Louisiana Lawmakers Advance Bill To Ban ‘Zuckbucks’ In Elections
The 2020 presidential election was subject to numerous allegations of fraud and interference, which has left a cloud of suspicion over the results that remains to this day.
One of the most controversial issues was the apparent influence of social media platforms, including hundreds of millions of dollars that Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg donated to nonprofit organizations including the Center for Tech and Civil Life. These organizations in turn supported nationwide efforts to expand the use of absentee ballots and other election reform measures that critics say opened the election up to fraud.
The original donations have since become known as “Zuckbucks” and widely seen as a symptom of a larger problem affecting the U.S. electoral system. Earlier this week, lawmakers in Louisiana’s Republican-led House of Representatives advanced a bill meant to prohibit private cash from being used to impact how elections are held.
According to the proposal: “No funds, goods, or services donated by a foreign government or a nongovernmental source shall be used to conduct elections unless provided for in the election code and subject to restrictions provided by general law.”
Records show that the state received more than $1 million in the so-called Zuckbucks ahead of the 2020 election.
If the measure passes the state Senate by a two-thirds margin, it will be offered as a ballot initiative in an upcoming election and, upon approval, become a constitutional amendment.
Other states have already banned or limited the use of such private donations, but that has not stopped liberal activists from looking for other ways to influence elections.
A collective of leftist nonprofit organizations called the U.S. Alliance for Election Excellence is already pursuing its plans for the 2024 election. While the strategy in states without restrictions would closely resemble that of the 2020 election season, Honest Elections Project Executive Director Jason Snead described how the affiliated groups plan to bypass restrictions in the rest of the states.
Instead of accepting private donations, election offices in these states will reportedly be able to “buy their way” into the Alliance “for a relatively small sum,” which Snead asserted would allow the organization “to spread its influence even in states where lawmakers have tried to prevent it.”
If the Louisiana measure is ultimately approved, more than half of all U.S. states will have some form of prohibition on the books.
