By Guy Page

112 Vermont communities received ‘coronavirus response grants’ from the Center for Tech and Civic Life, a not-for-profit formed by Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg and Priscilla Chan to provide assistance to local election officials. 

“Mnay clerks also received funding support from the Center for Tech and Civic Life,” Barre City Clerk Carolyn Dawes to the House Government Operations Committee January 19. The $5000 grant paid for plexiglass shields for election workers, she said. “That was very helpful.” Fairlee used its $5000 grant for PPE and safe-distance signage, the Fairlee town clerk told the committee.

According to the Center for Tech and Civic Life website, CTCL spent $250 million nationwide on “poll worker recruitment, hazard pay, and training, polling place rental, temporary staffing support, drive-through voting, equipment to process ballots and applications, personal protective equipment (PPE) for poll workers, and nonpartisan voter education from cities and counties.”

A list of the 112 Vermont communities receiving the grant may be found at the following link. The Google Doc listing the Vermont communities would not allow the names to be cut-and-pasted. Vermont Daily had to request permission to “the Editor” – as of this writing no response has been forthcoming.

During the 2020 election cycle, CTCL awarded over 2,500 coronavirus response grants to city and county election offices across the country. To view a full list of the grants, click here. To view a map of the grants, click here.

Facebook received criticism during the final days of the 2020 general election in Vermont and nationwide for suspending accounts of conservative candidates and voters based on their posts.

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