A Democratic legal fight against restrictive voting laws
enacted in recent years by Republican-controlled state governments is being
largely paid for by a single liberal benefactor: the billionaire philanthropist
George Soros.
Mr. Soros, the Hungarian-born investor whose first major
involvement in American politics was a voter-mobilization drive in the 2004
presidential race, has yet to commit the many millions of dollars that Hillary Rodham Clinton’s allies
hope he and other like-minded billionaires will pour into the “super
PAC” directly aiding her campaign.
But it turns out that Mr. Soros has already agreed to put
as much as $5 million into the litigation
effort, which Democrats hope will erode restrictions on voter
access that they say could otherwise prove decisive in a close election.
The lawsuits — which are being led by a lawyer whose
clients include Mrs. Clinton’s campaign — are attacking a variety of measures,
including voter-identification requirements that Democrats consider onerous,
time restrictions imposed on early voting that they say could make it difficult
to cast ballots the weekend before Election Day, and rules that could nullify
ballots cast in the wrong precinct.
The lawyer, Marc Elias, who specializes in voter-protection
issues, was in contact with Mr. Soros in January 2014 when Mr. Elias was
exploring a series of federal lawsuits before that year’s midterm election and
in advance of the 2016 campaign, according to Mr. Soros’s political adviser,
Michael Vachon. (Mr. Elias declined to comment on Friday about the funding of
the lawsuits.)
The goal is to try to influence voting rules in states
where Republican governors and Republican-led legislatures have enacted
election laws since 2010, and to be ready to intervene if additional measures
are passed over the next 17 months.
Mr. Soros described himself as “proud” to be part of the
legal battles. “We hope to see these unfair laws, which often
disproportionately affect the most vulnerable in our society, repealed,” he
said.
Two suits that Mr. Soros is supporting were filed in Ohio and in Wisconsin last
month. He is also helping to pay for a case that Mr. Elias and several other
groups filed last year in North Carolina.
Democrats say the new laws disproportionately affect the
poor, minorities and young people. A Government Accountability Office study
last October found that states with more stringent voter identification laws
had a larger decline in voter turnout than states that did not have such new
restrictions.
Republicans have argued that the new laws are much-needed
protection against election fraud, and dismiss the litigation — which could
soon expand to cases in Georgia, Nevada and Virginia, Democrats say — as little
more than a gambit to energize minority voters in support of Democratic
candidates.
But Mr. Vachon described it as an attempt to push back at
Republicans who he said were “using the legislative process” for partisan
purposes.
“It is disingenuous to suggest that these laws are meant
to protect against voter fraud, which is nearly nonexistent,” he said. “Clearly
they are meant to give Republicans a political advantage on Election Day.”
Mr. Elias’s clients include four major national
Democratic Party committees — as well as the Clinton presidential campaign,
which is not a party to the lawsuits, though her team has spoken favorably of
them.
But Mrs. Clinton seized on voting rights this week,
attacking some of her potential Republican opponents in
a speech in Houston on Thursday for voting laws enacted in their states, and
calling for automatic voter registration nationwide when people turn 18.
“I call on Republicans at all levels of government with
all manner of ambition to stop fear-mongering about a phantom epidemic of
election fraud and start explaining why they’re so scared of letting citizens
have their say,” Mrs. Clinton said.
Some of the Republicans she named, notably Gov. Chris
Christie of New Jersey and Gov. Scott Walker of Wisconsin, responded in kind.
“Secretary Clinton doesn’t know the first thing about
voting rights in New Jersey or in the other states that she attacked,” Mr.
Christie said, according to The Record newspaper of Hackensack, N.J. “My sense
is that she just wants an opportunity to commit greater acts of voter fraud
around the country.”
And Mr. Walker said Mrs. Clinton’s “rejection of efforts
to make it easier to vote and harder to cheat not only defies logic, but the
will of the majority of Americans.”
Mr. Soros’s first foray into Democratic politics came in
2004, when he provided millions of dollars to try to unseat President George W.
Bush, including through a voter mobilization drive called America Coming
Together.
While Mr. Soros has not pledged money to the super PAC
focused solely on Mrs. Clinton, Mr. Vachon said he has given $1 million this
year to the research-focused super PAC American Bridge. The legal actions filed
by Mr. Elias are in keeping with the type of advocacy Mr. Soros has favored:
efforts at the nexus of policy, politics and movement-building.
Mr. Vachon said Mr. Elias first approached him early last
year about supporting a voting rights lawsuit in North Carolina, where
student identification cards are not considered acceptable forms of photo ID. The
restrictions in North Carolina ended a program in which teenagers filled out a
form and were then registered automatically to vote on their 18th birthday.
Joining with the N.A.A.C.P., the Justice Department and the American Civil
Liberties Union, Mr. Elias argued that the law was onerous for younger voters
in violation of the 26th Amendment, which lowered the voting age to 18 from 21.
The North Carolina case is still pending.
But Mr. Elias and Mr. Vachon have discussed filing other
suits in some of the 21 states that have added voting restrictions since the
2010 Republican electoral wave, if those states seek to tighten voting access
any further. “I expect there will be more,” Mr. Vachon said.
An earlier version of this post incorrectly described one
on the groups joining in the voting rights lawsuit in North Carolina. It is the
N.A.A.C.P., not the N.A.A.C.P. Legal Defense Fund.
http://www.nytimes.com/politics/first-draft/2015/06/05/ bankroller-of-democratic-voting-rights-cases-george-soros/?_r=0
Comments
Soros is the Criminal who set up the British Pound to
sink in the 1970s. He is wanted in several countries. He is a big player with the other Marxists
pushing a UN front global communist government.
He is Dr. Evil. He supports UN Agenda 21 and all of Obama’s crimes.
Norb Leahy, Dunwoody GA Tea Party Leader
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