FIRST ON THE DAILY SIGNAL—The House Election Intergrity Caucus advanced the fight against foreign nationals voting in U.S. elections, outside money (“Zuckerbucks”) to run elections, and the Biden-Harris administration’s attempt to take over elections, a new report says.
The new House report, titled “Make Voting Great Again” and first provided Monday to The Daily Signal, details related legislation and investigative work by the caucus. Rep. Claudia Tenney, R-N.Y., founder and co-chair of the caucus, is credited as the author.
“The Election Integrity Caucus has been working tirelessly to introduce legislation like the End Zuckerbucks Act, which prohibits partisan, private funding of our elections, and the Promoting Free and Fair Elections Act, which bans Biden’s federal agencies from engaging in partisan voter operations at taxpayer expense,” Tenney told The Daily Signal in a written statement Monday. “As we head into 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 Republican.
In recent years, election-related problems and concerns became more obvious, Tenney said.
“Problems surrounding the integrity of our country’s elections have rightfully come to the forefront, driven by growing concerns over issues such as voter fraud, cybersecurity threats, and burdensome administrative challenges,” Tenney said in her statement to The Daily Signal. “As a result, many Americans have lost confidence in the integrity of our elections, underscoring the urgent need for robust measures to protect the electoral process.”
The report says the House Election Integrity Caucus has three aims—to “educate and inform” other House members and the American public; to “restore faith in the democratic process;” and to “improve election administration.”
Tenney sponsored the End Zuckerbucks Act to discourage private interests from bankrolling election administration. The term “Zuckerbucks” derives more than $400 million in grants for election administration 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 Tech and Civic Life, which gave most of the money to left-leaning voting districts in Ohio, Nevada, Minnesota, Georgia, Florida, Arizona, and Pennsylvania, according to the House report.
Zuckerberg’s stated purpose was to assist local election offices during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Yet less than 1% of those funds were spent on PPE [personal protective equipment] or other measures to implement safety protocols at voting sites and were provided with little to no oversight on 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 caucus 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 ban tax-exempt organizations from directly or indirectly funding the administration of elections. The bill hasn’t gotten a vote on the House floor, however, and would face an uphill battle in the Democrat-run Senate.
Although Zuckerberg said he wouldn’t donate again to election administration, the Center for Tech and Civic Life established a separate initiative called the U.S. Alliance for Election Excellence and it has doled out millions of dollars to local election offices.
For its part, the Center for Tech and Civic Life previously said the 2020 grants went to 2,500 U.S. election offices in 49 states to “operationalize 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 an increase in mail ballots.”
Tenney was a cosponsor of legislation called the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility Act, or SAVE Act, which passed the full House last month. If passed by the Senate and signed into law by the president, the bill would amend the 1993 National Voter Registration Act, or “motor voter law,” to require that states obtain documentary proof of U.S. citizenship from someone before he or she may register to vote in a federal election.
The House panel’s new report also notes that Tenney cosponsored 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 be involved in maximizing voter registration and turnout. Picking up on the “Zuckerbucks” nickname, critics of the executive order order have called it “Bidenbucks” to be spent on elections.
The House Administration Committee advanced the bill, but it hasn’t come to a House floor vote.
“The legislation ‘prohibits federal agencies from engaging in partisan voter operations at taxpayer expense, thereby ensuring that election administration remains nonpartisan and focused on its core mission,” the House report says.
Tenney also cosponsored a bill that, among other things, would reduce Election Assistance Commission payments to jurisdictions that allow noncitizens to vote and set requirements and prohibitions for election procedures and funding. Although the House Administration Committee advanced this American Confidence in Elections Act, or ACE Act, it has yet to go to the House floor.
The report cites the caucus’ investigation and findings regarding 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 during the pandemic permanent.
Despite the attacks on Georgia’s recent election reforms, the report argues, the state saw “historic early turnout and increased voter confidence.”
The report praises “Florida’s resilience” for running elections with strong turnout and timely reporting even amid two hurricanes, Ian and Nicole.
However, in the report Tenney is critical of her own state of New York, referring to research on the nation’s midterm elections that was first published in early 2023.
The report notes: “New York’s Challenges: Lax verification of absentee ballot requests in New York highlighted the need for stricter safeguards to prevent third-party interference and ensure voter consent.”
