Mark Zuckerberg's $250 million donations triggered a gold rush across the United States as local governments and election officers rush to get hold of the money to use and deploy it.
Zuckerberg and his wife, Priscilla Chan, announced about the reward just about two months before the US Election 2020 in November, which led election officers to scramble to get access to the cash before the deadline.
WASHINGTON, DC - APRIL 11: Facebook co-founder, Chairman and CEO Mark Zuckerberg smiles at the conclusion of his testimony before the House Energy and Commerce Committee in the Rayburn House Office Building on Capitol Hill April 11, 2018 in Washington, DC. This is the second day of testimony before Congress by Zuckerberg, 33, after it was reported that 87 million Facebook users had their personal information harvested by Cambridge Analytica, a British political consulting firm linked to the Trump campaign.
This huge donation as reported in Vox would greatly help election directors in rural areas and large cities to ensure health measures to protect voters from the dreaded coronavirus, which already infected more than 7 million people in the U.S. alone. With about a month before the elections, election officers are confronted with financial inadequacies.
About 20% of the nation's 2,000 election sites have already accessed the fund. The Middle for Tech and Civic Life (CTCL) recently extended the software deadline to October 15 from the earlier schedule of October 1.
The late checks would allow some of these districts to bloat their election budgets by as much as 30% to 40% while Zuckerberg's donations would replenish funding that was depleted by the cost of the pandemic. The amounts received differ depending on the location and the size of the population. Small coastal cities in Maine got a $5,000 grant while Dallas County, Texas received $15 million.
While some election officers were surprised by this news, they have spent much of the money as soon as they confirmed it to be true. For instance, Lansing, Michigan election officers purchased additional poll drop-boxes when they heard that Zuckerberg will give them $440,000 in cash, although the money is yet to arrive.
Meanwhile, as the deadline was extended, some election specialists raised concerns that the funds will be received late, which may result in flooding voting sites of work with thousands of supplies that they might not optimally use before the Election Day.
Virginia's York County elections director Walt Latham said he may just not have time to use the funds. "This isn't a peaceful time to start out initiating new initiatives," he noted.
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How is the Zuckerberg fund being used?
While some election officers say the guidelines on how to spend the cash allows it to be largely "spendable" as they can use it to reimburse any prices for election equipment that they may have purchased back in June or spend the money even after two months from the elections, perhaps to pay allowances for the ballot staff. Meanwhile, unspent money would need to be reimbursed.
Ohio's Auglaize County election director Michelle Wilcox went to spent about $60 using her own money to purchase the last five glove packs in Lowe's store. While she was able to do this, despite a 10% deduction on the county's $400,000 election funds, she was assured to get reimbursement from the Zuckerberg fund.
Knowing the funds will be soon accessible gives a reassurance to 'Go forward and get what we'd like now," as she will not shell out $60 out of her private cash.
Meanwhile, Zuckerberg funds may be used to refill the election budgets as they may have already spent much of it. For example, election officers in Jackson County, Illinois said they have already spent about $70,000 of their budget for additional protections against coronavirus. Thus, the $43,000 that they received from Zuckerberg will replenish the funds.
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Written by CJ Robles
