Most of Joe Biden’s 221,751 vote margin gain in Georgia, compared to Hillary Clinton’s performance in 2016, came from three metropolitan Atlanta counties that received more than $15 million from the Mark Zuckerberg-funded Center for Technology and Civic Life (CTCL) “safe elections” project.
Those three counties — Cobb, Fulton, and Gwinnett–accounted for 168,703 of Biden’s 221,751 vote margin gain, or 76 percent.
In 2016, Donald Trump defeated Hillary Clinton in Georgia by 211,141 votes, 2,089,104 to 1,877,963, according to the Georgia Secretary of State’s election website.
With 99 percent of precincts reporting as of 2:00 p.m. Eastern time on Monday, November 9, Democratic nominee Joe Biden was leading Donald Trump by 10,610 votes, 2,466,540 to 2,455,930, according to Real Clear Politics.
This currently represents a 221,751 vote gain in margin of votes cast for Joe Biden over Donald Trump in 2020 compared to the margin of votes cast for Donald Trump over Hillary Clinton in 2016.
The $15.8 million in “safe elections” grants these three counties in the Metropolitan Atlanta area–Fulton, Cobb, and Gwinnett- received from CTCL are a little more than four percent of the funding provided by Zuckerberg through CTCL to county and city election departments around the country in 2020.
“Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced on Tuesday that he and his wife have donated an additional $100 million to a “safe elections” project run by the non-profit Center for Technology and Civic Life (CTCL), bringing their total contributions to that project to $350 million since September 1,” Breitbart News reported in October.
“Critics say the CTCL project’s grants look a lot more like Democratic “Get-out-the-Vote” (GOTV) efforts in major cities around the country than good government efforts to protect the integrity of the electoral process of all Americans, regardless of their party affiliation,” Breitbart News reported:
An analysis by the Amistad Project of the Thomas More Society suggests a [partisan element to the CTCL project]. Since September 1, 2020, the CTCL has made at least $63.7 million in grants to election commissions in 18 counties and two cities for what the CTCL calls the coronavirus “safe elections” project.
More than 99.5 percent of this funding — $63.4 million — went to election commissions in 17 counties and two cities won by Hillary Clinton in 2016. Less than one half of one percent of the funding — a mere $289,000 — went to a county Donald Trump won in 2016, Hays County, Texas, which the president barely won by a margin of 50.4 percent to 49.6 percent.
A significant portion of these grants — more than $13.9 million — went to election commissions in areas Hillary Clinton won with more than 80 percent of the vote. Ten million dollars went to the city of Philadelphia in Pennsylvania, which Clinton won with 84 percent of the vote, $3.5 million went to Wayne County, Michigan, which Clinton won with 96 percent of the vote, and $467,000 went to the election commission in the city of Flint, Michigan, which Clinton won with 84 percent of the vote.
In September, the Rome News-Tribune reported that Cobb County’s Election Department “was recently awarded a $5.6 million grant from a national nonprofit, the Center for Tech and Civic Life.”
The Center for Tech and Civic Life grant will help pay for:
♦ Almost 700 partitioned, secure voting system carriers to house the 2,258 ballot marking devices and optical scanners at all polling locations
♦ Hazard pay for roughly 2,300 workers at a rate of $100 per worker, per election.
♦ Additional temporary employees who will help prepare, process and tabulate absentee-by-mail ballots.
♦ Ballot mailing
♦ Advertising to promote absentee and early voting. (emphasis added)
Also in September, the Atlanta Journal Constitution reported Fulton County’s Election Department received “$6 million in a grant from the Center for Tech and Civic Life.”
In October, the Journal Constitution reported that Gwinnett County commissioners accepted a $4.1 million grant from CTCL “intended to be used for elections security.”
The grant is intended to be used for elections security and also allows the county to use some of the funds to cover costs from the June primary, county spokesman Joe Sorenson said.
“We are currently evaluating where the funds will be sourced to,” Sorenson said.
In the 2016 presidential election, Hillary Clinton received 297,051 votes in Fulton County, compared to 117,783 for Donald Trump, a net vote margin of 179, 268 for Hillary Clinton.
In Cobb County, Hillary Clinton received 160,121 votes compared to 152, 912 for Donald Trump, a net vote margin of 7,209 for Hillary Clinton.
In Gwinnett County, Hillary Clinton received 166,153 votes compared to 146, 989 for Donald Trump, a net vote margin of 19,164 for Hillary Clinton.
In those three counties combined, Hillary Clinton’s net vote margin over Donald Trump was 205,641. (Notably, in the rest of the state of Georgia, Donald Trump’s net vote margin over Hillary Clinton was 416,782.)
In the 2020 presidential election, Joe Biden received 379,095 votes in Fulton County, compared to 136,716 for Donald Trump, a net vote margin of 242,379 votes for Joe Biden.
In Cobb County, Biden received 221,746 votes, compared to 165,195 for Donald Trump, a net vote margin of 56,551 votes for Biden.
In Gwinnett County, Biden received 241,827 votes, compared to 166,413 votes for Donald Trump, a net vote margin of 75,414 votes for Biden.
In those three counties combined, Joe Biden’s net vote margin in 2020 over Donald Trump was 374,344, an increase of 168,703 over Hillary Clinton’s net vote margin of 205,641.
That 168,703 vote net margin increase for Biden in 2020 in the three counties that received $15.8 million in grants from the Zuckerberg-funded CTCL was 76 percent of the 221,751 net vote margin improvement for Biden that powered him to a 10,610 vote lead in Georgia with 99 percent of precincts reporting.
Between September 1, 2020 and October 30, 2020, the CTCL contributed more than $16.6 million for “safe elections” in six Georgia counties, as Ballotpedia reported.
All six counties voted for Hillary Clinton in 2016. Based on currently available public reports, it appears that no Georgia county that voted for Donald Trump in 2106 received a CTCL grant in 2020.
Breitbart News contacted CTCL and requested a list of all the counties in Georgia that received grants from CTCL in 2020, and specifically asked if CTCL provided grants to any county in the state that Donald Trump won in 2016, but has not yet received a response from CTCL.
In addition to the three metropolitan Atlanta counties of Cobb, Gwinnett, and Fulton, three counties outside of metropolitan Atlanta received CTCL grants in 2020.
Dougherty County, which received a $300,000 grant from CTCL, went overwhelmingly for Joe Biden over Donald Trump in 2020, 69.6 percent to 29.6 percent. Biden’s net margin in the county was 24,579 votes, compared to Trump’s 10,449. a differential of 14,130 votes in favor of Biden.
The Macon-Bibb County Board of Elections, which administers elections for Macon County and Bibb County, received a $557,000 grant from CTCL. Both counties went overwhelmingly for Biden over Trump in 2020.
In Bibb County, Joe Biden received 61.4 percent of the vote to Donald Trump’s 37.6 percent. In terms of vote total, Biden received 43,460 votes while Trump received 26,583 votes, a margin of 16,887 for Biden. In the less populous Macon County, Biden received 2,857 votes compared to Trump’s 1,783, a net vote margin of 1,070 in favor of Biden.
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