ElectionIntegrityCaucus.us is a left-of-center election activist group based in Petaluma, California. 1 It supports the proposed For the People Act, which would federalize U.S. election administration 2 and implement automatic and universal voter registration of eligible voters. 3
The group claims that voters who preferred the 2016 presidential campaigns of Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) or former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton (D) to Donald Trump (R) were “probably victimized by voter suppression and hackable machines.” 4 ElectionIntegrityUs.us also opposes interstate crosschecks of voter registration and supports a resolution that calls voter ID laws “Jim Crow” and “racially discriminatory.” 5
History and Leadership
ElectionIntegrityCaucus.us was created in 2018 in Petaluma, California. 6 7 8
Dale Axelrod appears to lead ElectionIntegrityCaucus.us. 9 He is a Democratic Party of California delegate 10 and the chair of the outreach, advocacy, and legislation standing committee of the Sonoma County Democratic Party. 11
Activities and Funding
ElectionIntegrityCaucus.us is a left-of-center election activist group that is a co-signer of a letter written by left-of-center Scrutineers and National Voting Rights Task Force in support of the “For the People Act,” which aims to federalize the administration of U.S. elections. 12
ElectionIntegrityCaucus.us has a national network of different affiliated organizations that are engaged in left-of-center election activism at the state level. As of February 2023, this network includes organizations in Alabama, Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin. 13
The organization’s advocacy goals include elections with an increasing “voter convenience” in elections, automatic and universal voter registration, same day voter registration, voter education, the prevention of internet voting, and a hand-marked record of a voter’s intent so that ballots could be hand-counted. 14 ElectionIntegrityCaucus.us runs a mailing list 15 on these topics and has co-hosted or promoted events with left-of-center organizations including SMART Elections, 16 National Voting Rights Task Force, 17 18 Citizens’ Oversight Projects, 19 and the California Clean Money Campaign on these topics. 20
ElectionIntegrityCaucus.us defines “voter suppression” as at least 12 “institutional barriers” including felon disenfranchisement, difficulty in voter registration, cross-state checks of voter registration, reduced number of polling stations, moving of polling stations, broken machines, selective use of identification for voter ID, residency requirements, and others. 21
Political Activities
ElectionIntegrityCaucus.us encourages supporters to join its e-mail list and urge the Democratic National Committee (DNC) to take action on voting-related issues. The organization supports an “Election Protection Resolution” that opposes interstate crosscheck of voter registration, calls gerrymandering a “voter suppression tactic,” and calls voter ID laws “racially discriminatory” and “Jim Crow. ”22
During the 2020 election cycle, ElectionIntegrityCaucus.us’ top three priorities to “unrig” the election included replacing paperless voting machines with verified vote systems, challenging the changes to the voter rolls, and local election activism. 23 Also in 2020, ElectionIntegrityCaucus.us co-signed a letter by the left-of-center California Clean Money Campaign with other left-of-center election activist organizations that asked California to change certain voting conditions before giving final certification to the Voting Solutions for All People (VSAP 2.1). 24
In 2018, ElectionIntegrityCaucus.us launched the Unrig the System Summit in New Orleans to address what the group calls securing the U.S. election. ElectionIntegrityCaucus.us also claimed that voters who preferred the presidential campaigns of Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) or former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton (D) to Donald Trump (R) were “probably victimized by voter suppression and hackable machines.” That same year, the organization released a “Protect US Elections” guide that claimed victories by Donald Trump in large-sized precincts in Wisconsin were the result of vote manipulation. 25 26
Suggested Resources
On its website, ElectionIntegrityCaucus.us offers a curated directory of resources for organizations that showcases like-minded organizations. Featured organizations on this list include the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), Alliance for Youth Organizing, AUDIT USA, Black Box Voting, the William J. Brennan Center for Justice, Center for American Progress, Citizens’ Oversight Projects, Center for Civic Design (CCD), Coalition for Good Governance, Common Cause, Democracy Fund, Democracy Labs, Democracy Works, Demos, Election Verification Network (EVN), Electionland from ProPublica, ElectionLine, Election Protection Coalition, Equal Citizens, FairVote, Fair Elections Center, Federal Election Commission (FEC), Indivisible, Indivisible 435, Independent Voter Network, Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, Lawyers for Good Government, Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights (LCCHR), Let America Vote, Lift Every Vote, League of Women Voters (LWV), Mi Familia Vota, NAACP, National Association of Secretaries of State (NASS), National Committee on Voting Integrity, National Conference of State Legislatures, National Election Defense Coalition, National Task Force on Election Crises, National Voter Corps, National Voting Rights Task Force, Nonprofit VOTE, Project on Government Oversight, Reclaim the American Dream, RepresentUs, Rock The Vote, Scrutineers, Secure Elections Network, Secure Our Vote, Smart Elections, Spread the Vote, State Voices, Center for Tech and Civic Life (CTCL), Trust the Vote Project, Untied States Election Assistance Commission, U.S. Vote Foundation, Vote at Home Institute, Vote.org, VoteRiders, Voter Participation Center, Voting Rights Alliance, When We All Vote, Center for Democracy and Technology (CDT), and others. 27
References
- “About.” Election Integrity Caucus Facebook Page. Accessed February 19, 2023. https://www.facebook.com/groups/532263980463171/about.
- “Letter to U.S. Senators.” Scrutineers and National Voting Rights Task Force. Accessed February 18, 2023. https://www.nvrtf.org/ewExternalFiles/Senators!.pdf.
- “Innovating the Voting Experience.” Election Integrity Caucus! Accessed February 18, 2023. https://electionintegritycaucus.us/ElectionIntegrityCaucus.us/About.html.
- “New Indivisible Guide Supplement Tackles Broken US Election Systems.” Election Integrity Caucus Media Advisory. February 4, 2018. Accessed February 19, 2023. https://electionintegritycaucus.us/ElectionIntegrityCaucus.us/About_files/Media%20Advisory-EIC-Feb4.pdf.
- “Election Protection Resolution.” Election Integrity Caucus. August 27, 2017. Accessed February 19, 2023. https://paperballot.info/PaperBallot.info/Election_Protection_Resolution.html.
- “About.” Election Integrity Caucus Facebook Page. Accessed February 19, 2023. https://www.facebook.com/groups/532263980463171/about.
- “Who.is Internet Lookup.” Who.is Database. Searched February 19, 2023. https://who.is/whois/electionintegritycaucus.us.
- “About.” Election Integrity Caucus Facebook Page. Accessed February 19, 2023. https://www.facebook.com/groups/532263980463171/about.
- “RE: Request for requirements before giving final certification to Voting Solutions for All People (VSAP).” Letter to Alex Padilla. CAClean.org. September 23, 2020. Accessed February 19, 2023. http://www.caclean.org/content/pdf/letter/lavsap-coalition-letter.pdf.
- “About Us.” Sonoma County Democratic Party. Accessed February 19, 2023. https://sonomademocrats.org/about-us/.
- “CDP Press Conference, August 26, 2017.” Robert Means Vimeo Page. Uploaded 2017. Accessed February 19, 2023. Timestamp 17:36. https://vimeo.com/231654641.
- “Letter to U.S. Senators.” Scrutineers and National Voting Rights Task Force. Accessed February 18, 2023. https://www.nvrtf.org/ewExternalFiles/Senators!.pdf.
- “50-State Network.” Election IntegrityCaucus.us. Accessed February 18, 2023. https://electionintegritycaucus.us/ElectionIntegrityCaucus.us/50-State_Net.html.
- “Innovating the Voting Experience.” Election Integrity Caucus! Accessed February 18, 2023. https://electionintegritycaucus.us/ElectionIntegrityCaucus.us/About.html.
- “Home.” Election Integrity Caucus! Accessed February 19, 2023. https://electionintegritycaucus.us/ElectionIntegrityCaucus.us/Home.html.
- “Ep. 50 | You can help: Learn from nonpartisan orgs across the country | #ElectionProtection Series.” Facebook Event. SMART Elections. October 25, 2020. Accessed February 19, 2023. https://www.facebook.com/events/1100695637229896/?acontext=%7B%22event_action_history%22%3A[%7B%22surface%22%3A%22group%22%7D]%7D.
- “Election Security Rally.” National Voting Rights Task Force Facebook Event Page. November 13, 2019. Accessed February 19, 2023. https://www.facebook.com/events/582010399209732/?acontext=%7B%22event_action_history%22%3A[%7B%22surface%22%3A%22group%22%7D]%7D.
- “NVRTF Election Security Conference.” National Voting Rights Task Force Facebook Events. October 5, 2019. Accessed February 19, 2023. https://www.facebook.com/events/484746152080142/?acontext=%7B%22event_action_history%22%3A[%7B%22surface%22%3A%22group%22%7D]%7D.
- “Press Conference /Livestream at SD ROV.” Citizens Oversight Projects Facebook Event. August 1, 2018. Accessed February 19, 2023. https://www.facebook.com/events/979839192187269/?acontext=%7B%22event_action_history%22%3A[%7B%22surface%22%3A%22group%22%7D]%7D.
- “Clean Money “Secure the Vote” Campaign Kickoff San Francisco. May 11, 2019. Accessed February 19, 2023. https://www.facebook.com/events/277658816450861/?acontext=%7B%22event_action_history%22%3A[%7B%22surface%22%3A%22group%22%7D]%7D.
- “Verifiable: Guide to Resisting Voter Suppression and Hackable Voting Machines.” Election Integrity Caucus! Pg. 4-5. 2018. Accessed February 29, 2023. https://electionintegritycaucus.us/ElectionIntegrityCaucus.us/Home_files/Verifiable.pdf.
- “Election Protection Resolution.” Election Integrity Caucus. August 27, 2017. Accessed February 19, 2023. https://paperballot.info/PaperBallot.info/Election_Protection_Resolution.html.
- “Verifiable: Guide to Resisting Voter Suppression and Hackable Voting Machines.” Election Integrity Caucus! Pg. 4-5. 2018. Accessed February 29, 2023. https://electionintegritycaucus.us/ElectionIntegrityCaucus.us/Home_files/Verifiable.pdf.
- [1] “Letter to Alex Padilla.” California Clean Money Campaign. September 23, 2020. Accessed February 18, 2023. http://www.caclean.org/content/pdf/letter/lavsap-coalition-letter.pdf.
- “New Indivisible Guide Supplement Tackles Broken US Election Systems.” Election Integrity Caucus Media Advisory. February 4, 2018. Accessed February 19, 2023. https://electionintegritycaucus.us/ElectionIntegrityCaucus.us/About_files/Media%20Advisory-EIC-Feb4.pdf.
- “Verifiable: Guide to Resisting Voter Suppression and Hackable Voting Machines.” Pg. 3. Election Integrity Caucus. 2018. Accessed February 19, 2023. https://electionintegritycaucus.us/ElectionIntegrityCaucus.us/Home_files/Verifiable.pdf.
- “Curated Directory of Resources.” Election Integrity Caucus! Accessed February 18, 2023. https://electionintegritycaucus.us/ElectionIntegrityCaucus.us/Resources.html.