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Like many targets of the election denial movement, the attacks on a bipartisan voter-roll maintenance tool has profound consequences for election administration — and for access to the ballot.
This week, NPR’s Miles Parks reported on several documents obtained by American Oversight that shed light on how states that abandoned the Electronic Registration Information Center are now scrambling to replace what the partnership had offered them. And as Parks reported, election experts are “deeply skeptical that any of them will be able to fully replicate ERIC.”
- Nine conservative-led states have now left the consortium after a sustained campaign by far-right election deniers to discredit ERIC based on conspiracy theories and partisan alarm about ERIC’s requirement for outreach to unregistered voters.
- But those states all left without a solid plan to replace ERIC, leading to a “scattershot” effort to establish new cross-state agreements. As one former county clerk told NPR, “These states have decided that instead of using a wheel, they’re going to invent a spherical device that will allow them to easily transport and roll items from A to B.”
For one thing, those cross-state agreements — several of which American Oversight obtained through public records requests — “may lack enough detail to yield reliable results,” Parks reported. But also alarming is the space left for fringe groups and activists to step in.
- This includes EagleAI Network, which is software being pushed by the same election deniers who helped build the backlash to ERIC, including Cleta Mitchell. As NBC News and Documented reported recently, the software gives election-fraud vigilantes a new tool for challenging voter registrations.
- The NPR story highlights an August email we received from the Texas secretary of state’s office, in which Secretary Jane Nelson shared with her elections staff an article written by Jay Valentine. You might remember Valentine — an election denier who, through his company Fractal, is also trying to capitalize on the void left by states’ departure from ERIC — from our investigation of the partisan election inquiry in Wisconsin.)
- Valentine had pitched his technology to Nelson in May, according to emails. The article shared by Nelson in August (using a personal email account) falsely claimed that the 2020 election was stolen; Nelson’s subject line in the email was “interesting article.”
Wisconsin Update
American Oversight appeared in court again this week in our lawsuit seeking transparency from Wisconsin Assembly Speaker Robin Vos and his secret panel of former state Supreme Court justices, set up to advise on the potential impeachment of Justice Janet Protasiewicz.
- On Thursday, the court set another hearing date for Nov. 10 to address the public records litigation. The Dane County District Attorney has until Oct. 25 to move to intervene in the case regarding our claims under the Wisconsin Open Meetings Law.
- We filed suit last month alleging that any meetings held by Vos’ panel have been in violation of the open meetings statute.
- Earlier this week we amended the complaint to include claims under the state’s Open Records Law, asking the court to order the release of public records related to impeachment considerations.
- “American Oversight’s litigation has led to key details about the panel’s membership and their recommendations against impeachment coming to light, but there is still much the public doesn’t know about the panel’s work,” said Heather Sawyer, American Oversight’s executive director. “We look forward to continuing the fight to ensure that any meetings are held in public view and that the people of Wisconsin have the records to which they are entitled.”
On the Records
Hiding Communications About Redistricting
This week, ProPublica reported on how Republican lawmakers have used claims of legislative privilege to hide information about how they drew new electoral maps — information vital for plaintiffs challenging those maps in court for being discriminatory.
- Conservative legislators have succeeded in drawing out those challenges by asserting privilege, by putting outside political operatives and map designers onto state payrolls, and even by enacting new laws to further shield their deliberations from the public.
ProPublica’s Marilyn W. Thompson cited documents obtained by American Oversight that point to this strategy.
- One document we obtained contains talking points distributed by the Virginia-based National Republican Redistricting Trust that allude to the danger that court challenges present for potential gerrymandering attempts. “Democrats are sitting back counting the cash they plan to use on their trial lawyers to fund their strategy of endless litigation,” the document reads.
- ProPublica also cited legal contracts we obtained from 2021, when the Texas Legislature hired the law firm Butler Snow LLP to work on redistricting.
Other Stories We're Following
Election Denial and Threats to Democracy
- The drive to hand count ballots is growing. The GOP could stop it. (Votebeat)
- Few Republicans have confidence in elections. It’s a long road for one group trying to change that (Associated Press)
- Hand count all ballots? It's possible, but Cochise County ignored the rules, court says (Arizona Republic)
- Distrust of voting machines throws a Texas county’s election planning into chaos (Texas Tribune)
- Investigation dismisses ‘Totes Legit’ complaints against Georgia voters (Atlanta Journal-Constitution)
- Meet the Lehigh Valley millionaire who tried to help Donald Trump overturn the 2020 election (Philadelphia Inquirer)
Voting Rights
- Two new lawsuits challenge North Carolina voter suppression and power grab laws (Democracy Docket)
- North Carolina Republicans pitch Congress maps that could help them pick up 3 or 4 seats next year (Associated Press)
- A legal fight over whether governors can deny thousands the vote (New York Times)
- “I don’t think they care”: Virginia is slow-walking the fix to a wrongful voter purge (Bolts)
- Minnesota leaders to fight court ruling that restoring voting rights for felons was unconstitutional (Associated Press)
- In new Supreme Court filings, battle lines are drawn in the fight over Wisconsin's elections maps (Milwaukee Journal Sentinel)
- Vos says SCOTUS will have last word in voting maps fight. Experts say that's far from certain. (Wisconsin Public Radio)
- Lawsuit asks Wisconsin Supreme Court to draw new maps by March (Wisconsin Examiner)
- Federal judge rules Galveston County commissioner maps violate Voting Rights Act (Texas Tribune)
- Michigan Republicans resurrect right-wing legal theory rejected by Supreme Court last summer (Democracy Docket)
- Supreme Court delays efforts to redraw Louisiana voting map (New York Times)
In the States
- Defend Texas Liberty PAC names new president after leader met with white supremacist Nick Fuentes (Texas Tribune)
- Youngkin’s retreat to mix Virginia politics with the presidential kind (Washington Post)
- Florida agency wants more than $500,000 to collect data on citizenship status of hospital patients (Florida Phoenix)
- Gov. Reeves used state plane for Mardi Gras party and family trip to coast (Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal)
- Second prisoner dies during Waupun Correctional Institution lockdown; restrictions linger at two additional prisons (Wisconsin Watch)
- Man, wrongfully imprisoned for 16 years, is fatally shot during traffic stop (New York Times)
LGBTQ Rights
- Wisconsin Senate gives final approval to bill banning gender-affirming surgery (Associated Press)
- Law restricting bathroom use for Idaho transgender students to go into effect as challenge continues (Associated Press)
- Montana judge keeps in place a ban on enforcement of law restricting drag shows, drag reading events (Associated Press)
- Federal court blocks Montana drag ban (Idaho Capital Sun)
- Final draft regulations for Nebraska gender care law released ahead of November hearing (Nebraska Examiner)
- Executive order bans gender-neutral language in Arkansas government documents (Arkansas Advocate)
Abortion and Reproductive Rights
- Justice Dept. focuses on violence by protesters at abortion clinics (Washington Post)
- Few are using Iowa's family planning program started to thwart Planned Parenthood (Des Moines Register)
- Anti-abortion groups sue San Antonio over “reproductive justice fund” (Texas Tribune)
- Legislators in 49 states ask SCOTUS to preserve access to abortion pill (Ohio Capital Journal)
Threats to Education
- Scholastic isolates ‘diverse titles’ at book fairs as challenges spike (Washington Post)
- State licenses PragerU for classrooms, watchdog weary of ‘extremist’ content (Daily Montanan)
- Missouri commissioner of education announces resignation (Missouri Independent)
- Culture-war issues take center stage in many central Ohio school board races (Columbus Dispatch)
- Education superintendent mandates book challenge policies at Alabama school libraries (Advance Local)
- Wisconsin Republicans withhold university pay raises in fight over school diversity funding (Associated Press)
- Menomonee Falls School District removing more than 30 book titles from high school library (Wisconsin Public Radio)
- A college LGBTQ center disappeared. It wasn’t the only one. (USA Today)
- School board races are becoming battlegrounds for national debates. Communities are feeling the impacts. (Cardinal News)
- How conservatives are waging a coordinated, anti-LGBTQ+ culture war in California schools (Los Angeles Times)
Government Transparency and Public Records Law
Immigration
- Texas strings concertina wire along New Mexico border to deter migrants (Texas Tribune)
- Texas has bused 50,000 migrants. Now it wants to arrest them instead. (New York Times)
- The Texas Senate passed legislation to give the state a bigger role in immigration enforcement (Houston Public Media)
- Amid migrant influx, Massachusetts will no longer guarantee shelter (New York Times)
- Biden agrees to settle ACLU lawsuit over Trump-era migrant family separations (Los Angeles Times)
- First Venezuelans sent back under new U.S. policy arrive in Caracas (New York Times)
Trump Accountability
- Lawyers, Trump and money: Ex-president spends millions in donor cash on attorneys as legal woes grow (Associated Press)
- Donald Trump turns up at New York fraud trial, complains it distracts from campaign (Reuters)
- Trump attorney Sidney Powell pleads guilty in Georgia election subversion case (CNN)
- Judge imposes partial gag order against Trump in election-interference case (NPR)
- Jury selection will begin in the first trial in the Georgia election case against Trump and others (Associated Press)
- Trump lawyer acknowledged political agenda in election suit, emails show (New York Times)
- Special counsel urges judge to deny Trump’s Jan. 6 claim of immunity (Washington Post)
- U.S. to appeal sentences of five Proud Boys in Jan. 6 Capitol riot case (Washington Post)
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