After scoring significant victories in the legislature in the 2022 midterms, North Carolina Republicans are introducing legislation that would bar state and local election officials from accepting or using private money to conduct elections.
SB 89 stipulates that state and local election boards, as well as county boards of commissioners, are prohibited from accepting “private monetary donations, directly or indirectly, for conducting elections or employing individuals on a temporary basis.”
Concerns surrounding the use of private money to conduct elections became prominent following the 2020 election cycle, during which Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg gifted nonprofits such as the Center for Tech and Civic Life (CTCL) hundreds of millions of dollars. These “Zuckbucks” were then siphoned into local election offices in battleground states around the country to change how elections were administered, such as by expanding unsecure election protocols like mail-in voting and the use of ballot drop boxes.
To make matters worse, the grants were heavily skewed towards Democrat-majority counties, essentially making it a massive Democrat get-out-the-vote operation. In the lead-up to the 2020 contest, for example, CTCL gave an estimated $5.4 million to election offices throughout North Carolina. According to figures from the Capital Research Center, a majority of the county grants (64 percent) went to those won by Joe Biden.
While 24 states have passed laws banning or restricting the use of private money in elections, groups such as CTCL are once again attempting to interfere in the 2024 elections through a coalition known as the U.S.
