‘Make Voting Great Again’ Cites Bidenbucks and Zuckerbucks Initiatives

FIRST IN THE DAILY SIGNAL: The House Election Integrity Caucus has made progress in fighting foreign national voting in U.S. elections, foreign money (“Zuckerbucks”) to run elections, and the Biden-Harris administration’s attempt to hijack elections, according to a new report.

The new House report, titled “Make Voting Great Again” and first provided to The Daily Signal on Monday, details related legislation and research work done by the caucus. Rep. Claudia Tenney, R-N.Y., founder and co-chair of the caucus, is listed as an author.

“The Election Integrity Caucus has worked tirelessly to introduce legislation like the End Zuckerbucks Act, which bans partisan and private funding of our elections, and the Promoting Free and Fair Elections Act, which prohibits Biden federal agencies from engaging in partisan election operations at taxpayer expense,” Tenney told The Daily Signal in a written statement Monday. “As we approach the 2024 election, let’s Make Voting Great Again and restore faith and transparency in our electoral process.”

Rep. Mike Garcia, R-Calif., is the other co-chair of the Election Integrity Caucus, which has about 60 members, all Republicans.

In recent years, issues and concerns surrounding elections have become more apparent, Tenney said.

“Issues surrounding the integrity of our nation’s elections have come to the forefront, driven by growing concerns over issues like voter fraud, cybersecurity threats, and cumbersome administrative challenges,” Tenney said in his statement to The Daily Signal. “As a result, many Americans have lost confidence in the integrity of our elections, underscoring the urgent need for strong measures to protect the electoral process.”

The report says the House Election Integrity Caucus has three goals: to “educate and inform” other House members and the American public; “restore faith in the democratic process”; and “improve election administration.”

Tenney sponsored the End Zuckerbucks Act to discourage private interests from funding election administration. The term “Zuckerbucks” refers to more than $400 million in election administration grants donated by Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg and his wife for use in 2020.

The bulk of the couple’s $400 million donation was distributed by the left-leaning Center for Technology and Civic Life, which gave most of the money to left-leaning congressional districts in Ohio, Nevada, Minnesota, Georgia, Florida, Arizona and Pennsylvania, according to the House report.

Zuckerberg’s stated purpose was to help local election offices during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“However, less than 1% of those funds were spent on PPE (personal protective equipment) or other measures to implement safety protocols at polling places and were provided with little to no oversight over the spending. 92% of the funds went to left-leaning districts, where reports say they were used to fund advertising, vehicle purchases, and other activities unrelated to the pandemic,” the House bloc concludes.

In May, the House Ways and Means Committee voted 23-17 to approve the End Zuckerbucks Act, which would amend the tax code to prohibit tax-exempt organizations from directly or indirectly funding election administration. However, the bill has not been brought to a vote in the House and would face an uphill battle in the Democratic-controlled Senate.

Although Zuckerberg said he would not donate to election administration again, the Center for Technology and Civic Life established a separate initiative called the American Alliance for Election Excellence and has doled out millions of dollars to local election offices.

For its part, the Center for Technology and Civic Life previously said that 2020 grants went to 2,500 U.S. election offices in 49 states to “operate safe and secure elections.” The organization said the grants helped recruit and train poll workers for safe in-person voting and election officials who “proactively invited more people to vote by mail” and who “adjusted policies, procedures, and resources to manage a surge in mail-in ballots.”

Tenney was a co-sponsor of the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility Act, or SAVE Act, which passed the full House of Representatives last month. If approved by the Senate and signed into law by the president, the act would amend the National Voter Registration Act of 1993, or “motor voter law,” to require states to obtain documentary proof of a person’s U.S. citizenship before he or she can register to vote in a federal election.

The House panel’s new report also notes that Tenney co-sponsored a bill called the Promoting Free and Fair Elections Act, which would defund President Joe Biden’s Executive Order 14019, which in 2021 directed federal agencies to engage in maximizing voter registration and turnout. Revisiting the “Zuckerbucks” moniker, critics of the executive order have called it “Bidenbucks” for spending on elections.

The House Administration Committee approved the bill, but it has not yet come to a vote in the full House.

“The legislation ‘prohibits federal agencies from engaging in partisan election operations at taxpayer expense, thereby ensuring that election administration remains nonpartisan and focused on its core mission,’” the House report says.

Tenney also co-sponsored a bill that would, among other things, reduce Election Assistance Commission payments to jurisdictions that allow noncitizens to vote and establish requirements and prohibitions for election procedures and financing. Although the House Administration Committee pushed this American Confidence in Elections Act, or ACE Act, it has not yet reached the House floor.

The report cites the caucus’s research and findings on the 2022 midterm elections. Some states enacted election reforms that expanded voter ID to mail-in voting and restricted private funding of public election offices. Other states, the report notes, made election changes permanent during the pandemic.

Despite attacks on Georgia’s recent election reforms, the report says, the state saw “record early turnout and increased voter confidence.”

The report praises Florida’s “resilience” for conducting elections with strong turnout and timely reporting even in the midst of two hurricanes, Ian and Nicole.

In the report, however, Tenney criticizes his own state of New York, referencing research into the country’s midterm elections that was first published in early 2023.

The report notes: “New York’s challenges: Lax verification of absentee ballot applications in New York highlighted the need for stronger safeguards to prevent third-party interference and ensure voter consent.”