East Sierra News

In Santa Cruz, where voting officials received funding from a Mark Zuckerberg-related organization, Democrat turnout increased 19.9% from 2016 to 2020, while Republican turnout increased by only 20.1%.

In 2020, Joe Biden secured 79% of 142,887 votes, compared to the 78% votes earned by Hillary Clinton in 2016. Grants to voting officials, funded almost entirely by Facebook creator Mark Zuckerberg, weren’t offered in 2016.

In California, Democrat turnout rose 25.8% in areas which received the funding, while increasing 29.7% in areas which did not.

The Republican Party earned 36.9% more votes in California districts assisted by the CTCL, compared to 28.8% in jurisdictions without similar funding.

Support for Trump increased in Santa Cruz 0% in 2020.

There were 20,875 more votes cast in Santa Cruz in the 2020 election than in 2016.

Santa Cruz was one of 30 California areas where voting officials received money from the progressive Centre for Tech and Civic Life (CTCL). A $350 million donation from Facebook founder Zuckerberg and his wife provided funding for the grants.

Grants from the organization, ranging from $5,000 to $19 million, were given to voting officials in exchange for specific conditions being followed. This included strategically targeting voters, creating ballots and developing what are known as “cure letters” to correct ballots at risk of being thrown out for discrepancies in signatures.

The influx of private money on such a large scale was criticized throughout the contentious 2020 election.

The CTCL was sued by Louisiana’s Attorney General in October 2021 “to prevent the injection of unregulated private money...and protect the integrity of elections in the State.” The lawsuit wasn’t allowed to proceed by a State judge.

Criticism of the CTCL also stemmed from favoring “predominantly Democratic counties” and even gave them a headstart to apply for funding, according to emails obtained through Right-to-Know requests.

“Mark Zuckerberg is providing nearly as much money to this year’s election administration as the federal government,” Phil Kline with the Amistad Project said in a late October 2020 press release.

The US government, in the run-up to the 2020 election, was criticized for underfunding the electoral process at a critical time.

Area	Received CTCL Funding?	% Change in Republican Support	% Change in Democratic Support
Butte	Yes	1.3	4.6
Contra Costa	Yes	0.9	1.6
Del Norte	Yes	0.4	2.9
Glenn	Yes	0.4	2.5
Kern	Yes	0	2.7
Lake	Yes	0.4	3
Lassen	Yes	1.6	1.8
Los Angeles	Yes	4	2.2
Madera	Yes	0.4	3
Mendocino	Yes	0.6	3.1
Merced	Yes	2.1	0.3
Modoc	Yes	0.6	3
Mono	Yes	3.6	6
Monterey	Yes	1.4	1
Orange	Yes	1.3	1.5
Placer	Yes	1	4.5
Sacramento	Yes	1.4	1.7
San Benito	Yes	0	2.6
San Bernardino	Yes	1.2	1
San Francisco	Yes	3.3	1.7
San Joaquin	Yes	1.7	1
San Luis Obispo	Yes	0.6	4.1
San Mateo	Yes	1.4	0.7
Santa Clara	Yes	4.3	1.6
Santa Cruz	Yes	0.5	1.9
Shasta	Yes	0.8	3.8
Solano	Yes	1.7	1
Sonoma	Yes	0	2.7
Sutter	Yes	2.1	1.1
Yolo	Yes	2.1	0.9
Alameda County	No	2.5	1.5
Alpine County	No	4.6	6.5
Amador County	No	0.6	2
Calaveras County	No	0.9	1.8
Colusa County	No	2.7	0.2
El Dorado County	No	0.3	4.9
Fresno County	No	0.3	1.9
Humboldt County	No	1.9	4.3
Imperial County	No	9.7	8.4
Inyo County	No	5.6	8.5
Kings County	No	0.5	1.7
Marin County	No	0.2	2.3
Mariposa County	No	2.2	3.6
Napa County	No	0.4	3.6
Nevada County	No	3.3	6.3
Plumas County	No	0	3.9
Riverside County	No	0.2	2.3
San Diego County	No	0.1	2.8
Santa Barbara County	No	0.1	2.4
Sierra County	No	0.5	3.6
Siskiyou County	No	0.6	4.4
Stanislaus County	No	1.7	0.6
Tehama County	No	0.6	2
Trinity County	No	1.5	4.2
Tulare County	No	0.1	1.8
Tuolumne County	No	0.2	3
Ventura County	No	0.1	2.9
Yuba County	No	0.5	2.4