CLC’s Saurav Ghosh on FEC Rules on Potential Coordination between super PACs and candidates’ campaigns

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Washington, D.C. — Given increased attention to Elon Musk’s founding of “America PAC,” a super PAC that has made significant political contributions in support of former president Donald Trump’s reelection campaign, and Musk’s appearances at Trump campaign events, Saurav Ghosh — CLC’s Director, Federal Campaign Finance Reform — released the following statement on Federal Election Commission (FEC) rules regarding potential coordination between super PACs and candidates’ campaigns: 

“Voters have a right to a government that is responsive to their needs, not to wealthy special interests. Federal campaign finance laws prohibit coordination between super PACs and candidates’ campaigns. Yet candidates and super PACs often push these legal boundaries, as Donald Trump and Elon Musk—the billionaire founder and primary donor of the “America PAC” super PAC—are doing when Musk regularly appears at Trump’s campaign events. This conveys to everyday voters that Musk and the corporations he leads could enjoy deep access, influence, and power should Trump win the election.     

Solutions need to come from Congress, which can pass laws that more comprehensively define ‘coordination’ and prohibit well-known coordination strategies (e.g., redboxing), and from the Federal Election Commission (FEC), which is responsible for enforcing the federal campaign finance laws that prohibit coordination. Unfortunately, the FEC has a poor track record on this crucial issue: In the nearly 15 years since the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Citizens United effectively gave birth to super PACs, the FEC has almost never enforced the laws prohibiting coordination. Earlier this year, the FEC issued an advisory opinion explicitly permitting super PACs to coordinate with candidates with respect to paid door-to-door canvassing operations — a strategy that Musk’s America PAC immediately adopted to help elect Trump.   

To protect voters’ right to a responsive and accountable government, both Congress and the FEC must do the vital work of ensuring that super PACs — and the wealthy special interests that finance them — are genuinely ‘independent’ of candidates and their campaigns.”

Issues
Campaign Finance

Protecting Military and Overseas Voters from Frivolous Mass Challenges in Georgia (Secure Families Initiative v. Raffensperger)

At a Glance

Campaign Legal Center is representing Secure Families Initiative in challenging a new Georgia law that makes it more likely to deprive military and overseas voters of their freedom to vote by forcing counties to sustain unfounded voter challenges brought by bad actors.

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Voting and Elections
About This Case/Action

A new Georgia law, S.B. 189, threatens to prevent Americans living and serving overseas from making their voice heard in Georgia elections by making it more difficult for counties to dismiss unsubstantiated and incorrect challenges to an American’s voter registration or their eligibility to vote.  

Ultimately, S.B. 189 makes it easier for bad actors to deny Americans their freedom to vote, without evidence, using mass challenges.  

Some states, including Georgia, allow a registered voter to challenge a fellow American’s voter registration or eligibility to vote. In recent years, these laws have been abused by bad actors who bring hundreds of thousands of unproven challenges. These mass challenges are often filled with errors and largely dismissed.

Mass challenge laws have long been used in this country to target recently naturalized citizens, voters of color, student voters, and voters with disabilities. S.B. 189 puts voters that have temporarily moved or are temporarily without permanent residential addresses -- such as military members deployed overseas -- at risk of being wrongly challenged.

CLC represents Secure Families Initiative, a nonprofit that advocates on behalf of military members and their families, in the lawsuit, which argues that S.B. 189 violates federal law and infringes on military and overseas voters’ fundamental freedom to vote.

What’s at Stake

Military and overseas voters already face more barriers than the average American in exercising their freedom to vote. Miliary and overseas voters move frequently, but even when out of state retain their residence and their freedom to vote. However, it can be difficult for military members to make their voices heard at times because these voters are overseas.

For example, military and overseas voters often have to request an absentee ballot because they can’t vote in-person. Living abroad could also mean mail times are less reliable, and they don’t have the benefit of drop boxes.

S.B. 189 makes it even harder for military and overseas voters to make their voice heard by making it easier to challenge an American’s freedom to vote while they are serving or living outside Georgia.  Brave service members, their families and other Americans abroad should have the same opportunity to vote as any other American. Not only do mass challenges put Americans’ freedom to vote in jeopardy, they also overwhelm election officials during a busy election season.

Military and overseas voters deserve to have their voices heard in our elections just as all other American citizens do.  Our democracy works best when every voter can participate, but S.B. 189 runs contrary to that goal. We hope the court will step in to ensure that every American has an equal opportunity to make their voice heard this November.   

Associated Cases & Actions

Securing Our Elections
Every Vote Counts: Combating Election Sabotage and Safeguarding Our Democracy

Protecting Military and Overseas Voters from Last Minute Georgia Election Rules

At a Glance

Campaign Legal Center filed “friend of the court” briefs — on behalf of a nonprofit organization — in four lawsuits challenging the Georgia State Election Board’s illegal rules passed at the last minute before the 2024 presidential election.

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Active
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Issues
Voting and Elections
About This Case/Action

On the eve of the 2024 presidential election, the Georgia State Election Board passed several new rules at the eleventh hour that threaten to disenfranchise voters, specifically military and overseas voters.  

Campaign Legal Center is stepping in to file “friend of the court” briefs in four lawsuits challenging the illegal rules. The briefs were filed on behalf of Secure Families Initiative (SFI), a nonprofit that advocates on behalf of military members and their families.

Georgia counties must certify their election by the mandatory deadline by law. It is essential that counties do not open the door to delays. The state election board’s new rules open the door for counties to attempt to delay critical election deadlines, which would violate both state and federal law.  

One of the new rules requires poll workers to count and recount the ballots until they all arrive at the same number of ballots separately, mandates that poll workers compare the hand counts to the scanner counts, and instructs the precinct poll manager to “correct the inconsistency” where possible. This new rule could unfairly and illegally disenfranchise military voters who serve their country and go out of their way to make their voices heard.

What is at Stake

Military and overseas voters already face more barriers than the average American in exercising their freedom to vote. For example, they must request an absentee ballot because they can’t vote in-person, they don’t have the benefit of drop boxes, and living abroad could also mean mail times are less reliable.    

The election board’s new rules could make it even more challenging for military and overseas voters to make their voices heard in elections.    

Brave service members, their families and other Americans abroad should have the same opportunity to vote as any other American. Not only do these new rules put Americans’ freedom to vote in jeopardy, but hand counting the number of all ballots could overwhelm election officials during a busy election season.  

CLC and SFI hope that the courts will take swift action in all four of these cases to ensure counties follow the law and all the required steps so the 2024 election is secure, accurate and certified on time.

 

Associated Cases & Actions

Securing Our Elections
Every Vote Counts: Combating Election Sabotage and Safeguarding Our Democracy

Lawsuit Challenges Recent Voter Roll Purges in Virginia Preventing Eligible US Citizens from Voting

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RICHMOND, VIRGINIA – Yesterday, the Virginia Coalition for Immigrant Rights and the League of Women Voters of Virginia filed a lawsuit in federal court to challenge the state’s policy of illegally and systematically removing voters from the rolls only one month before the upcoming election. The plaintiffs are represented by Campaign Legal Center, the Protect Democracy Project, Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, and Advancement Project.

The lawsuit alleges that these systematic purges of Virginia’s voter rolls violate the National Voter Registration Act and risk improper removal of eligible voters, particularly those who are naturalized US citizens.

The challenged policy is a result of Executive Order 35, which was signed by Governor Glenn Youngkin in August and requires state and local election officials to remove individuals from the state voter registration list if Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) records do not indicate US citizenship. However, as the complaint explains, Virginia driver’s licenses are available to non-citizens and can remain valid for up to eight years, meaning people who obtained driver’s licenses as non-citizens, subsequently became US citizens, and lawfully registered to vote are being unlawfully purged from the voter rolls based on outdated DMV information.

“Every American has the freedom to vote regardless of where they were born. Instead of protecting Americans’ freedom, Virginia is using stale data to illegally purge voters right before the 2024 Election,” said Bruce V. Spiva, Senior Vice President at Campaign Legal Center. “The Department of Elections is engaged in a process that targets qualified US citizens, and we filed the lawsuit to protect voters’ fundamental freedom to vote.”

The Executive Order requires the Department of Elections (ELECT) to send only one notice to individuals warning they could be removed from the rolls, and there is no requirement that ELECT or local officials confirm the accuracy of the DMV information the notice relies upon. Individual voters have less than 14 days to respond to the notice in order to avoid removal — a burden that falls disproportionately on naturalized US citizens.

“Naturalized citizens serve in our armed forces, pay taxes, and show their patriotism daily with their acts and contributions to our society. The attacks against the voting rights of naturalized citizens are a vicious attack against our democracy. Forcing new American communities to carry undue burden that no other community is required to comply with is discrimination, and does not represent the values that our Commonwealth stands for. We demand the immediate dissolution of Executive Order 35, and for Governor Youngkin to stand in support and comply with the 1993 National Voting Rights Act” said Monica Sarmiento, Executive Director of the Virginia Coalition for Immigrant Rights.

To prevent states from disenfranchising eligible voters, the National Voter Registration Act prohibits the conduct of systematic voter list maintenance “within 90 days preceding an election for federal office.” The removal of ineligible voters is permitted but must be based on individualized information or an investigation.

“We are proud to stand up for voters today against the Governor's illegal purging of registered voters based on flawed and outdated information,” said Joan Porte, president of the League of Women Voters of Virginia. “Instead of making our elections safer, power-hungry elected officials are sowing fear and distrust in our election. Virginians need to know that the League will ensure that all eligible voters can have their voice heard at the ballot box.”

“The right to vote is a fundamental one, and states have a responsibility to ensure that eligible voters are not erroneously removed from the voter rolls. Instead, Virginia is fast-tracking removals based on faulty DMV data without doing anything to verify its accuracy,” said Ryan Snow, counsel with the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law. “This will disenfranchise eligible new American voters, who are disproportionately voters of color, on the eve of an election.”

The policy challenged in this lawsuit appears to be motivated by false and bad-faith claims about immigrants voting in order to confuse voters about the results of the November election. Only eligible Americans vote and every state, including Virginia, has legal checks and balances to ensure only citizens vote in our elections.

“Virginia’s policy is part of a campaign to undermine the public’s trust in the election process,” said Orion Danjuma, Counsel with The Protect Democracy Project, Inc. “The fact is, only eligible Americans vote. Evidence from previous elections overwhelmingly bears this out.”

"Cycle after cycle, our elections have proven to be safe and secure and still, there is a concerted, nefarious effort of state officials purging eligible citizens from the rolls based on fraudulent data and dangerous lies," said Celina Stewart, Chief Executive Officer of the League of Women Voters of the United States. "The League will continue to speak out against bad actors who threaten our democracy. And we will continue to leverage every tool in our toolbox to ensure voters are protected from those who seek to spread lies and distrust in our elections."

“Election officials owe Virginia voters free and fair elections. This means stopping the unlawful practice of purging voters, which is disproportionately impacting voters of color, on the eve of Election Day,” said John Powers, Director of the Power & Democracy Program at Advancement Project. “We will continue to use every available tool to protect the right to vote and to ensure that all voters’ voices are heard.”

Voters with questions about their voter registration or any aspect of voting should contact the nonpartisan Election Protection hotlines:

866-OUR-VOTE (English)

888-VE-Y-VOTA (Spanish)

844-YALLA-US (Arabic)

888-API-VOTE (Bengali, Cantonese, Hindi, Korean, Mandarin, Punjabi, Tagalog, Urdu, Vietnamese)

Read the Complaint

Issues
Voting and Elections
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