Minnesota GOP decides to block Zuckerberg’s election money
ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) — A Minnesota Senate Elections Committee began reviewing a bill Tuesday aimed at preventing local governments from using outside money for campaign spending.
The legislation mirrors the efforts of Republican legislatures across the country after a foundation funded by Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, the Center for Tech and Civic Life, awarded $400 million in donations to help local governments facilitate the 2020 election amid the coronavirus pandemic.
Minnesota’s proposal, written by Republican Sen. Mark Koran of North Branch, would ban counties, municipalities and school districts from using funds from nonprofits and for-profits to run elections. Since the 2020 election, 14 states have passed similar legislation blocking grants, which Republicans nationwide say were used to influence the election outcome. There are suspicions on the right that Zuckerberg’s money benefited Democrats in 2020.
“What this bill does is really common sense,” Koran told lawmakers on the committee. “This ensures that no outside money is used, which is imperative to keeping our elections fair and transparent and as accessible as possible.”
Coran did not elaborate on who might have been influential in Minnesota or how the grants influenced the state’s election results. No one testified against the bill before it was put on the table for possible further consideration, and Democrats on the panel asked few questions.
The Center for Tech and Civic Life, largely funded by Zuckerberg and his wife, Priscilla Chan, sent hundreds of millions of dollars in grants – dubbed “Zuckerbucks” by opponents – to election offices across the country ahead of the 2020 election to pay for the changes. to mitigate the spread of COVID-19 during the voting process.
The funds were used to provide protective equipment at polling stations, equipment to process mail-in ballots and to facilitate drive-thru voting, among other things.
In neighboring Wisconsin, the state’s bipartisan Elections Commission in December dismissed a claim that the grants were illegal.
Minnesota’s bill is unlikely to see any movement in the Democratic-controlled House, and the legislature is not obligated to pass election legislation this session. But Republicans are likely to campaign on the issue ahead of November’s midterm elections, along with other issues they’ve called “election integrity,” even though there has been no evidence of widespread fraud in recent Minnesota elections.
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Mohamed Ibrahim is a member of the Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places reporters in local newsrooms to report on underreported issues.