Welcome to Fair Elections Alert, your rundown of key attacks against voting rights and independent elections across the country over the past week. It’s a way to keep up with what the opponents of democracy are focused on. We’ll highlight critical updates you need to be aware of, with a spotlight on the South, the original frontline in the fight for voting rights.
QUOTE OF THE WEEK
“No family should have to be afraid just for trying to vote.” – Kaitlyn Peoples, a 10-year-old whose mother was charged in 2020 with “electioneering” during a march to the polls, in testimony in favor of the Louisiana Voting Rights Act.
NOTABLE TRENDS
CISA Election Security Program Could Be Eliminated: In a proposed budget for the 2027 fiscal year, the Trump administration suggested cutting roughly $700 million in programs across the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA). The budget would eliminate CISA’s election security program entirely, including funding for information-sharing support to state and local officials, and end CISA’s support for Elections Infrastructure Information Sharing and Analysis Center, or EI-ISAC.
STATE ACTIVITY
Arizona • Senate President Referred Attorney General and Secretary of State to Department of Justice for Obstruction: Senate President Warren Petersen (R) referred Attorney General Kris Mayes (D) and Secretary of State Adrian Fontes (D) to the U.S. Department of Justice for obstruction of justice and tampering with a witness.
The referral came after, and in response to, a letter Mayes sent to Petersen after the FBI subpoenaed records on the Senate’s review of Maricopa County’s 2020 election which asked whether confidential voter data was included in the records he gave to the FBI.
Petersen cited a legal opinion he commissioned from the Senate’s private attorneys that concluded that Mayes and Fontes acted inappropriately by sending the letter.
Louisiana • Voting Rights Act Killed in Legislature Despite Hours of Supportive Public Comment: The Louisiana Voting Rights Act, SB 365, was killed in the Louisiana Senate Governmental Affairs Committee by a party line vote. The vote against the bill came despite two hours of people speaking in support of the bill, including 138 people filing green cards (witness cards in support of a bill), and no one speaking in opposition of it, including the Republican Senators on the committee who voted against the bill.
Michigan • “False Elector” Allowed to Run Township Elections After Charges Were Dropped: Shelby Township Clerk Stan Grot, one of 16 people charged with being a “false elector” for President Trump in Michigan in 2020, is once again in charge of the township’s elections after the charges were dropped. In 2023, the state stripped Grot of his ability to run the township’s elections as a result of the charges but the Department of State has confirmed that Grot is in charge of elections again as of January.
Grot and his attorney have claimed that party officials told Grot the document he signed was a contingency in case President Biden’s victory in Michigan was overturned.
Wisconsin • Over 250 Absentee Ballots not Delivered in Time to be Counted: In Milwaukee, 269 absentee ballots were delivered with the regular mail on Wednesday April 8, the day after the election and too late to be counted under state law that requires absentee ballots to be received by polls close on Election Day. Paulina Gutiérrez, executive director of the Milwaukee Election Commission, said that it’s common for a few ballots to come in the day after an election but not over 250.
Gutiérrez, who called the situation “deeply unsettling,” said that they called the USPS throughout Election Day and they reported no more ballots to deliver outside of the 20 delivered that morning.
USPS is investigating, but there is no explanation for what happened yet.
ANTI-VOTING GROUP ACTIVITY
Election Deniers Credited for Ending Data Sharing Partnership Aimed At Promoting Student Voting: During a March meeting of the Pure Integrity Michigan Elections, an Election Integrity Network (EIN)-affiliated anti-voting group, Cleta Mitchell, founder and chair of EIN, credited Heather Honey for the National Student Clearinghouse's decision to stop its work on the National Study of Learning, Voting and Engagement (NSLVE), the go-to source of data on student voter registration and turnout.
In 2023, Honey, who is currently the deputy assistant secretary for elections integrity at the Department of Homeland Security, wrote a report claiming the NSLVE violated the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act. Honey was appointed to her DHS role after working with EIN.
According to Mitchell, Honey sent her report to the Education Secretary Linda McMahon and told her “You’ve got to stop this.” In February, the Department of Education announced that it was investigating “reports” about NSLVE violating that same privacy law.
Ugh
Eliminate the watchdog. Then claim the election is a fraud. Same dictator. Different day.