Fourth GOP presidential primary debate: on Government Reform

Cato Institute: No massive ballot harvesting & no effect on 2020 election

Even for those of us who reject Trump's ridiculous stolen??election claims, there are genuine reasons to be skeptical about this practice. For those coming in late, ballot harvesting or ballot collection happens when one person gathers absentee/?mail ballots from many voters--bundling, you might say--for submission at a mail or drop box.

Dinesh D'Souza's [2022 documentary film] entitled "2000 Mules" sensationally alleged widespread fraudulent use of ballot harvesting in the 2020 election. I'll leave the critique of that movie to others--the Associated Press has already started the job, among others, and more is to come. AP quotes an academic I much respect: "There's no evidence a massive ballot harvesting scheme dumped a large amount of votes for one candidate into drop boxes, and if there were, it would likely be caught quickly.

Cato Institute: Zuckerbucks are not some vast scheme to rig the outcome

In the lead??up to the 2020 election, philanthropies backed by Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg provided grants to local election offices around the country to aid in administrative tasks, voter communication, and other work made more challenging by the COVID-19 pandemic--a program sometimes nicknamed Zuckerbucks.

Some Republicans have charged that the grants were improperly meant to assist Democrats by differentially increasing turnout of their likely voters, especially in bigger cities. Many backers of former President Donald Trump took the episode to heart as part of what they imagine to have been the rigging of the 2020 election.

Some states have lately chosen to ban these sorts of private donations to public election agencies. But claims that the Zuckerberg grants were part of some vast scheme to rig the outcome? The evidence is simply not there.

Ron DeSantis: Bring a reckoning & wreak havoc on this bureaucracy

Ron DeSantis: I would just remind people that is not how he governed. He didn't even fire Dr. Fauci. He didn't clean up the swamp. He said he was going to drain it. He did not drain it. He said he was going to build the wall and have Mexico pay for it. We don't have the wall. He did say in 2016 he'd have the largest deportation program in history. He deported less than Barack Obama did when Barack Obama was president. Some of these policies he ran on in '16, I was cheering him on then, but he didn't deliver it. Here's what I can promise people. 100% of the things I promised as governor, I delivered on those promises. That's what I'll do for you as president. I will go in and wreak havoc on this bureaucracy. You will see people fired and we are going to bring a reckoning for how this government handled COVID-19 and the lockdown.

Ron DeSantis: No Zuckerbucks & no ballot harvesting

Cato Institute "Zuckerbucks" explanation 9/12/22: Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg's foundation provided grants to local election offices around the country to aid in administrative tasks & voter communication--a program nicknamed Zuckerbucks.

Cato Institute "Ballot Harvesting" explanation 5/12/22: Ballot harvesting happens when one person gathers absentee/?mail ballots from many voters--bundling, you might say--for submission at a mail or drop box.

Vivek Ramaswamy: 75% reduction in number of federal bureaucrats