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When a group of Texas Democratic legislators fled their state this month to prevent Republicans from enacting controversial voting restrictions, the incident became somewhat of a Rorschach test for lawmakers in Washington.

While Democrats praised the state legislators flight as a bold and righteous protest against voter suppression, Republicans mocked the group for trying to turn a joyride on private planes into a moral crusade.

But one thing seemed clear to members of both parties: the Texas Democrats abrupt departure was their last remaining option if they wanted to prevent or at least delay the passage of the voting restrictions in a state run by Republicans.

Across the US, state-level Democrats face similar power dynamics to Texas where Republicans control the governors mansion and both chambers of the state legislature. Republicans enjoy a similar legislative advantage in 22 other US states, which has forced Democrats in those states to get creative when it comes to pushing back against what they view as an increasingly radical conservative agenda.

State Democratic party leaders across the US said they felt inspired by the Texas legislators drastic action and that it showed what they could still do to resist the rise of rightwing power in red state America, despite being politically outgunned in their home states.

I dont think its an easy decision, but I think that the issue calls for this difficult action, said Raquel Tern, the chairwoman of the Arizona Democratic party. The lesson is that we are elected to fight for our communities to make sure that our stories are carried on in the state legislature, and we have to use our platform in any way, shape or form.

Chris England, a state legislator who serves as chairman of the Alabama Democratic party, agreed that the Texas Democrats flight was absolutely necessary.

When you dont have the numbers, youve got to use whatever tools you have at your disposal to make sure that youre fighting and protecting your constituency, England said.

Alabama Democrats are actually in a worse legislative position than their Texas counterparts. Republicans have a supermajority in the Alabama legislature, meaning they can form a quorum and advance legislation without any Democratic assistance. England and his colleagues have instead had to deploy other measures to push back against Republican bills.

When Alabama Republicans proposed their own set of voting restrictions earlier this year, Democrats launched a filibuster to try to block the bill from going into effect. The filibuster ultimately failed, but such tactics show Democrats commitment to protecting voting rights, England argued.

We generally use whatever tools we have, whether it be to engage in filibusters or try good-faith efforts to negotiate some of the worst parts of the bad bills out, England said. I guess the best way to put it is: we do the best we can to put lipstick on a pig.

Although their flight to DC has attracted the most attention, Texas Democrats say that their decision to leave the state is only one part of a multi-tiered strategy to resist Republicans legislative agenda.

It shows Texans that Democrats are fighting for them, said Luke Warford, the chief strategy officer of the Texas Democratic party. When it comes to electoral outcomes, that is going to translate into voters going to the polls and voting for people who they think have their backs.

In that sense, the Texas Democrats flight to DC fits into the partys longer-term efforts to flip more state legislative seats and eventually take the majority, giving them the power to block proposals like the voting restrictions that pushed them to leave Austin.

This is drawing national attention and national media and interest, and so its going to result in an increased amount of resources coming into the Democratic space in Texas, Warford said. I think that thats going to benefit the party and benefit candidates up and down the ballot.

But Warford argued that the ultimate response to Republicans efforts in the state legislatures lies in voter registration. The Texas Democratic party has launched an initiative called Project Texas, which targets 2 million eligible Texans who are not yet registered. The project is in a pilot phase right now, testing out the best methods for mass voter registration before it launches on a larger scale in 2022.

When you look at what has happened in the Texas legislature this year, the clearest takeaway is that Democrats need to win more elections, and voter registration is a critical piece of that pie for us, Warford said.

Arizona Democrats have pursued a similar strategy, launching a permanent statewide organizing program next month. Project 15/30, which references the 15 counties and 30 legislative districts in Arizona, is meant to help Democrats build year-round relationships with voters, with an eye toward eventually flipping control of the state legislature.

Democrats have come very close to that goal in Arizona, where Republicans hold two-seat majorities in both the House and the Senate. Arizona Democrats had hoped to take the majority with last years elections, but they fell short.

We cannot miss a beat from last election to this election, Tern said. Were ready. Were ready for next year. Nothings ever easy, but we are committed to engaging our Democratic base.

But for England, the goal of Democrats taking control of the state legislature is not all that realistic. In 2020, Donald Trump won Alabama by about 25 points, giving Democrats little hope of a blue wave sweeping the state.

For that reason, England believes that the most effective response to Republican voting restrictions is national legislation. During their time in Washington, Texas Democrats have similarly been pushing the Senate to pass the For the People Act and the John Lewis Voting Rights Act, which remain stalled because of a Republican filibuster.

Every state that continues to propose restrictive legislation like that, it just becomes another example of why Congress needs to step in, England said. I think its obvious at this point that the only answer that we have in order to set a standard and stop the proliferation of these restrictive voting rights bills is for the federal government to step in and pass a law.

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We use what tools we have: Democrats take drastic action in bid to resist Republican rule - The Guardian

Elected Republican officials in a conservative Michigan county who gave themselves bonuses totalling $65,000 with federal Covid-19 relief funds said they would return the money following days of criticism.

The Shiawassee county commissioners acted after a prosecutor said the payments were illegal, the Argus-Press reported.

The Michigan state constitution bars additional compensation for elected officials after services had already been rendered, prosecutor Scott Koerner said.

The commissioners voted on 15 July to award themselves $65,000 as part of a plan to give $557,000 to 250 county employees as hazard pay for dealing with the coronavirus pandemic.

The smallest amounts for recipients were $1,000 to $2,000. But the chairman of the county board, Jeremy Root, got $25,000. Two commissioners received $10,000 each, while four received $5,000 each.

The vote was 6-0 with one commissioner absent.

The commissioners awarded money to other elected officials, including the prosecutor, the sheriff and the county clerk all Republicans too. They also said they would give it back.

Since these payments were made, confusion about the nature of these funds has run rampant, a statement said.

[We] deeply regret that this gesture has been misinterpreted, and have unanimously decided to voluntarily return the funds to the county, pending additional guidance from the state of Michigan.

One commissioner, Marlene Webster, insisted she had no idea she had voted to pay herself. She returned the money last week, posting a copy of the check on Facebook. She criticized the latest statement, saying there was no misinterpretation.

Thats an insult to the citizens of Shiawassee county, Webster said.

Two Michigan congressmen, a Democrat and a Republican, said federal virus aid was not intended to reward elected officials.

A judge set a hearing for Monday in a lawsuit aimed at rescinding bonuses for the officials, filed before the latest action.

Original post:
Michigan Republicans will return Covid relief funds used to pay own bonuses - The Guardian

PHOENIX Donald Trump came to Arizona over the weekend to praise Republicans in the state Senate for their insistence on an election audit. Now there are calls from some of those very same senators to shut the audit down.

Scottsdale State Senator Michelle Ugenti-Rita (R ) Scottsdale District 23 tweeted, it's become clear that the audit has been botched. The total lack of competence by @fannkfann over the last five months has deprived the voters of Arizona a comprehensive accounting of the 2020 election.

I would agree with that it's been botched, said State Senator Paul Boyer (R ) Phoenix-Glendale District 20.

Boyer said at the outset he supported the audit but he can't now. A comprehensive review, we were all fine with that. We just didn't think it would be done by a firm that didn't have a clue of what they were doing. That they were partisan with a preordained idea going into what they were going to come up with, Boyer said.

Cyber Ninjas, the company hired to do the audit, consistently fought attempts for an outside review of its ballot counts. Senate liaison Ken Bennett did it anyway, sending 24 boxes of machine-counted ballots to Larry Moore, the retired CEO of Clear Ballot an election technology company that does election audits.

We found of the 24 boxes that were sent, 20 had perfect matches, Moore said. In fact, Moore said the Cyber Ninja numbers and the counties matched 99.9% of the time. If you extrapolate that to the full 2,089,563 count, they would be off by 124 ballots, Moore said.

Bennett told azcentral.com he did the review out of curiosity but said it's premature to draw any conclusions from the sampling.

Still, it's a result that after Saturday's visit by Trump, the Cyber Ninjas and the Republicans pushing stop the steal probably didn't want to hear.

You don't like the third result, well go with the fourth result. When they don't like that, they'll come up with a fifth. Senator Boyer said. Again they are trying to come up with their own preconceived notion of what they want to come up with, they don't know what they're doing.

The auditors have said they should complete their work at the State Fairgrounds this week.

Late Monday afternoon the state Senate issued new subpoenas to the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors. The state Senate wants routers and other election data as well as the county's voter registration rolls.

Original post:
Some Republican state senators having second thoughts on election audit - ABC15 Arizona

In the 2020 election cycle, the rightwing, corporate American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) gave its 2,000-plus members sophisticated partisan voter management and campaign software worth more than $6 million, according to a complaint filed by the Center for Media and Democracy (CMD) and the Common Cause Wisconsin with the Wisconsin Ethics Commission on July 20.

The group dubbed its software ALEC CARE.

A separate complaint is also being filed by CMD with the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) whistleblower complaint office. Both are also filed in 14 other states whose members allegedly received this contribution. The software, the complainants state, is linked to the Republican National Committee (RNC). Common Cause and CMD are filing complaints in the other states as well.

The ethics complaint explains that ALECs tax status is a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt, nonprofit corporation, and thus is barred from engaging in electoral activity under federal law and in violation of Wis. Stat. 11.1112 and 11.0103. A violation of its permitted activity under its tax status could result in ALEC, which drafts model legislation, losing its tax-exempt status. ALECs nominally, but required nonpartisan status has led to some Wisconsin Democratic legislators joining the group in the past, just to attend the conferences to learn more about what U.S. Rep. Mark Pocan described as a speed dating service for corporations and the Republican state legislators who introduce that legislation in their states.

The complaints seek to strip ALEC of its nonpartisan, nonprofit tax status and fine the group.

The people of Wisconsin deserve to know who is trying to influence our elections, said Jay Heck, executive director of Common Cause Wisconsin in a statement announcing the complaints. Without tougher transparency and disclosure laws that allow voters to follow the money, illegal schemes like ALECs will continue unabated. We hope this complaint moves the state legislature to take a renewed focus on strengthening Wisconsins transparency and disclosure laws so our government is accountable to the people, not special interests.

ALEC gave the software to the following Wisconsin legislators, according to the complaint:Sen. Steve Nass (R-Whitewater)

Sen. Mary Felzkowski (R-Irma)

Rep. Mike Kuglitsch ( R-New Berlin)

Rep. Tyler Vorpagel (R-Plymouth)

All four offices stated they have not used ALEC CARE.

Kuglitsch responded, My staff and I have never used ALEC CARE for any purposes. Felzkowski staffer Stamena Ivanov responded for the senator saying, Neither Senator Felzkowski nor anyone on her staff has ever used the ALEC CARE database/system and we are unfamiliar with it. From Vorpagel: Neither I or my staff have utilized this software for any official or outside of the building purposes.

Nass Chief of Staff Mike Mikalsen responded, Senator Nass has never accepted or used the ALEC CARE database either in his state office or as a part of his campaign activities. He is not aware of any Wisconsin ALEC member utilizing that database. Nass staffer Mikalsen added his take on the complaints, The complaint filed by two liberal groups is simply more politically inspired harassment of conservatives by organizations that have been funded by George Soros and other extreme leftwing groups.

Vorpagel has not responded to a request for comment.

The ALEC CARE software was valued by ALEC at $3,000 per legislator. The company that produced the software, say the complaint-filing organizations, is Republican data firm VoterGravity, which is run by conservative activist Ned Ryun, who is also the founder and president of American Majority, which trains far right Tea Party candidates and American Majority Action, which owns 84% of Voter Gravity according to its IRS 990 tax filing. The groups share a Virginia post office box. The campaign software was simply white labeled (re-labeled) as constituent software and marketed by ALEC.

ALEC is also required under its tax status to be nonpartisan. Its spokesperson Alexis Jarrett responded to a question from the AP with this statement: ALEC data is not shared with any political party and no political party shares data with ALEC. She added that the login page asks members to agree not to use it for campaign purposes.

However, leaked documents from an anonymous ALEC member to The Associated Press show that the member received access to Voter Gravitys database and discovered that it only contained information on registered Republicans and voters in past GOP primaries.

The complaint asks not only for an investigation, but for subpoena powers to be used to ascertain precisely who received the software, since it may have gone to more Wisconsin officials than just the four legislators mentioned. It also asks that the Ethics Commission to investigate whether the software was used on official business in state offices or on state time by the legislators or their staff.

It is crystal clear from CMDs investigation and internal ALEC sources that the CARE program provided by ALEC is just a repackaging of VoterGravitys highly partisan campaign software, designed to help Republicans win and retain elected office, said CMDs executive director Arn Pearson. ALEC CARE is a brazen scheme to help ALECs overwhelmingly Republican members win reelection.

The whistleblower law firm Constantine Cannon filed the IRS complaint on behalf of CMD. One of its attorneys Eric Havian accused ALEC of having abused its tax-exempt status for years.

I can only hope that we have not become too accustomed to fraud in plain sight, and that the IRS will finally take action to stop taxpayers from subsidizing ALECs partisan electioneering and lobbying, Havian said.

In Constantine Cannons highlighting of the complaint, its attorneys point to all the features of the program that are usable on a campaign, such as geomapped walklists, door knocks, voter data and a strikelist feature that will alert campaigns to who has not voted on election day. In a blog post, the company states that this enables the campaign to contact any supporters who havent voted yet and track strikelist progress as it happens.

These functions caused Max Voldman, another associate at Constantine Cannon to declare, There is no universe in which ALEC CAREs features could be considered constituent service. This is campaign software, plain and simple, and as such an illegal contribution to these campaigns in violation of ALECs 501(c)(3) tax-exemption.

While the campaign software was repackaged and provided free of charge as a so-called constituent management tool to select elected officials, it counts as a contribution to those legislators because the repackaging does not reduce its campaign value, according to the complaint;. it comes fully loaded with campaign data and any data added by members also gets added to the RNCs database.

Voter Gravitys website states that the company turns data into votes by offering targeted, insightful and immediate information about voters, donors, and activists that mean the most to a campaign. Easily access all of the voter data you need and turn that data into votes.

Past agendas from ALEC conferences included demonstrations of this game-changing program. And, the group added, some ALEC members consider this one of the most valuable benefits of membership. ALEC advertises the program on its YouTube channel in a video that talks about walk lists, which are generally used only in campaigns.

It concludes: Come see how ALEC CARE can benefit you.

THE MORNING NEWSLETTER

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Read more:
Is ALEC helping Republicans campaign in violation of its tax status? - Wisconsin Examiner

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Do you see yourself as a political anomaly?

In todays politics, certain voting groups are often portrayed as monolithic, or only voting one way, even though thats never the full story. We want to interrogate that narrative and talk to people who dont believe they check a set box.

Think you might fit the bill? Here are some of the types of people were interested in talking to: Gen Zers (or young millennials) who backed former President Donald Trump last year; older, Black progressive voters; and Democrats who live in more rural areas of their state. But were not stopping there. There are tons of identities worth exploring, and were interested in unpacking the many divides in groups of voters often portrayed as homogeneous.

With our reporting, FiveThirtyEight hopes to show that large groups of voters are not a monolith by highlighting various voting blocs that have interesting tensions within. Were not trying to predict electoral trends and outcomes; rather, we hope to tell stories about how different people are processing politics.

To tell these stories better, we want to hear from you. Fill out the surveybelow and tell us a little bit about yourself and why you think you check a unique box. We might get in touch with you!

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Are You A Gen-Z Republican? A Democrat In A Rural State? If So, You Might Be A Political Anomaly, And We Want To Hear From You. - FiveThirtyEight