Leaked
Documents Reveal Expansive Soros Funding to Manipulate Federal Elections, by
Christian Adams, 11/7/16
Leaked funding documents reveal an
effort by George Soros and his foundations to manipulate election laws and process
rules ahead of the federal election far more expansively than has been
previously reported.
The billionaire and convicted
felon moved hundreds of millions of
dollars into often-secret efforts to change election laws, fuel litigation to
attack election integrity measures, push public narratives about voter fraud,
and to integrate the political ground game of the left with efforts to scare
racial minority groups about voting rights threats.
These Soros-funded efforts moved
through dozens of 501(c)(3) and (c)(4) charities and
involved the active compliance with civil rights groups, government officials,
and purportedly non-partisan groups like the League of Women Voters.
The leaked documents also reveal deliberate and successful efforts to manipulate media coverage of
election issues in mainstream media outlets like the The New York Times.
Conservatives and Republicans have
no opposing effort or source of funds that represents even a small fraction in
opposition to level of the Soros-led manipulation contained in the leaked
documents.
The documents reveal that the Soros
campaign fueled litigation attacking election integrity measures, such as
citizenship verification and voter ID. It funded long-term efforts to
fundamentally transform election administration -- including the creation of
databases that were marketed to state governments for use in voter
verification. It propped up left-leaning media to attack reports of voter
fraud, and conducted racially and ideologically targeted voter registration
drives.
The racially targeted voter
registration drives were executed at the same time Soros dollars were funding
other public relations efforts to polarize racial minority groups by scaring
them about the loss of voting rights and the dangers of police officers.
The Soros documents reveal hundreds
of millions of dollars being poured into the effort to transform the legal and
media environment touching on elections. One document notes that
poverty-alleviation programs are being de-emphasized for this new effort. It
states: "George Soros has authorized U.S. Programs to propose a budget of
$320 million over two years, with the understanding that the annual budget for
U.S. Programs will be $150 million beginning in 2013."
The purpose of the expansion is
clear: The increase in Democracy and Power Fund budget will expand funding of
non-partisan voter engagement to catalyze participation from African-American,
Latino, immigrant, and youth communities in particular, and to ensure a fair
and just redistricting process. The increase in the Transparency and Integrity
Fund will expand support for election reform, judicial independence and
journalism. Below are some highlights of this expansive Soros-funded campaign
to alter the legal environment and rules of American elections.
Litigation
Soros funded multiple attacks on
state voter identification laws in places such as Wisconsin, North Carolina and
Virginia. While not successful at the trial court in North Carolina and
Virginia, the Soros litigation won a victory in the appeals courts resulting in
North Carolina election integrity laws being suspended for the presidential
election. Worse, the litigation resulted in opinions by federal appeals
courts which could potentially turn the Voting Rights Act of 1965 into a
one-way political ratchet that helps Democrats, as long as Democrats can
enforce racially polarized voting patterns.
Soros documents show funding for the
League of Women Voters and their effort "to catalyze greater participation
from Black and Latino youth in advocacy both before and after elections."
The LWV is currently in federal court trying to stop efforts by Kansas,
Georgia, and Alabama to verify that only citizens are registering to vote. The
same organization intervened in a lawsuit by the Public Interest Legal
Foundation to clean voter rolls in a Virginia jurisdiction with more registered voters than eligible citizens.
Soros documents show funding of
$250,000 for the North Carolina State Conference of the NAACP before the group
then sued to stop the use of voter ID in North Carolina. Other groups in
North Carolina that were on the funding documents include: "Action
Institute NC - $75,000 over one year . North Carolina Latino Coalition -
$75,000 . New World Foundation - $300,000 over one year . . North
Carolina Fair Share Education Fund - $75,000 . . School for Creative Activism -
$75,000."
Soros documents show that it funded
efforts to attack the efforts of Tea Party organizations such as True the Vote
to promote election integrity and triggered Department of Justice action. One
funding document states that the Campaign Legal Center, [former John McCain
lawyer] Trevor Potter, and the Brennan Center worked on "voter
registration reform" and efforts to attack Tea Party groups. "CLC is
focusing most of its efforts on the threat posed by these private ‘challenger’ groups
and, to that end, has been gathering information on the activities of such
groups, including Houston-based True the Vote. Working in partnership with
Transparency Fund grantee Project Vote, CLC has pieced together a narrative
that strongly suggests a widespread effort by True the Vote to suppress
minority voting. CLC made Open
Records Requests to officials in Houston to obtain all communications between
True the Vote and Houston election offices, obtained and analyzed these
documents and presented their findings to the United States Department of
Justice last month. Following this meeting, the Justice Department sent federal
officials to Houston to monitor the May primary elections. One
other aspect of CLC’s work in this area is its Executive Director, J. Gerald
Hebert’s role as chief counsel to a group of intervenors in State of Texas v.
Holder."
The funding documents name groups
which received in excess of $500,000 each year from Soros. They include:
"Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, Center on Budget and
Policy Priorities, Center for American Progress, Advancement Project, Center
for Community Change, Brennan Center." Three of the largest recipients are
engaged in litigation and strategic communications denying voter fraud and
seeking to transform the rules of elections.
Soros money is moving away from
pressing for "campaign finance reform" and speech regulations, and
instead into election process areas. The funding documents state "We
do recommend shifts in a significant area of previous strategy. Historically,
OSI played a leading role in promoting campaign finance reform models at the
national and state levels. In recent years, changed conditions caused us to
re-examine our approach, and our analysis led us to begin discontinuing our
support to campaign finance reform groups."
Soros money fought voter ID,
everywhere. The leaked documents state: "The 2012 elections proved
that momentum is with the voting rights and civil rights community rather than
their detractors. Not only was this field successful at blocking restrictive
laws from being implemented in Pennsylvania, Florida, Ohio, Texas, Wisconsin
and South Carolina, but a strong coalition in Minnesota came from behind to
achieve the first victory against photo ID on the ballot."
Soros money was directed at the
Advancement Project and Brennan Center to influence media coverage on election
integrity issues and provide voter fraud denial propaganda. Leaked
funding documents state: "In a specific grant update, the U.S. Programs
board-funded communications and messaging project was successfully led by the Brennan Center and the Advancement Project,
and played an important role in the spike in media attention on voting rights
this year. The groups developed affirmative voting rights messages and shared
them widely in and beyond the field. The messages were used verbatim hundreds of times in
sources ranging from The New York Times to the Philadelphia
Inquirer, quickly and fully working their way into the media,
national and local, and across social networking sites." Verbatim.
Soros funding documents reveal that
the Brennan Center and Advancement Project, two organizations regularly
opposing election integrity measures in court, were among the largest Soros
funding recipients for the entire Soros program.
ERIC, the program seeded by PEW to
allow states to verify voter identity which many states now use, was started
with Soros money and an "anonymous" donor.
Election
Administration
Soros money partnered with the
Rockefeller Family Fund to push for changes to voter registration policies at
the national level and gave money to Pew Center On The States to push for voter
list maintenance practices favorable to Soros at the state level. After
these grants were made, Oregon and California moved toward mandatory voter
registration, where everyone who is on a government database is automatically
put on the list of eligible voters. Legislation was also
introduced in Congress to nationalize
voter registration even though the Constitution gives power to the states to
run their own elections.
Soros money funded a variety of
organizations to "broaden the voices calling for reform" including
the Brennan Center for Justice which subsequently issued
a report on mandatory voter registration.
Soros money is funding some of the
loudest voices who deny that voter fraud is a serious problem.
These voices have produced poorly researched studies that are routinely cited
by mainstream media to argue that voter fraud is a myth. Among the groups
are the Brennan Center for Justice and the Advancement Project, two
organizations that have opposed election integrity laws and have sought to stop
the efforts of states to ensure that only citizens are voting. Soros
grants also went to "New America Media," which describes itself as
"a nationwide association of 3,000 ethnic media organizations representing
the development of a more inclusive journalism." This mix of funding
for media efforts with non-profit organizations that oppose election integrity
was branded as "Broad and Equitable Access to the Ballot" in Soros
funding documents. (The chart shows $3.7 milllion in grants)
Soros money fueled efforts by Pew to
press for election administration reforms. Those efforts produced a
system called ERIC which many states have adopted to verify voter
eligibility. As a condition of participation in ERIC, states must pay
significant fees as well as do a mailing to all unregistered voters in that
state encouraging them to register to vote. The Soros funding documents
state: "Because work at the state level is important in laying the
groundwork for more sweeping reforms (in this and other areas within the
Fund), we will also recommend
funding The Pew Charitable Trusts "Make Voting Work" program
(formerly a joint Pew-JEHT initiative), which supports innovative models at the
state level and plans to expand into the arena of automatic registration in the
coming year. This program works with state elections officials to standardize –
and where necessary professionalize – election administration. Pew plans to
focus its efforts on 4 states. Other state-level election systems funding will
include continued support for
advocacy around enforcement of various provisions of the Voting Rights Act,
particularly related to voter registration. We are also likely to partner with
other Election Administration Fund allies in promoting Election Day Registration and other efforts that build towards
comprehensive structural reforms."
The leaked documents also reveal how
Soros-funded organizations hector state and local election officials into
adopting policies favorable to the left through hard work and behind-the-scenes
pressure: "Advocates in Georgia have been sitting in on board of elections
meetings to spot discriminatory voting practices, while those in Los Angeles
have started working with the County Registrar-Recorder’s office to plan best
practices workshops for the annual national election officials’ association
convening this August." Local voter rolls are infested
with millions of ineligible voters, in
part because local and state election officials refuse to do what is necessary
to clean them.
Soros-funded groups even swoop in after ligation to
push narratives to voters about the results of Soros-funded litigation.
One leaked document shows $158,000 was spent on this activity in Texas alone:
"Texas Election Protection ($158,000): The Opportunities Fund grant
supported last-minute voting rights work in the state of Texas to ensure that:
(1) registered voters were aware of new voter identification requirements; and
(2) advocates were able to collect data showing the continued discriminatory
impact of voter ID laws. As a result of this grant, the 1-866-OUR-VOTE hotline
received a record number of calls—up 45% from 2010." This is a
movement that spares no expense.
Racially
Motivated Voter Registration and Media
Manipulation
on Election Issues
Soros money specifically targeted
voter mobilization efforts of racial minority groups that exhibit racially
polarized voting patterns and can be counted on to support Democrats. For
example, the "Democracy and Power Fund" was established to
"inspire the participation of people of color, immigrants, young people,
and low income people . . . . The fund invests in multi-issue advocacy,
organizing and voter participation organizations that work at the federal,
state and local level to expand access to democracy and build power for lasting social justice and
systemic change." This distinct effort from all of the other
Soros activities involved over $15,000,000 in just the three-year period from
2010-2012 (dollars named below in millions). (Chart shows activities funded)
2010-2012
Democracy and Power Fund budget (in millions of dollars)
Other documents reveal extensive
funding streams to tilt process rules involving elections. According to
the review of leaked documents:
The "Democracy and Power
Fund" funded efforts to "increase participation in the 2010 U.S.
Census, a key effort to ensure that OSI communities of interest – immigrants, incarcerated and formerly
incarcerated people, low-income people, and people of color – will
not be undercounted. The count is not merely about demographics, for it
determines how billions in federal programs get distributed, how congressional, state, and local political
representation is divvied up, and how economic development occurs – or
not – in communities."
Soros money is fueling the narrative
in the mainstream media about election process issues. The leaked funding
documents describe how the propaganda about the "myth of voter fraud"
is generated by two Soros-funded organizations, moved to blogger and
racially-centric media outlets, and eventually to mainstream media. The
leaked documents, for example, state: "Brennan and Advancement
disseminated the messaging materials widely through convenings and webinars to
voting rights organizations, labor unions, and issue advocacy groups. The
project’s messaging worked its way into national and local media. A
complementary $200,000 grant to New America Media, a multi-media content
producer and aggregator for ethnic media, extended this work to thousands of
local ethnic media outlets. The public opinion and communications efforts
influenced registration and get out the vote efforts, ballot initiative
outcomes, and this fall’s string of court victories for voting rights."
Soros money funds this "Media
Consortium" according to leaked funding documents. Documents show
that in one two-year period, another $200,000 in Soros money moved to the
"Media Consortium" itself. The effort is described as "a
network of leading progressive independent journalism organizations focused on
making connections, building a media infrastructure, and amplifying the voices
of progressive journalists in the United States. Over the past year, the Media
Consortium has done much to build community and greater strength among
progressive media outlets, and is creating a cooperative infrastructure that
supports a sustainable future for journalists." Progressive media
outlets have taken the lead in denying that voter fraud exists and in opposing
election integrity measures.
Mainstream journalists frequently
parrot progressive writers when covering voter fraud, thus rendering the Media
Consortium Soros dollars well spent.
Prior to the 2012 election, Soros
organizations also planned to move millions to a swarm of downstream groups to
fund organizing and political activities. These include obscure names
such as $300,000 for "Black Youth Vote," $75,000 for "Blueprint
North Carolina," and $300,000 to the "Nonprofit Voter Engagement
Network" to name just three of many others. (Chart shows Grant
recommendations for $2.945 million prior to the 2012 election)
Leaked
Soros funding document.
Soros money is also behind the
National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials Education
Fund. $300,000 in Soros money went to "mobilizing the Latino
community to engage in civic life, and promoting policies that advance Latino
civic engagement."
$500,000 went to the National
Council of La Raza and Democracia USA to conduct "nonpartisan voter
registration and voter education in latino communities."
$200,000 went to the Center for
Civic Policy to engage "ordinary people in the policy debates that affect
their daily lives through increasing voter turnout; educating and mobilizing
the public on issues; and training new leaders for civic
life." The Center for Civic Policy is a tax exempt 501(c)(3)
organization.
Soros money is being spent on the
local level to fundamentally transform the political environment in multiple
states. The leaked documents state: "In coordination with the
OSI Global Fellows Program, we recently participated in a panel on “Organizing
in the Obama Era” that featured representatives from the National Domestic
Workers Alliance, New Organizing Institute, and the Obama campaign.
D&P staff are researching a set of six states where social justice capacity
is lacking and the opportunities for and threats to an open society are great;
states currently under consideration include Colorado, Florida, Nevada, New
Mexico, North Carolina, and Virginia. D&P is working with peer
funders – from Atlantic Philanthropies, Carnegie, Ford, and New World
Foundations, among others – to increase national funding for building state
capacity to influence issue work at the state and federal levels."
Soros money is fueling the effort to
reassert federal control over state elections by passing amendments to the
Voting Rights Act. Funding documents state "In the wake of
the Shelby decision, we have continued working with the Ford
Foundation to convene both grantee organizations and funders to strategize and
leverage resources in order to protect voting rights. The following
three-pronged strategic approach, which was conceived by the field in
conjunction with Open Society and Ford, and which includes c3 and c4
components, has emerged as the substantive focus of post-Shelby voting
rights work."
The leaked funding documents also
show who is generating the narrative to restore federal power: "We note
that although we have yet to define the broader strategic communications
response, our investment in the Advancement Project and the Brennan Center last
year for strategic communications work to improve the public discourse on
voting rights is continuing to pay dividends. Both groups are members of the
Litigation Working Group and the Leadership Conference kitchen-cabinet for the
Restore the Voting Rights Act Campaign. The Advancement Project is also working
with state-based organizations in several states on monitoring, investigating,
and challenging proposed voting changes. "
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