The states have declared war on “Zuck bucks.” As of writing, at least 22 states and three counties have banned or restricted private funding for elections. Despite some left-wing intransigence, across the country Democrats and Republicans alike agree that funding for elections must be transparent and above partisan influence.
But big philanthropy disagrees.
In April, I documented the next stage in the Center for Tech and Civic Life's (CTCL) strategy to corrupt elections: the launch of the U.S. Alliance for Election Excellence, an $80 million campaign to centralize control over elections in Washington, D.C., using “redesigned” ballots, a flood of taxpayer funds, and a permanent expansion of the vote-by-mail bureaucracy.
Funding for the alliance comes from a little-known group formed in 2018, the Audacious Project, which operates as part of the foundation responsible for TED Talks.
In 2021 alone, the project funneled $920 million to a handful of groups engaged in the left’s current favorite topics: electric vehicles to stop global warming via ClimateWorks Foundation, welfare-state expansion via Code for America, and “modernizing” U.S. elections via CTCL.