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Big Money is trying to privatize, and sabotage our election system and voting rights

by Lynda Carson (newzland2 [at] gmail.com)
Protesters In Front Of The Home Of Billionaire Leonard Anthony Leo:
Protesters In Front Of The Home Of Billionaire Leonard Anthony Leo:
Big Money is trying to privatize, and sabotage our election system and voting rights

By Lynda Carson - September 27, 2024

On March 7, 2021, President Biden signed into law what is known as the “Executive Order on Promoting Access to Voting.”

In part it states, “The right to vote is the foundation of American democracy.  Free and fair elections that reflect the will of the American people must be protected and defended. But many Americans, especially people of color, confront significant obstacles to exercising that fundamental right. These obstacles include difficulties with voter registration, lack of election information, and barriers to access at polling places.  For generations, Black voters and other voters of color have faced discriminatory policies and other obstacles that disproportionally affect their communities.  These voters remain more likely to face long lines at the polls and are disproportionately burdened by voter identification laws and limited opportunities to vote by mail.  Limited access to language assistance remains a barrier for many voters. People with disabilities continue to face barriers to voting and are denied legally required accommodations in exercising their fundamental rights and the ability to vote privately and independently.  Members of our military serving overseas, as well as other American citizens living abroad, also face challenges to exercising their fundamental right to vote.”

Additionally, it states, “It is the policy of my Administration to promote and defend the right to vote for all Americans who are legally entitled to participate in elections.  It is the responsibility of the Federal Government to expand access to, and education about, voter registration and election information, and to combat misinformation, in order to enable all eligible Americans to participate in our democracy.”

“Expanding Access to Voter Registration and Election Information. Agencies shall consider ways to expand citizens’ opportunities to register to vote and to obtain information about, and participate in, the electoral process.”

Apparently, the convicted felon Donald J. Trump, the fascist MAGA Republicans, the neo-Nazis, White Supremacists and the filthy rich billionaires supporting them do not like Biden’s “Executive Order on Promoting Access to Voting.”

Indeed, with only a little a little over a month until the November 5 election takes place, not only are they trying to stop the “Executive Order on Promoting Access to Voting,” from fully going into effect, additionally with every thing else going on negatively affecting the election by the MAGA Republicans, it appears that they have decided to try to privatize the election system and our voting rights by taking control over it, or to sabotage it with voter suppression tactics.

As recently as September 14, 2024, an ACLU Press Release announced that, “The League of Women Voters of the United States, Black Voters Matter, and Naeva (formerly known as Native American Voters Alliance) moved today to intervene on behalf of voters in a lawsuit before the United States District Court for the Northern District of Texas, America First Policy Institute v. Biden, case no. 2:24-cv-00152-Z (N.D. Texas). The pending lawsuit seeks to enjoin implementation of Executive Order no. 14019 (“Executive Order”) and make it more difficult to register to vote. The League of Women Voters of the United States, Black Voters Matter, and Naeva intend to defend the Executive Order.”

Reportedly “The Executive Order has stood for over three years, including through the entire 2022 election cycle. Yet now, ahead of the 2024 presidential election, America First Policy Institute, along with a small collection of legislators, several state or local Republican party officials, and four election administrators seek to halt nonpartisan efforts to promote voter registration for eligible Americans. This week they filed an emergency motion asking the court to stop the federal government from providing voter registration services this election that hundreds of thousands of Americans from across the political spectrum seek.”


America First Policy Institute v. Biden, case no. 2:24-cv-00152-Z (N.D. Texas).

Reportedly, “America First Policy Institute formed in 2021 and is the largest of the MAGA nonprofit organizations that arose after former President Trump departed the White House. According to The New York Times, AFPI has “the look of a Trump administration in waiting” given the numerous ex-Trump officials who now work for the organization.”

According to Wikipedia, “The America First Policy Institute does not disclose its donors and has taken meetings with lobbyists hoping to influence its policy agenda. Trump has fundraised for the group and his Save America PAC has donated $1 million to the institute. AFPI has a transition project which is viewed as a rival to Project 2025.”

America First Policy Institute

Reportedly, “The America First Policy Institute (AFPI) is a nonprofit 501(c)(3)[4] think tank that was founded in 2021 to promote former U.S. President Donald Trump's public policy agenda.[5] The organization was founded by Brooke Rollins, who serves as president and CEO and was formerly the acting director of the United States Domestic Policy Council under Trump, and Larry Kudlow, who serves as vice chair and formerly served as the Director of the National Economic Council under Trump. Linda McMahon, who formerly served as Administrator of the Small Business Administration under Trump and then as chairwoman of America First Action, a pro-Trump Super PAC, is the organization's chairperson.

According to Politico, the group is often described as a "White House in waiting." The group produced a document about its vision, which includes "job creation and low unemployment, expansion of affordable housing, eradicating Covid-19, reducing federal bureaucracy, cracking down on crime and illegal immigration, passing congressional term limits, and ending foreign war and reliance on China." As of 2023, AFPI had 172 employees, including eight former cabinet secretaries from the Trump administration.”

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/America_First_Policy_Institute

(AFPI) America First Policy Institute - 990 tax filing

https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/854202763/202333189349314408/full
501(c)(3) - ending 2022

Gross receipts: $28,028,491. After subtracting their liabilities from their assets, they had $4,634,856 in net assets or fund balances.

Chapters:

https://americafirstpolicy.com/state-chapter

Meet the team:

https://americafirstpolicy.com/team?gad_source=1&gclid=EAIaIQobChMI5qWm7ZXjiAMVegCtBh2d4QFoEAAYASABEgLZOPD_BwE

LINDA MCMAHON

14 Hurlingham Drive
Greenwich, CT 06831-2739

https://docquery.fec.gov/cgi-bin/fecimg/?201608180200343970

https://www.politico.com/story/2019/03/29/linda-mcmahon-to-resign-as-head-of-small-business-administration-1243495


ASHLEY HAYEK

9046 Jeffrey RD
Great Falls, VA 22066-4151

https://docquery.fec.gov/cgi-bin/fecimg/?202404159627895405

https://www.fec.gov/data/receipts/individual-contributions/?contributor_name=ASHLEY+HAYEK


LARRY KUDLOW

https://www.fec.gov/data/receipts/individual-contributions/?contributor_name=LARRY+KUDLOW


BROOKE ROLLINS

2232 Winton Ter W
Fort Worth, TX 76109

https://docquery.fec.gov/cgi-bin/fecimg/?202409139675452965

https://www.fec.gov/data/receipts/individual-contributions/?contributor_name=BROOKE+ROLLINS


CODY CAMPBELL

https://docquery.fec.gov/cgi-bin/fecimg/?202409069675371851


TRISH DUGGAN

TIM DUNN

NEWT GINGRICH

5892 Burnham RD
Naples, FL 34119

https://docquery.fec.gov/cgi-bin/fecimg/?202307319584582546

https://www.fec.gov/data/receipts/individual-contributions/?contributor_name=NEWT+GINGRICH


BOB UNANUE

MARK PENTECOST

DOUG HOELSCHER

1323 Clifton St NW
Washington, DC 20009

https://docquery.fec.gov/cgi-bin/fecimg/?202407109652881620

https://www.fec.gov/data/receipts/individual-contributions/?contributor_name=DOUG+HOELSCHER


MARTIN GILLESPIE

STEVEN SMITH

HEIDI OVERTON

CHAD WOLF

MARC LOTTER

JESSICA HART STEINMANN

1950 Hughes Landing BLVD
The Woodlands, TX 77380

https://docquery.fec.gov/cgi-bin/fecimg/?202209029528350132


JOSEPH KELLOGG JR

STEPHEN YATES

JAMES CARTER

JOHN GIDLEY

FREDERICK FLEITZ

9037 Allington Manor Cir W
Frederick, MD 21703

https://docquery.fec.gov/cgi-bin/fecimg/?202407109652849428

https://www.fec.gov/data/receipts/individual-contributions/?contributor_name=FREDERICK+FLEITZ

Michael Berry

Catherine Cypher

Chase Forrester

Renne Hudson

Rachel Wallen Oglesby

Adam W. Schindler

THE AMERICA FIRST POLICY INSTITUTE (AFPI) IS A 501(C)(3) NON-PROFIT, NONPARTISAN RESEARCH INSTITUTE. AFPI EXISTS TO ADVANCE POLICIES THAT PUT THE AMERICAN PEOPLE FIRST. OUR GUIDING PRINCIPLES ARE LIBERTY, FREE ENTERPRISE, NATIONAL GREATNESS, AMERICAN MILITARY SUPERIORITY, FOREIGN-POLICY ENGAGEMENT IN THE AMERICAN INTEREST, AND THE PRIMACY OF AMERICAN WORKERS, FAMILIES, AND COMMUNITIES IN ALL WE DO.

Affiliate:

America First Works Inc - 990 tax filing

https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/search?q=AMERICA+FIRST+WORKS+INC

https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/873510461

AMERICA FIRST WORKS INC
1001 PENNSYLVANIA AVE NW 510

WASHINGTON,DC20004
87-3510461

AMERICA FIRST WORKS IS A NON-PROFIT ORGANIZATION ENTIRELY FOCUSED ON ADVANCING POLICY AT ALL LEVELS OF GOVERNMENT, PROMOTING POLICIES THAT PUT AMERICAN JOBS, OPPORTUNITY, SECURITY, FREEDOM, AND INNOVATION FIRST.

TIM DUNN

GREGORY SINDELAR

LINDA MCMAHON

JOSH TREVINO

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Billionaire Leonard Anthony Leo, click here, https://www.monitoringinfluence.org/org/leonard-leo/ and The 85 Fund, see below:

Additionally, reportedly billionaire Leonard Anthony Leo has his own schemes happening with The 85 Fund to roll back voter access; “The 85 Fund operates and finances the Honest Elections Project, which was founded by Leo in 2020 and whose leadership includes all three of The 85 Fund’s current officers: Carrie Severino, Todd Graves, and Gary Marx. The organization also operates Honest Election Project Action, its 501(c)(4) arm.

Prior to the 2020 election, HEP spread disinformation and made unfounded allegations the Democrats were “cheating” and pushed for voter roll purges. HEP spent $250,000 on ads against mail-in voting, calling the practice a “brazen attempt to manipulate the election system for partisan advantage.” 

HEP also sent letters and threatened to sue Colorado, Florida, and Michigan over what they called “suspiciously high” voter rolls.

HEP Executive Director Jason Snead hosted a webinar for the State Policy Network ahead of the 2020 election on “voter fraud messaging.” As the group’s spokesperson, Snead has penned op-eds and spoken on behalf of the organization.

Since the 2020 election, the organization has advocated for laws to roll back policies designed to expand voting access.”

Making matters worse, a friend of billionaire Leonard Leo, is the right-wing billionaire Dick Uihlein who has been targeting the election system and voter registration system, in an attack on the voters all across the nation. According to ProPublica, Billionaire-Backed Group Enlists Trump-Supporting Citizens to Hunt for Voter Fraud Using Discredited Techniques


Reportedly, “The Voter Reference Foundation is putting the nation’s voter rolls online while making unsupported claims suggesting election fraud. The group’s funding can be traced to a Super PAC funded by the CEO of Uline. During 2022, the foundation published on its website the names, birthdates, addresses and voting histories for 2 million Nevada voters, information that is normally public but only available on request, for a fee. It claimed to have found a significant discrepancy between the number of voters and the number of ballots cast, despite being warned by state election officials that its findings were “fundamentally incorrect.

VoteRef’s methods have already led to pushback from state officials. The New Mexico Secretary of State believes posting data about individual voters online is not a permissible use under state law and has referred the matter to the state attorney general for criminal investigation.

And an attorney for the Pennsylvania Department of State notified VoteRef in January that state law prohibits publishing the voter rolls on the internet and asked that the data be removed. VoteRef complied.

ProPublica contacted election officials in a dozen of the states where VoteRef has examined voter rolls, and in every case the officials said that the methodology used to identify the discrepancies was flawed, the data incomplete or the math wrong. The officials, a mix of Democrats and Republicans, were in Colorado, Connecticut, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Virginia and Wisconsin.”

Right-wing billionaire Dick Uihlein.

1396 N Waukegan RD
Lake Forest, IL 60045-1147

https://docquery.fec.gov/cgi-bin/fecimg/?202105319447490643

https://www.fec.gov/data/receipts/individual-contributions/?contributor_name=Dick+Uihlein


Billionaire Leonard Anthony Leo:


A close friend of Ginni Thomas and Clarence Thomas, his name is Leonard Anthony Leo and he resides at 46 South Shore Road, Northeast Harbor, Mount Desert, Maine. Reportedly, he drives a giant black Chevy Suburban (SUV), and he resides on a 2 acre lot with his wife Sally near a church that he bought named Saint Ignatius Catholic Church.

The church is cared for by a nonprofit organization owned by Leonard Leo called Sacred Spaces Foundation, and according to ProPublica, Leo is the director, President, and Treasurer https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/883748425 .

However, reportedly, Leonard Leo was accused by the Campaign of Accountability (CFA) of the illegal use of nonprofit funds to buy his homes.

More About The Billionaire Leonard Anthony Leo:

People in Northeast Harbor, Maine, are hip to Leonard Anthony Leo and what he has been up to.

At times they protest in front of his home. Reportedly, according to one protester, “He’s so thin-skinned,” said protester Nancy Schafer. “Frankly, it makes us so happy, because he gets so riled up. If he just ignored us, we would have lost some steam, but he gets so upset that it’s kind of fun. He’s obviously super insecure and immature and a total baby.”

“I selfishly want him to leave this town,” she admitted, “but that’s not going to stop the problem. We need to work here and everywhere to try to raise awareness of what’s been going on.”

Additionally, according to another protester named Tina Stein, “We’re out here because this is the architect of our conservative court who has taken away our rights,” said Tina Stein, a protester outside Leo’s house on Saturday, noting that she frequently wears a lapel pin telling people: “Ask me about Leonard Leo.”

“He is the most responsible person for the overturning of Roe,” she said. “There are women dying, there are women being forced to carry dead fetuses to term. These are horrifying things.”
Reportedly during July of 2023, “the two dozen or so protesters were mostly older women. The group wore custom shirts decrying Leo’s dark money fortune and peacefully held signs with slogans like “We won’t be silent” and “Follow the dirty $ to NE Harbor,” while some scrawled messages on the road with chalk. A few people driving by in Subarus and a Range Rover honked their car horns in support.”

“It looks like a lot of women over 75 — seems extremely barbaric,” joked protester Bettina Richards. “The fantasy that he wants to be some kind of holy martyr is laughable.”

“He’s bothered — I might be too — but we have never done anything to threaten him in any way,” said Susan Covino Buell. “We just stand here.”

“As for the claims about religious persecution, Covino Buell noted, “There are lots of Catholics in this world. I have never stood in front of anybody’s house who was Catholic. It has nothing to do with it, except for the fact that he is a reactionary, ultra-conservative, and his beliefs are incompatible with democracy. It can’t be your way just because you are passionate about it, Leonard Leo. That is not how we function here.”

See another link below...

-Lynda Carson may be reached at newzland2 [at] gmail.com

Outing the anti-American fascists purging the voter rolls

By Lynda Carson - Thu, Sep 26, 2024 4:40AM

Click below…

https://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2024/09/26/18869531.php

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