Washington, D.C. — Today, Campaign Legal Center (CLC) filed a complaint with the Federal Election Commission (FEC) against “PassionForest, LLC,” and any unknown person(s) that made a $500,000 contribution to SOS America PAC, a super PAC that has already spent over three million dollars backing Miami Mayor Francis Suarez’s presidential candidacy.   

The complaint alleges that PassionForest — an obscure company that appears to sell artificial flowers online — was not the true source of a $500,000 contribution made in its name to SOS America in October 2022. This scheme not only violates the “straw donor” ban in the Federal Election Campaign Act (FECA) but may have also been used to conceal contributions from foreign nationals – which are illegal across all levels of government. Concealing the true source of money used to influence elections, as appears to have occurred here, deprives voters of information they need to make an informed choice at the ballot box.   

“Voters have a right to know who is spending money to influence their votes and our government,” said Saurav Ghosh, director of federal campaign finance reform at Campaign Legal Center. “When someone uses an entity like PassionForest, LLC to make a major political contribution to a super PAC while hiding their identity from voters, it’s a serious violation of the laws meant to ensure transparency and prevent corruption in our elections.”   

Publicly available information suggests that PassionForest’s artificial flower business had largely shuttered within eleven months and that the LLC therefore could not have made a $500,000 contribution without money being provided to it for that purpose. Moreover, records suggest that the true donor, who provided the LLC with funds to make the contribution, may be a foreign national: while the LLC was registered in Delaware and disclosed an address in Florida to SOS America, an associated trademark application was filed on behalf of an applicant reportedly living in China, and PassionForest maintained an Amazon.com seller page linked to another address in China.   

Straw donor schemes involve serious violations of federal campaign finance law that have led to penalties and indictments in recent years. The FEC must not delay in looking into this matter and enforcing federal campaign finance law so that transparency in our elections will be protected.

Today, Tennessee issued guidance to election officials that short-circuits the longstanding Certificate of Restoration (COR) process and creates a new requirement that all people with past felony convictions must also receive either a court order or gubernatorial clemency to restore their right to vote. In so doing, Tennessee joins only Mississippi and Virginia in imposing permanent felony disenfranchisement on its citizens. 

In response, Blair Bowie, director of Campaign Legal Center’s Restore Your Vote initiative, issued the following statement: 

“Campaign Legal Center strongly condemns the illogical guidance released today by the Tennessee Elections Division which effectively destroys the voting rights restoration process created by the Tennessee legislature.  

Today’s guidance proves what the Elections Division has already shown to be true: Tennessee will use every tool imaginable to unlawfully and unfairly deny its citizens the freedom to vote. The decision flies in the face of the Tennessee legislature’s clear intent to create a voting rights restoration process that did not require going to court or a gubernatorial pardon. This deeply cynical move mirrors the Florida legislature’s 2019 law that undid voting rights restoration passed by the voters of the state.  

The guidance states that individuals who have lost the right to vote because of a felony conviction must both go through Tennessee’s administrative voting rights restoration process (called a Certificate of Restoration) and restore their rights of citizenship through a pardon or court petition. This effectively closes the door to voting rights restoration for over 470,000 Tennesseans. Tennessee has the second largest disenfranchised population in the country, second only to Florida, and disenfranchises over 20% of its Black citizens, the highest rate of Black disenfranchisement in the country. 

The guidance is a beyond-the-pale interpretation of a recent Tennessee Supreme Court decision, Falls v. Goins, which stated that a Tennessean with a Virginia state conviction who had been granted clemency by the Virginia governor also needed to show that he met the criteria for administrative rights restoration in Tennessee, including payment of court costs. The case arose because the Elections Division reversed its earlier position that an individual with an out-of-state conviction was only disenfranchised unless they had restored their citizenship rights in the state of conviction or Tennessee. The Elections Division never once argued during that case that individuals with out-of-state convictions would need to seek both a restoration of citizenship out-of-state AND voting rights restoration in Tennessee.” 

CLC, along with Free Hearts, the Tennessee NAACP, and Baker Donelson, are fighting for a better process on behalf of all Tennesseans who have not been able to restore their voting rights through Tennessee's broken system.  

Tennesseans with felony convictions, including out-of-state convictions, who need help with their voting rights can continue to visit RestoreYourVote.org for free and confidential assistance.  

Washington, DC — Today, Members of Congress in both chambers reintroduced the Freedom to Vote Act, a comprehensive proposal that would increase Americans’ access to the ballot box, neutralize partisan and racial gerrymandering and increase transparency in our campaign finance system to counteract the impact of dark money secret spending. 

Originally introduced in 2021, the Freedom to Vote Act would address many of the most pressing challenges to our electoral process, allowing democracy to work for all Americans and ensuring that all voices are heard. 

“The aims of the Freedom to Vote Act – prohibiting partisan gerrymandering, protecting the freedom to vote and increasing the transparency of money spent in federal elections – are supported by a significant majority of Americans, regardless of party,” said Trevor Potter, president of Campaign Legal Center and a Republican former chairman of the Federal Election Commission. “We encourage legislators to put partisanship aside and come together to ensure that every American voter has an equal voice in our political system, in order to ensure that democracy works for all Americans.” 

An opposing bill, the American Confidence in Elections Act (ACE Act), was recently introduced in the House of Representatives. Despite the misleading name, the ACE Act does not make our elections more secure, transparent and accessible. Rather, the ACE Act erodes access to the ballot box, opens the door for wealthy donors to influence elections, imposes new burdens on nonpartisan election workers, restricts the franchise for voters in Washington, DC and much more.  

The Freedom to Vote Act, in deep contrast, is legislation that comprehensively strengthens our democracy and addresses the most pressing challenges to our electoral process – the true recipe for voter confidence and trust. 

More information on the Freedom to Vote Act is available here.