Newsletter: Arizona Election Administration, DeSantis Migrant Transportation, and Right-wing Voter Challenges

Two high-ranking Arizona Republicans filed a lawsuit this week challenging election administration rules set forth in the state’s new Elections Procedures Manual, which was created by Secretary of State Adrian Fontes and approved by the state’s governor and attorney general in December.

• The manual says that county supervisors have “no authority to change vote totals, reject the election results, or delay certifying the results without express statutory authority or a court order,” and that if a county doesn’t certify by the state deadline, then the statewide canvass won’t include those votes. 
• Arizona Senate President Warren Petersen and state House Speaker Ben Toma filed the lawsuit in Maricopa County on Wednesday, claiming that the rules are an attempt to disenfranchise voters.
• The manual was approved in December, a month after two Cochise County supervisors were indicted and charged with conspiring to delay the counting of the 2022 midterm votes and interfering with the secretary of state’s ability to complete the statewide totaling of votes.

Earlier this month, American Oversight filed a lawsuit in Cochise County seeking the release of public records related to the county’s recent election administration decisions, including the refusal to meet the certification deadline.

• “With the 2024 election looming, the public, especially Cochise County residents, should know how officials aligned with the election denial movement have used their authority to make significant changes to election administration and to undermine our democratic processes,” American Oversight Executive Director Heather Sawyer said earlier this month.

On the Records

How Gina Swoboda’s Website Fuels Voter Fraud Activists
Last week, the Arizona Republican Party elected Gina Swoboda as its new chair, just days after a scandal forced the previous chair to resign. Swoboda is a former organizer of Donald Trump’s 2020 campaign in Arizona and runs an online project called VoteRef.com, which is designed to be a resource for voter-fraud activists who want to inspect voter rolls. 

• Voting-rights and privacy advocates have voiced concerns VoteRef could be used to compromise individual privacy, intimidate voters, cause mass cancellations of voting registrations, and inundate local election offices with burdensome, time-consuming, and inaccurate challenges.

VoteRef has been one of several systems used or promoted by conservative activists following several states’ decisions to cave to a right-wing, conspiracy-theory-driven pressure campaign and leave the nonpartisan Electronic Registration Information Center. Records we obtained, outlined in our report “The Campaign to Dismantle ERIC,” show that information gleaned from VoteRef has fueled numerous voter challenges and fraud allegations. 

• Records of complaints to the Missouri secretary of state’s office in March 2023, lodged by Ian Camacho — the research director of a group that supported defendants facing charges for participating in the Jan. 6 insurrection — and an “anonymous tipster” calling themselves Totes Legit Votes, suggest that they had used the VoteRef database. 
• According to an email from a Texas Senate staffer to the state secretary of state’s office, this tipster had flagged “approximately 75” alleged double voters in that state.
• Camacho also cited VoteRef data in a May 2023 email to election officials in Wake County, N.C., alleging instances of double voting. 
• Other documents reveal several requests from the Voter Reference Foundation for data from the Wyoming, West Virginia, and Rhode Island secretaries of state.

Migrant Relocation Flyers Distributed by DeSantis Contractor at Florida Church
The Orlando Sentinel reported this week on a controversial strategy being implemented by a contractor for Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ highly criticized migrant transportation program.

• Flyers advertising free relocation trips from an organization calling itself My Bright Horizons were actually distributed by Access Restoration Services (ARS), a Texas-based company that has contracted with Florida for DeSantis’ migrant transportation program, the Sentinel reported.
• The flyers were printed in English, Spanish, and Creole, and left on the doorstep of a Latino church in Orlando last week. Other organizations across Florida, including churches, law enforcement, and a nonprofit, have also been contacted by the company in attempts to recruit migrants.
• An email sent to a church by “My Bright Horizons” said, “All volunteers will be provided shelter, food, hygiene kits, medical examinations, and basic care prior to, and during transport,” the Sentinel reported.

The article cites contracts American Oversight obtained for three vendors of the transportation program, including ARS. According to state records reviewed by the Sentinel, ARS has been paid at least $15 million by the DeSantis administration so far this fiscal year.

• Contracts for other vendors also included amendments stating that companies conducting the flights would “ensure each participating individual understands and accepts that no goods or services, such as lodging accommodations, additional travel, or other arrangements will be provided” by the company at the destination. 
• The changes appear to have been made in response to public outcry over media reports that at least some of the people who were taken to Martha’s Vineyard in September 2022 had been lured onto flights under false pretenses of jobs and housing.

Other Stories We’re Following

Election Denial and Threats to Democracy

• Georgia Senate confirms alleged election denier to state election board (Democracy Docket)
• Stanford study: No evidence of voter fraud in Pennsylvania, other states during 2020 election (CBS News)
• Wisconsin Republicans seek to curtail governor’s veto power (Associated Press)

Voting Rights

• Republican lawsuits challenge mail ballot deadlines. Could they upend voting across the country? (Associated Press)
• Proposed bill would give Arizona Legislature authority to override popular vote (KNAU Arizona Public Radio)
• Evers vetoes new legislative maps passed by Wisconsin Legislature (Wisconsin Public Radio)
• Republicans press Janet Protasiewicz to recuse from challenge to congressional maps (Milwaukee Journal Sentinel)
• Judge orders Wisconsin elections officials to move quickly on changing absentee ballot rules (Associated Press)
• In fight over voter rolls, Wisconsin’s top judges can’t agree on sensitive data (Wisconsin Watch)
• Pennsylvania automatic voter registration boosts sign-ups, but not a political party, data shows (Associated Press)

In the States

• Utah is the latest state to ban diversity, equity and inclusion efforts on campus and in government (Associated Press)
• Under Ken Paxton, Texas’ civil Medicaid fraud unit is falling apart (Texas Tribune)
• Ken Paxton could face public trial in whistleblower lawsuit after judge’s ruling (Texas Tribune)
• Judge dismisses Disney suit against DeSantis over special tax district (Washington Post)

LGBTQ Rights

• Texas Supreme Court to hear legal challenge to ban on gender-transition care for kids (Texas Tribune)
• Texas AG seeks transgender records in Georgia as part of his wider probe (Washington Post)
• Trans people in Florida prisons say gender-affirming care ban upended their health care (Marshall Project)
• Utah joins 10 other states in regulating bathroom access for transgender people (Associated Press)
• Sex definition bill moves to Idaho House floor despite lack of support in public hearing (Idaho Capital Sun)
• Rokita’s office enlists DC firm to investigate if doctors misrepresent trans care risks (Indianapolis Star)

Abortion and Reproductive Rights

• Supreme Court sets date for high-stakes abortion pill oral arguments (Politico)
• ACLU warns Supreme Court that lower court abortion pill decisions relied on ‘patently unreliable witnesses’ (CBS News)
• Pennsylvania Supreme Court clears way for challenge to ban on Medicaid abortion coverage (Hill)
• A Tennessee lawmaker helped pass a strict abortion law. He’s now trying to loosen it (NPR)
• 6 anti-abortion protesters convicted of federal felonies in Mt. Juliet clinic blockade (Tennessean)

Threats to Education

• Hate crimes reported in schools nearly doubled between 2018 and 2022 (New York Times)
• Private schools, public money: School leaders are pushing parents to exploit voucher programs (ProPublica)
• GOP’s latest proposal to eliminate DEI receives public hearing (Wisconsin Examiner)
• Education bills focus on what should be taught in classrooms and kept out of school libraries (News from the States)

Civil Rights

•  Charged with no crime. Locked up for 12 days. He died waiting for help (News from the States)
• Colorado is keeping kids locked in juvenile jails months longer than needed because of lack of foster homes, treatment options (Colorado Sun)

Government Transparency and Public Records Law

• NYPD officers will have to record race of people they question under new police transparency law (Associated Press)
• Amid Covenant lawsuits, new bill would block outside intervention in public records cases (Tennessean)
• Cameron’s office agreed to $99,750 settlement in lawsuit over ‘ballot integrity’ task force records (Kentucky Lantern)

Immigration

• As buses of migrants arrive in Chicago suburbs, residents debate the role of their towns (New York Times)
• Texas’ standoff with the feds in Eagle Pass is igniting calls for secession and fears of violence (Texas Tribune)
• DeSantis is sending Florida’s State Guard into Texas amid border fight with Biden (Miami Herald)
• Texas border dispute breeds loose talk of civil war, resistance on right (Washington Post)

Trump Accountability

• Pro-Trump network OAN execs may have ‘engaged in criminal activities’ while promoting 2020 election lies, Smartmatic alleges (CNN)
• Trump spent more than $55 million in donor money on legal fees last year, filings show (Washington Post)

Jan. 6 Investigations

• Embattled Georgia prosecutor Willis will not recuse herself from Trump case amid affair allegations, sources say (CNN)
• Supreme Court flooded with amicus briefs in Trump 14th Amendment case from Colorado (News from the States)
• Illinois hearing officer, ex-GOP judge, says Trump engaged in insurrection (New York Times)
• Trump stays on ballot in Illinois, state board rules (New York Times)