Florida is one of several states, including Kansas, Missouri and Texas, where Republicans have enacted voting restrictions since 2021 that created or enhanced criminal penalties and fines for those who assist voters. The laws have forced some voter outreach groups to cease operations, while others have greatly altered or reduced their activities.
The Florida law, signed by Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis last May, imposed a $50,000 fine on third-party voter registration organizations if the staff or volunteers who handle or collect the forms have been convicted of a felony or are not U.S. citizens. It also raised the fines the groups could face, from $1,000 to $250,000, and reduced the amount of time they are able to return registration applications from 14 days to 10 days.
A federal judge blocked portions of the law earlier this month, including the one targeting felons and those who are not citizens. Even so, the law had a direct effect on the operations of Equal Ground and other voter advocacy organizations in the state before the ruling.
The League of Women Voters in Florida, one of the plaintiffs, shifted away from in-person voter registration to digital outreach. Cecile Scoon, the league’s co-president, said the law stripped the personal connection between its workers and communities. Digital tools aren’t easy to use when registering voters and can be expensive, she said….
“The Republican Nominee to Lead Oregon Elections Wants to Stop All Mail Voting”
The moderator of an April candidate forum hosted by the City Club of Central Oregon wanted to know: Could the Republicans running for secretary of state confirm that, if elected, they’d certify the results of Oregon elections, even when their preferred candidates lose?
That would depend, candidate Dennis Linthicum responded. He’d first want to check with citizen activists.
“No detective will ever find a body in the backyard if he doesn’t look,” said Linthicum, who is currently a state senator representing a district in south central Oregon. “So, at some point, the public is the best lookers we have. They’re out there, they’re investigating. You’ve got people doing the math. You’ve got people chasing ballots and understanding how ballot harvesting has been harming the public.”
At no point in the forum did Linthicum provide evidence of widespread voter fraud in Oregon—there isn’t any—but that has never stopped him. He is part of a nationwide network of conservative officials and cultural influencers who have stoked election-related conspiracies for years now. Three years ago, he joined lawmakers from around the country in calling for an audit of the 2020 presidential election in all 50 states based on unspecified “fraud and irregularities.”
Linthicum last week easily captured the GOP nomination to be secretary of state, Oregon’s top elections official. The office oversees voter registration and voting procedures, and is also charged with certifying election results.
“Trump makes sweeping promises to donors on audacious fundraising tour”
Trump sometimes makes requests higher than his team expects to receive, sometimes surprising his own advisers because he is asking for so much money. By frequently tying the fundraising requests within seconds of promises of tax cuts, oil project infrastructure approvals and other favorable policies and asking for sums more than his campaign and the GOP can legally accept from an individual, Trump is also testing the boundaries of federal campaign finance laws, according to legal experts.
In one recent meeting staged by his Save America super PAC, Trump asked oil industry executives to raise $1 billion for his campaign and said raising such a sum would be a “deal” given how much money they would save if he were reelected as president.
In recent meetings with donors, he has repeatedly suggested they should give millions of dollars without saying where it should go.
Larry Noble, a longtime campaign finance lawyer, said Trump was technically allowed to ask only for contributions of $3,300 or less for his campaign, according to federal laws. But he can appear at events for his super PAC where the price of admission is far higher — as long as he doesn’t ask for the money directly.
“He can’t say, ‘I want you to give me $1 million,’” Noble said.
And after a 2016 Supreme Court decision overturning a public-corruption conviction of former Virginia governor Robert F. McDonnell, it would require an explicit quid pro quo for a specific government action in direct exchange for a contribution to be viewed as illegal, Noble said….
“Leading pollster spreads Dominion voting machine misinformation”
With almost a half million followers on X, the pollster Rasmussen has a wide reach. Former president Donald Trump repeatedly cited its polls when he was president as it consistently showed a higher approval rating for him than other pollsters.
Now Rasmussen’s social media account is fanning previously debunked claims that Dominion Voting Systems machines could somehow be manipulated via the internet.
Rasmussen’s source is a former Michigan state senator who traffics in election conspiracy theories and is president of a self-described election integrity group called the Michigan Grassroots Alliance. That former lawmaker cited emails released by a far-right sheriff, who obtained them from an attorney involved in a lawsuit filed by Dominion, despite a protective order agreed to by the parties in the case.
Confused? That’s part of the point. The idea is to create a lot of smoke to make people think there is a fire.
“Putting a halt to state election law that blocked candidates is the right move”
Changing the rules in the middle game to give yourself the advantage is never a fair strategy.
That is how Illinois Republicans described the new law Gov. J.B. Pritzker signed earlier this month that requires state House and Senate candidates to run in the primary if they want to end up on the November general election ballot. Typically, party leaders have slated candidates for the November ballot in late spring if the party had no one run in the primary.
The legislation is nothing more than a “dictator-style tactic of stealing an election,” Republicans have contended, as it takes away party leaders’ ability to choose a general election candidate. Democrats have maintained that the law tamps down “backroom” deals.
Maybe so. But there’s no question the law, if allowed to go into effect, would give the Democrat-dominated legislature the upper hand for this year’s general election. The law looks to us like pure gamesmanship. The move, we think, is meant to protect Democrats who hold vulnerable seats.
Prospective Republican candidates hoping to be slated by the party have a legitimate complaint, since the rules were revised in the middle of an election cycle….
“For a party that espouses being the watchdog for voter disenfranchisement, well, this goes against their basic philosophical bent,” said Daniel Behr, one of the four Republicans who filed the lawsuit.
Good point. Not to mention that voters deserve a chance to have options and competitive races on their ballot, something the new law would restrict.
“Don’t Blame Me for Biden’s Ballot Problem”
Ohio SOS Frank LaRose in the WSJ.
In Ohio we say that if you don’t like the weather, wait five minutes. The same can be said lately of our politics.
The Democratic Party’s antics after its failure to get Joe Biden on the ballot in Ohio are both entertaining and hypocritical. Since 2020 the political left has decried perceived attempts to manipulate laws governing elections as threats to democracy. If you dared to question the electoral process—or worse, hired a lawyer to challenge it—you’d be politically persecuted as a traitor. You might even flip through talking heads on news channels declaring you constitutionally ineligible to appear on a ballot ever again.
But that was yesterday’s script, when the frenzy over election manipulation was the left’s favorite cause. Today’s threat to democracy is apparently me. As Ohio’s chief elections officer, I refuse to bend the rules to benefit a candidate. Critics allege that my decision to uphold the law will deprive Ohio voters of the opportunity to choose their president. Never mind that I didn’t create this problem, nor do I wish for that outcome.
I miss the old Frank LaRose.
“Libertarians Skip Over Trump and R.F.K. Jr. for Chase Oliver”
NYT:
The Libertarian Party chose one of its own as its presidential nominee on Sunday night, capping a grueling day of elimination voting and a boisterous four-day event, where both Donald J. Trump and Robert F. Kennedy Jr. unsuccessfully sought… Continue reading
Meet the Press Dedicated Entire Episode to the Threat to Democracy in the U.S. [Corrected link]
I wish this episode was not relegated to a holiday weekend when few are watching. Description:
Secretaries of State Brad Raffensperger (R-Ga.), Jocelyn Benson (D-Mich.), Al Schmidt (R-Penn.) and Adrian Fontes (D-Ariz.) join a special edition of Meet the Press… Continue reading
“Debunking misinformation failed. Welcome to ‘pre-bunking’; Election officials around the world are adopting ‘prebunking’ campaigns, as AI and other threats jeopardize voting.”
WaPo:
Election officials and researchers from Arizona to Taiwan are adopting a radical playbook to stop falsehoods about voting before they spread online, amid fears that traditional strategies to battle misinformation are insufficient in a perilous year for democracies around… Continue reading
“New Hampshire Senate passes bill to eliminate all exceptions to voter ID law”
WMUR:
New Hampshire Republicans advanced legislation Friday that would eliminate all exceptions to the state’s voter ID law.
Gov. Chris Sununu could soon be facing a decision on whether to make a big change to voting procedures in a presidential… Continue reading
“Judge rules Menendez’s prosecutors can’t show ‘critical’ evidence”
Politico:
Jurors in Sen. Bob Menendez’s corruption case cannot see evidence prosecutors have called “critical” to part of their case, a federal judge ruled Friday.
The decision puts a hole in prosecutors’ ability to prove their central claim: that… Continue reading
Brandon Johnson: “There’s ‘Clear Error’ in the Supreme Court’s New Racial Gerrymandering Decision
The following is a guest post from Brandon Johnson:
The Supreme Court has made a habit of applying general rules of law in exceptional ways when deciding election law cases. The Court has, for example, elevated the holding in… Continue reading
“Push grows to mandate paper ballots as N.Y. counties eye touch-screen voting”
“New racial gerrymandering lawsuit takes aim at South Florida’s powerful congressional districts”
WLRN:
South Florida has another racial gerrymandering fight on its hands, and the outcome could dictate who gets sent to Washington and Tallahassee to represent millions of local residents.
A swath of plaintiffs from Miami-Dade County, including progressive political advocacy… Continue reading