Texas Counties Can Use Zuckerberg Funds for Safer Elections

(Bloomberg) -- A federal judge in Texas rejected the latest effort by conservative activists to prevent Democratic-leaning urban areas from using millions of dollars from Facebook Inc. founder Mark Zuckerberg intended to help local officials conduct safer elections.

U.S. District Judge Amos L. Mazzant III in Sherman, Texas, on Tuesday said Texas counties can use funds from the Center for Tech and Civic Life. The ruling follows similar decisions by federal judges in Wisconsin, Michigan and Minnesota. The Zuckerberg-funded center has targeted $300 million in local election aid across the U.S.

In each of the cases, conservative groups said in court filings they fear large, “progressive” counties will use the foundation’s funds to boost voter turnout, which in turn would lead to the election of more candidates the groups oppose, such as Democrats, although they don’t name the other party.

“Ultimately, plaintiffs complain that people with different political views will lawfully exercise their fundamental right to vote,” Mazzant said in rejecting a request for a temporary restraining order by the Texas Voters Alliance. “That is not a harm. That is democracy.”

The ruling Tuesday highlights the divisive atmosphere in Texas ahead of the election, which has also triggered suits over Governor Greg Abbott’s plan to limit each county to a single ballot drop box regardless of the county’s size or population. Civil rights groups allege that’s unfair to Democratic-leaning urban areas. The state, a battleground for the first time in years, also restricted who could use mail-in ballots even as other states expanded their use to avoid spread of the coronavirus in crowded polling places.

In the Texas challenge, the conservatives specifically sought to prevent counties that contain parts of Houston, Dallas and Austin from spending $25 million they received from the Center for Tech and Civic Life. The group took no issue with more than 110 Republican-leaning Texas counties that also got CTCL money, which is largely being spent on personal protective equipment, hand sanitizer and other safety enhancements for polling locations.

Challenges by other conservative groups against counties trying to use the foundation’s cash remain pending in federal courts in Pennsylvania, Iowa and Georgia.

Each of the six activists groups’ filings reflect the participation of the same lawyer, who is listed in some Texas court papers as “special counsel to Amistad Project of the Thomas More Society.”

That lawyer, Erick Kaardal, didn’t respond to a request for coment, but the Thomas More Society put out a statement about its court fight in Pennsylvania with Zuckerberg’s nonprofit.

”This is a scheme engineered by partisan activists under the guise of COVID-related support,” the director of the Amistad Project, Phill Kline, said in the statement. “The privatization of the election undermines the integrity of the election.’

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