Proposed Georgia law would bar private funding of elections in the state

A law in the Georgia state legislature would prohibit election officials from accepting private funding to administer their elections, a proposal that comes after 2020 saw hundreds of millions of dollars in private funding go toward local election administration around the country. 

The law, HB62, would "prohibit boards of elections, boards of elections and registration, local election superintendents, and county boards of registrars from accepting or expending private funds."

It would stipulate that those officials "can only accept lawful appropriations of public funds or authorized fees; to provide for related matters; to repeal conflicting laws; and for other purposes."

The move comes likely as a response to the considerable amounts of private dollars that flowed into Georgia from the Center for Tech and Civic Life, a left-leaning technology group that received hundreds of millions of dollars in donations from Mark Zuckerberg in the months leading up to the 2020 election. CTCL said it was allocating those funds to help shore up local election infrastructure and ensure widespread voting amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

Numerous counties in Georgia received millions of those dollars to help administer their own elections.