Grant Money Flowed Back to … Facebook Ad Sales
(Alexandria, VA) – May 12, 2021: The Public Interest Legal Foundation (PILF) today released a research brief detailing the nearly $16.5 million of the Center for Tech and Civil Life (CTCL) grants accepted by Florida County supervisors of elections. Many of these grants arrived very late in the election cycle, resulting in over $4.6 million of leftover cash with the capability of affecting the 2022 elections. A breakdown of the grants by county is below.
Unlike other states, Florida records show a pattern of the late-arriving grants being shoved into digital media outreach campaigns, namely to the benefit of Facebook and Google ad sales departments. In detailed spending accounts disclosed to PILF, Palm Beach County promised to spend $250,000 on digital ads with Facebook, Google, and YouTube if granted the money per its “Safe Voting Plan.”
“Florida lawmakers were right to close the loophole in election law,” stated PILF President J. Christian Adams. “Corporate-funded elections violate some of the most basic principles of election integrity. It’s the job of local governments to budget for and administer our voting processes. I commend Governor DeSantis and all involved in helping to make Florida a leader against this threat.”
Access the full research brief, here.
Public Interest Legal Foundation (PILF) is a 501(c)(3) public interest law firm dedicated to election integrity. The Foundation exists to assist states and others to aid the cause of election integrity and fight against lawlessness in American elections. Drawing on numerous experts in the field, PILF seeks to protect the right to vote and preserve the Constitutional framework of American elections.
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PILF Statement on Senate Rules Committee Mark Up of S. 1 (Alexandria, VA) – May 11, 2021: Today, the Senate Rules Committee marked up S. 1, the left’s omnibus election reform bill.
“S. 1 is a massive step in the wrong direction for election integrity and would increase the chaos that occurred in 2020,” said The Public Interest Legal Foundation (PILF) President J. Christian Adams. “If passed, this legislation would lead to more fraudulent votes being cast and more distrust in our election processes. At the heart of this legislation is a federal takeover of our elections. American do not want Washington bureaucrats running their elections. Leader McConnell, Ranking Member Blunt, and the other Republicans on the Rules Committee deserve credit for pointing out the damage to our Constitution that this bill would cause.”
Public Interest Legal Foundation (PILF) is a 501(c)(3) is the nation’s only public interest law firm dedicated wholly to election integrity. The Foundation exists to assist states and others to aid the cause of election integrity and fight against lawlessness in American elections. Drawing on numerous experts in the field, PILF seeks to protect the right to vote and preserve the Constitutional framework of American elections. PILF has brought lawsuits and won victories in Texas, Mississippi, North Carolina, Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, Michigan, and across the United States.
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(Alexandria, VA) – May 10, 2021: Today, the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in favor of the Public Interest Legal Foundation (PILF) in its case against the North Carolina State Board of Elections (NCSBE).
PILF filed the lawsuit against the NCSBE in June 2019 for failure to disclose records showing noncitizens registration and voting. The lower court dismissed the complaint saying that PILF could not obtain the records. PILF appealed to the Fourth Circuit.
The Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in PILF’s favor, vacating, and remanding the dismissal by the lower court. This marks a victory for transparency in our elections and for the National Voting Rights Act requiring the disclosure of documents relating to non-citizens registering and voting.
“North Carolina had tried to prevent the public from inspecting records related to noncitizens registering and voting in our elections,” said PILF President J. Christian Adams. “Federal law presumes that election records are public. The Fourth Circuit vacated the lower court’s dismissal of the case. This is an important win because it means that the public’s right to know about election vulnerabilities has been vindicated.”
You can read the Court’s full opinion here.
Public Interest Legal Foundation (PILF) is a 501(c)(3) is the nation’s only public interest law firm dedicated wholly to election integrity. The Foundation exists to assist states and others to aid the cause of election integrity and fight against lawlessness in American elections. Drawing on numerous experts in the field, PILF seeks to protect the right to vote and preserve the Constitutional framework of American elections. PILF has brought lawsuits and won victories in Texas, Mississippi, North Carolina, Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, Michigan, and across the United States.
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(Alexandria, VA) – May 6, 2021: Today, the Public Interest Legal Foundation (PILF) Litigation Counsel Kaylan Phillips testified before the U.S. Committee on House Administration on the importance of voter registration list maintenance.
In prepared remarks, Phillips noted that inaccurate voter rolls are an important issue affecting election integrity across the country.
“A significant problem facing America’s electoral process is the chronic inaccuracy and lack of integrity in the voter rolls that list the individuals registered to vote.”
She pointed to PILF’s finding that one Pennsylvania voter had seven active registrations to illustrate the importance of list maintenance to conduct free and fair elections.
“For example, we discovered one Pennsylvania resident that had seven active registrations because a third-party voter drive registered him seven times in the weeks before the 2016 Election.”
Phillips argued that accurate voter rolls are even more important with mail balloting. Inaccurate rolls can lead to automatic mail ballots being sent to the wrong addresses and people receiving duplicate ballots with variations of their name.
“In the aftermath of the 2020 Election, lawmakers must come to understand that the overall quality of an election experience relying heavily on mail balloting rests on the reliability of the voter registration lists. Vote-by-mail plus inaccurate registration lists equals problems.”
In conclusion, Philips argued against HR 1, which will only make voter registration list maintenance worse. Instead, Congress should adjust existing laws including expanding removal categories.
“We do not need H.R. 1 to generate improvements to our election systems. Instead, adjustments to existing federal laws would create positive downstream effects on voter registration list maintenance and election administration.”
Public Interest Legal Foundation (PILF) is a 501(c)(3) is the nation’s only public interest law firm dedicated wholly to election integrity. The Foundation exists to assist states and others to aid the cause of election integrity and fight against lawlessness in American elections. Drawing on numerous experts in the field, PILF seeks to protect the right to vote and preserve the Constitutional framework of American elections. PILF has brought lawsuits and won victories in Texas, Mississippi, North Carolina, Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, Michigan, and across the United States.
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(Alexandria, VA) – May 5, 2021: Today, Facebook’s Oversight Board upheld its suspension of former President Trump. This disappointing decision should come as no surprise since big tech has proved time and time again that they will censor conservatives.
Following the election, big tech companies censored posts pertaining to election integrity. Just this week, records were obtained showing Facebook employee, Rachel Holland, agreeing to apply the “false filter” to Judicial Watches posts about Iowa’s management of its voter rolls.
“We condemn Facebook’s decision to censor President Trump and uphold his suspension,” said PILF President J. Christian Adams. “Rachel Holland and her big tech colleagues are censors of another time and place. Freedom of speech is one of the most cherished rights in a democratic republic. It is deeply disturbing the trend we are seeing to silence conservatives and information on election integrity.”
Public Interest Legal Foundation (PILF) is a 501(c)(3) is the nation’s only public interest law firm dedicated wholly to election integrity. The Foundation exists to assist states and others to aid the cause of election integrity and fight against lawlessness in American elections. Drawing on numerous experts in the field, PILF seeks to protect the right to vote and preserve the Constitutional framework of American elections. PILF has brought lawsuits and won victories in Texas, Mississippi, North Carolina, Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, Michigan, and across the United States.
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The Court Must Uphold First Amendment Rights
(Alexandria, VA) – April 26, 2021: Today, the Supreme Court of the United States is hearing oral arguments in the cases of Americans for Prosperity Foundation v. Becerra and Thomas More Law Center v. Becerra. The central issue in the case is the constitutionality of California’s requirement that tax exempt charities disclose their financial donors. The Public Interest Legal Foundation (PILF) filed a merits brief in support of Americans for Prosperity and the Thomas More Law Center.
The brief outlines the importance anonymity has played throughout American history starting with our revolutionary and founding documents including the Federalist papers. Mandated disclosure hampers First Amendment rights of freedom of association. State governments should not have the power to demand lists of supporters of groups in the public square. Individuals must be free to give anonymously and without fear of retribution from those with opposing viewpoints.
The brief details six examples in recent history of efforts to disclose donor information in order to engage in personal attacks. More information on the examples is below.
- National Organization for Marriage – In March 2012, the organization learned its unredacted 2008 Schedule B was posted on an opposing group’s public website. The IRS later admitted to “improperly” releasing the document to a private individual contrary to federal law.
- The IRS Targeting Scandal – Conservative groups targeted by the IRS during their application process were subjected to unnecessary questions including for names of donors.
- Friends of Abe – Politically-conservative Hollywood figures seeking fellowship in an anonymous fashion faced a demand from the IRS to effectively reveal their member roster.
- The Public Interest Legal Foundation – the League of United Latin American Citizens sued the Foundation and sought access to donor information, the court declared these efforts a “waste of time.”
- Chick-fil-A – The fast-food chain has come under fire for charitable contributions and has even faced efforts in some areas to stop the opening of new restaurant locations.
- Competitive Enterprise Institute/U.S. Virgin Islands – In April 2016, the CEI was subpoenaed by USVI Attorney General Claude Walker for a decade’s-worth of internal records, including donor information. The demand was eventually withdrawn.
Additionally, donor disclosure is also used to engage in personal attacks in the election context. The brief delves into five recent examples. More information is below.
- California’s Prop 8 – Opponents of Prop 8 utilized public disclosures of supporters’ information to compile online maps detailing private homes and places of business.
- Will & Grace – Cast members for the NBC comedy took to Twitter in August 2019 and demanded that lists of attendees to a President Donald Trump fundraiser be revealed due to the public’s “right to know” their identities.
- Rep. Joaquin Castro (D-TX) – Shortly after a mass shooting in El Paso, Texas, the congressman published a list of San Antonio-area donors of the Trump re-election campaign, saying they “fuel” hatred toward Hispanics, hinting to a shared causality with the tragic event.
- Michigan Chamber of Commerce – A local organization executed an ad campaign featuring members of the MCC’s executive board, accusing them of running a “dark money” effort to prevent redistricting reform. Social media promoters and commenters opined about the need for a guillotine, firing squads, and the general sense how violence “can be used for good.”
- SoulCycle – After a company investor hosted a fundraiser for President Trump, a boycott effort substantially drove down attendance to training sessions.
“We hope that in hearing these arguments today, the justices recognize that disclosure of donors for controversial issues will have a severe chilling effect on free speech and association rights,” said PILF President J. Christian Adams. “Disclosing donor information will put these donors at risk and will cause many to face threats and acts of retaliation from opposing groups. It is critical that the Court strike down this California law.”
Public Interest Legal Foundation (PILF) is a 501(c)(3) is the nation’s only public interest law firm dedicated wholly to election integrity. The Foundation exists to assist states and others to aid the cause of election integrity and fight against lawlessness in American elections. Drawing on numerous experts in the field, PILF seeks to protect the right to vote and preserve the Constitutional framework of American elections. PILF has brought lawsuits and won victories in Texas, Mississippi, North Carolina, Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, Michigan, and across the United States.
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(Alexandria, VA) – April 21, 2021: This week, President Biden appointed Justin Levitt to be the White House Senior Advisor for Democracy and Voting Rights. Levitt is a rabid partisan and one of the primary architects of the Left’s failed attacks on election integrity. Putting such a partisan in charge of voting rights threatens to further undermine confidence in our election system.
What’s worse, Levitt’s record at the Department of Justice demonstrates he is not very effective as a government employee in protecting voting rights and voter registration list maintenance. His time as U.S. Attorney General for Civil Rights was one of the quietest periods for voting rights litigation brought by the DOJ in recent history. He oversaw only one new Voting Rights Act Section 2 case and no claims enforcing voter roll cleanup provisions of the National Voter Registration Act, Help America Vote Act, and Section 208 of the Voting Rights Act.
In sum, Levitt does not return to government with a track record of action.
Before that, Levitt spent 5 years working at the Brennan Center, a leftist think tank dedicated to comparing election integrity policies like voter ID, citizenship verification, and modernized voter registration list maintenance to Jim Crow laws. The portrayal of election integrity efforts as racist is dishonest and lessens the severity of real racism.
Additionally, Levitt has a history of improper conduct in elections that should disqualify him from a position as policy advisor on election integrity efforts. When he served as the General Counsel for the George Soros funded super PAC America Coming Together, the PAC was fined $750,000 for violating election laws. The PAC was found to have used unregulated soft money to directly boost democrat presidential candidate John Kerry and other democrat campaigns.
Election integrity should be a nonpartisan issue. Ensuring Americans have the right to cast a ballot is one of the founding bedrocks of our republic. It is unfortunate that this White House is taking steps to make this a partisan issue with this appointment and will clearly not be addressing the issues in the 2020 election.
Public Interest Legal Foundation (PILF) is a 501(c)(3) is the nation’s only public interest law firm dedicated wholly to election integrity. The Foundation exists to assist states and others to aid the cause of election integrity and fight against lawlessness in American elections. Drawing on numerous experts in the field, PILF seeks to protect the right to vote and preserve the Constitutional framework of American elections. PILF has brought lawsuits and won victories in Texas, Mississippi, North Carolina, Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, Michigan, and across the United States.
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(Alexandria, VA) – April 15, 2021: Today, Public Interest Legal Foundation (PILF) President J. Christian Adams testified before the Pennsylvania House State Government Committee on stakeholder election integrity.
In prepared remarks, Adams noted that this month PILF reached a settlement with the Pennsylvania Secretary of State to remove over 20,000 dead registrants from the voter rolls.
“This month, my Foundation settled a federal lawsuit with our legal expenses paid by the Pennsylvania Department of State. The Commonwealth carried at least 20,000 dead registrants on the rolls going into the 2020 General Election and we weren’t seeing reasonable efforts made under federal law to fix the problem. The concluding agreement requires the DOS to incorporate data from the Social Security Death Index in its list-matching procedures to identify outdated records, just as my Foundation had done in October 2020 as the basis for the case.”
Adams argued that the commonwealth still has severe issues with its voter rolls including a 20-year-old glitch in the motor voter registration system that registered non-citizens. PILF has sued the commonwealth to disclose records relating to this glitch. The DOS has hidden the records from the public and the General Assembly.
“I regret to remind this Committee that the Commonwealth is still separately locked in federal litigation with my Foundation to disclose records detailing Pennsylvania’s longstanding glitches in the PennDOT motor voter registration system. Members of this Committee will likely recall how this system made national headlines after acknowledging that it exposed untold numbers of foreign national driver’s license customers to the voting system since the 1990s.”
He discussed that the state has fought disclosing records relating to these unlawful registrations.
“For more than three years, election officials in Harrisburg have committed considerable public resources to fight transparency on this issue. But here’s the rub: the only thing more appalling than the resistance is the legal fallout felt among the true victims—the foreign nationals.”
In conclusion, Adams argued that the Commonwealth must commit to full transparency to ensure Pennsylvanians can trust their election process.
“The Commonwealth simply can’t acknowledge a decades-old flaw and then spend more years fighting to keep the granular facts out of the public domain. Election integrity policies alone do not instill public confidence and tamp down misinformation or hysteria. Our election officials’ behavior also plays a serious role. Secrecy in election administration is wholly antithetical to our American Republic.”
Public Interest Legal Foundation (PILF) is a 501(c)(3) is the nation’s only public interest law firm dedicated wholly to election integrity. The Foundation exists to assist states and others to aid the cause of election integrity and fight against lawlessness in American elections. Drawing on numerous experts in the field, PILF seeks to protect the right to vote and preserve the Constitutional framework of American elections. PILF has brought lawsuits and won victories in Texas, Mississippi, North Carolina, Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, Michigan, and across the United States.
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(Alexandria, VA) – April 12, 2021: Public Interest Legal Foundation (PILF) President J. Christian Adams testified before the Rhode Island House State Government and Election Committee regarding HB 6099, a bill that would institute voter ID requirements to register to vote.
In prepared remarks, Adams notes that:
“When it comes to election administration and legal compliance, seemingly unrelated actions can have downstream effects on other aspects of our elections. H.B. 6099 offers a textbook example of how any improvement in one element in the system can create efficiencies in another. The bill’s voter ID-for-voter registration requirement may appear as just yet another example of the increasingly popular election integrity practice—but the downstream effects would continue to pay dividends with respect to broader administration concerns.”
Adams argues that lack of personal identifying information (PII) leads to negative effects on the voter rolls including not being able to positively identify and remove dead registrants.
“I’ve seen first-hand how lacking PII in significant portions of the voter roll can have a negative, down-stream effect on record quality. As I mentioned, my Foundation settled a federal lawsuit with our legal expenses paid by the Pennsylvania Department of State. The Commonwealth carried at least 21,000 dead registrants on the rolls going into the 2020 General Election and we weren’t seeing reasonable official efforts made under federal law to mitigate the problem. We eventually learned that their lack of PII in many instances directly contributed to their not being able to positively identify and remove dead registrants—so they sat—often for decades.”
Adams notes that according to the Public Interest Legal Foundation’s research Rhode Island leads the nation in percentage of registered voters with no PII.
“According to our research, Rhode Island actually leads the nation with respect to percentage of voter roll without PII – at 20 percent. One out of every five.”
In conclusion, Adams argues that voter ID requirements for registration will increase voter confidence and in the long term increase the accuracy of Rhode Island’s voter rolls.
“H.B. 6099’s voter ID requirement in registration will pay off in the short- and long-term for the better of all. Voters can act with confidence that their systems are operating with bona fide participants. Registration officials will have more reliable data to maintain their records in a timely manner. On a broader scale, plans like 6099 help to tamp down fears and disinformation shared among any groups unhappy with a particular election outcome.”
Public Interest Legal Foundation (PILF) is a 501(c)(3) is the nation’s only public interest law firm dedicated wholly to election integrity. The Foundation exists to assist states and others to aid the cause of election integrity and fight against lawlessness in American elections. Drawing on numerous experts in the field, PILF seeks to protect the right to vote and preserve the Constitutional framework of American elections. PILF has brought lawsuits and won victories in Texas, Mississippi, North Carolina, Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, Michigan, and across the United States.
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Settlement Secures Removing over 20,000 Deceased Registrants from PA Voter Rolls
(Harrisburg, PA.) – April 7, 2021: The Public Interest Legal Foundation (PILF) reached a settlement with the Pennsylvania Department of State to remove deceased voters from Pennsylvania’s voter rolls.
Prior to the initiation of the lawsuit, the Foundation provided the Commonwealth with the names of at least 21,000 deceased registrants who remained on the voter rolls less than a month before the pivotal 2020 election. PILF’s data revealed that 9,212 of these deceased registrants had been dead for at least five years, 1,990 had been dead for at least ten years, and 197 had been dead for at least twenty years. In addition, hundreds of these registrants showed post-death voting credits for the 2016 and/or 2018 elections.
Following a briefing and a statement of interest by the U.S. Department of Justice in support of PILF’s position on key allegations in the case, the parties ultimately reached a voluntary settlement, which was finalized last week. PILF sought and Pennsylvania agreed to compare its full voter registration database against the Cumulative Social Security Death Index in order to identify dead voters. Pennsylvania then agreed to direct all county election commissions to remove the names of dead voters.
The terms of the settlement also included an agreement to pay a portion of PILF’s attorneys fees.
“This marks an important victory for the integrity of elections in Pennsylvania” PILF President and General Counsel J. Christian Adams said. “The Commonwealth’s failure to remove deceased registrants created a vast opportunity for voter fraud and abuse. It is important to not have dead voters active on the rolls for 5, 10, or even 20 years. This settlement fixes that.”
The case was originally filed in the United States District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania (No. 1:20-cv-01905). PILF was represented by Bradley J. Schlozman, John Eastman, and Linda A. Kerns.
Settlement Terms Summary
-Before the 2021 statewide general election, the death data set received from the Electronic Registration Information Center will be compared to the full voter registration database to identify individuals who are ineligible to vote due to their death.
-The Pennsylvania Department of State will give each county commission the names of the individuals identified as deceased and inform the commissions that they should promptly cancel the registrations.
-The Department of State will provide PILF with copies of the full voter export at three-month intervals on three separate occasions—May 30, 2021, August 31, 2021 and November 30, 2021.
Public Interest Legal Foundation (PILF) is a 501(c)(3) is the nation’s only public interest law firm dedicated wholly to election integrity. The Foundation exists to assist states and others to aid the cause of election integrity and fight against lawlessness in American elections. Drawing on numerous experts in the field, PILF seeks to protect the right to vote and preserve the Constitutional framework of American elections. PILF has brought lawsuits and won victories in Texas, Mississippi, North Carolina, Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, Michigan, and across the United States.
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