GOP governors have banned “Zuckerbucks” – private funding for elections. Officials who work in elections agree it’s better when the government funds elections, but the bans on private funding ignore elections in the U.S. are underfunded. democracyday
Republican groups and politicians objected to Democratic strongholds getting the largest amounts of money, although every jurisdiction that applied received money. Grants ranged from $5,000 for small townships to the largest grant of $19 million for New York City.
The Zuckerberg money was vital for election officials during the pandemic, said Matthew Weil, an elections expert at the Bipartisan Policy Center. Without the funding, many more jurisdictions would have had delayed reporting of results, which would have further contributed to misinformation."It’s not sustainable to expect philanthropy to step in here," Weil said. "Government at all levels must step up to support the democracy Americans expect.
The fact that thousands of local offices run in-person voting sites and send out mail ballots may seem inefficient, but it’s a benefit for election security, because it makes it virtually impossible for someone to rig a national election. "Election offices run on a shoestring — so yes, additional funding in 2020 was needed for all sorts of changes that were being made to the way elections were conducted," Hale said. "Everything from more paper for ballots, more scanners to scan mailed ballots and signature verification tools."Citing the higher expenses of holding elections during a pandemic, theannounced Sept.
In Palm Beach County, Florida, a left-leaning county where Trump cast his ballot, the roughly $6.2 million went toward various expenses including personal protective equipment, cameras for the elections warehouse, vote-by-mail processing equipment, and TV ads giving voters information about in-person and mail voting.