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Government Corruption

DeKalb County Officials Skirted Georgia Law To Acquire Funds From Left-Wing Dark Money Elections Group

2023-04-07

[The Federalist] A series of communication records obtained by The Federalist reveal how high-ranking DeKalb County officials worked behind the scenes to skirt Georgia law by accepting grant money from a coalition of left-wing nonprofits designed to influence election operations in a manner election integrity advocates say benefit Democrats.

In February, DeKalb County — one of Georgia’s most populous localities and a Democrat stronghold — announced it had been selected to join the U.S. Alliance for Election Excellence and that the county’s commissioners had accepted a $2 million grant from the Center for Tech and Civic Life (CTCL). Launched last year, the Alliance is an $80 million venture by left-wing nonprofits to "systematically influence every aspect of election administration" and advance Democrat-backed voting policies in local election offices, according to the Honest Elections Project.

While Georgia Republicans passed a law in March 2021 banning the private funding of local election offices, DeKalb officials used a loophole in the statute to justify accepting the grant from the Alliance. Instead of having their election office accept the funds, DeKalb officials had the county’s finance department apply for the grant. As Democrat and DeKalb Board of Registration and Elections Chair Dele Lowman Smith admitted, this was done "since election offices are not allowed to receive grants directly."

Obtained via an open records request, the emails reviewed by The Federalist show DeKalb officials attempting to acquire private funds from the Alliance nearly a year before the county revealed its membership with the coalition to the public. According to the records, DeKalb’s deputy finance director Preston Stephens received an email on April 12, 2022, from CTCL announcing the launch of the Alliance. Stephens ultimately received an application to join the coalition nearly a month later on May 4.

The initial communications between DeKalb County and CTCL indicate that Stephens served as a primary contact for the nonprofit, with emails dating back several years. Ahead of the Jan. 5, 2021, Georgia Senate runoff election, for example, Stephens submitted a "funding request" to CTCL on Dec. 24, 2020, for "’On‐the‐Ground Tech Support’ to be utilized by [the DeKalb County] Voter Registration & Elections" board. Stephens would continue to receive newsletter emails from CTCL well into September and October 2021 — several months after Georgia passed its ban on private election funding.

Posted by:Besoeker

#3 It’s DeKalb, I’m in the belly of the beast in Brookhaven

Posted by: Beavis 2023-04-07 16:05

#2 Who will run to the mic 1st:
GBI / FBI-DOJ / GA. AG / DeKalb DA or the GA Board of Elections, to defend the donation.

Posted by: NN2N1 2023-04-07 15:37

#1 Once more, I'm sure glad we passed all those campaign finance laws.

Posted by: Tom 2023-04-07 09:39

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