money” empire run by Arabella Advisors, a consulting firm for left-wing donors in Washington, D.C. CRC is the top reporter on all things Arabella; our reporting was the first to expose this massive network in 2019. Since then we’ve broken the story on how Arabella funneled huge sums aimed at defeating the confirmations of Justices Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court; created groups to push the radical Left’s D.C. statehood and courtpacking schemes; and ran a shadow campaign to topple the Republican Senate majority in the 2020 election.
For more on Zuck Bucks, see InfluenceWatch’s profile of the Center for Tech and Civic Life
Comentários