Zuckerbergs 2020 Election Activities Back in the

Meta founder Mark Zuckerberg is back in the headlines — and it is most likely news that he would quite neglect.

The new Attorney General Todd Blanche was not too long ago notified by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) about the past actions of election activist teams, including the Zuckerberg-funded Center for Election Innovation and Research, or CEIR.

New disclosures from the Department of Homeland Security are raising questions about whether or not states improperly shared delicate motor-vehicle data with a non-public group funded by Mark Zuckerberg and Priscilla Chan as half of a large voter-outreach operation forward of the 2020 election.

In a September 2 letter to Attorney General Todd Blanche, DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin requested the Justice Department to review potential violations of the federal Driver’s Privacy Protection Act involving the Electronic Registration Information Center, or ERIC, and the CEIR.

So states have been sharing personal data with Mark Zuckerberg’s $400 million operation to determine unregistered voters forward of 2020 election in obvious violation of federal law. More fascinating findings in latest disclosures by DHS… pic.twitter.com/ZzFpCuDrer

— Julie Kelly 🇺🇸 (@julie_kelly2) September 4, 2026

The issue had beforehand been referred to DOJ, but he’s now asking the newly confirmed attorney basic to take another look. 

At the heart of the controversy is how ERIC makes use of data provided by taking part states. The group receives voter-registration data along with motor-vehicle data and compares the databases to determine inaccurate registrations, deceased voters and people who seem eligible to vote but aren’t registered. ERIC says its mission consists of enhancing voter-roll accuracy and rising registration among eligible residents. 

But DHS says delicate data did not essentially stay inside ERIC.

“Prior to the 2020 election, ERIC shared that sensitive, protected motor-vehicle data with at least one other private organization,” Mullin wrote.

That group was CEIR, which acquired tens of thousands and thousands of {dollars} from Zuckerberg and Chan for election-related actions in 2020. Mullin’s letter places the quantity at more than $70 million, while CEIR has said it acquired almost $65 million through its Voter Education Grant Program. 

DHS says the data was related to lists of “Eligible But Unregistered,” or EBU, voters — people recognized by evaluating state voter rolls with motor-vehicle data and then contacted with data encouraging them to register.

“This sharing and resharing of Motor Vehicle Agency data among NGOs may not qualify as a permissible use of motor-vehicle data identified in the DPPA,” Mullin wrote, including that data about potential voters is “incredibly valuable to political parties and campaigns.” 

Pennsylvania is one instance cited by DHS. The state acquired roughly $13 million from CEIR in 2020. 

According to Mullin, the grant settlement required Pennsylvania to cooperate with CEIR, “including providing data, as CEIR reasonably requests.”

DHS says that included state motor-vehicle data initially shared with ERIC and subsequently used by CEIR to create EBU lists for voter outreach.

ERIC maintains that its use of state data complies with federal law and describes itself as a membership group created and ruled by state election officers. It says member states securely submit voter-registration and motor-vehicle data, which ERIC makes use of to produce experiences that states can use to preserve voter rolls and contact doubtlessly eligible unregistered residents. 

DHS, however, raises extra questions about how citizenship data is dealt with. According to Mullin’s letter, ERIC’s model contract requires taking part states to present “all licensing or identification records from motor vehicle departments” at least every 60 days. Yet the settlement also prohibits states from transmitting data containing data indicating that somebody is a noncitizen. 

Why that explicit provision is there, given it’s unlawful for noncitizens to vote in federal elections, is a bit of a head-scratcher. But it seems to be dangerous.

Mullin pointed to Colorado’s 2022 voter-registration mailing as an instance of the potential drawback. Approximately 30,000 noncitizens erroneously acquired voter-registration notices from the Colorado secretary of state’s workplace. Colorado officers said safeguards have been in place to stop ineligible people from registering and blamed the mailings on a database error.

This is the “trust me, bro” response that Americans get far too often from blue state officers. We do not trust you. That is the complete level of a constitutional republic.

DHS argues it illustrates a potential weak point in utilizing motor-vehicle data to determine eligible voters when citizenship data is not included in the data being transmitted.

The new disclosure provides another layer to the long-running controversy over privately funded election administration in 2020. Zuckerberg and Chan offered roughly $400 million to nonprofits concerned in election-related applications that yr, with most of the money going to CEIR and the Center for Tech and Civic Life. 

CEIR says its grants supported nonpartisan voter schooling during the COVID-19 pandemic. Critics have identified that the money truly went toward partisan electioneering.

Mullin’s referral now presents DOJ with a narrower legal query: whether or not protected state motor-vehicle data moved between states and non-public nonprofits in methods permitted by federal privateness law.

DHS says it raised the matter with DOJ officers as far back as September 2025. More than a yr later, the division is placing it back on the attorney basic’s desk.

The query now is whether or not DOJ agrees that a federal privateness line was crossed — and, if so, precisely how many states participated in the data-sharing breach.

Editor’s Note: Republicans are combating for election integrity by requiring correct identification to vote. It’s common sense, yet Democrats are spreading lies about the influence of such a measure. 

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