Here Are the Billionaires Funding Trump's Voter Suppression Lawsuits - 2020-07-31

With millions of people out of work and struggling to keep up with their bills because of the coronavirus shutdown, the federal government has passed new tax breaks for the rich and created trillions for bailing out large corporations. The 2020 election could give voters a chance to remove the politicians who enacted these policies, but if the Trump administration and Republican Party get their way, many voters will be forced to put their health at risk by voting in-person in November, almost certainly before a vaccine or a reliable treatment for the coronavirus is available.
For the past several months, national Republican have been at war in the courts over state policies—advanced mainly by Democrats, but also by Republicans in some states—designed to make it easier for people to safely vote. In more than a dozen states, including battlegrounds like Wisconsin and Michigan, the Republican National Committee (RNC) has initiated or joined lawsuits to block states from expanding vote-by-mail systems or to oppose Democratic lawsuits in states that have resisted putting universal vote-by-mail systems in place. The lawsuits are financed by a $20 million litigation budget that the Republicans have amassed for fighting Democrats on voting issues.
Trump and Republicans have repeatedly said that mail ballots are more susceptible to electoral fraud, though nonpartisan groups like Brennan Center for Justice say there is "no evidence" that voting by mail results in significant levels of fraud. Trump has said that he believes high levels of voting hurts Republicans.
- 2010
- 2017
- 2018
- 2019
- 2020
- American Legislative Exchange Council
- Americans for Prosperity
- Brennan Center
- California
- Charles Koch Foundation
- Charles Schwab
- Coronavirus
- Dark money
- Dark Right
- Donald Shaw
- DonorsTrust
- Federal Election Commission
- Federalist Society
- First Amendment
- Forbes
- Gavin Newsom
- George Mason University
- Honest Elections Project
- Iowa
- Irvine
- Judicial Education Project
- Koch Bro
- Lawsuit
- Lobbyist
- Louis DeJoy
- Michigan
- News article
- OpenSecrets
- Pennsylvania
- Politico
- Republican
- Republican National Committee
- Sludge
- State Policy Network
- Stephen Schwarzman
- The Guardian
- University of California, Berkeley
- Voter suppression
- Wisconsin