Donors spending millions in fight over voting by mail
A practice long seen as noncontroversial becomes a flashpoint.
WASHINGTON — Deeppocketed and often anonymous donors are pouring more than $100 million into an intensifying dispute about whether it should be easier to vote by mail, a fight that could determine President Trump’s fate in the November election.
In the battleground state of Wisconsin, cash-strapped cities have received $6.3 million from an organization with ties to left-wing philanthropy to help expand voting by mail. Meanwhile, a well-funded conservative group best known for its focus on judicial appointments is spending heavily to fight cases related to mail-in balloting procedures in court.
And that’s just a small slice of the overall spending, which is likely to swell even more as the election nears.
The massive effort by political parties, super PACs and other organizations to fight over whether Americans can vote by mail is remarkable considering the practice has long been noncontroversial.
But the coronavirus is forcing changes to the way states conduct elections and prompting activists across the political spectrum to seek an advantage, recognizing the contest between Trump and Democrat Joe Biden could hinge on whether voters have an alternative to standing in lines at polling places during a public health crisis.
Some groups are even raising money to prepare for election-related violence.
“The pandemic has created a state of emergency,” said Laleh Ispahani, the U.S. managing director for Open Society, a network of nonprofits founded by billionaire progressive donor George Soros. “Donors who haven’t typically taken on these issues now have an interest.”
How much will be spent is unclear because many of the organizations are nonprofits that won’t disclose those details to the IRS until well after the election. Even then, many sources of money will remain unknown because such groups don’t have to disclose their donors, a practice commonly referred to as “dark money.”
Tax filings, business records and campaign finance disclosures offer some clues. They reveal a vast infrastructure that funnels money from wealthy donors through philanthropic organizations and political groups, which eventually trickles down to smaller nonprofit groups, many of which operate under murky circumstances.
On the conservative side, organizations including Judicial Watch, the Honest Elections Project, True the Vote and the Public Interest Legal Foundation are litigating cases related to voting procedures across the U.S.
A substantial portion of the financing comes from Donors Trust, a nonprofit often referred to as the “dark money ATM” of the conservative movement. The organization helps wealthy patrons invest in causes they care about while sheltering their identities from the public.
Litigation is a primary focus. Democrats and goodgovernment organizations are pushing to eliminate hurdles to absentee voting, such as requiring a witness’ signature or allowing third parties to collect ballots.
Conservatives say that amounts to an invitation to commit voter fraud. As these issues wind their way through the courts, they say judges could decide complex policy matters that often were already debated by state legislatures.
“The wrong way to go about this is to run to court, particularly a week or two before an election, trying to get judges to intervene and second-guess decisions legislatures have made,” said
Jason Snead, executive director of the Honest Elections Project.
His organization is a newly formed offshoot of the Judicial Education Project, a group that previously focused on judicial appointments and received more than $25.3 million between 2016 and 2018 from the Donors Trust, records show. It is deeply intertwined with the conservative Catholic legal movement and shares an attorney, William S. Consovoy, with the Republican National Committee, which has pledged $20 million for voting litigation.
Leonard Leo, a Trump confidant who was instrumental in the confirmations of the president’s Supreme Court nominees, plays a leading role.
He’s now chairman of a public relations firm called CRC Advisors, which is overseeing a new effort to establish a clearinghouse for anonymous donors to fund conservative causes, including the fight over vote-bymail.
In recent years, Democrats have mounted legal challenges that have threatened voting laws championed by conservatives.
And Trump’s repeated and unfounded claims about “rigged elections” have made the issue part of a broader culture war.
As Republicans are focused on the courts and raising doubts about vote-bymail, Democrats face a far more daunting challenge.
In addition to litigation, they must mobilize their base during a pandemic. That includes educating the public about vote-by-mail, a difficult task when door-todoor canvassing isn’t an option.
Some groups are donating directly to local governments. In Wisconsin, the Center for Tech and Civic Life, a nonprofit group with ties to left-leaning philanthropy, has donated $6.3 million to the state’s five largest cities to set up ballot drop boxes, help voters file absentee ballot requests and expand in-person early voting.