“Trump’s financial disclosures reveal millions in income from guitars, bibles and watches with his name on them”

conflict of interest laws

NBC News:

President Donald Trump continues to enjoy income streams from scores of luxury properties and business ventures, many of which are worth tens of millions of dollars, according to a financial disclosure form filed late Friday.

Released by the Office of Government Ethics, Trump’s 2025 financial disclosure spans 234 pages in all, including 145 pages of stock and bond investments, and is dated Friday with Trump’s signature.

One of the largest sources of income on the form is the $57,355,532 he received from his ownership stake in World Liberty Financial, the cryptocurrency platform launched last year. The form shows that World Liberty’s sales of digital tokens have been highly lucrative for Trump and his family. Trump’s three sons, Donald Jr., Eric, and Barron, are listed on the company’s website as co-founders of the firm….

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“Billionaire Michael Bloomberg opens his wallet for Andrew Cuomo’s mayoral bid”

campaign finance, Plutocrats United

Politico:

Billionaire Michael Bloomberg was no fan of Andrew Cuomo when the two served overlapping tenures as mayor and governor. But on Friday all appeared forgiven, with Bloomberg’s $5 million donation to a super PAC boosting Cuomo’s mayoral bid.

It’s the largest cash infusion yet to the entity and comes in the final 10 days of the Democratic primary to oust Mayor Eric Adams, once a Bloomberg ally. The former mayor — a party hopscotcher who is now a Democrat — is jumping in as Cuomo faces a threat from democratic socialist challenger Zohran Mamdani, whose views on hiking taxes on the rich and criticisms of Israel are anathema to Bloomberg….

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“Colorado Strengthens Access to Ballots in Spanish”

Voting Rights Act

Bolts:

With these voters in mind, Colorado lawmakers this spring adopted reforms that will improve access to ballots in Spanish, which should benefit tens of thousands of voters. 

Senate Bill 1, a landmark package called the Colorado Voting Rights Act that the Democratic majorities in the state legislature adopted last month, includes requirements that dozens of cities provide multilingual ballots during local elections, bridging a major gap in access for voting in those races. 

Some places in Colorado, including Denver, already print ballots in both Spanish and English for every election. But until the passage of SB 1, each city was left to decide whether to provide multilingual ballots—and many places with large numbers of non-native English speakers chose not to do so. Frustrated by this, voting rights advocates pushed for stronger mandates, and are now celebrating their success with SB 1. 

Still, the advocates also stress that the bill leaves several gaps in place. They warn that language access will remain weaker for voters who speak a language other than English and Spanish, for instance, and they vow to keep pressing for fixes. “We want others to not go through what we went through,” said Hernandez, who today serves on the steering committee of the Colorado Language Access Coalition….

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June and July ELB Bloggers

Uncategorized

Here’s the revised schedule. Please send your tips and queries to the ELB contributor on duty that week:

Week of June 16, 2025Tabatha Abu El-Haj
Week of June 23, 2025Justin Levitt
Week of June 30, 2025Rick Pildes
Week of July 7, 2025Guy Charles
Week of July 14, 2025Dan Tokaji
Week of July 21, 2025Dan Tokaji
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“Ex-New York Assembly Candidate Charged With Campaign Finance Fraud”

campaign finance, chicanery

NYT:

A former New York State Assembly candidate used fake donations and forged signatures to fraudulently inflate the share of public matching funds he received in last year’s election, federal prosecutors said on Friday.

The former candidate, Dao Yin, was charged with wire fraud in a federal criminal complaint. He was scheduled to make his initial appearance before a magistrate judge in Federal District Court in Brooklyn on Friday afternoon.

The charging of Mr. Yin, a Democrat who ran for a State Assembly seat in Queens, came a year after The New York Times published an investigation that found he appeared to have listed dozens of fake donors to increase his allotment of money under a new state matching-funds program meant to increase the power of donors making small political contributions.

Prosecutors said Mr. Yin, 62, had abused the system by using a scheme that The Times found yielded him $162,000 in matching funds. It was one of the largest sums received by an Assembly candidate last year, despite Mr. Yin’s relatively unheralded status….

Mr. Yin’s campaign filings contained glaring red flags, The Times found. Half of the money he raised directly from individuals came in cash, the least traceable form of donation. It was a much higher proportion than the 5.2 percent average for all other Assembly candidates who participated in the matching program.

Only nine of 300 contribution cards he turned in contained the required contact information for the donors, including phone numbers and email addresses. Even so, the state Public Campaign Finance Board granted him matching public funds, records show….

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ES&S Responds to NYDN Editorial Against Its Voting Machine

voting technology

In response to the New York Daily News editorial that I linked to, ES&S sends along this reply:

Paper ballots? Yes!

By Tierra Williams, ES&S Regional Manager, New York

It’s true: good old paper remains the best way to run secure, foolproof elections. That’s why every single voting system ES&S makes, including the ExpressVote XL, produces a paper record that can be audited and verified.

For years, a small but vocal group of skeptics have repeated the same tired refrain about the ExpressVote XL, a voting machine made by my company, claiming it’s hackable, insecure, and unverifiable. Those claims are simply not true, and we believe New Yorkers deserve a full and accurate picture.

The ExpressVote XL relies on paper. Voters make their selections on a 32-inch touchscreen, then those selections are printed on a paper ballot for tabulation. That same paper record is used for auditing, as well. Post-election audits consistently demonstrate the paper records match what the XL reports.

Baseless and inaccurate claims about the XL are nothing new. They have been debunked time and again, including in courts of law. New York and Pennsylvania courts have dismissed or ruled against “baseless and irrational” attacks on this proven technology. The XL is backed by independent research, and hundreds of real elections with millions of ballots cast accurately and securely have consistently shown these speculations to be false.

The XL is tried and tested. Proven and trusted. Voters in New Jersey, Philadelphia, and Delaware have relied on it since 2019. In New York, voters in Monroe County led the way in adopting it, and county commissioners say the XLs are getting rave reviews. Poll workers report that the system is easy to set up and manage. Voters say they love how easy it is to use and that it’s easy to check their selections on the paper ballot.

Critics often claim the system is “unverifiable” by voters, but the facts say otherwise. Every single voter can review their selections before casting the paper record. Voters control their selections with the XL. As mandated by New York law, the ExpressVote XL provides the voter “an opportunity to privately and independently verify votes selected and the ability to privately and independently change such votes or correct any error before the ballot is cast and counted.”

The XL combines the best of both worlds: the security of paper and the accessibility of a touchscreen interface. ALL voters—including those with sight, reading, or other physical impairments—can vote independently and confidently. Everybody votes on the same device. This voting experience also eliminates voter mistakes like stray marks or indecipherable selections—which can result in a contest or an entire ballot to not be counted—ensuring ballots are counted as the voter intended.

Long lines? To the contrary. The XL has been praised for its speed and ease of use. Voters enjoy a fast, private voting experience—around 80 seconds on average, and sometimes as quick as 20 seconds.

And what about hacking? Nope. Researchers at New York’s Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) conducted a 10-day penetration test and couldn’t find a single way to hack the results of a real-world election. Not one. In fact, the New York State Board of Elections (NYSBOE) had two technology companies independently validate the quality, accuracy and security of the system.

So why do false claims continue to surface? We honestly don’t know. Perhaps because change is hard or it’s easy to distrust something unfamiliar. The good news is there are thousands of voters to listen to about the XL—voters who have tried it, tested it, and trusted it. We think more New Yorkers should be able to experience that feeling as well. And we think naysayers attacking a voting system that has consistently performed well and passed every test of security and accessibility are doing a disservice to every voter in New York.

NYSBOE made the right call certifying the ExpressVote XL. The system meets and exceeds the rigorous federal testing standards established by the EAC—the same standards required by New York for certification.

We love paper. We also love saving jurisdictions millions of dollars they would otherwise spend on preprinted ballots that never get voted on and have to be thrown away every single election. In Monroe County alone, the Board of Elections said the new machines will save about a quarter of a million dollars each election year.

It’s time to stop the nonsense. And it’s time to trust what works. Let’s give voters the tools they need to vote securely, confidently, and independently—and move forward together in strengthening, not undermining, our democratic process.

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