By Elizabeth Culliford | Reuters
Facebook Inc Chief Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg and his wife, Priscilla Chan, said on Tuesday that they will donate an additional $100 million to support election officials and fund infrastructure for the U.S. election in November.
“We’ve gotten a far greater response than we expected from election officials needing funding for voting infrastructure, sotoday we’re committing an additional $100 million to the Center for Tech and Civic Life to make sure that every jurisdictionthat needs funding to help people vote safely can get it,” Zuckerberg said in a Facebook post.
“So far, more than 2,100 local election jurisdictions have submitted applications to CTCL for support.”
CTCL is a Chicago-based nonprofit that, according to its website, is “working to foster a more informed and engaged democracy, and helping to modernize U.S. elections.”
The pair previously donated $300 million to help the U.S. election process deal with challenges related to the COVID-19pandemic, for example, by funding voting equipment and protective equipment for poll workers
In the post, Zuckerberg also hit back at lawsuits trying to block the use of the funds: “Since our initial donation, therehave been multiple lawsuits filed in an attempt to block these funds from being used, based on claims that the organizationsreceiving donations have a partisan agenda. That’s false,” he said.
Zuckerberg and Chan’s election infrastructure donations come as Facebook faces both regulatory scrutiny from Washington and pressure from lawmakers to protect against misinformation and other election-related abuses on its platform.
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