How Can We Ensure that We Have Fair and Free Elections in the Future?

The topic of discussion for this Constitution Monday concerns the confidence of Americans in the elections. Both Democrats and Republicans have complained about recent elections. Democrats did not like what happened in the 2016 presidential election and considered Donald Trump to be an illegitimate president. The majority of Republicans consider the 2020 presidential election to be rigged in some way.

According to Fred Lucas at The Daily Signal, eight Republican members of the House of Representatives recently introduced a bill that would “block the use of private money to operate elections and curb the controversial process called ballot harvesting.” 

If the Protect American Election Administration Act becomes a law, the sponsors claim that it would block a “private takeover of government election administration.”

The legislation, introduced Thursday, also would prevent private funding for ballot harvesting or ballot curing. (Ballot harvesting is when political operatives collect and gather large quantities of absentee ballots; ballot curing is the term used when election officials try to discern the intent of a voter’s defective ballot.)

And the bill would prevent use of local governments’ election infrastructure to conduct “ideologically motivated voter outreach campaigns.”

“Zuckerbucks” provided by Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg and his wife Priscilla Chan had a big impact in Democrat counties of swing states. The couple spent “more than $400 million to provide grants for election administration in 2020, but they do not intend to provide “Zuckerbucks” again.

By banning private money for ballot harvesting or ballot curing as well as preventing local governments from using conducting one-sided outreach programs, the donors hope to “protect free and fair elections.”