5 May 2021
The Republican-controlled Louisiana House of Representatives voted 69 to 35 on Tuesday to ban the private funding of election administration in the state. The bill now goes to the Louisiana State Senate for consideration.
Several states, including Arizona, Georgia, and Idaho have recently enacted laws to ban the private funding of election administration. The Florida State Legislature passed a bill banning the private funding of election administration last week, and Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) is expected to sign that bill into law this week.
The language of House Bill 20, the bill passed on Tuesday by the Louisiana House, most closely resembles the language of the recently enacted Arizona law, which Phill Kline, executive director of the Amistad Project of the Thomas More Society, a public interest law firm, says is by far the strongest of the laws enacted so far in 2021 to ban the private funding of election administration:
10 Apr 2021
Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey signed a bill into law on Friday that prohibits the private funding of election administration in the state.
Arizona is now the first state in the country that specifically prohibits the controversial private funding of election administration that was introduced to the American political process in the 2020 presidential election, when Facebook CEO and founder Mark Zuckerberg contributed $419 million to two non-profit groups that in turn funded state, county, and local election administration, which critics say benefited Democrats unfairly.
“With public confidence in our elections in peril, it’s clear our elections must be pristine and above reproach and the sole purview of government,” the Associated Press reported Ducey wrote in a letter expressing his reasons for signing the bill into law.
16 Feb 2021
The Fulton County (Georgia) Election Board voted to fire controversial elections director Richard Barron in a three to two vote Tuesday evening.
Fox 5 Atlanta reported:
Barron’s firing comes after a series of elections where the county was criticized by state elections officials and targeted over rumors about vote tampering.
The county received regular criticism from the secretary of state’s office, with complaints about delays caused by technical problems and a lack of manpower due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Associated Press reported on Tuesday that the full Fulton County Board of Commissioners may review the vote to fire Barron by the Election Board on Wednesday:
10 Feb 2021
The Center for Election Innovation and Research (CEIR), a nonprofit organization that received a $50 million donation from Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg and his wife Priscilla Chan in September and subsequently gave a “large grant” to the office of Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger “for the purpose of educating voters about election rules and process” released a survey on attitudes of Georgia voters on election integrity Wednesday.
“This polling took place in October during the general election early voting period, in November shortly after the general election, and in January just prior to the runoff election,” the CEIR statement released Wednesday said of the survey.