New Pennsylvania election reform law bans 'Zuckbucks' and replaces them with state grants to counties
There's a catch - those counties must announce mail-in and absentee ballot totals by 12:01 a.m. on the day after Election Day
During the 2020 election, Mark Zuckerberg poured $400 million into the Center for Technology and Civic Life (CTCL). This money was spent mostly in Democratic-leaning areas in swing states to try to encourage a higher turnout for Democrats, with little or no corresponding increase in turnout for Republicans. As with many questionable and possibly illegal actions by the Democrats in 2020, they claimed that the money was spent to fight COVID-19 but actually used it for political purposes. These CTCL funds were nicknamed 'Zuckbucks'. Other sources provided similar funding, but Zuckerberg provided more money than any other private individual.
In Pennsylvania, $25 million in Zuckbucks were spent. The average per capita grant in counties that Trump won was $0.60. The average per capita grant in counties that Biden won was $2.85. The CTCL gave $20.8 million to 10 counties won by Biden, and $1.73 million to 12 counties won by Trump. This was a ratio of 12:1 in favor of Biden. The turnout in all 22 counties increased by 15% for Trump over 2016, and by 20% for Biden over the 2016 Democratic candidate.
Biden was officially credited with winning Pennsylvania with 50.01% of the vote. That 5% difference in the increase in turnout, encouraged by the skewed expenditure of Zuckbucks, probably swung the state to Biden.
https://capitalresearch.org/article/shining-a-light-on-zuck-bucks-in-key-states/
On July 11, 2022, Pennsylvania Senate Bill 982 (SB 982) was signed into law. The law states that:
state and local governments, including their public officers, public officials, employees and agents, acting in their official capacity, may not solicit, apply for, enter into a contract for or receive or expend gifts, donations, grants or funding from any individual, business, organization, trust, foundation, or any nongovernmental entity for the registration of voters or the preparation, administration or conducting of an election in this Commonwealth.
SB 982 replaces the Zuckbucks with grants of money from the state to the counties based on the ratio of registered voters in that county to the total number of them in Pennsylvania. That is a much more fair method than the skewed ratio of 12:1 in the distribution of all CTCL funds in 2020.
However, there is a catch. Counties that accept the money must count the absentee and mail-in votes on Election Day and announce the totals by one minute after midnight on the day after the election. This will make it far more difficult to add piles of questionable paper ballots to the boxes in the wee hours of the morning, or to extend the counting of such ballots until 5:00 p.m. on the Friday after Election Day:
(j) grant agreement. -- the grant agreement between the department and the county under this section shall include the following requirements for counties:
(1) the county shall begin pre-canvassing at 7 a.m. on Election Day and shall continue without interruption until each mail-in ballot and absentee ballot received by 7 a.m. on Election Day is pre-canvassed.
(2) the county shall begin canvassing mail-in ballots and absentee ballots at 8 p.m. on Election Day and shall continue without interruption until each ballot has been canvassed.
(3) no later than 12:01 a.m. on the day following the election, the county board of elections shall announce and post on its publicly accessible internet website an unofficial number of absentee ballots and mail-in ballots received for the election.
This is a big step in the right direction. I would prefer to move the deadline for accepting mail-in and absentee ballots to 5:00 p.m. on the Monday before Election Day, and the deadline for announcing the total to 7:00 a.m. on Tuesday, in order to make fraud even harder. This is still a positive change.
I would make it mandatory for all counties to do that, rather than tie it to accepting the grants. Only 22 of 67 counties took the Zuckbucks, so corrupt local officials could refuse the state grant money and string out the counting of questionable ballots until all the other counties have reported their totals. The crooks could then 'backfill' the paper ballots with just enough fakery to give their candidate a bare majority of exactly 50.01% of the vote. That is the sort of thing that Philadelphia lawyers love to do. Josh Shapiro, the state Attorney General who won re-election in 2020 and is the current Democratic candidate for Governor, is a lawyer from Philadelphia.
This is still a very good law, and it is a big step forward in the 'defortification' of the corrupt and lawless election system that was used in Pennsylvania in 2020.
https://www.legis.state.pa.us/CFDOCS/Legis/PN/Public/btCheck.cfm?txtType=PDF&sessYr=2021&sessInd=0&billBody=S&billTyp=B&billNbr=0982&pn=1856
As of July 2022, 24 states have banned or restricted the use of privately sourced money to finance elctions. I recommend that other states should also mandate early reporting of the vote totals for mail-in and absentee ballots, in order to make the window of opportunity for fraud as small and narrow as possible.
https://capitalresearch.org/article/states-banning-zuck-bucks/
https://thefederalist.com/2022/07/14/pennsylvania-outlaws-zuckbucks-ahead-of-midterm-elections/