The Jenny Beth Show

Foreign Money in Elections: The Swiss Billionaire Behind 26 States | Jason Snead

Episode Summary

Foreign money in American elections is legal in one place almost nobody watches, and Jason Snead's team found it. Federal law has banned foreign nationals from giving to candidates and political action committees for decades. It says nothing about ballot measures, which are treated as part of a state legislative function rather than a campaign for office. Snead tells Jenny Beth Martin what came through that opening: a Swiss billionaire who has said he never wanted to be an American citizen gave roughly 300 million dollars to one left wing fund, and that fund spent 130 million dollars driving ballot measures in 26 states. Ohio was the first state to shut the door, after foreign tied money went after control of the state's redistricting process in a fight Snead says could have moved three to six congressional seats. Every Democrat in the Ohio legislature voted against the ban. Attorney Marc Elias sued to overturn it in Ohio and in Kansas, and lost both times. Eleven states have now passed it. The rest of the hour is the 2027 state legislative plan: upfront proof of citizenship, the Supreme Court ruling that forced Arizona into a bifurcated ballot, an interstate system for cleaning voter rolls that the American Legislative Exchange Council has adopted as model policy, voter identification for mail ballots, and the poll worker trainings running in Georgia, Nevada and Wisconsin over the next six weeks. Jason Snead is Executive Director of the Honest Elections Project. More at jennybethshow.com and teapartypatriots.org.

Episode Notes

Guest: Jason Snead

Jason Snead is Executive Director of the Honest Elections Project, which develops model election legislation, lobbies for it in state capitols through its charitable and advocacy arms, and defends those laws in court when they are challenged. His team wrote the first state ban on foreign money in ballot measure campaigns, and eleven states have now passed a version of it. He works alongside Tea Party Patriots Action, Heritage Action and Turning Point in a coalition running in-person poll worker trainings in battleground states. This is his return visit to the show.

Key topics:

• The difference between a poll worker and a poll watcher, and why the job that can actually speak up is the one conservatives skip
• Poll worker shifts that run twelve to fifteen hours with no rotation, and an average American poll worker age of 67
• The coalition training schedule: Alpharetta, Georgia on August 28, Reno on September 11, Las Vegas on September 12, and Waukesha and Brown Counties in Wisconsin on October 2 and 3
• Why the National Voter Registration Act, thirty years on, makes it harder for states to clean their own voter rolls
• Jenny Beth Martin on the gap nobody fixed: your old driver's license gets voided when you move, and your old voter registration does not
• Roughly 20 million voting eligible Americans move every year, and the two federal election cycles, up to four years, most states must wait before removing a stale registration
• The interstate list maintenance model bill, and why the American Legislative Exchange Council adopted it as model policy
• Four priorities for the 2027 state legislative sessions
• Why states need their own upfront proof of citizenship law even if the SAVE America Act, the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility Act, passes
• The Supreme Court ruling that forced Arizona to accept the federal registration form, and the bifurcated ballot Arizona has run ever since
• Jenny Beth Martin on asking Senator Mike Lee to write what became the SAVE America Act, and carrying it to 27 states in two and a half years
• Thirty six states require voter identification, and it takes only 38 states to amend the Constitution
• The hardship exemptions still sitting inside strong photo identification laws in Georgia and Texas, and how Ohio removed all of its exemptions but one
• Foreign money in elections: the federal ban covers candidates and political action committees and stops at ballot measures
• Roughly 300 million dollars from a Swiss billionaire to the Sixteen Thirty Fund, and 130 million dollars spent driving ballot measures in 26 states
• Ohio, redistricting, and three to six congressional seats
• Every Democrat in the Ohio legislature voting against the foreign money ban, and Marc Elias suing to overturn it in Ohio and Kansas
• The Easy Wins Program: how a good election law is usually not as good as it could be
• Voter identification for mail ballots, and why signature matching can reject a real ballot and accept a fraudulent one

Timestamps:

00:18 — Jason Snead returns to the show

00:40 — Why the poll worker trainings come first

02:35 — Poll worker versus poll watcher

06:43 — Twelve to fifteen hours on your feet

07:07 — The average American poll worker is 67

11:48 — The training schedule: Georgia, Nevada and Wisconsin

13:48 — The National Voter Registration Act problem

15:47 — They void your driver's license. Nobody voids the registration.

17:56 — The interstate list maintenance model bill

21:07 — Four priorities for the 2027 state sessions

27:29 — Arizona's bifurcated ballot and the Supreme Court ruling

34:42 — What the polling actually says about voter identification

37:08 — Foreign money: the loophole Congress left open

39:03 — Roughly 300 million dollars to one fund, 130 million across 26 states

40:02 — Ohio bans it, and every Democrat votes no

46:10 — Easy Wins: making good laws better

49:16 — Voter identification for mail ballots

52:07 — Where to follow the Honest Elections Project

Links mentioned:

• The show: jennybethshow.com
• Tea Party Patriots Action: teapartypatriots.org
• Capitol switchboard: 202-224-3121