Secretary of State Chuck Gray is raising alarms about a private elections group that attended a meeting of Wyoming county clerks last week.

At the meeting of the Wyoming Association of County Officers held in Rock Springs, there was a booth and a staff member from the nonprofit Center for Tech and Civic Life (CTCL).

On Wednesday, he sent a letter to Wyoming’s 23 county clerks expressing his concerns.

“I was deeply troubled by the presence of CTCL at the Wyoming Association of County Officers meeting in Rock Springs last week,” Gray writes. “Despite many in the media who have claimed there is no presence by these groups in Wyoming, CTCL’s presence in Rock Springs only demonstrates that they are targeting Wyoming.”

Fremont County Clerk Julie Freese was at the meeting and said CTCL’s presence was rather innocuous. She said the group’s representative did not offer her help or any money, and appeared to be serving in a strictly informational role.

“I don’t think this girl said or had anything to do with any of us that would be out of line,” she said.

Freese also finds it interesting Gray felt the need to put out a public letter about the issue when he had already expressed concern to the clerks about CTCL being at the meeting.

“It’s a little bit surprising when he already had discussed it and we know his concerns,” she said.

What’s It About?

CTCL is connected to Meta founder Mark Zuckerburg, who gave $350 million to the organization to help with public election administration during the 2020 election.

The group used this donation to pay out $332 million in donations to provide thousands of local elections offices COVID-19 “relief grants.”

In a Facebook post, Zuckerberg said the money was intended to “support election officials with the infrastructure they need to administer the vote — including voting equipment, PPE for poll workers and hiring additional poll staff.”

The grants became colloquially known as “Zuck Bucks.”

Although the CTCL grants in the 2020 election were nominally nonpartisan, many accused the group of focusing its main efforts on areas won by President Joe Biden in battleground states to help draw a higher voter turnout, which historically tends to benefit Democrats more than Republicans.

As he also mentioned in a 2023 letter sent to the clerks, Gray believes these kinds of “deeply disturbing” grants could expose Wyoming to funding streams supported by foreign actors. He pointed out that liberal donor Swiss billionaire Hansjorg Wyss, who lives in Wyoming, gave to groups that then gave money to CTCL.

There is no evidence CTCL spent any money in Wyoming in 2020, but Gray urged the clerks in his letter to let him know if any private groups solicit them with money to run their elections, which is legal in Wyoming.

Freese said she already receives significant information on how to run elections from various governmental groups and doesn’t believe a group like CTCL could sway her.

CTCL appears to have broadened its focus this election year, offering “Rural and Nonmetro Election Infrastructure Grants,” for more rural areas. The grants are only eligible in jurisdictions like Wyoming that haven’t banned private funding of election administration.

During the 2023 and 2024 legislative sessions, bills were brought that would have banned private funding of elections in Wyoming. Neither gained much traction.

“Given the evolving tactics of groups like CTCL and their history of influencing election administration across the country, as well as Wyoming’s lack of a statutory ban on private funding of election administration, Wyoming is particularly vulnerable,” Gray writes.

Freese and Marissa Carpio, a representative of the Equality State Policy Center, said their groups had a neutral stance on these bills. Their only concern was that the legislation could inhibit private groups like Rotary clubs and schools from offering facilities to use as polling places.

“Where they worry is the cost burden on those county clerks,” Carpio said.

Influence

Zuckerburg’s actions drew a rash of criticism from Republicans like Gray alleging that he and his wife were trying to influence the final results of the election.

Democrats have pushed for more federal funding in elections for years, which are largely funded at state and local levels. The GOP has largely opposed these proposals and introduced legislation that would prohibit nonprofits from giving direct funding to election offices.

Gray himself isn’t above taking advice and influence from private groups.

A trove of emails obtained through a public records request provided to Cowboy State Daily earlier this year by watchdog group Documented show that Florida-based think tank Foundation for Government Accountability lobbied Gray on various elections and ESG (environmental, social and governance) topics in early 2023, which resulted in nearly identical legislation brought before the Legislature.

Leo Wolfson can be reached at leo@cowboystatedaily.com.

In San Francisco’s Mission District on Capp Street, sex work was such a problem that traffic barriers were installed to break up the flow of drivers in the area looking to pay for sex. Now, it’s become a problem Juan Gallardo is dealing with because the sex work has moved right outside his restaurant on Shotwell and 18th Streets.

“A lot of mess here in my parklet,” he said. “

This week, the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency voted to treat Shotwell St. similarly to that done at Capp.

The SFMTA said new temporary midblock barriers will be placed for 18 months between 19th and 21st streets.

However, residents aren’t convinced the dividers will fix the problem.

“I would assume it’s just moving people around. It’s not changing any enforcement, making it more inconvenient in certain places,” said Garrett Kiel, who lives in the Mission.

Supervisor Hillary Ronen expressed similar concerns. Though, Ronen pushed for the Capp St. bollards.

“It was out of control, and we had to intervene immediately,” she said in a late August news release with the Mayor’s Office.

Ronen said the aged-old issue in the Mission is far more complicated and deserves more nuanced solutions like finding safe alternative work for women or decriminalized sex work.

“None of these are quick fixes, which is I know what the neighbors want, and I understand that,” Ronen said. “I do not think the solution is to barricade off every street in the Mission.”

Many residents, who did not wish to be identified, agreed with Ronan.

Earlier this year, a group of residents and business owners filed a lawsuit against the city for allegedly allowing prostitution, public intoxication, and other ills to run rampant in their neighborhood.

The suit, filed in August, describes unrelenting public and private nuisances along Shotwell Street between 19th and 21st.

For Gallardo, it’s about the safety of his family.

“I have my wife, and I have my daughter, and I’m not comfortable with that,” he said.

In the heart of Denver, Colorado, a rich tapestry of cultures lives in each neighborhood.

“We grew up with big families — Hispanic, Irish, Italian — in west Denver. I still live in the same neighborhood I grew up in,” said Rosemary Rodriguez, a Mexican American Denver native.

It was in this neighborhood of west Denver where Rosemary made her best memories.

 “It was a great time to be a kid,” she said.

She grew up living right next to her grandparents, who only spoke Spanish. Though they understood Rosemary’s English, and vice versa, not learning the language pains her to this day.

“It makes me sad that I couldn’t have the fruitful relationship with my Mexican grandmother that I had with my grandmother from Colorado,” said Rodriguez.

 Like many Coloradans, Rodriguez was raised in an English-speaking household because her parents wanted her to speak English without an accent.

“We learned about discrimination that they experienced, that my mother, throughout her life, experienced because she had an accent,” said Rodriguez, “She spoke with a Spanish accent, and I think they saw it as a way to protect us from discrimination, even though we’re very obviously Indigenous-looking and Mexican.”

For Dr. Nicki Gonzales, a professor at Regis University and Colorado’s first Latina historian, she experienced a similar upbringing.

She notes that speaking Spanish wasn’t always seen positively, dating back to the early 1900s.

“I often think about my college experiences on the East Coast as a time when my world was shattered because I lived pretty sheltered,” said Gonzales.

While at Yale University, she learned why she wasn’t taught Spanish growing up in Denver. As a historian in Colorado, she uncovered the reasons behind it all.

“I had to learn more about my history through other people’s stories, and pieces of my history that had not been recorded,” said Gonzales. “For young people, it is important to have a vessel to tell their story. I always thought knowing your roots is very empowering.”

Learning your roots is empowering. Fast forward to 2024, and you have Denver Foos.

“The state has transformed — it’s almost a whole different place than when we grew up here in Denver, Colorado,” said Ben.

Brothers Ben and Abe Gallegos launched the social media page Denver Foos, which rose to popularity in 2020. They now also own a barbershop, all to learn and educate about Denver culture.

“A lot of people in Los Angeles and Las Vegas were surprised that there are Brown people who are Denver Broncos fans. They thought we were Raiders fans or Cowboys fans. Nope, we love the Broncos,” said Abe about his experience.

 The brothers, through their social media accounts, share what it means to grow up Latino and Hispanic in Denver.

“It has helped us feel comfortable in our skin, in our culture, and the way we talk and the way we dress.”

For a long time, they felt anything but comfortable in their skin.

“I guess the perception of us was that we were all first-generation, but there are many of us who have been here for generations. We didn’t really cross the border; the border crossed us,” said Ben.

Assimilation for many of these families began after the Mexican-American War, which led to the 1848 Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo. This treaty transferred more than 50% of Mexico’s territory to the U.S. to end the war, moving the border south and crossing families like Ben and Abe’s, who had lived in the area for decades.

“They took people’s land away; they took people’s language away. We’re kind of like the last descendants of that generation,” said Ben.

Seven generations in, the brothers grew up in predominantly White neighborhoods, where they faced subtle but damaging prejudice. To fit in, not learning the native language was encouraged.

“There’s always this identity crisis of, ‘Am I too Hispanic? Am I not Hispanic enough?’ Like the movie ‘Selena’, we’ve got to be more American than the Americans and more Mexican than the Mexicans, and we have to work twice as hard,” said Ben.

Growing up in English-speaking households, they were culture-shocked when visiting cities like Los Angeles and Las Vegas, feeling they weren’t Mexican enough for not being able to speak Spanish.

“People need to be more educated about the people in this country. Some have been here long before it was established as the United States,” said Ben.

Now the brothers want to learn Spanish to teach the language to their future children one day.