Washington, D.C. – Today, Campaign Legal Center (CLC) submitted letters to election offices in five states regarding frivolous mass challenges to voters’ eligibility: Michigan, Nevada, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. The letters provide guidance for election officials about what the standards for challenges are in their respective states and how to dismiss illegitimate challenges to voter eligibility. 

“To make every vote count, we need a system that is free and fair to ensure that everyone’s voice is heard,” said Danielle Lang, Campaign Legal Center’s senior director for voting rights. “Partisan actors have shamefully weaponized mass challenges as part of a widespread effort to harass election workers, intimidate voters, and create unnecessary barriers to the ballot. This is already a busy time for election officials across the country, and they shouldn’t have to waste valuable resources responding to unfounded and frivolous challenges. Our hope is that these letters will provide the necessary guidance so that election workers can refocus their efforts on what really matters—ensuring a free and fair election where every vote is counted.”  

BACKGROUND

Election offices are being inundated with baseless mass challenges to voters’ eligibility. Just last month, Georgia’s Gwinnett County Board of Elections received challenges to the eligibility of some 37,500 voters—more than six percent of the county’s total registered voters, and more than three times President Biden’s 2020 margin of victory in Georgia. These unfounded challenges, orchestrated by outside partisan groups, risk disenfranchising eligible voters and take election officials’ attention away from their many critical tasks that ensure a smoothly run and secure election. 

Partisan actors have weaponized laws in many states that allow private citizens to challenge their peers’ right to vote, either before or on Election Day. These mass challenges can be based on meritless allegations such as a voter having changed addresses, and often rely on faulty data sets containing inaccurate or outdated information. If successful, these challenges can lead to eligible voters’ removal from the rolls, preventing them from participating in an election in which they are legally entitled to vote.  

For more information, click here or reach out to CLC’s Communications Manager for Voting & Elections, Matty Tate-Smith, at [email protected]. 

Washington, DC – Today, Campaign Legal Center filed a friend-of-the-court brief in Moore v. Harper, which the Supreme Court will hear on December 7. The Supreme Court is being asked to consider the fringe Independent State Legislature theory, which could give state legislatures nearly unchecked power to set the rules for federal elections – with grave consequences for election law, the freedom to vote and the health of our democracy.    

“Checks and balances are a cornerstone of our democracy and help make sure no one person, party or legislative body can abuse their power. If adopted, the independent state legislature would eliminate the role of state courts to serve as a check on politicians who would otherwise gerrymander congressional districts and write election rules that undermine the freedom to vote,” said Paul Smith, senior vice president of Campaign Legal Center. “We urge the Supreme Court to uphold our system of checks and balances and preserve the role state courts and state constitutions play in facilitating a transparent, inclusive and accountable democracy.”  

Background: 

Moore v. Harper is centered on a gerrymandered congressional map in North Carolina. In 2021, North Carolina legislators crafted a congressional map that gave their own political party an unfair advantage in elections.  

North Carolina voters took the map to state court and won in the North Carolina Supreme Court. However, the state legislature was unhappy with the outcome and asked the U.S. Supreme Court to take up the case based on a fringe legal concept known as the “independent state legislature theory.” 

If the Supreme Court adopts the theory, politicians will have nearly unchecked power to pass undemocratic laws that thwart the will of voters by making it harder to vote. It could also open the door to unrestricted partisan gerrymandering, which allows politicians to manipulate election outcomes by choosing their own voters instead of the other way around. State courts would be powerless to stop them.    

Since the independent state legislature theory suggests politicians are the only state actors with the power to draw voting maps, the theory also puts the fate of independent redistricting commissions across the country in jeopardy. 

The independent state legislature theory could also throw our elections into chaos by invalidating election rules that voters passed through ballot initiatives and other avenues, such as expanded vote-by-mail or ranked choice voting. States could be forced to create completely different rules for state and federal elections, which would make elections even more confusing for voters.   

Campaign Legal Center’s friend-of-the court brief outlines how dangerous the independent state legislature theory is to our democracy and encourages the Supreme Court to preserve the role state courts and independent redistricting commissions play in facilitating a transparent, inclusive and accountable democracy.   

CLC’s brief is joined by a diverse group of democracy reform, public policy, and faith-based organizations whose missions include ensuring that the democratic process is free and fair for all voters. The organizations joining the CLC brief are Democracy 21, End Citizens United//Let America Vote Action Fund, National Council of Jewish Women, Inc., OneVirginia2021, RepresentUs, Republican Women for Progress, Unitarian Universalists for Social Justice, and Voters Not Politicians.   

Campaign Legal Center and Chautauqua Institution Launch Partnership 

WASHINGTON, D.C. — To build on their respective missions that advance democracy, Campaign Legal Center (CLC) and Chautauqua Institution today announced a partnership to co-create, host and distribute programming centering on voter education and engagement.

 

The partnership launches Nov. 1 on Chautauqua’s CHQ Assembly streaming channel with the premiere of a conversation between CLC Founder and President, and Republican former Chairman of the Federal Election Commission (FEC) Trevor Potter and Chautauqua President Michael E. Hill, examining the mission of CLC and key issues at play in the upcoming mid-term election. The launch will also feature a series of short educational videos produced by CLC covering topics such as what voters should know about secret spending in our elections, voting by mail, and the work being done to safeguard the 2024 presidential election.

“Trevor Potter has presented on the Chautauqua Lecture Series twice in the past, most recently during Week Five of the 2022 Summer Assembly when we explored the theme ‘The Vote and Democracy,’” Hill said. “We realized then that there was much more we could do together to pursue our common commitments to advancing democracy through education and dialogue.”

"CLC honored to partner with the Chautauqua Institution at this critical time for our democracy,” Potter said. “The airwaves and online spaces are awash with misinformation about our elections, and partisan actors are constantly probing for weak spots in order to gain an advantage while the powers that be repeatedly fail to hold them accountable. It is my sincere hope that this collaboration will help connect voters with the tools they need to exercise their rights, while elevating awareness about rising threats to our electoral process.”

Future programs will be co-presented on CHQ Assembly and in-person in Washington, D.C., and on Chautauqua’s grounds in Chautauqua, New York, during the Institution’s annual nine-week Summer Assembly.

CHQ Assembly programs are presented live and on-demand at assembly.chq.org (subscription required). The entire library of lectures and many other events from Chautauqua’s 2022 and 2021 seasons are available now, in addition to new programs that are launched each week.  To stay up to date on CLC’s work and learn more about protecting our democracy, visit the CLC blog (CLICK HERE) and/or subscribe to the CLC YouTube channel (CLICK HERE).

ABOUT CAMPAIGN LEGAL CENTER
Campaign Legal Center (CLC) is a nonpartisan organization that advocates for every eligible voter to meaningfully participate in the democratic process. We use tactics such as litigation, policy advocacy and communications to make a systemic impact at all levels of government. www.campaignlegal.org

ABOUT CHAUTAUQUA INSTITUTION
Chautauqua Institution is a community on the shores of Chautauqua Lake in southwestern New York state that comes alive each summer — and year-round through the CHQ Assembly online platforms — with a unique mix of fine and performing arts, lectures, interfaith worship and programs, and recreational activities. As a community, we celebrate, encourage and study the arts and treat them as integral to all of learning, and we convene the critical conversations of the day to advance understanding through civil dialogue. www.chq.org