For at least two Florida counties, the new voting law means losing millions in private grant money bankrolled mostly by Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, and closing the spigot for more private dollars to fund election administration.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, a Republican, signed the bill Thursday that includes provisions such as adding voter ID requirements to absentee voting and limiting ballot harvesting. The law also outright bans private money from being used to pay for local elections.
“No agency or state or local official responsible for conducting elections, including, but not limited to, a supervisor of elections, may solicit, accept, use, or dispose of any donation in the form of money, grants, property, or personal services from an individual or a nongovernmental entity for the purpose of funding election-related expenses or voter education, voter outreach, or registration programs,” the legislation read.
The Zuckerberg-financed Center for Tech and Civic Life (CTCL) gave almost $400 million to election jurisdictions across the United States, asserting it was to assist election offices amid the COVID-19 pandemic. However, Republicans countered the money disproportionately went to turn out the vote in heavily blue areas of the country. The CTCL money went to 49 states across 2,500 jurisdictions for election administration to pay for additional polling places, ballot drop boxes, “voter education” and other matters. – READ MORE
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