CLC Testimony in Support of Transparency in North Dakota Elections

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On November 13, 2019, Erin Chlopak, CLC’s Director of Campaign Finance Strategy, testified on behalf of North Dakotans for Public Integrity (NDPI), the committee that sponsored the transparency ballot measure that passed as a constitutional amendment in 2018. Chlopak provided to the testimony to the Interim Judiciary Committee of the North Dakota Legislative Assembly, describing how wealthy special interests pour millions of dollars into state and federal elections while concealing their identity as the sources of that spending and even misleading voters about who is actually behind political advertising. Chlopak explained the U.S. Supreme Court’s long-standing approval of transparency requirements for election spending as foundational to democratic self-government and described how loopholes in current state and federal laws allow groups to spend enormous amounts of money in elections without disclosing the true source of that money. Chlopak also identified some key legislative features of election spending transparency rules that will ensure the true sources of election spending are disclosed.