FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: July 15, 2022
Washington, D.C. – The Pennsylvania legislature recently passed Senate Bill 982, bi-partisan election integrity legislation helping ensure fair, transparent, and accountable elections voters can trust. The bill was signed by the governor on July 11th.
Importantly, Senate Bill 982 prohibits the use of non-public monies for the administration of elections, meaning local election officials can no longer accept private donations from ideological groups, corporations, big tech companies and possible foreign interlopers—commonly referred to as “Zuckerbucks” after Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg—directly or indirectly, for conducting elections or employing individuals on a temporary basis.
National Chairman of the Election Transparency Initiative and former Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli praised the legislation saying:
“It should be easy to vote and hard to cheat in our elections, but make no mistake, Pennsylvania Democrats and the governor have fought tooth and nail to defeat election reform in an effort to make it easy to cheat and hard to prove. After it was revealed that the governor corruptly schemed with Democrat operatives working to funnel ‘Zuckerbucks’ to Pennsylvania in 2020, he couldn’t veto this bi-partisan bill once Republicans called his bluff and fully funded the state’s elections.
“We are grateful to the legislature for advancing this important measure that is sorely needed to help restore voters’ trust in the democratic process and ensure that private and foreign money can’t be selectively funneled into local election offices. The corrupting influence of big tech oligarchs like Mark Zuckerberg manipulates the official voting apparatus and dilutes the voice and votes of ordinary Pennsylvanians.”
According to the State Senate Appropriations Committee, the law “requires election expenses to be funded through appropriations by federal, state or local revenues derived from taxes, fees and other sources of public revenue. In addition, the legislation provides that state and local governments may not solicit, apply for, enter into contract with or receive gifts, donations, grants or funding from a nongovernmental entity for election expenses.”
Reports indicate that emails from Wolf’s office and the Pennsylvania Department of State invited Democrat-leaning counties to apply for “Zuckerbucks” grants, “appearing to aid the selective process at a time when other counties were unaware. No email shows any official in either office providing similar information or assistance to any of the commonwealth’s Republican-leaning counties.”
During the 2020 election cycle, Zuckerberg gave hundreds of millions of dollars in grants to nonprofits, in order to funnel that money for partisan voter turnout that was designed to favor Democrats. At least $25 million was funneled to Pennsylvania to fund government employees turning out Democrat voters.
More than 90 percent of counties that reportedly received “Zuckerbucks” saw an increase in Democrat votes that offset Republican votes. Democrat counties received 92 percent of the total amount spent in Pennsylvania.
The Election Transparency Initiative, a partnership between American Principles Project (APP) and the national pro-life group Susan B. Anthony (SBA) Pro-Life America, was organized to combat federal H.R. 1 and H.R. 4 legislation and advocate for state-based election reforms that voters can trust.
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