Passing the “Freedom to Vote Act” To Create A Democracy That Works for Us All

At a Glance

Congress should pass and President Biden should sign into law the Freedom to Vote Act. This sweeping, transformative bill would make the promise of democracy more real for us all by increasing Americans’ access to the freedom to vote, curbing gerrymandering and improving the functionality of the Federal Election Commission (FEC) and transparency in political campaign spending. 

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Issues
Voting and Elections
Redistricting
Campaign Finance
About This Case/Action

Whatever our color, background or zip code, in America we value our freedom. The freedom to have a say in decisions that impact our lives — from education to healthcare to creating jobs. To be able to effectively advocate for equal access to resources, we must have a democracy that works for us all, but currently, our democracy is facing threats on three main fronts. Firstly, record-setting amounts of campaign spending from wealthy special interests and difficult-to-trace secret spending have been allowed to flood our campaign finance system following the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling in the 2010 case Citizens United v. FEC. Secondly, in several states, politicians or the party in power have created gerrymandered voting maps that put their own interests ahead of ensuring a fair and equitable community districting process for the people that they represent. Finally, anti-voter laws enacted following the Supreme Court’s decision to gut a key provision of the 1965 Voting Rights Act in the 2013 case Shelby County v. Holder and in response to former President Trump’s lies about the 2020 election have limited Americans’ freedom to vote.  

For months, Americans have been calling for national standards to protect our freedom to vote, ensure fair representation and decrease the influence of wealthy special interests in our politics. The Freedom to Vote Act is a new and critical bill before the U.S. Senate that would attempt to do this with its comprehensive voting access, redistricting and campaign finance provisions. The ideas in the bill are drawn from bills that have long had bipartisan political sponsorship at both the federal and state levels, and the bill’s provisions would address problematic practices employed by both Democratic and Republican politicians. Among other things, the bill specifically would protect voting by mail and early voting, prohibit partisan gerrymandering, stop the use of intermediary secret spending groups to evade transparency requirements and require a majority vote of the FEC to shut down an investigation at the preliminary stages of the process. Campaign Legal Center (CLC) has worked closely on each of these issues, many of which receive widespread support from American voters across the political spectrum. An example of this is the redistricting provision that establishes a test courts would use to block extreme gerrymandering. Nearly three-quarters of voters support the federal judiciary establishing clear rules for when gerrymandering violates the U.S. Constitution, according to a CLC poll. 

This transformative bill shows that American voices have an impact and is an important step toward realizing the promise of democracy for all. Just as we rose up to vote in record numbers amid the pandemic last year, we will now rise up to demand that our leaders exercise their power to pass this new bill that sets national standards for us to safely and freely cast our ballots, ensure every vote is counted and elect people who will deliver for us.  

Advisory: The Freedom to Vote in 2021 - What You Need to Know

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Two weeks ago, Congress introduced the Freedom to Vote Act, a transformative proposal that would increase Americans’ access to the ballot box, neutralize partisan and racial gerrymandering and increase transparency in our campaign finance system. But what exactly is in the bill, and how would it help combat state laws creating barriers to voting that impact millions of Americans?

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WHAT: Campaign Legal Center (CLC) is hosting a call that is open to the press with voting rights experts about the bill and its provisions, and we're excited to welcome venture capitalist and writer Patrick J. McGinnis, who will offer a business insider's view. We'll also discuss CLC's State Scorecard, a report that grades how states have changed their vote-by-mail and early voting laws this year. The results make a compelling case for why the Freedom To Vote Act is so monumentally important to achieving the promise of democracy for us all.

WHEN: Join us today, September 28 – National Voter Registration Day – at 2pm Eastern.

WHO:

  • Trevor Potter is the founder and president of Campaign Legal Center. He is a former chairman of the Federal Election Commission, and was general counsel to John McCain’s 2000 and 2008 presidential campaigns, and an adviser to the drafters of the McCain-Feingold law. To many, he is perhaps best known for his recurring appearances on The Colbert Report as the lawyer for Stephen Colbert’s super PAC, Americans for a Better Tomorrow, Tomorrow, during the 2012 election, a program that won a Peabody Award for excellence in reporting on money in politics. He has served as chair of several American Bar Association election law and lobbying regulation committees and task forces and is currently a member of the ABA's Standing Committee on Election Law as well as the American Law Institute. Follow Trevor on Twitter at @thetrevorpotter.
  • Jo Deutsch joined CLC in September of 2019, after fighting for more than 35 years as a lobbyist on Capitol Hill for equality and rights for women, the LGBT community and the labor and progressive movements. At CLC, Jo is responsible for federal lobbying and is the point of contact for many of the coalitions in which CLC participates. Prior to her work at CLC, Jo was president of Deutsch Initiatives Group, where she focused on lobbying and political activism to support her clients. Before that, she was federal director for Freedom to Marry, where she successfully oversaw the federal campaign and lobbied for the freedom to marry for same-sex couples.
  • Danielle Lang joined CLC in October 2015. Danielle litigates a wide range of voting rights and redistricting matters before federal courts from district courts to the Supreme Court, including groundbreaking cases like the challenge to Texas’ strict voter ID law. She also has an active amicus practice before the Supreme Court and other federal courts. Danielle presents at conferences nationwide and conducts trainings on federal voting rights law through the Voting Rights Institute, a project of CLC, the American Constitution Society and Georgetown Law. She is frequently quoted in national news publications, including The New York Times, Los Angeles Times and CNN. Follow Danielle on Twitter at @DaniLang_DC.
  • Patrick J. McGinnis is a venture capitalist, writer and speaker who has invested in leading companies in the United States, Latin America, Europe and Asia. He is the creator and host of the hit podcast "FOMO Sapiens," which is distributed by Harvard Business Review and has achieved over 2 million downloads. Patrick coined the term “FOMO” short for “Fear of Missing Out”, which was added to the Oxford English Dictionary in 2013. He is also the creator of the term “FOBO” or “Fear of a Better Option” and has been featured as the creator of both terms in media outlets including the New York Times, The Financial Times, Boston Globe, The Guardian, Inc.magazine, Cosmopolitan and MSNBC. His TED Talk “How to Make Faster Decisions” was released in 2019. Follow Patrick on Twitter at @pjmcginnis.
  • Valencia Richardson is an equal justice works fellow at CLC. Her work focuses on addressing local-level election compliance under the Voting Rights Act in the Deep South. Valencia received her J.D. from Georgetown University Law Center. During law school, Valencia served as editor-in-chief of the Georgetown Journal of Law and Modern Critical Race Perspectives and the president of Georgetown Law Students for Democratic Reform. Valencia also worked as a student attorney in the Georgetown Law Civil Rights Clinic and interned for the Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights and the Campaign Legal Center. She is the author of a nonfiction book, “Young and Disaffected.” Follow Valencia on Twitter at @valthebeast.

WHY: The American people have been calling for national standards to protect our freedom to vote, ensure fair representation and increase transparency in political campaign spending. The Freedom to Vote Act is a significant step in that direction. We hope you can join us to find out why!

Issues
Voting and Elections

BREAKING: Campaign Legal Center Files Complaints Against Seven Members of Congress for Failing to Disclose Stock Trading Activity

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Under the Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge (STOCK) Act, members of Congress must disclose a stock trade within 45 days of the trade with no exceptions. These seven members have not just delayed reporting but have failed to disclose trading activity. 

Washington D.C. – Today, Campaign Legal Center (CLC) filed complaints with the Office of Congressional Ethics (OCE) for failure to disclose stock trades in compliance with the Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge (STOCK) Act.  

While previous CLC complaints have addressed members who delayed disclosure beyond the mandated window or filed disclosures in an improper manner, these seven members — Reps. Cindy Axne (D-IA), Warren Davidson (R-OH), Lance Gooden (R-TX), Bobby Scott (D-VA), Tom Suozzi (D-NY), Roger Williams (R-TX) and Del. Michael San Nicolas (D-GU) — have conducted significant stock trading activity that has not been disclosed at all. 

The actions of these House members demonstrate a widespread, systemic issue in Congress that crosses ideological and geographic lines. All members of Congress and their staff receive mandatory STOCK Act training. This ongoing trend of STOCK Act violations shows that merely the threat of a nominal fine is not deterring members of Congress from breaking the law.  

“The lack of accountability we’ve seen in regard to STOCK Act compliance is basically giving elected officials the green light to buy and sell stocks based on information gained from committee meetings without any transparency for their voters,” said Kedric Payne, general counsel and senior director of ethics at Campaign Legal Center. “Until we see meaningful enforcement paired with real transparency, I see no end to this troubling trend.” 

The fact is that members are not being held accountable for financial transactions that could very reasonably arouse conflict of interest concerns. Of particular concern with this group is the fact that five of these seven members — Axne, Davidson, Gooden, San Nicolas and Williams — sit on the U.S. House Committee on Financial Services. 

As members of Congress craft laws that directly impact the lives of all Americans, voters have a right to know whether their representatives are acting in the public’s interest or for their own financial gain. When elected officials prioritize gaining personal wealth, they are not only hurting their own accountability, but they are diminishing public trust in government. 

At Campaign Legal Center, we are advancing democracy through law. Learn more about our work.

Issues
Ethics

Rhode Island’s Political Spending Transparency Law Upheld by Federal Appeals Court

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Rhode Island’s political spending transparency rules have been upheld by the U.S. First Circuit Court of Appeals.

The three-judge panel of the U.S. First Circuit Court of Appeals observed that “a well-informed electorate is as vital to the survival of a democracy as air is to the survival of human life” while upholding the state’s 2012 Independent Expenditures and Electioneering Communications Act. 

Read the ruling here.

Campaign Legal Center (CLC), along with Common Cause Rhode Island and the League of Women Voters of Rhode Island, filed an amicus brief in the case, in support of the state and the transparency law.

“Rhode Islanders have a right to know who is spending in an attempt to influence their votes,” said Austin Graham, CLC legal counsel. “The First Circuit’s decision preserves that right by upholding Rhode Island’s transparency rules for election spending and helps to ensure state voters remain well-informed – which, to quote the First Circuit’s opinion, is ‘as vital to the survival of a democracy as air is to the survival of human life.’”

“This ruling represents a win for Rhode Island’s voters. We deserve to know who’s paying to influence our elections,” said Common Cause Rhode Island Executive Director John Marion. “Voters need to be able to ‘consider the source’ of information when deciding whether or not to believe it. And if the ‘source’ is shielded, then we have no way of judging motivations behind the information or whether it’s trustworthy.”

Among other provisions, Rhode Island’s political transparency rules require groups spending $1,000 or more on electioneering ads to disclose donors that gave at least $1,000 to fund the ads and provide that ads run by certain groups must include “top-five” disclaimers identifying their five largest contributors.

In 2019, the Gaspee Project and Illinois Opportunity Project challenged the law, seeking to spend thousands of dollars distributing election-related mailers to Rhode Island voters without identifying themselves or their large contributors to the public.

In August 2020, the U.S. District Court for the District of Rhode Island dismissed the complaint, finding the provisions constitutionally serve the state’s vital interest in equipping voters with essential information about special interests spending to influence their vote.

The appeals court held that Rhode Island's law satisfies exacting scrutiny and is narrowly tailored to the state’s important interest in an informed electorate, rejecting the plaintiffs’ attempts to compare their privacy concerns to NAACP v. Alabama and Americans for Prosperity Foundation v. Bonta.

The law was proposed and passed in the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision that itself upheld federal disclosure requirements for independent expenditures.

At Campaign Legal Center, we are advancing democracy through law. Learn more about our work.

Issues
Campaign Finance
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