Central South Dakota News

In Mellette, where voting officials received funding from a Mark Zuckerberg-related organization, Democrat turnout increased 25.2% from 2016 to 2020, while Republican turnout increased by 11.7%.

In 2020, Joe Biden secured 38% of 769 votes, compared to the 34% votes earned by Hillary Clinton in 2016. Grants to voting officials, funded almost entirely by Facebook creator Mark Zuckerberg, weren’t offered in 2016.

In South Dakota, Democrat turnout rose 41% in areas which received the funding, while increasing 19.4% in areas which did not.

The Republican Party earned 15.8% more votes in South Dakota districts assisted by the CTCL, compared to 10.6% in jurisdictions without similar funding.

Support for Trump increased in Mellette 0% in 2020.

There were 76 more votes cast in Mellette in the 2020 election than in 2016.

Mellette was one of 36 South Dakota areas where voting officials received money from the progressive Centre for Tech and Civic Life (CTCL). A $350 million donation from Facebook founder Zuckerberg and his wife provided funding for the grants.

Grants from the organization, ranging from $5,000 to $19 million, were given to voting officials in exchange for specific conditions being followed. This included strategically targeting voters, creating ballots and developing what are known as “cure letters” to correct ballots at risk of being thrown out for discrepancies in signatures.

The influx of private money on such a large scale was criticized throughout the contentious 2020 election.

The CTCL was sued by Louisiana’s Attorney General in October 2021 “to prevent the injection of unregulated private money...and protect the integrity of elections in the State.” The lawsuit wasn’t allowed to proceed by a State judge.

Criticism of the CTCL also stemmed from favoring “predominantly Democratic counties” and even gave them a headstart to apply for funding, according to emails obtained through Right-to-Know requests.

“Mark Zuckerberg is providing nearly as much money to this year’s election administration as the federal government,” Phil Kline with the Amistad Project said in a late October 2020 press release.

The US government, in the run-up to the 2020 election, was criticized for underfunding the electoral process at a critical time.

Area	Received CTCL Funding?	% Change in Republican Support	% Change in Democratic Support
Beadle	Yes	2.1	1.5
Bon Homme	Yes	3.7	0.4
Brown	Yes	0.6	31.6
Brule	Yes	1.9	2.1
Clark	Yes	5.5	0.4
Clay	Yes	1.5	2.7
Codington	Yes	1.5	2
Corson	Yes	0.4	2.9
Custer	Yes	0.4	4
Davison	Yes	1.5	1.7
Day	Yes	3.8	0
Deuel	Yes	6.6	1.5
Douglas	Yes	2.6	0.7
Faulk	Yes	4.8	-1.5
Gregory	Yes	1.9	1.5
Hand	Yes	1.5	1.9
Hanson	Yes	0.5	2.2
Hughes	Yes	0	3.9
Hutchinson	Yes	3.4	0.3
Jerauld	Yes	4.7	0.5
Lincoln	Yes	0.9	5
Marshall	Yes	4.9	0.7
McCook	Yes	2	2.4
McPherson	Yes	2.7	0.1
Meade	Yes	17.6	24
Mellette	Yes	0.4	4.4
Miner	Yes	2.8	1.7
Minnehaha	Yes	0.4	4.7
Pennington	Yes	1.5	6.3
Roberts	Yes	0.7	2.8
Stanley	Yes	0.4	4.5
Sully	Yes	0.8	4
Turner	Yes	1.6	1.9
Union	Yes	0.1	2.6
Walworth	Yes	0.3	3.4
Yankton	Yes	1.6	2.5
Aurora County	No	5.7	-1.6
Bennett County	No	0.7	3.5
Brookings County	No	1.7	3.5
Buffalo County	No	1.6	3.7
Butte County	No	0.5	3.6
Campbell County	No	0.8	0.8
Charles Mix County	No	1.9	3.9
Dewey County	No	2.1	5.5
Edmunds County	No	2.8	1.2
Fall River County	No	0.7	3
Grant County	No	3.1	1
Haakon County	No	0.6	1.9
Hamlin County	No	2.7	0.9
Harding County	No	1.7	1.1
Hyde County	No	0.7	1
Jackson County	No	0.3	2.7
Jones County	No	2.5	2.7
Kingsbury County	No	2.7	1.9
Lake County	No	-3.2	-1.1
Lawrence County	No	0.7	4.5
Lyman County	No	3.5	6.9
Moody County	No	1.8	1.2
Perkins County	No	0.9	2.6
Potter County	No	2.4	0.4
Sanborn County	No	3.4	0.2
Shannon County	No	1	2
Spink County	No	3.7	0.4
Todd County	No	2	6.5
Tripp County	No	1.5	0.8
Ziebach County	No	3.5	7.1