Wall Street Journal Editorial Builds on CRC Research on “Zuck Bucks”

Yesterday, the Wall Street Journal’s editorial used CRC’s research on Mark Zuckerberg’s $350 million donation to local election officials through the Center for Technology and Civic Life (CTCL).

The Editorial Board, “Zuckerbucks Shouldn’t Pay for Elections,” Wall Street Journal, January 3, 2022:

The 2020 pandemic election wasn’t stolen, but it sure was a superspreader of bad precedents. More than a year later, we’re still getting information about the huge private money that underwrote official government voting efforts in 49 states. Much is still unknown, but lawmakers already know enough to ban this practice.

A nonprofit called the Center for Technology and Civic Life, or CTCL, funded by Mark Zuckerberg, says it gave $350 million to nearly 2,500 election departments in the course of the 2020 campaign. . . .

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.

Read the rest of the editorial here (paywall).