Facebook Targeted Texas’ Largest Counties To Primarily Influence Democratic Turnout In Election, Report Alleges
By Bethany Blankley | The Center Square
Democratic strongholds in Texas received millions of dollars in funding from social media giant Facebook, according to an analysis of their funding efforts by the Amistad Project.
Mark Zuckerberg, the head of Facebook, and his wife donated $250 million to the Center for Tech and Civic Life “to promote safe and reliable voting in states and localities during the COVID-19 pandemic.” CTCL re-granted the funds to local election jurisdictions nationwide to “help ensure that they have the staffing, training, and equipment necessary” to ensure that every vote is counted.
Zuckerberg also gave $50 million to CEIR, a nonprofit organization created to assist state and local election officials to ensure “elections are secure.”
The CTCL also received funding from Google, which is being sued by the Department of Justice for alleged anti-trust violations, and several globalist organizations.
Nationwide, according to the Amistad project analysis, of the 17 cities and counties that have received the largest grants from CTCL, totaling more than $51 million combined, less than $300,000 was given to Republican-leaning counties.
A project of the Chicago-based Thomas More Society, the Amistad Project found that “local governments, with the support of Zuckerberg and CTCL, are usurping the role of state governments in deciding the funding priorities for election spending, and demonstrate that private funds cannot be used to gain an undue advantage in these cities and counties in presidential battleground states and selectively targeted U.S. Senate and House races.”
In Texas’ largest county, the Harris County Commissioners Court approved receiving a $9,663,446 grant from CTCL on Sept. 25. Its county clerk, Chris Hollins, who has been sued several times for alleged election fraud committed in the county, has been criticized for leading election efforts while he also serves as the Texas Democrat Party’s vice chair.
In the state’s second largest county, the Dallas County Commissioner’s Court voted to accept a $15 million grant from CTCL.
The Chicago-based organization CTCL is run by Obama Foundation Fellow Tiana Epps-Johnson, who along with CTCL’s two other co-founders worked at the New Organizing Institute, a training ground for Democrat organizers and digital campaigners. Dallas County’s controversial Elections Administrator Toni Pippins-Poole is a member of CTCL’s advisory committee.
Pippins-Poole and the Dallas County Elections Department announced it spent one-third of the grant money – $4.72 million – to “promote ballot by mail and early voting ahead of the November election by printing, providing postage and sending absentee voting information mailers to every household in Dallas County.”
Despite all of the money pouring into the state’s two largest counties to reportedly help election officials run operations more smoothly, voter fraud reports continue to pour in, according to the state’s watchdog group, Direct Action Texas. In Harris County, several lawsuits have been filed.
The Texas Attorney General’s Office is also investigating several cases of alleged voter fraud. In Dallas County, a monetary reward of $5,000 was issued by a former state senator, Don Huffines, to anyone who reports voter fraud in the county that leads to a conviction.
Amistad Project Director Phill Kline told the National Pulse that CTCL’s operations funded by Facebook is “like having private interests stuffing money into the pockets of the umpire before he calls the first ball or strike. If Mr. Zuckerberg wants to help the government, he should give the monies to state legislatures as lawmakers are charged by the United States Constitution, federal law, and state law with the management of elections and the allocation of resources.”
