‘Zuckbucks’ Group Is Coaching Election Officials On How To Talk About Democrats’ Silent Coup

A left-wing nonprofit that interfered in the 2020 election to Democrats’ benefit is coaching election offices on how to address concerns about leftist oligarchs’ silent coup to replace Joe Biden as the party’s presidential nominee.

On Tuesday, the Center for Tech and Civic Life (CTCL) sent an email to its newsletter subscribers highlighting Biden’s Sunday exit from the 2024 race and informing election officials that “voters and media outlets will be looking to you for guidance in the coming weeks, and you will play a powerful role in shaping this emerging story.”

“Your community is likely wondering how the Presumptive Democratic Nominee’s decision to drop out of the presidential race will impact voter’s election experience,” the email reads. “Proactive communication from your office to the public and the media will help assure your community and inspire confidence in the ongoing democratic process.”

During the 2020 election, CTCL and the Center for Election Innovation and Research collectively received hundreds of millions of dollars from Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg. The left-wing nonprofits then dumped these “Zuckbucks” into election offices across the country and were used to advance Democrat-backed voting policies. Heavily directed at “blue” municipalities, the effort effectively amounted to a giant Democrat get-out-the-vote operation.

In its Tuesday email, CTCL offered to “support” election offices in “navigating” Biden’s exit from the 2024 campaign by providing linked resources from a bevy of left-wing organizations. This included a list of talking points devised by the Partnership for Large Election Jurisdictions (PLEJ) that address potential questions voters and media may have about the 2024 election following Biden’s dropping out.

According to InfluenceWatch, PLEJ is “a membership-based coalition open to election officials and administrators representing jurisdictions that have a population greater than 300,000 or that are one of the three largest jurisdictions in their state.” Last year, the group signed onto a letter written by the left-wing Election Infrastructure Initiative — a CTCL venture — that attacked “[c]ongressional Republicans for opposing additional federal funds for state and local elections.” PLEJ has also “received funding” from the left-wing Democracy Fund, according to InfluenceWatch.

CTCL also provided election officials with communication resources from Democrat-aligned organizations such as The Elections Group and U.S. Alliance for Election Excellence, described as an $80 million venture launched by CTCL in 2022 to “systematically influence every aspect of election administration” and advance Democrat-backed voting policies in local election offices. The Elections Group is a participating member of the Alliance, along with a host of other entities that are also left-leaning.

CTCL isn’t solely coaching election officials on how to grapple with Biden’s exit, however. The group is also seemingly aiming to collect information from election offices and establish relationships with them.

Enclosed in the Tuesday newsletter is a link to a survey election officials can fill out to share how the Biden-Harris candidate swap “will impact [their] work” and inform CTCL of “what additional support would be helpful … in the coming days and weeks.” The survey includes several statements officials are asked to rate on a one-to-five scale, with one signifying “strongly disagree,” and five signifying “strongly agree.”

Among the statements are: “The change in presumptive nominee will greatly impact my office’s workflow,” and “My office understands the processes in state and federal law that apply to the change in a presumptive nominee.”

The survey further includes two response-style questions, in which election officials are asked to disclose “[h]ow, if at all, [they] anticipate [their] office’s workflow will be significantly impacted” by Biden’s exit and “[w]hat, if anything … [their] office need[s] right now to prepare for these changes.”

The attempt to collect personal information from election offices closely mirrors prior questionnaires CTCL has distributed in the past.

Shawn Fleetwood is a staff writer for The Federalist and a graduate of the University of Mary Washington. He previously served as a state content writer for Convention of States Action and his work has been featured in numerous outlets, including RealClearPolitics, RealClearHealth, and Conservative Review. Follow him on Twitter @ShawnFleetwood