A group of Democratic campaign operatives organized as a non-partisan good government group, just received a massive $250 million gift from Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg and his wife, Priscilla Chan.
But a critic says the now well-heeled organization, the Center for Tech and Civic Life (CTCL), is acting under a pretense of protecting the integrity of American elections when in fact it is a pro-Joe Biden outfit.
The CTCL was first exposed by the Capital Research Center and in a complaint filed August 28 with the Wisconsin Elections Commission (WEC) that the organization is comprised of Barack Obama allies expert in driving registered Democrats voters to the polls. Despite its claims of non-partisanship, CTCL’s officials have a documented history of involvement in left-of-center grassroots political initiatives, and anti-Republican and anti-Trump statements on social media.
Grants thus far from CTCL have gone to five cities in the battleground state of Wisconsin ($6.3 million in total), all run by Democrats, and Democratically controlled Philadelphia ($10 million) and Delaware County ($2.2 million), one of the city’s four bordering counties. Pennsylvania is another battleground state.
The Philadelphia Inquirer reported that CTCL plans to open at least 800 polling places across the city, set up 15 neighborhood elections offices for in-person early voting using mail ballots and install at least 15 mail ballot drop boxes across the city. The money will also be used, the article said, to give poll workers coronavirus hazard pay of an additional $100, and buy equipment to dramatically increase the processing of mail ballots.
Mail-in voting, some argue, is rampant with fraud.
When the Wisconsin mayors announced their grants in early July, they characterized CTCL as “a nationally-recognized, nonpartisan 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization of civic technologists, trainers, researchers, election administration and data experts working to help modernize U.S. elections.”
But the 27-page sworn complaint filed by Chicago political activist Jay Stone alleges that CTCL is using the “Wisconsin Safe Voting Plan” and its stated mission of educating “the public about government and democracy” as cover to influence the final outcome in Wisconsin for Biden. In 2016, Trump won Wisconsin over Hillary Clinton with just 0.77 percent of the vote. Among other charges, the complaint accuses the Wisconsin mayors of failure to acknowledge the real agenda behind the grant money.
“The five mayors and four city clerks of Wisconsin’s five largest cities are Democrats,” Stone’s complaint says. “CTCL Executive Director Tiana Epps-Johnson and CTCL Director of Government Services Whitney May are both lifelong and hardcore Democrats that the mayors and clerks could have easily discovered if they properly vetted the $6.3 million grant before they accepted it.”
Stone’s complaint further says that the press release announcing the grants “contains significant omissions, misinformation and irrelevant information.”
“The lack of pertinent information is meant to mislead the public and instill fear so the public accepts CTCL’s $6.3 million grant as necessary and unquestionable. The press release’s false information starts with the headline at the top of the document. The headline is ‘Wisconsin Safe Voting Plan.’ It is not the Wisconsin Safe Vote Plan as the press release states. The only safe voting plans contained in the press release were for the City of Milwaukee, City of Madison, City of Green Bay, City of Kenosha, and City of Racine.”
The complaint also alleges that CTCL’s grant process is not an open one.
“CTCL did not follow the proper protocols for issuing grants because CTCL solely sought to use its grants in Wisconsin and Pennsylvania to tip the presidential election in favor of Joe Biden.”
CTCL did not respond to a request for comment on the complaint.