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Ranked-Choice Voting is MAGA’s Latest Target [1]

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Date: 2024-12

“Polarization is Sometimes Good”

Despite public claims about RCV supposedly “disenfranchising” voters, privately, right-wing leaders acknowledge that ranked choice voting threatens the MAGA political project.

For example, at an August 2023 event in Arizona, Gina Swoboda — who is the executive director of the Dick Uihlein-backed Voter Reference Foundation and the Trump-endorsed chair of the Arizona Republican Party — declared that “polarization is sometimes good,” and described how RCV would make it harder for MAGA to keep pushing the GOP to the right.

“The entire purpose of ranked choice voting,” Swoboda claimed, is “to eliminate the political parties altogether. It will force the candidates to run for the middle like they are in a general election, and then they will not take the positions that we need them to commit to.”

Snead, of the Honest Elections Project, has also echoed the idea that ranked choice voting would disadvantage extreme right candidates — and additionally claimed that it would somehow advantage “dark money groups,” which is a jaw-dropping declaration from an organization founded by Leonard Leo, whose dark money network has funded groups fighting to protect dark money, and who has personally defended the virtue of secret political spending.

Speaking on Real America’s Voice network in June of 2023, Snead said, “I think that their calculus is you change the dynamic of elections, push our politics to the center left, make it harder for conservatives to get elected without that party primary and then of course you displace the parties themselves, allowing these dark money groups to step in and have even more influence over our politics.”

Snead specified that he was referring to “outside and independent expenditure groups funded by folks like George Soros,” the liberal billionaire.

This was not a one-off line of attack. Soros conspiracy theories are common among RCV critics. In fact, the title of Snead’s new book is “The Case Against Ranked-Choice Voting: How George Soros and Other Billionaires Use a ‘Dark Money’ Empire to Transform America.” His co-author is Trent England, the head of a group called “Save Our States” that was founded to defend the undemocratic electoral college, but is increasingly targeting ranked choice voting.

Along with Snead, England is embedded within Leo’s network. Both are full-time employees of Leo’s 85 Fund, according to the group’s most recent tax filings. Snead’s Honest Elections Project is itself a project of 85 Fund, and England’s Save Our States now appears to have a similar status, with funding to the group flowing through 85 Fund. For example, the Bradley Foundation’s 2022 tax filing shows that a $200,000 grant to support Save Our States was routed through 85 Fund (under the fund’s earlier name, the Judicial Education Project). As Rolling Stone first reported, Leo’s network also recently set up a new pair of legal entities, with iterations of “Save Our States” and “Honest Elections Project” listed as trade names.

Snead and England are more than just co-authors and co-workers at Leonard Leo’s network. They’re also co-chairs of the “Stop RCV” coalition alongside a front group created by notorious corporate PR flak Richard Berman — described as “Dr. Evil” in a 60 Minutes profile — and several members of the State Policy Network.

One coalition member is the Maine Policy Institute. Last year, the institute’s “Maine Wire” podcast conducted a wide-ranging interview with Leo last year in which the financier noted that he was supporting the group. The coalition has developed model legislation banning RCV, and Snead has testified in support of RCV bans in states like Montana, Wisconsin, and Ohio.

This constellation of Leo-backed groups also have their fingerprints on an ALEC model bill banning ranked choice voting, which the “bill mill” adopted at its 2023 annual meeting and subsequently promoted as a top model policy. (ALEC’s CEO had previously said the group would be outsourcing its election reform work to Honest Elections Project.) ALEC has been described as a “pay to play” operation, and this is no exception; Honest Elections Project sponsored ALEC’s annual meeting at the “Vice Chairman” level, which cost at least $25,000 the prior year, and Save Our States was a “Trustee” level sponsor, which cost $5,000 in 2022. The “Stop RCV” coalition also kicked in, paying to slap its logo on the hotel keycards used by conference attendees and to host an exhibition booth.

Much of the technical support for the RCV attacks is coming from the Foundation for Government Accountability (FGA), which played a key role in helping to craft and support RCV bans in multiple states. FGA has received millions from Leo’s network and from Uihlein, who is a key backer of election denial.

Representatives of FGA and its advocacy arm testified in support of RCV bans in states like South Dakota, Idaho, Texas, Ohio, Wisconsin and Montana, according to Documented’s review of state records. FGA additionally published a report, launched a “Ranked Choice Voting is a Disaster” microsite, and has published multiple op-eds opposing RCV.



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[1] Url: https://documented.net/reporting/ranked-choice-voting-is-magas-latest-target

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