Campaign Finance

CLC anticipates this will enfranchise tens of thousands of voters in Arizona that were denied because of unnecessary bureaucracy

PHOENIX – Today, Campaign Legal Center (CLC) reached a settlement agreement with the Secretary of State of Arizona and the Maricopa County Recorder over a lawsuit on behalf of League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC) and Arizona Students’ Association (ASA) challenging the state’s overly burdensome voter registration process. When the lawsuit was filed, Maricopa County Recorder Adrian Fontes chose not to take a position on the merits of the lawsuit. The Secretary and Recorder have agreed to nearly all of the requested changes.

CLC attorneys anticipate this will result in the enfranchisement of tens of thousands of voters in Arizona whose voter registrations were rejected because of unnecessary bureaucracy. CLC was joined in its lawsuit by the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law. Spencer G. Scharff, Shute, Mihaly & Weinberger, and Luis Roberto Vera, Jr. served as private co-counsel in the case.

Going forward, Arizona will treat all registrants the same regardless of whether they use the state or federal form, easing a registration process that was one of the most complicated in the country. The state will register all voters for federal elections. Although Arizona will continue to enforce its documentary proof of citizenship requirement for state elections, it will check the motor vehicles database for citizenship documentation before limiting voters to federal-only elections. This will ensure that voters will not be turned away from any election when the state already has the information it says it needs.

“Secretary Reagan’s agreement to these commonsense changes is an affirmation that democracy works best when all citizens can vote without barriers,” said Danielle Lang, senior legal counsel, voting rights and redistricting at CLC. “Our lawsuit will successfully protect eligible Arizonans from being unfairly prevented from registering to vote and participating in federal elections because of unnecessary requirements. We are pleased that the bureaucratic nightmare in Arizona is coming to an end.”

“Barriers to registration stand as one of the greatest threats to democracy today. As a result of our litigation, Arizona is taking steps to ensure that Arizona’s voter registration process is open and more equitable for all Arizona residents,” said Kristen Clarke, President and Executive Director of the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law. “Ensuring equal access to the voting box for eligible voters is critical in maintaining an open and fair democratic process and this settlement helps ensure that more voters will have their voices heard this election cycle.”

“This is a victory for Arizona students,” said Shayna Stevens, outgoing executive director of the Arizona Students’ Association, a student-led nonprofit organization that conducts outreach to promote student voting. “For lawmakers to hear the student voice, students must have easy access to voting. We are thrilled that students will no longer be required to fill out duplicate forms or dig up their original birth certificates and passports, which made access to the ballot difficult for no reason.”

“This settlement is a key victory in the fight for fair and equal access to elections across the country,” said Andrew Schwartz, a partner in Shute Mihaly & Weinberger LLP, co-counsel with CLC.

After learning from state advocates that Arizona’s system had disenfranchised at least 26,000 eligible voters in Maricopa County alone, CLC and its partners filed a legal complaint on behalf LULAC and ASA with the U.S. District Court for the District of Arizona on Nov. 7, 2017 challenging the state’s dual registration system as an undue burden on the right to vote and the Constitution’s promise of equal protection. Read CLC's case page for background information.

On Friday, Governor Larry Hogan of Maryland allowed the Online Electioneering Transparency and Accountability Act (OETA) to become law. The law will improve the disclosure of digital political advertising online. It will apply the same reporting standards applicable to political advertising on traditional media outlets – such as television and radio stations – to communications disseminated through online platforms. It will also introduce new record-keeping obligations for online platforms on which political advertising is purchased, giving voters important information about the sources of digital ads.

“Passing the OETA has made Maryland a national leader in the transparency of online political advertising, and should serve as a model for other states,” said Catie Kelley, director, policy and state programs at Campaign Legal Center (CLC). “While Congress does nothing to remedy the problems we had with foreign money in the 2016 elections, states are showing their commitment to making election spending more transparent in the digital age. As the spending by candidates and outside groups increasingly moves online, our disclosure laws must keep up. Maryland’s law will institute greater accountability for online platforms that host these ads, and helps root out the kind of foreign interference campaign that Russia waged in 2016.”

CLC sent a letter to Hogan in April urging him to sign the OETA. 

Walter Shaub, senior director, ethics at Campaign Legal Center (CLC) released the following statement:

“The release of President Trump’s financial disclosure report today confirms that his debt to Michael Cohen should have been disclosed in last year’s report. It bears an annotation on the cover page by OGE stating as much. President Trump’s attorney, Rudy Giuliani, claims the president didn’t know about the payment when he filed that report last year, but this explanation seems implausible. For one thing, Giuliani admits that the president started repaying his debt to Cohen months before he filed his financial disclosure report. 

In this context, we at Campaign Legal Center were heartened to see that the acting Director of the Office of Government Ethics, David Apol, referred the matter to Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein. It remains to be seen whether the Department of Justice (DOJ) will step up and do its job. If DOJ investigates and determines that President Trump knew of his debt to Cohen when he filed last year’s report, there will be reason to suspect that his omission of the debt from last year’s report was ‘knowing and willful,’ which would be a crime. I note that no one from the Trump camp asked OGE last year whether the debt was reportable and that, instead, President Trump’s attorney asked OGE to allow him to be the first filer in history to be excused from the obligation to certify that his report was true.” 

Read the letter sent by OGE to Rod Rosenstein.