Mark Zuckerberg and wife Priscilla Chan (file photo)
The New York Times recently reported that Democratic groups launched a nonprofit to “protect” election officials who were said to be under “increasing threats in recent years” and “are resigning at an alarming rate.” It reportedly plans to invest $10 million to ”
You might think that local law enforcement, or even the FBI, are investigating these threats and taking steps to protect election officials.
If that’s not happening, there may be another reason why “blackmail” is cited in the article about the nonprofit that raised $10 million for next year’s election. .
The new group is called Value the Vote and is a 501(c)(4) non-profit organization under the IRS Code. Value the Vote was founded by the Democratic Association of Secretary of State. This organization exists to help elect Democrats to the positions responsible for overseeing and administering state and local elections. DASS spent $30 million in last year’s midterm elections.
The New York Times reports that Value the Vote’s plan will “first focus on five battleground states,” namely “Georgia, Arizona, North Carolina, Nevada and Wisconsin.” It says.
What is this group going to do in those states considered important to the outcome of the upcoming presidential election? The Times reported that “the group will seek to combat election misinformation, including through paid digital advertising,” that it will “launch a voter registration program,” and that it “has supported Democrats to date.” It focuses on black and Latinx communities that tended to numbers. ”
The technical name for this is “campaign spend”.
However, campaign spending is heavily regulated by the Federal Election Commission and various state agencies. Campaign committees and political parties must report all donations with the donor’s name, address, occupation and employer, and there are strict limits on how much individual donors can contribute.
Not for profit organizations are different. They may accept donations without the restrictions or disclosures required by political campaign committees, but the extent of their involvement in campaigns is limited by federal law. According to the Internal Revenue Service, 501(c)(4) “does not participate in political campaigns on behalf of or against a candidate for public office, unless such intervention constitutes the primary activity of the organization.” We can.”
But what is Value the Vote’s “primary activity” if it’s not going to major battleground states and interfering in elections ahead of the 2024 election? They will pay for voter registration and digital advertising to combat what they define as “misinformation.”
Even if the IRS chooses to leave Value the Vote alone and never investigate how the funds are raised or used, the group could face legal problems in the states. Twenty-five of them have passed laws prohibiting or restricting the use of private funds in public elections.
This list includes two of the five “battle states” on Value the Vote’s to-do list: Georgia and Arizona. North Carolina, the third state on the list, has introduced a bill in Congress to ban election officials from accepting outside funds.
The bill’s landslide stems from one of the bizarre events before the 2020 elections and the government’s decision that the virus spreads at polling stations but not at protest marches. An unprecedented injection of hundreds of millions of dollars from nonprofits into election administration across the country.
Under the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, Internal Revenue Code Section 501(c)(3), “directly or indirectly participate in or interfere in any political campaign on behalf of (or against) any candidate. The “electoral office,” which is absolutely forbidden to do so, has pumped about $350 million in “election grants” into the nonprofit Center for Technology and Civil Affairs.
Chicago-based CTCL works together in a new organization lab described by Influence Watch as a “major training center for center-left digital activists” and a “Democrat” by a Washington Post reporter. Founded in 2012 by three people. It’s the Hogwarts of the digital witchcraft party. According to Influence Watch, several CTCL board members have “strong ties to Democratic political activism.”
In December 2020, NPR ran an article headlined “How Private Money From Facebook CEO Saved The 2020 Election.” The paper quoted Chester County, Pennsylvania, elections official Bill Turner as saying that funding for the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative has been cut because Congress has not provided enough funding for things like dropboxes and new processing equipment. said it was essential to prevent an “election meltdown.” mail ballot. CTCL donated $2.5 million to Chester County from funds provided by the Mark Zuckerberg Foundation. That was more than the county’s entire 2020 voting services budget. NPR points out that Chester County is “one of several large suburban counties bordering Philadelphia and once home to the Republican Party, but has turned in favor of the Democratic Party in recent years.” While Hillary Clinton performed well in the country in 2016, Joe Biden almost doubled in 2020.
Hans von Spakowski, a former Federal Election Commissioner, said Zuckerberg’s large sum of money “turned the government’s official election office into a party’s vote-enforcement campaign and put political operatives in the election office.” “A carefully orchestrated attempt to maintain order by means of To influence and manipulate election results. ”
Many state legislators agree with that assessment, which is why 25 states now have laws banning or limiting the use of funds from private entities in election administration.
So back to the intimidation of election officials. The Times reported that campaign finance experts suspect there is an untested “grey zone” in the law that allows for “collateralized donations.” Blackmail, therefore, could be a loophole for nonprofits to fund Democratic campaigns.
It looks like the 2024 election could be a battle between those who think election security is about having voters monitor the people and those who think black money is democracy’s greatest protection. is.
Write Susan@SusanShelley.com and follow her on Twitter @Susan_Shelley
