James Martin/CNET
This story is part of Elections 2020, CNET’s coverage of the run-up to voting in November.
Mark Zuckerberg and his wife, Dr. Priscilla Chan, are donating an additional $100 million to the Center for Tech and Civic Life to support election and voting infrastructure, the Facebook CEO said in a post on Tuesday. This comes on top of a $300 million commitment Zuckerberg and Chan made in September to the CTCL and the Center for Election Innovation & Research to provide election officials with things like voting equipment and protective equipment for poll workers.
“We’ve gotten a far greater response than we expected from election officials needing funding for voting infrastructure, so today we’re committing an additional $100 million to the Center for Tech and Civic Life to make sure that every jurisdiction that needs funding to help people vote safely can get it,” Zuckerberg wrote. “So far, more than 2,100 local election jurisdictions have submitted applications to CTCL for support.”
Zuckerberg also noted that there’s been pushback to their original donation, saying multiple lawsuits have been filed to try and block the funds from being used “based on claims that the organizations receiving donations have a partisan agenda.”
Zuckerberg called the accusation false and said the funds “will serve communities throughout the country — urban, rural and suburban – and are being allocated by non-partisan organizations.” He also said the government should provide adequate funding for the election.
“To be clear, I agree with those who say that government should have provided these funds, not private citizens, ” he wrote. “But absent that funding, I think it’s critical that this urgent need is met.”