Investigative reporting by the Chronicle of Philanthropy into Vote.org found a range of state regulatory compliance issues, including lapses in charity registration and poor recordkeeping. The Chronicle also found high staff turnover, employee dissatisfaction, and allegations of disability discrimination and retaliation. Vote.org and its CEO, Andrea Hailey, argue that the group’s fundraising growth has been robust and its compliance issues were products of Covid-related processing backlogs in state agencies. The organization denies the disability-discrimination allegations.

The Chronicle of Philanthropy:

Vote.org, a prominent voter-registration group, is in turmoil six months before a high-stakes presidential election. At a time when these organizations are typically gearing up for crucial voter-registration drives, it has lost a significant share of its staff since February because of resignations, layoffs, and firings.

The nonprofit’s problems appear to be years in the making, the result of lax board oversight and poor management by a CEO that some people who know and have worked with her say was unqualified for the role. The result has been million-dollar deficits, a lawsuit, high turnover, lapsed fundraising registrations in states across the country, and a complaint that was filed with the Internal Revenue Service in January.

The two candidates who will appear on the Arizona Green Party’s primary ballot in the state’s Senate race are allegedly being boosted by the major political parties. Meanwhile, the Green Party’s own preferred candidate failed to meet the state’s signature requirement to appear on the ballot, prompting a write-in push by the party.

Washington Post:

The state’s Green Party, a liberal group with just about 3,000 registered voters, suspects that one candidate for its nomination, Arturo Hernandez, is being boosted by Republicans and that the other, Mark Norton, is actually supported by Democrats.

“We have been suspicious of both of these people since the day they filed because we know our Greens,” said Arizona Green Party co-chair Cody Hannah. “We’re a small group. When somebody random jumps onto the primary ballot and starts collecting signatures, it sets off alarm bells.”

Hannah says that neither candidate has been a volunteer, officer or dues-paying member of the Green Party.

The Green Party rejects both candidates on its July 30primary ballot and is urging its members to write in Green Party of Pima County Chairperson Eduardo Quintana, who did not gather enough signatures in time to officially make the ballot.

I just posted this book chapter, forthcoming in a volume on the fiftieth anniversary of Buckley v. Valeo edited by Lee Bollinger and Geoffrey Stone. Here’s the abstract:

Courts and commentators often assume that “real” corruption—quid pro quo corruption—is largely absent in modern American politics. But it isn’t. In at least one important area, government contracting, quid pro quo exchanges remain common today. In this book chapter, I first survey the empirical literature establishing the continued prevalence of corruption in government contracting. Next, I outline a theory capable of explaining why corruption might be widespread in government contracting but rare in generic legislating. On this account, corruption is most likely when concentrated benefits can be allocated to private parties by individual politicians through secretive, nonsalient means. Finally, I explore the implications for law and policy of pervasive corruption in government contracting. Courts should uphold measures aimed at preventing trades of contributions for contracts. Policymakers should extend existing pay-to-play bans to contractors’ PACs, parent firms, subsidiaries, employees, and family members. And all of us should realize that the ghost of “real” corruption has hardly been exorcised.

Intelligencer:

Kari Lake knew exactly who stole the election from her. Two months after the 2022 gubernatorial election was called for her Democratic rival, Katie Hobbs, the self-proclaimed rightful governor of Arizona took to the stage for a rally at the Orange Tree Golf Club in Scottsdale where a photo was projected behind her showing two election officials: Stephen Richer and Bill Gates. “These guys,” she said, pointing to the screen.

The crowd cheered, “Lock them up! Lock them up!”

Lake went on to allege repeatedly that Richer and Gates, both lifelong Republicans, sabotaged her candidacy by injecting 300,000 bogus early votes into Maricopa County where they administered the election and misprinting Election Day ballots. “The incredible lengths that these two bozos went to trample and steal our vote,” said Lake. “Well these guys are really, really terrible at running elections, but I found out they’re really good at lying.”

Just over a year later though, Lake declined to defend those statements in a defamation lawsuit brought by Richer, admitting that none of them were true, or as her attorney recently told the judge in the case, “We did admit everything, as far as the facts.” As for herself, Lake claimed she defaulted for the greater good. “By participating in this lawsuit, it would only serve to legitimize this perversion of our legal system and allow bad actors to interfere in our upcoming election,” she said in a video posted online. “So I won’t be taking part.”

“Stop,” said Richer with a resigned laugh prior to her default. “Just, just stop.”

Though Lake effectively conceded, the case is not over. A jury will later determine how much she owes Richer in terms of damages — he is seeking millions — as well as the removal of Lake’s defamatory social-media posts. If other recent high-profile defamation cases are any indication — such as the one against Rudy Giuliani, who was ordered to pay two Georgia election workers $148 million — the price will not be cheap. With $2.5 million in her campaign’s bank account, a hefty judgment could harm her candidacy for a highly competitive seat that could determine who controls the Senate. But Richer has already won something that’s hard to put a price on: forcing one of the last leading election deniers in the country to go under oath, only to surrender.

CNN:

Two prominent 2020 election deniers in Michigan were charged Wednesday with allegedly tampering with election equipment and sharing voter data with an unauthorized third-party.

The defendants are former Adams Township clerk Stephanie Scott and pro-Trump attorney Stefanie Lambert, who is already facing charges in a separate election-tampering case in Michigan. Lambert also recently made news for publicly leaking emails from Dominion Voting Systems as part of her ongoing efforts to discredit the 2020 presidential election results.

Scott was charged with six crimes, and Lambert was charged with three. Both women are accused of felonies, including conspiracy, and giving unauthorized access to a computer.

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