Established Fact
CTCL’s more than $22.5 million investment in Pennsylvania created a constitutionally suspect two-tiered system of voter access. In heavily Democratic Delaware County, private funding established 50 drop boxes — one for every 3.7 square miles and one for every approximately 8,500 registered voters. Across the 56 counties carried by Donald Trump in 2016, only 12 received any CTCL grants at all, collecting a combined $1.73 million — 7 percent of total Pennsylvania CTCL funds — while Biden-won counties received on average more than five times as much per registered voter.
Citations
Sam Adolphsen, Testimony before the Pennsylvania House State Government Committee, April 8, 2021, p. [unnumbered appendix table]: “CTCL actually allocated more than $22.5 million to Pennsylvania,” citing a documented total of $22,542,308 across 24 Pennsylvania jurisdictions (excluding an undisclosed grant to the PA Department of State). Available at: https://www.legis.state.pa.us/WU01/LI/TR/Transcripts/2021_0073_0003_TSTMN
Foundation for Government Accountability, How “Zuckerbucks” Infiltrated (March 16, 2021), p. 3 [Table of grants to 21 named PA jurisdictions totaling $20,902,334, with three additional recipients not yet fully disclosed]. Available at: https://thefga.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/Pennsylvania-Zuckerbucks-brief-3-16-21.pdf
Foundation for Government Accountability (March 2021), p. 7, fn. 32: “Delaware County announced it had accepted the $2.2 million grant on August 19, 2020 and that the money would be used to place 50 drop boxes, before the Pennsylvania Supreme Court had ruled on the legality of using drop boxes in the 2020 general election.” (Citing Delaware County press release, original at delcopa.gov — no longer accessible.) Available at: https://thefga.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/Pennsylvania-Zuckerbucks-brief-3-16-21.pdf. The Broad+Liberty investigative series independently confirms “one drop box for each municipality” across Delaware County’s 49 municipalities. See Todd Shepherd, Broad+Liberty (Oct. 13, 2021): https://broadandliberty.com/2021/10/13/network-of-dark-money-groups-implemented-selective-election-grant-process-favoring-democratic-leaning-counties-emails-show/
Delaware County land area: 183.84 square miles (U.S. Census Bureau, per Wayne County PA density table: https://www.waynecountypa.gov/DocumentCenter/View/1428). Fifty drop boxes across 183.84 sq mi = 1 per 3.68 square miles.
Pennsylvania Department of State, 2020 Voter Registration Statistics — November 3, 2020 Election, Division of Voter Registration: Delaware County registered voters = 425,406. Available at: https://www.pa.gov/content/dam/copapwp-pagov/en/dos/resources/voting-and-elections/voting-and-election-statistics/voter-registration-statistics/2020%20Election%20VR%20Stats%20%20FINAL%20REVIEWED.pdf. Fifty drop boxes for 425,406 registered voters = 1 per approximately 8,500 registered voters.
Capital Research Center, “Shining a Light on Zuck Bucks in the 2020 Battleground States” (updated May 2024): “In contrast, CTCL gave grants to 12 of the 54 counties Trump won statewide. These 12 counties received just $1.73 million, a mere 7 percent of all CTCL funds in the Keystone state.” Per-capita comparison: $3.11 (Biden counties) vs. $0.57 (Trump counties). Available at: https://capitalresearch.org/article/shining-a-light-on-zuck-bucks-in-key-states/. The Broad+Liberty investigation additionally documents that CTCL, through intermediary organizations, selectively invited only Democratic-leaning counties to apply before September 2020, with no email evidence of any comparable outreach to Republican-leaning counties. Todd Shepherd, Broad+Liberty (June 7, 2021): https://broadandliberty.com/2021/06/07/blue-southeast-pa-counties-had-head-start-on-election-grants/ ; Todd Shepherd, Broad+Liberty (Oct. 19, 2021): https://broadandliberty.com/2021/10/19/former-sec-of-state-boockvar-and-gov-wolf-staffer-helped-selectively-invite-counties-for-election-grants/