A group directly linked to Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg donated nearly $5.6 million to the Georgia Secretary of State’s Office last year.
Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger (pictured above, left) spent that money on the 2020 presidential election.
That Zuckerberg-linked group, the Washington, D.C.-based Center for Election Innovation and Research (CEIR), donated the money. With it, Raffensperger and his staff carried out a variety of tasks, according to the CEIR website.
The Georgia Star News contacted Raffensperger’s communications staff Monday for comment. Raffensperger Spokesman Walter Jones, in his emailed response, took a dig at this publication.
“Any grant or funding source, as allowed by Georgia law, has enabled this and local elections offices to combat disinformation similar to recent articles published by this outlet that undermine the confidence of Georgia voters,” Jones said referring to the events of last year.
The Georgia Star News did not debut until November 2020, and only after Election Day.
As Breitbart News reported, Zuckerberg and his wife Priscilla Chan donated $419 million to two non-profit groups that provided controversial private funding to state, county, and municipal governments for election administration in the 2020 presidential election. $350 million of Zuckerberg’s money went to the Center for Technology and Civic Life, which spent at least $24 million in key Georgia counties. $69 million went to the Center for Election Innovation and Research, which privately funded state level operations through Secretary of State offices in 23 states, including $13 million in Pennsylvania, $11 million in Michigan, $5.6 million in Georgia, and $4 million in Arizona – four key battleground states that U.S. President Joe Biden narrowly won.
Jones did not specifically describe how Raffensperger spent the money — but the CEIR website did.
“Georgia used CEIR grant funds in both the November general election and January runoff election to encourage voters to apply for a ballot online,” the CEIR website said.
“This approach sped up the process for both voters and election officials while also making it easier to track application status. Georgia also used the funds to counteract disinformation, issuing public service announcements warning voters of disinformation and encouraging them to report fraud to the Secretary of State hotline.”
In a follow-up comment, Jones added, “Having the Secretary of State’s office accept this funding and distribute the benefits fairly around the state — rather than having donations go to the donor’s preferred county elections boards — was endorsed by the Republican legislature as part of SB 202.”
According to the CEIR website, group members initiated a Voter Education Grant Program “to provide nonpartisan, accurate, and official voting information to the public.” The website said the COVID-19 pandemic increased demand for this service.
“Due to the generous support of Priscilla Chan and Mark Zuckerberg, CEIR awarded every state the entire amount each requested,” the CEIR website said.
“In total, we provided states nearly $65 million, which they used to bolster their voter education efforts in a variety of ways.”
Raffensperger announced the partnership with CEIR in a press release. The press release is undated. Members of Raffensperger’s staff presumably published it last year. In that press release, Raffensperger praised the CEIR staff as “the greatest minds that the country has to offer” and, because of that, he said Georgia could have a secure and reliable paper-ballot system.
CEIR Executive Director David Becker (pictured above, right) has a bachelor’s degree and a law degree from the University of Berkeley in California. Becker also serves as CBS News’ election law expert, according to his LinkedIn page.
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Chris Butler is an investigative journalist at The Tennessee Star. Follow Chris on Facebook. Email tips to [email protected].
Photo “David Becker” by David Becker.
I can’t wait to see this RAT go to prison!
Follow the money trail and check his bank accounts and recent property purchases. His laundry stinks to high heaven and needs to come clean in the wash.
Please take note that Raffensberger SAID NOTHING about the narrative regarding Trump’s infamous phone call to him being inaccurate. The file was found in the trash on somebody’s computer and it cleared Trump of what these clowns INCLUDING Raffensberger had said previously. Certainly a dirty politician.
He covered the fraud. He allowed the audit to be of Cobb County, knowing all along it was Fulton County where the lion’s share of the fraud took place. Furthermore, the audit was just a count audit, counting the same fraudulent votes again. He will never allow a true forensic audit of Fulton, DeKalb, Gwinnett and Cobb counties. He knows Georgia was stolen.
Follow the money, it influenced the election operations. If we had an honest fbi none of this would have happened.
(1) I believe you folks need a spell-checker. The Rathskeller acronym is not “SOS” but “POS”.
(2) Is Zuck really married to a Chinese woman as is Mitch McConnell? Hey, if so, no sweat…just an interesting data point. At some point we will all drown in these “data points”.
Nice, Although I prefer anything with RAT-enspooger.
Zuckerturds wife’s parents are from China, she was born in MA, went to Harvard.
GA is run by CORRUPT Democrats and REPUBLICANS….Repukes are the WORST, the AG should have already arrested Zuckerturd but is a Trump hater so that won’t happen, however with enough pressure he will end up arresting RAT-enSPOOGER.
Get rid of this guy. DEMOCRATS are always liars. HE AND ABRAMS used this money to put drop boxes all over democrat districts, and only a few in other districts. THE MONEY WAS USED FOR DEMOCRAT RELATED USES. SOME Secretary of State he is. He also put in the voting systems, again, recommended by democrats. GET RID OF HIM, and check all of the monies, plus the dominion machines. HE IS DEFINITELY HIDING ALOT.
The more that comes out on this payoff by the dark cabal that took place during the Presidential election, the worse it sounds. When did states go up for sale with no regard to We the People!!
How is this corruption legal. RINOs are more evil than the Left. We are done with their blatant disregard for the people they are supposed to serve. They need to go!!
I beg to differ. RINO’s learned from the left and are still catching up.