After two weeks of debate and dozens of public comments, the St. Louis County Council on Tuesday voted 4-3 to accept a $2 million election grant from the Center for Tech and Civic Life (CTCL).
The $2,048,474 grant is one of several awarded to election boards throughout Missouri and nationwide to help with extra costs the COVID-19 pandemic has created for the election. The CTCL received a $250 million donation from Mark Zuckerberg and his wife, Priscilla Chan, which is being re-granted to local election authorities throughout the country.
Democratic Director of Elections Eric Fey said the St. Louis County Election Board discovered and applied for the grant in early September in a bipartisan effort with Republican Director of Elections Rick Stream.
Despite the bipartisan effort on the board’s part, residents were hesitant to accept the grant money due to perceived left-leaning views of the CTCL and concerns that it would lead to ballot harvesting. Both Fey and Stream said last week using this grant could not result in ballot harvesting and the only strings attached to the grant money are it must be used for election expenses incurred from June 2020 until the end of the year.
In addition, this grant comes at a time when several local governments are facing lawsuits after CTCL distributed grants to 385 election departments across Michigan and $6.3 million in grant money to five Wisconsin cities.
Before the vote Tuesday evening, several councilors explained the reason for their vote.
Councilman Tim Fitch reiterated his stance on waiting to accept the grant, even though Fey told him last week that the election board would need money as soon as possible to pay for the expenses, otherwise they would have to ask taxpayers to supply the funds.
“I see no reason why we can’t just hold this matter until after the election so that at least with respect to this election, that’s less than two weeks away,” Fitch said Tuesday night.
Councilman Ernie Trakas also opposed accepting the funds, but his concern centered on a private entity funding a public election.
“This is not a partisan issue for me,” he said during the meeting. “It has nothing to do with Republican or Democrat. The way I see it, though, is it’s private entities giving money for a public election. That’s the problem I have with this.”
Councilwoman Rita Heard Days noted that she was opposed to the grant money until she learned more about the CTCL and the grant itself. She had two main concerns initially, she said, that were proven wrong: the first was that St. Louis County Executive Dr. Sam Page would use the money for his campaign and the second being the grant was an effort to harvest ballots.
“We are having an unprecedented number of people that will be voting, voting absentee and even on Election Day,” said Days, the former director of the St. Louis County Board of Elections. “And I know how difficult it is to get people to work these elections. And now with the pandemic, it’s probably impossible to get the number of people that you needed. So perhaps a little more monetary incentive would help the election authorities do that. “
Chairwoman Lisa Clancy agreed, saying due to the unprecedented conditions presented a need for additional election funding.
“And I think that the hearing that we had from the board of elections last week dispelled many of the concerns that Councilman Trakas had, and I heard from them very clearly the urgency in getting this money,” Clancy said. “Given the volume of participation in this election this year and the extra expenses associated with COVID, I think that is a very important request.”
Democratic councilwomen Clancy, Kelli Dunaway, Days and Rochelle Walton Gray voted in favor of accepting the grant. Republic councilmen Mark Harder, Fitch and Trakas voted against using the money.
The county is not the first in the area to accept election funding from the CTCL. St. Louis has accepted a $1 million grant and the Missouri Secretary of State received $1.4 million.