USA: NGO resumes subsidies for electoral offices

A nonprofit group that became the subject of controversy for doling out hundreds of millions of dollars in election grants during the 2020 U.S. presidential campaign is freeing up a new round of money for local election offices, even in states where Republican lawmakers tried to ban the practice.

The Chicago-based Center for Tech and Civic Life (CTCL) has provided only general details about how much money each office will receive or what it will fund.

He has reported that 10 county and municipal election offices will be part of the first group to receive grants under the Alliance for America’s Electoral Excellence, which has $80 million to distribute over the next five years, with few restrictions. .

During the last presidential campaign, conservatives lashed out at the center after it awarded local electoral offices across the country more than $350 million, almost all of it donated by Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg.

Opponents referred to the aid as “Zuckerbucks” and claimed it was an attempt by the billionaire to tilt the vote in favor of the Democrats, although there was no evidence to prove it.

Much of the earlier funding went to urban election offices that have traditionally supported Democrats, but the CTCL said it granted funding to all offices that applied, nearly 2,500 in all.

Earlier, the CTCL had said that the current round of grants would not include money from Zuckerberg.

The center did not initially disclose the amounts each jurisdiction could receive, but released a series of figures two weeks after the initial announcement in response to questions from The Associated Press.

Grant amounts will vary based on the size of each jurisdiction, from $50,000 for those with less than 5,000 registered voters to $3 million for those with more than a million voters.

The first offices will receive grants for a two-year period until the 2024 presidential election, explained Tiana Epps-Johnson, executive director of the CTCL.

The money is granted with virtually no restrictions as to its use. Election officials said they hope to use the grants for everything from improving websites to hiring poll workers to building bigger, more secure offices.