Obama Foundation ‘Democracy Forum’ To Feature Chicagoan Who Led ‘Zuckerbucks’ Election Manipulation – Wirepoints

By: Mark Glennon*

Chicagoan Tiana Epps-Johnson is the founder and executive director of the Chicago based Center for Technology and Civic Life (CTCL), which distributed nearly $350 million in grants to election offices around the country in 2020. The money was ostensibly for get-out-the-vote efforts but was very shrewdly directed to Democratic areas. That’s legal. What was improper at best, however, is that the money amounted in many cases to a partisan takeover of local election offices.

Facebook Founder Mark Zuckerberg and his wife were the original sources of most of the money, which is why it’s called the “Zuckerbucks” scandal.

At least 25 states have now enacted reforms banning or restricting Zuckerbucks and similar activities, and more are probably on the way, though not in Illinois.

It’s quite special, therefore, that Epps-Johnson would be a featured speaker at a “Democracy Forum.” Barack Obama on Monday announced that the Obama Foundation would host the forum, which is billed as an event “focused on safeguarding democracy from various challenges set to include pro-democracy thinkers, leaders, and activists.” The foundation is holding the forum in New York in partnership with Columbia University and the University of Chicago.

“It’s no surprise that Ms. Epps-Johnson, whose actions in election interference were recently deemed illegal and in violation of an anti-Zuckerbucks statute in Virginia, would be participating in a partisan electioneering panel led by President Obama,” Paige Agostin told the Daily Caller this week. Agostin is Policy Director of the Center for Renewing America, a conservative advocacy group that filed legal complaints against CTCL. “While it’s not surprising, this is after all the Left’s playbook, it should be a wake-up call to every American.”

CTCL’s 2020 election manipulation was so successful that it has spawned numerous, similar efforts for this November’s election using other money sources. (Zuckerberg claims he is sitting this year out.) They’ve even formed their own organization called the U.S. Alliance for Election Excellence and it has already pledged, at last count, $80 million for “local election administration.”

The alliance now has seven member organizations, which are a “bevy of leftist nonprofits,” according to Capital Research Center, which is monitoring these activities. It was criticized, among other places, in a May column in The Hill, which says the alliance will “identify… local election departments” and provide “coaching,” with the goal of “improv[ing] upon practices and procedures.” It will focus on the whole of election infrastructure, including technology, while providing “custom support” to local officials.

We wrote in detail in August about this genuine, direct threat to fair elections. The most frightening aspect is that nobody will know until after the election how much money these organizations spend and how they might have affected the election. Their activities and spending only become known later when they file their annual reports, as happened in 2020.

The Obama Foundation’s announcement of the forum says Epps-Johnson “is leading a team that is doing groundbreaking work to make U.S. elections more inclusive and secure” and that “CTCL is a nationally-recognized nonprofit that partners with everyone – from rural election offices to the largest tech companies in the world.”

Too bad the Obama Center in Chicago couldn’t be finished and hold the foundation’s forum. We’d have loved to attend to learn more about the foundation’s notions of safeguarding democracy.

*Mark Glennon is founder of Wirepoints.