112 towns and cities received grants in 2020
By Guy Page
Vermont cities and towns this year won’t get election grants from a group founded by Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, as 112 of them did in 2020. But Zuckerberg’s Center for Tech and Civic Life will offer municipalities financial assistance in the future, the not-for-profit announced at the annual TED conference Monday, April 11.
The program that pumped $350 million into local election operations will be discontinued. However, financial support for Vermont elections in the future may be forthcoming from a new five-year, $80 million CTCL program called the U.S. Alliance for Election Excellence.
As reported on Vermont Daily Chronicle on January, 2021, 112 Vermont towns and cities received election-related grants, typically about $5000, from the CTCL. “Many clerks also received funding support from the Center for Tech and Civic Life,” Barre City Clerk Carolyn Dawes told 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.
A spreadsheet of all town and county governments in Vermont and across the country receiving Center for Tech and Civic Life funding is published on the organization’s website. The spreadsheet prohibited “cut and paste.” Instead VDC made screenshots of the Vermont towns. They appear below:
