Election integrity group sues Fulton County, Georgia under new constitutional amendment

AMHERST, Va., Jan. 4, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- The Amistad Project of the non-partisan Thomas More Society, an election integrity watchdog group, has filed litigation challenging Fulton County's use of private monies to conduct election operations in both the 2020 general election and the January 5 Senate runoff elections.

The lawsuit takes advantage of a new constitutional amendment that waives sovereign immunity for local government entities in Georgia, which came into effect January 1.

The Amistad Project alleges that Fulton County illegally accepted over $10 million from a leftist organization called the Center for Tech and Civic Life (CTCL), which is funded by $350 million from Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg. The lawsuit also contends that the terms of the grants that Fulton County accepted further violated the law by giving votes cast in Fulton County an unfair advantage over votes cast in other parts of the state. 

"The sanctity of our electoral process is being violated by the unprecedented infusion of private money," said Phill Kline, director of the Amistad Project. "Instead of being distributed equally, as the law requires, election funding is now being doled out by private interests seeking to influence the process for partisan advantage."

The money Fulton County has accepted from CTCL is nearly equal to the amount the county received from public sources for the 2020 general election, and the Zuckerberg/CTCL money comes with significant strings attached. As has been detailed in other lawsuits filed all over the country, CTCL grants dictate details such as the number of polling places and absentee ballot drop boxes in recipient jurisdictions, and come with "clawback" provisions entitling CTCL to recoup the money if it is not spent in strict accordance with the group's mandates.

According to the Amistad Project's lawsuit, the CTCL money has also been used to facilitate illegal "curing" of flawed ballots while partisan election observers are being prevented from meaningfully observing the process.

"Mark Zuckerberg and CTCL have created a two-tiered election system that benefits left-leaning urban areas at the expense of more-conservative parts of critical battleground states, skewing the results of our elections in favor of one political party," Kline said. "Public elections are supposed to be just that — public — and we are asking the courts to restore order and enforce the law."

Reference: Case # 6742649

SOURCE Amistad Project