Livingston County, Michigan, this week became the latest jurisdiction in the country and the first in its state to ban the private funding of the administration of elections.
The move came after good-government advocates became incensed that, in 2020, a Mark Zuckerberg-funded activist group, the Center for Tech and Civic Life (CTCL), flooded election offices in Democratic Party strongholds in Michigan with millions of dollars, in an apparent effort to drive up voter turnout for that party.
Critics say Zuckerberg, billionaire Facebook founder and Democrat activist, along with his wife Priscilla Chan, gave the money in an effort to influence the 2020 election.
According to the critics, the grants accomplished Zuckerberg’s goal.
In 2016, then-presidential candidate Donald Trump, a Republican, beat Democrat Hillary Clinton in Michigan by 10,704 votes. But in 2020, Democrat Joe Biden beat Trump in the state by 154,188 votes, according to official results as reported by Ballotpedia.
Critics claim the assistance provided by CTCL to Detroit, Benton Harbor, Muskegon, and other heavily Democratic jurisdictions in the state may have put Biden over the top.
On June 13, the Livingston County Board of Commissioners voted unanimously to ban the acceptance of unregulated monies for funding elections, a move that lawyer Erick Kaardal said would enhance election integrity.
Kaardal, a special counsel for the Thomas More Society, a nationwide public interest law firm that protects religious freedom and maintains an election integrity practice, said he provided the commissioners with an analysis of the resolution before they voted on it.
Livingston County is between Detroit and Lansing, the state capital.
The commission’s vote pushes Michigan closer toward a national movement to banish “dark money,” or political spending meant to influence voters, where the donor isn’t disclosed and the source of the money is unknown, Kaardal said.
“In the last 18 months, 20 states have enacted laws banning private money to administer public elections,” Kaardal said in a statement in which he identified Texas, Florida, Ohio, and Arizona as among those now with such laws in effect.
He said legislatures in another six states have passed such legislation, but governors vetoed it.
“This is a win for the voters of Livingston County and will hopefully lead the way for other local governments to optimize election integrity in their regions,” Kaardal said.
“When there is an absence of any insistence on election integrity from the top, it is incumbent upon counties and municipalities to protect the right of voters entrusted to them.
“Because Michigan’s executive branch has been unwilling to bar private money from entering the elections, the burden has fallen upon cities and counties to protect themselves from outside interference by illegal money sources.
“The people understand that the right to vote is a cornerstone of a free society and that the biased intervention of those who influence the outcome with their dirty dollars is not to be tolerated.”
The CTCL didn’t respond to a request for comment by press time.
