LANSING, Mich. (Michigan News Source) – The criticism of private nonprofits giving money to local governments to promote election turnout in Democratic strongholds was a national issue in 2020 over the “Zuckerbucks” controversy.

That’s when the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative funded by Facebook mogul Mark Zuckerberg and his wife Priscilla Chan donated $350 million to nonprofits to work with local election offices in 47 states to boost election outreach efforts during the pandemic.

“Zuckerbucks” and the Democrats.

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The Foundation for Government Accountability criticized the “Zuckerbucks” initiative, saying the money was used primarily as get-out-the-vote efforts in heavily Democratic election jurisdictions.

“It appears these grants were much less about protecting voters from COVID-19 and much more about registering and getting Democrat voters into the polls,” the Foundation for Government Accountability reported in 2021.

From “Zuckerbucks” to “Voters Not Politicians.”

A similar event happened in Michigan. The city of Flint reported at its Jan. 22 meeting documents of an agreement it had with a nonprofit called Voters Not Politicians for $19,500 to “support communications and public relations efforts” for the Nov. 5, 2024 general election. Some of the money was used for radio advertisements.

Voters Not Politicians is a nonprofit that orchestrated the movement to redistrict the political maps for Congress, the Michigan State Senate, and the Michigan State House that was approved by voters in November 2018. After the 2020 elections, some political analysts said the redistricting helped the Democrats take control of the state House and Senate for the first time since 1983.

Karla Swift, the president of the Michigan AFL-CIO union, and Lisa Wozniak, executive director of the Michigan League of Conservation Voters, have both served as chairs of Voters Not Politicians.

Flint is a Democratic stronghold.

For example, Trump won Michigan in 2024 with 2.81 million votes while Kamala Harris received 2.73 million votes. But the city of Flint voted almost 6 to 1 in favor of Democrats over Republicans in 2024 general election and one of the 29 precincts within the city didn’t register a single vote for Republicans.

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These private-public arrangements bothered voters in Wisconsin to the point that in April 2024, voters amended the state constitution so it would ban any private funding of elections or election infrastructure.