Get-out-the-vote campaigns have become a regular tradition in America. Political candidates, political parties, nonprofit organizations, and even major corporations spend millions to get people registered and to the polls on election day.
That’s a good thing.
The more people participate in our government, the more responsive, accountable, and transparent the government is forced to be.
The government can—and does—encourage Americans to vote. However, it can’t choose who it encourages to register and vote. And it can’t spend taxpayer money on partisan get-out-the-vote campaigns. But that’s exactly what the Biden Administration has been doing.
On March 7, 2021, President Biden signed Executive Order (EO) 14019, titled “Promoting Access to Voting.” That order directed hundreds of federal agencies to submit a plan to “promote voter registration and voter participation,” and to support approved third-party organizations to provide voter registration services at federal agency offices scattered across the country.
While the president encouraging get-out-the-vote campaigns sounds benign enough, EO 14019 is inappropriate at best and illegal at worst.
However, thanks to the Foundation for Government Accountability (FGA), the Biden Administration has been forced to be transparent about their plans and answer hard questions.
Elections are inherently partisan. And partisan get-out-the-vote campaigns by political parties, nonprofits, and individuals are perfectly legal. There’s nothing wrong with big-name Hollywood actors stumping for Democrats; or famous athletes, musicians, and directors supporting Republicans.
However, the government isn’t allowed to pick sides. That’s why President Biden’s executive order is a problem.
When the administration passed EO 14019, there were few details released about how the get-out-the-vote campaigns would be run or who they would primarily target. This led many good-government watchdogs to be concerned that these voter efforts would primarily target left-leaning voters.
If these concerns prove true, the administration’s plan could be a massive get-out-the-vote effort illegally benefitting one political party—all paid for by taxpayers.
Just like it would be a problem for a Republican president to use taxpayer dollars to register and mobilize only right-leaning voters, President Biden’s plan to potentially increase democratic voters was a dangerous overreach of power.
That’s why FGA decided to act.
To determine what the administration’s actual plans are, the FGA filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request with the Department of Justice and several other federal agencies. FGA asked to see documents showing how agencies would run their get-out-the-vote campaigns and who would be targeted with those campaigns. On July 30, 2021, FGA filed their FOIA requests and waited for a response.
They waited over 200 days.
The government is required to respond to FOIA requests on whether they can provide the requested information, if they need more time, or if there are any other issues. However, FGA got no response from any agencies. So they took it to court.
On April 20, 2022, the FGA sued to have a court force the DOJ to respond to their FOIA.
On July 12, 2022, the Federal District Court sided with FGA and ordered DOJ to provide all documents required to be disclosed under FOIA law. In September 2022, DOJ finally disclosed 135 pages of documents.
Even though the documents DOJ disclosed were a far cry from the more than 5,500 potential records DOJ initially claimed it had, the released documents were an important win for transparency and gave a view into the administration’s plan for EO 14019.
FGA has posted many of the documents DOJ turned over on their website and has written commentary on the Biden administration’s potentially illegal taxpayer funded electioneering in the Wall Street Journal, Washington Examiner, Washington Times, The Federalist, and Fox News.
Also, FGA’s lawsuit is still being deliberated by a federal judge who could potentially force DOJ to overturn even more documents relating to EO 14019. FGA—and good government watchdogs—are expecting a ruling anytime.
Voting, transparency, and accountability all go hand in hand. The more we have of one, the more it encourages (or forces) the others.
As he was leaving office, President Obama said that voters should pick their politicians, not the other way around. The FGA is fighting to ensure that will always be the case.
For their work to ensure transparency and trust in elections, the Foundation for Government Accountability was a finalist in SPN’s Bob Williams Awards for Outstanding Policy Achievement—in the “Best Issue Campaign” category.
