In this episode, Jenny Beth Martin is joined by Josh Findlay of the Texas Public Policy Foundation to discuss why election integrity matters nationwide. From the fight to pass the SAVE Act to the dangers of ballot harvesting and the push to clean up voter rolls, Josh shares how Texas is leading efforts to secure elections across battleground states. Discover how grassroots activism, strong state leadership, and national coalitions are working together to ensure only citizens vote and every lawful ballot is counted.
In this episode, Jenny Beth Martin is joined by Josh Findlay of the Texas Public Policy Foundation to discuss why election integrity matters nationwide. From the fight to pass the SAVE Act to the dangers of ballot harvesting and the push to clean up voter rolls, Josh shares how Texas is leading efforts to secure elections across battleground states. Discover how grassroots activism, strong state leadership, and national coalitions are working together to ensure only citizens vote and every lawful ballot is counted.
Josh Findlay (00:00):
Well, the Save Act is tremendously important. I mean, in Texas we have a long history of worrying about citizen voting, especially in South Texas, right? We have a history of ballot, harvesters, politic, HEROs, we call them. And they're people that just collect ballots, sometimes legally, sometimes illegally, sometimes from citizens, sometimes from non-citizens. And we know that it has a huge impact on elections.
Narrator (00:24):
Keeping Our Republic is on the line, and it requires Patriots with great passion, dedication, and eternal vigilance to preserve our freedoms. Jenny Beth Martin is the co-founder of Tea Party Patriots. She's an author, a filmmaker, and one of time magazine's most influential people in the world. But the title she's most proud of is Mom to Her Boy, girl Twins. She has been at the forefront fighting to protect America's core principles for more than a decade. Welcome to the Jenny Beth Show.
Jenny Beth Martin (00:56):
We are still on the only Citizens Vote Bus tour. We just finished our stop in Atlanta, Georgia at the State Capitol in Georgia, and one of the people who spoke in Atlanta was Josh Finley, who's with the Texas Public Policy Foundation. The Texas Public Policy Foundation is one of our coalition partners on this bus tour to get the Save at passed, and we are joined now by Josh Finley. Josh, thanks so much for joining me.
Josh Findlay (01:20):
Thanks, Jenny. Beth, it's great to be with you.
Jenny Beth Martin (01:22):
So you have been on the bus, you've been to two different stops so far. You've got several more you're going to be on with us. Tell me a little bit about what you think about the bus tour and what you're experiencing as you're out there at the different stops.
Josh Findlay (01:34):
Well, I've loved the bus tour so far. Last week we were in Texas where TPPF is based, and it's great to see the reactions that people are giving, the messages that they are sending to Washington about the need to get the AV Act passed and to encourage only citizens to vote. And same thing here in Georgia. It's such a crowd there outside the capitol, cheering on the speakers, really sending a message to the legislators that this is something that the people want to get done.
Jenny Beth Martin (02:00):
Yeah, it's very important and people seem to agree with us as we're moving across the country. For the most part, we're running into a few protestors here and there, but by and large, when we're stopping in hotels, stopping at restaurants, gas stations, people come up and ask what's going on and want to know more about it. So I am very hopeful we can get this bill passed into law. Tell me why is it that the Texas Public Policy Foundation is working on election matters? Election integrity matters outside of Texas?
Josh Findlay (02:32):
Well, elections are very important in Texas. This goes back all the way to 2020, if you'll remember the Attorney General of Texas. And this was a pretty big deal, sued the state of Pennsylvania following that election saying that the terrible election that Pennsylvania ran was diluting the votes of Texans. Supreme Court decided not to hear that case. There wasn't anything that could really come of it. But since then, Texas has focused on improving its own elections and then exporting best practices to other states where possible. At the same time, we want to hear what the other states are doing really well. And so kind of having this two-way system reaching outside the borders of Texas to improve election integrity has really been a priority of TPP F since then.
Jenny Beth Martin (03:19):
That's really good. And where all have you been focused outside of Texas?
Josh Findlay (03:25):
So we're really focused for the most part on kind of the seven to eight battleground states, those key states that always seem to have election issues and have real national consequences in the election landscape. So last week we were in Texas with you. Today we're in Georgia, we'll be in North Carolina on Friday, Pennsylvania with you next week. And then of course we're in Arizona and Michigan and Wisconsin and a couple of other states.
Jenny Beth Martin (03:48):
That's very good. And what about the Save Act? What do you think about that and why do you think it's important?
Josh Findlay (03:53):
Well, the Save Act is tremendously important. I mean, in Texas we have a long history of worrying about citizen voting, especially in South Texas. We have a history of ballot harvesters, politic, HEROs, we call them. And they're people that just collect ballots, sometimes legally, sometimes illegally, sometimes from citizens, sometimes from non-citizens. And we know that it has a huge impact on elections in Texas, and we've got to get better regulations as far as making sure that only citizens vote in Texas. But that applies across the country as well. So like we said earlier, the vote of Texans are not diluted, and in some states we really need to improve the ID that people use to register to vote and assure that only citizens are voting in our elections.
Jenny Beth Martin (04:39):
It is so very important, and thankfully Americans agree with us on this issue. We've just got to get Congress to get this bill over the line, get the Senate to do what they need to do, which is the whole point of this bus tour. So what are some of the other things that you're working on at Texas Public Policy Foundation?
Josh Findlay (04:57):
Well, when it comes to election integrity, we try to take a customized approach to different states. We've hired a great team with a lot of national experience, and we've been in elections since long before it was cool. But we look at different states and we would tackle an issue in a state like Nevada that is a only mail-in voting state much differently than we would a state like Georgia, for example, especially because the political environments are different as well, right? In Georgia you've got Republican governor and legislator and Secretary of State, and in some of those other states, that's just not the case. You can't get agreement on legislation. So we really try to take a creative approach to solving the big problems in every state. I would say there's three principles that we try to apply when we look at things. The first is we want to do big things. We want to do things that will make a difference. Second thing is we want to make sure that everything is locally driven. So my office is actually based in DC even though we're with TPPS, it's never good to go into place and say, Hey, we're from DC and we're here to help.
Jenny Beth Martin (06:00):
Never say, yeah, never, never. It's like, I'm from the government, I'm here to help. Not a good
Josh Findlay (06:03):
Thing. No. So we want to partner with local entities, local organizations, local activists to do things that they want to get done with their elections. And the third thing is we want sustainable results. We don't want things that can be overturned when there's a new administration or whatever it is. And so we try to tackle big problems in states using those three principles.
Jenny Beth Martin (06:23):
And you were telling me a little while ago about Nevada and that you helped clean up the voter rolls in Nevada.
Josh Findlay (06:29):
So we partnered with a great organization in Nevada, and that cleaning the voter roles is one of the hardest things to do because local administrators don't want to look at the data. Courts don't want to hear cases about cleaning voter rolls. There's disagreement about how to interpret federal laws about when you have to clean voter rolls. But we did this very cool thing where some of our local grassroots activists met with the Clark County Las Vegas administrators, and they came to an agreement that said, if you get a wet signature saying that this voter no longer lives at this place, we will move them to an active status.
Jenny Beth Martin (07:06):
It's huge.
Josh Findlay (07:07):
It's huge. We were able to help supercharge that program and through a long series of events, forced the Secretary of State to take some action on this as well, and ended up getting about a hundred thousand people moved to an active status in Nevada, which if you look at the vote margin there, it's a pretty impactful thing that we did.
Jenny Beth Martin (07:27):
And a lot of states, either at the state level or the local level have been hesitant to move people to an inactive status even though they no longer live somewhere, or there's clear evidence that they shouldn't be registered to vote in that location anymore. So the fact that you got this done in Nevada is amazing. A hundred thousand.
Josh Findlay (07:49):
Well, it's a combination of a couple of things. We had great local partners who worked with sensible election administrators, and then they put pressure on the Secretary of State. Sometimes there's limits to what we can do from the outside, but putting pressure and showing election officials that certain things need to be done, it's the best way to go about it if we can.
Jenny Beth Martin (08:11):
That's really good. And I would imagine that when they were going to meet with the local, with Clark County, that they had to be very professional and firm and polite and knowledgeable. And sometimes the activists are very fired up and they get up there and they let all that emotion show through. And when you're going to meet with the employees like that, those are government employees. It's good to kind of put your tamp down on those emotions and be much more professional in your demeanor.
Josh Findlay (08:41):
Well, one thing that we always need to remember is these election administrators, for the most part, are trying to do a good job.
Jenny Beth Martin (08:47):
That's right.
Josh Findlay (08:47):
They don't sign up for these positions to have their name in the news and to make headlines, and they want to run good elections,
Jenny Beth Martin (08:53):
And we need people who are the elections. We have to have that. We totally do.
Josh Findlay (08:58):
That's exactly right. And so I didn't come up with this phrase, but we tell everybody, be right and be polite. Go in with facts and be as nice as you can be. That's how you persuade people. The other thing to remember about this, and this is something that we've really focused on is the left for a long time is focused on these election administrators as a way of getting elections run the way that they want. There was an article that Politico published just before, I think the 2022 election where they said, these Bucks County election laws or Bucks County local elections are so important because if we don't win, the race is going to be run under Republican rules. Well, what that means is if you do win, that's going to be run under Democrat rules is what they're saying.
Jenny Beth Martin (09:47):
Right?
Josh Findlay (09:48):
These races should just be run under the law. And so we have to communicate with these election administrators, give them our good, solid, conservative interpretations of the law and how to do things. And for the most part, they're responsive as long as we go in with good intentions and good information.
Jenny Beth Martin (10:04):
Now that is an example where things are working well, and then we have Fulton County, Georgia.
Josh Findlay (10:10):
That's right.
Jenny Beth Martin (10:11):
Things are a little messed up. Do you want to tell people what's going on in Fulton County?
Josh Findlay (10:15):
Well, Fulton County, the most absurd thing is happening there. Yes. Under the law, the local Republican party has the ability to appoint people to the local election board, and they have chosen to appoint two Republicans to the local election board. Now, under some quirk of the law, the county Commission still has to vote to let these people on, even though the law says they shall be appointed,
Jenny Beth Martin (10:40):
As long as they meet three criteria, which they do, I don't remember where they are, but they meet the three criteria.
Josh Findlay (10:46):
That's exactly right.
Jenny Beth Martin (10:47):
So it says,
Josh Findlay (10:48):
It says shall, that means they have to be appointed to the board as long as they meet that criteria. Well, the Fulton County Commission is choosing not to seat these people on the election board, even though they meet the criteria. And under the law it says they have to be appointed. And there was a court case on this today where the judge ruled that those county commissioners were in contempt of the law by not seating them. And it's fining these county commissioners $10,000 a day. It's huge for violating this. That shows how serious that this court is taking this. And that's a big deal because Fulton County is not always on the side of election integrity, but here they are really sending a message that this is important.
Jenny Beth Martin (11:35):
And the county commissioners are just some of the things that they are saying. It's just absurd. They're saying that the people who are working to be appointed, Jason Frazier and Julie Adams, and Jason Frazier, by the way, has tried to clean up voter rolls in Fulton County. They're saying they are election deniers. I'm so tired of that phrase. They believe in elections. That's why they're doing what they do. That's right. It's such a dumb, dumb thing. But I think the commissioners are democracy deniers. They, they're trying to get in the way of the process and they just are saying, well, basically what they're saying is We don't like your politics even though you're appointed by the Republican Party, which is a political party. We don't like your politics, so we're just not going to see you. That's right. And they can't do that. And the law allows both the Republican Party and the Democrat Party to seat people in Georgia on the election board.
Josh Findlay (12:37):
That's exactly right. And the fact that they're just choosing not to do this because of their politics goes back to what we said about Bucks County. If you're not doing it under Republican rules, you're doing it under Democrat rules and they want to be able to control this when the truth is everyone should just be following the law. And if they can't follow the law in appointing their board members, how can we expect them to follow the law when it comes to the actual election itself?
Jenny Beth Martin (13:04):
They wind up creating by their actions today. They are creating more doubt in the outcome of elections. Of course. It's terrible. Yes, it is. So we have a good judge right now, and hopefully the Fulton County Commissioners will do the right thing, but I guess time will tell on that one.
Josh Findlay (13:20):
That's right.
Jenny Beth Martin (13:21):
So Josh, what else are you working on? You've got a podcast, right?
Josh Findlay (13:27):
I do have a podcast, yes. It's the Election Protection Podcast. And we talk all things election integrity on there, but we really dig kind of into the nuts and bolts of election administration. We want to illuminate for people how elections work since, I guess for the last four years now, I've had kind of a quote on my wall that says, you can find a conspiracy anywhere if you don't understand how things work. And so we want to let people know how things work when it comes to our elections. So we have a lot of election administrators on, we've had secretaries of state, we've had US Senators, we've had members of Congress, but we've also had local State Board of Election people on county Board of Election people on because we wanted to talk to the people that are really working on the issues that are facing our elections. And so a couple of highlights that we've had so far this year are Michael Watson, the secretary of State of Mississippi, who is now the head of the National Association of Secretaries of State.
Jenny Beth Martin (14:28):
He's a really good guy.
Josh Findlay (14:30):
He's great. And he came on to talk about his priorities both for Mississippi but also in his national role and what he wants to push. We've had the Secretary of State of West Virginia on West Virginia reminds me a lot of Georgia where we are right now. It turned from blue to red almost overnight, and now they have to create election laws to catch up with that change. And so it's really kind of a blank slate of legislation that they can work on there. So that's exciting. So we've got a great podcast going.
Jenny Beth Martin (14:58):
That's very good. Well, Josh, thank you. Well, before I close, how can people find your podcast?
Josh Findlay (15:04):
Well, we're on YouTube. Okay. So look us up on YouTube. It's the Election Protection Podcast. I'm Josh Findlay, and it's with the Texas Public Policy Foundation. So go check us
Jenny Beth Martin (15:12):
Out. Okay, very good. And thank you so much for joining me today on my podcast and also on the Only Citizens Vote Bus who are, I'm so glad you're with us helping Work to get the Save at passed and that you are constantly steadfast in working to ensure that we protect our elections.
Josh Findlay (15:28):
Thanks, Jenny Beth, it's been great.
Narrator (15:30):
The Jenny Beth Show is hosted by Jenny Beth Martin, produced by Kevin Mohan and directed by Luke Livingston. The Jenny Beth Show is a production of Tea Party Patriots action. For more information, visit tea party patriots.org.
Jenny Beth Martin (15:50):
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