Today, Campaign Legal Center (CLC), Issue One and five former lawmakers from both parties submitted comments urging the Federal Election Commission (FEC) to clarify that the ban on personal use of campaign funds should apply to leadership PACs, in order to stop politicians from using the PACs as their personal slush funds. The organizations and...
On Friday, November 9, 2018 the Maricopa County Superior Court ordered all county recorders statewide to permit voters to “cure” their signature mismatch issue by the Wednesday, November 15 deadline to fix conditional provisional ballots. The parties agreed that the “cure” period requires county recorders to provide notice to voters with supposed...
Sweeping Victories for State Ballot Initiatives Send Clear Message – Americans Want Democracy Reform
In Tuesday’s election, Americans overwhelmingly voted to support measures that end extreme partisan gerrymandering, improve the way we fund elections to give every day voters a voice in the political process, expand voting access and move toward a more ethical and accountable government.
Campaign Legal Center helped draft and advise on many of...
Today, Campaign Legal Center (CLC), Dēmos and the MacArthur Justice Center filed a class action lawsuit challenging Ohio’s policy of disenfranchising eligible voters arrested just prior to the election and held in detention through Election Day.
Under Ohio’s current system, eligible voters who are held pretrial by the state are being...
The U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia ordered Secretary of State Brian Kemp to allow voters who were wrongly flagged as non-citizens to be allowed to cast regular ballots.
Campaign Legal Center (CLC), Asian Americans Advancing Justice-Atlanta and the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, on behalf of a coalition of...
Over the past decade, the Federal Election Commission (FEC) has developed a well-deserved reputation for dysfunction. It has deadlocked on more and more enforcement matters, stood idly by while hundreds of millions of dollars in dark money have flooded our elections, and failed to take even basic steps to update campaign finance law for the 21st...
CLC sent a letter on October 22 to Arizona Secretary of State Michele Reagan on behalf of the League of United Latin American Citizens Arizona (LULAC – Arizona), the League of Women Voters, and the Arizona Advocacy Network Foundation requesting that all mail-in voters be notified if their ballot is deemed unsatisfactory and have an opportunity to...
Recently, in a victory for transparency in elections, a D.C. District Court struck down a Federal Election Commission (FEC) rule that had allowed as much as $769 million in dark money to flow into our elections since the 2010 election cycle, according to a new Campaign Legal Center analysis.
As a result, groups that make independent expenditures...
Kevin Wong from Nevada thought he could not vote because of a past conviction. But he visited the website RestoreYourVote.org and learned the truth about his rights. He registered to vote that same day.
Kevin was incarcerated until 2016 and was released the day before that year's presidential elections. Highly interested in politics, Kevin was...
Frustrated by the failure of elected officials to address money in politics, ethics issues, attacks on voting rights and partisan gerrymandering – citizens across the country are taking the fight to protect democracy into their own hands through the state ballot initiative process.
During the call Citizens Take Charge: 2018 State Ballot...
Tired of waiting on Congress or the United States Supreme Court, citizens across the country are taking charge of democracy reform through state ballot initiatives.
This November voters will have the chance to vote to end extreme partisan gerrymandering, improve the way we fund elections to give every day voters a voice in the political process...
On Tuesday, November 6, citizens in North Dakota will vote on a ballot initiative that would go a long way to shedding light on financial influence over state government. Measure One would increase the transparency of spending in state elections, set limits on lobbying and misuse of campaign funds, and establish a state ethics commission.
Measure...
Tennessee Secretary of State Tre Hargett agreed to update the state’s website to correct inaccurate information about voter registration laws for citizens with past felony convictions. Tennessee’s actions come after over six months of pressure from Campaign Legal Center (CLC).
Tennessee has agreed to do three things:
- Post clear instructions abo...
The Federal Election Commission (FEC) approved a rulemaking petition, filed by Campaign Legal Center (CLC), Issue One and five former lawmakers from both parties. Published in the federal register today, The petition followed the release of our joint report, How Leadership PACs Became Politicians' Preferred Ticket to Luxury Living, highlighting the...
In our continued battle to end partisan gerrymandering, Campaign Legal Center (CLC), along with co-counsel, filed an amended complaint challenging Wisconsin’s 2011 state assembly map as a partisan gerrymander in the U.S. District Court in Wisconsin.
In June the Supreme Court declined to address the merits of the lower court’s decision. However, in...
Recently-released emails from Judge Kavanaugh’s time in the George W. Bush White House provide new insight into the nominee’s view on money in politics—and reveal that his hostility towards any reforms to limit the influence of big money on our political system may be deeper and more radical than his public judicial opinions have suggested.
Why do...
In the United States, up to 17 million Americans with prior convictions could register to vote today. Many more are eligible to restore their right to vote through an application process. However, millions are confused about whether they have the right to vote — or can have their rights restored — because of unnecessarily complicated and opaque...
Today, a North Carolina Court ruled that the state’s maps are an unconstitutional gerrymander for the second time. Plaintiffs in the case, Rucho v. League of Women Voters of North Carolina, expect the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of North Carolina’s decision to be appealed, taking the case back to the Supreme Court of the United...
Is the Federal Election Commission (FEC) so dysfunctional that super PACs think they can ignore basic reporting obligations and get away with it?
CLC filed three complaints last week asking the FEC to investigate three different super PACs, active in in Texas, Montana, and Ohio, for ignoring legal obligations that they file reports disclosing...
On Tuesday, CLC submitted comments urging the Department of Commerce not to include a proposed citizenship question on its 2020 Census because it would significantly lower and skew response rates, leading to an undercount of minority communities, which are already harder to count. An inaccurate and skewed Census count will undermine the right of...
It is illegal to make political contributions in the name of someone else. Yet, in recent months, three corporations appear to have been used to do just that.
The disclosure of who’s spending to influence elections is critical to our democracy—it’s how “citizens can see whether elected officials are ‘in the pocket’ of so-called moneyed interests,”...