The Left’s Election Litigation Racket Abuses Democracy To Line Their Own Pockets
In April, the Democratic Party announced it would no longer use its longtime lawyer Marc Elias, and now we know why. The Democrats got tired of losing, or as Axios put it, Elias’ approach often “backfired.”
Elias himself does not tire of losing, and here’s why. His lawsuits — parading as a fight for “democracy” by tearing down voter ID, secure drop boxes, and signature matching — have nothing to do with our nation’s interests. Instead, as Elias’ allies admitted to Axios, his work is nothing more than “a political strategy that is actually a business strategy,” one that lined his pockets with roughly $20 million in revenue from just two clients during the 2020 election, all while generating crazed headlines about Republicans.
His cynical ploy to snatch headlines and dollars hasn’t slowed. Emboldened by an openly partisan Wisconsin Supreme Court, Elias’ firm is now suing to dismantle Wisconsin’s mail-in voting protections, like laws requiring that able-bodied voters mail or hand in their own ballot, arguing those laws violate the Wisconsin Constitution. It is a frivolous claim, but a well-funded one, by “one of the most secretive dark-money groups” of the recent past.
So the left’s leading “defender of democracy” is no superhero. He’s a businessman first and a politician second, nothing more.
Unfortunately, the left’s never-ending onslaught of activist litigation is far more harmful to our country than most get-rich-quick schemes. These lawsuits undermine the strength of our democratic institutions. They leave our elections exposed to manipulation and mistake. They cause people to believe a false tale about our states being run by racist politicians and election administrators. And they deprive citizens of the very popular electoral safeguards they themselves say provide the assurances needed to trust our elections.
This Is No Battle Against Jim Eagle
Let’s first address the notion that the left’s legal efforts combat voter suppression. If you listen to activists talk about the horrors of election safeguards, you might join President Biden in believing we are reliving the horrors of Jim Crow. That, however, is just a partisan narrative wholly divorced from reality. Study after study shows election integrity laws under assault from the left have little, if any, effect on voter turnout. As a result, the leftist legal arguments range from the inexplicable, like would-be voters’ alleged inability to obtain a free, readily available ID card, to the comical, like the alleged inability of urban and suburban voters to access a mailbox. In fact, record numbers of Americans are choosing to vote and expressing high levels of satisfaction with the process.
Still, the left claims, it must oppose election safeguards because those safeguards are unnecessary. Fraud, misconduct, and errors are too rare to justify preventative measures, the narrative goes. And that’s where the danger creeps in.
Agree. The end goal is not having Joe in the WH for 4 more years.
