{"content":[{"text":"Building Bias: Urban Texas Counties Used $36 Million in ZuckBucks in 2020 \n Election","bbox":{"left":0.123961,"top":0.120003,"width":0.752166,"height":0.04485499999999998}},{"text":"March 2021 – Flush with cash from Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, the Center for Tech \n and Civil Life (CTCL) flooded key Texas county election offices with cash to adopt procedures \n preferred by the outside group. With the dust on the election settled, it’s time to discern how the \n money was spent, if it influenced outcomes, and just how much cash are we talking about? The \n answer is, the private money started the process of turning Texas toward procedures outside of \n the normal statutory framework for running elections.","bbox":{"left":0.117686,"top":0.18104,"width":0.7527650000000001,"height":0.10733400000000001}},{"text":"What Were Counties Promising to Do with the Money? \n Grant award letters reviewed by the Foundation showed Texas counties were given money to \n help shift voting to the mail and away from traditional procedures in Texas law. The large blue- \n leaning counties received huge sums to transform their elections. Smaller red counties did not \n receive anything close. Mandated changes included were:","bbox":{"left":0.117686,"top":0.303146,"width":0.750804,"height":0.08981099999999997}},{"text":"✓ Drive-thru voting County Amount \n ✓ Mail voting sorting assets Dallas $15,130,433.00 \n ✓ Polling place rental expenses Harris $9,600,000.00 \n ✓ Temp labor expenses, hazard pay Webb $2,820,960.00 \n ✓ Personal protective equipment (PPE) Bexar $1,900,000.00 \n ✓ Voter education/outreach/radio costs Cameron $1,853,729.00 \n Tarrant $1,678,522.50 \n How Much Money Was Given? Travis $1,144,709.00 \n The CTCL and various Texas counties were not always El Paso $846,133.75 \n transparent on how the money was spent at the time—or Fort Bend $506,500.00 \n even that they received funds. Some were more open than Hays $289,075.00 \n others. The rough estimate between large and politically Williamson $263,644.00 \n close counties was $25 million shortly before the Hidalgo $196,500.00 \n election. PILF accounted for $36 million across 14 of Brooks $92,225.00 \n these counties. Maverick $47,075.00 \n TOTAL $36,369,506.25 \n Did This Money Influence the Outcome of the \n Election? \n When you build expansive efficiencies in some counties, you increase the capacity in those \n counties. Raw voter turnout helps to see differences between 2020 and 2016. Keeping in mind \n that turnout was up nationally and Texas grew in population since 2016, there are notable trends. \n Urban and nearby suburban counties within the 14 studied roughly presented a 30 percent \n increase in turnout for Trump and 40 percent for Biden, compared to 2016 totals.","bbox":{"left":0.117686,"top":0.403184,"width":0.759256,"height":0.408018}},{"text":"One of the most insidious effects these grants can have is injecting structural bias into the local \n election administration process. This grossly distorts what used to be straightforward election \n administration statistics studied in the aftermath.","bbox":{"left":0.117686,"top":0.825838,"width":0.744608,"height":0.055055999999999994}},{"text":"32 E. Washington Street, Suite 1675, Indianapolis, Indiana 46204 \n Telephone: 317.203.5599 Fax: 888.815.5641 PublicInterestLegal.org","bbox":{"left":0.241601,"top":0.923875,"width":0.516195,"height":0.031824000000000074}}],"images_bbox":[{"left":0.291667,"top":0.045448,"width":0.41634,"height":0.059085}],"images_bbox_not_text_overlap":[{"left":0.291667,"top":0.045448,"width":0.41634,"height":0.059085}]}