Georgia Misunderstands Dark Money But Adopts a Good Idea Anyway
Stacy Abrams
In Georgia, Republicans have been fighting against what it expansively calls “dark money” ever since Stacy Abrams turned Stone Mountain blue and not even Herschel Walker could turn it back red. In this case, though, the donor’s identity is not hidden or disguised so the money is hardly dark. A group called Center for Tech and Civic Life drew the ire of Leo Leonard and his conservative nonprofits after it began making grants to Georgia election offices. Georgia, like at least 24 other states passed a law prohibiting local election officials from accepting private donations. Here is a Federalist Society write-up:
SB 222 was introduced in February after DeKalb County, a Democrat stronghold, announced it had been selected to join the U.S. Alliance for Election Excellence after the county’s commissioners accepted a $2 million grant from the Center for Tech and Civic Life (CTCL). As The Federalist reported, the Alliance is an $80 million, five-year initiative launched last year by left-wing nonprofits to “systematically influence every aspect of election administration” and advance Democrat-backed voting policies in local election offices.
While Georgia Republicans passed a law (SB 202) in 2021 banning the private funding of local election offices, DeKalb officials used a loophole in the statute to justify accepting the grant from the Alliance. Instead of having their election office accept the funds, DeKalb officials had the county’s finance department apply for the grant. As Democrat and DeKalb Board of Registration and Elections Chair Dele Lowman Smith admitted, this was done “since election offices are not allowed to receive grants directly.”
. . .
“Even though the intent of the original law was clear, dark money progressive groups were taking advantage of loopholes to continue funneling private money into elections administration. This new law shuts the door to that practice once and for all,” Blackwell said. “Allowing private money to fund elections administration opens the door for partisan influence in elections, which is unfair to voters, who all deserve to be treated equally.”
Here is how Leonard Leo’s group, Honest Election Project, describes CTCL’s efforts:
In April 2022, the left-wing Center for Tech and Civic Life and a coalition of likeminded nonprofits and companies formed a new $80 million initiative called the U.S. Alliance for Election Excellence. The Alliance targets local election offices, offering participants an extensive portfolio of grants, trainings, resources, and consulting services. In November of 2022, it announced its first ten member offices—dubbed “Centers for Election Excellence”—that included two counties in North Carolina, Brunswick and Forsyth. The Alliance claims to be nonpartisan and intended only to “bring together” elections officials “around a set of common values and standards.” However, documents revealed by the Honest Elections Project (HEP)—and reviewed by the John Locke Foundation— show that the Alliance is actually designed to systematically influence every aspect of election administration in target offices and push progressive voting policies. In fact, the left-wing organization Democracy North Carolina praised Brunswick and Forsyth for joining, and linked it to their push for “progressive changes to election laws and procedures.”
The HEP report, by the way, is full of sound and fury signifying nothing. Here is how CTCL describes itself:
CTCL is a team of civic technologists, trainers, researchers, election administration and data experts working to foster a more informed and engaged democracy, and helping to modernize U.S. elections. We connect election officials with tools and trainings so they can best serve their communities. We provide information the public needs to develop lifelong civic habits. We connect election officials with tools and trainings so they can best serve their communities. We provide information the public needs to develop lifelong civic habits.
To call monies donated by CTCL “dark” is silly. And though what CTCL does is very laudable, I am not comfortable with local election officials being funded by private money from nonprofits, however clean and nonpartisan the money may be. I guess I’d rather not election officials getting hooked on private money and the implicit or explicit strings that usually come with money. HEP’s report, by the way, notes that most CTCL donations have gone to election offices in “Democratic strongholds.” Maybe that’s evidence of bias, or maybe its just evidence of republican state legislators choking off funds from those offices in the effort to suppress the vote. In any event, the report also notes that 24 states have banned local election offices from accepting private money. Seems sensible, but just keep that same energy when Leonard Leo shows up with bags of election improvement donations.
darryll jones