MS limiting outside election funds

JACKSON, Miss. - Mississippi is the ninth, and latest, state to ban election offices from accepting donations from private groups for voting operations. The conservative movement is being fueled by suspicion of donations by Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg in 2020. Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves signed HB 1365 last week. It will become law on July 1. The legislation says state/local officials who conduct elections can't solicit/accept donations from any private group for “voter education, voter outreach or voter registration programs."  Reeves, ironically, posted a video to Facebook on April 4 that he was “deeply disturbed by big tech's California " influence to "silence conservative voices or suppress information they don't agree with." Elections can't be left up to "billionaires like Mark Zuckerberg, especially when groups like Facebook systematically silence conservative voices on their platforms," the governor announced. Jessica Anderson, executive director of Heritage Action For America, which has pushed for such bans, said the new law will prohibit the use of “Zuck Bucks." (Source: The AP 04/06/22) Mississippi Joins States Limiting Outside Election Funding | Jackson Free Press | Jackson, MS

Zuckerberg and wife, Patricia Chan, donated $400M for elections operations across the U.S. in 2020. The non-profit Center for Tech and Civic Life distributed $350M in Zuckerberg grants to 2,500 election offices. By 2021, at least eight Republican-led states had passed bans on private donations to elections offices.