After Zuckerberg donations, Democrat support in Pennington rises 6% in 2020 election

In Pennington, where voting officials received funding from a Mark Zuckerberg-related organization, Democrat turnout increased 46.4% from 2016 to 2020, while Republican turnout increased by 17.6%.

In 2020, Joe Biden secured 35% of 57,518 votes, compared to the 29% votes earned by Hillary Clinton in 2016. Grants to voting officials, funded almost entirely by Facebook creator Mark Zuckerberg, weren’t offered in 2016.

In South Dakota, Democrat turnout rose 41% in areas which received the funding, while increasing 19.4% in areas which did not.

The Republican Party earned 15.8% more votes in South Dakota districts assisted by the CTCL, compared to 10.6% in jurisdictions without similar funding.

Support for Trump increased in Pennington 2% in 2020.

There were 9,775 more votes cast in Pennington in the 2020 election than in 2016.

Pennington was one of 36 South Dakota areas where voting officials received money from the progressive Centre for Tech and Civic Life (CTCL). A $350 million donation from Facebook founder Zuckerberg and his wife provided funding for the grants.

Grants from the organization, ranging from $5,000 to $19 million, were given to voting officials in exchange for specific conditions being followed. This included strategically targeting voters, creating ballots and developing what are known as “cure letters” to correct ballots at risk of being thrown out for discrepancies in signatures.

The influx of private money on such a large scale was criticized throughout the contentious 2020 election.

The CTCL was sued by Louisiana’s Attorney General in October 2021 “to prevent the injection of unregulated private money…and protect the integrity of elections in the State.” The lawsuit wasn’t allowed to proceed by a State judge.

Criticism of the CTCL also stemmed from favoring “predominantly Democratic counties” and even gave them a headstart to apply for funding, according to emails obtained through Right-to-Know requests.

“Mark Zuckerberg is providing nearly as much money to this year’s election administration as the federal government,” Phil Kline with the Amistad Project said in a late October 2020 press release.

The US government, in the run-up to the 2020 election, was criticized for underfunding the electoral process at a critical time.