Laurel Lee Admits She Accepted ‘Zuckerbucks’ for Election Operations
August 10, 2022 Updated 2:35 P.M. ET
TALLAHASSEE (FLV) – In a House Public Integrity & Elections Committee hearing, former Florida Secretary of State, Laurel Lee, now running for Congress in Florida’s 15th District, admitted to accepting ‘Zuckerbucks’ for funding for election services in the last four years.
“This year we saw donors Marc Zuckerberg and his wife, Priscilla Chan, gave $350 million dollars to the Center for Tech and Civic Life, which, in turn, regranted the funds to thousands of governmental election officials around the country to help them conduct the 2020 Election. Are you aware of any county or governmental official receiving any grants or donations from any private or nongovernmental organization during the past four years for election services or voter recruitment or information?” she was asked.
“The Department of State, we accepted money from part of that grant [that received funding from Zuckerberg]… We ended up spending in the neighborhood of $200,000 of that money that went directly to our voter education campaign,” she said.
“We were very mindful of not using those funds for anything that really affected the operation or our ability to implement and effectively administer elections in Florida,” she went on.
Gov. Ron DeSantis signed legislation to push back against ‘Zuckerbucks’ with SB 524 earlier this year.
The purpose of the legislation was to enhance election security. DeSantis said at a press conference, “[Some election offices were] gonna take Zuckerbucks for ‘legal expenses’ or all these other things. So, we’ve expanded it, like – no way, there’s not gonna be any nook and cranny, you are not getting Zuckerbucks and any of this stuff.”
Lee took part in a crowded GOP primary debate at the Sunshine Summit last month with opponents Kelli Stargel, Jackie Toledo, Kevin McGovern, and Demtries Grimes. It was moderated by Mark Levin. The primary is set to take place on August 23.
