Right-wing activist groups with ties to conservative Supreme Court mastermind Leonard Leo have been on a conspiracy-laden voter-suppression blitz ahead of Tuesday’s presidential election, pushing unfounded claims of noncitizens voting and filing lawsuits that are successfully restricting voting rights.
Working hand in hand with individuals who tried to overturn the 2020 election, Leo’s billion-dollar dark money network is amplifying election conspiracy theories promulgated by former president Donald Trump, Elon Musk, and their allies. While such strategies are likely designed to help sway the election for Trump, experts say these efforts could also help set the foundation for distrust and upheaval on election night and in the days to come.
The groups are “invested in using scare tactics to sow doubt in the election process, which could help lay the groundwork for partisan actors to challenge the results of the election if they do not like the outcome,” according to a recent report by Issue One, a nonpartisan group dedicated to protecting the election process.
Leo, who oversees a dark money political network with more cash on hand than all the top political parties combined, declared in an undated internal memo uncovered in September that his operation would be “operationalizing and weaponizing . . . ideas and policies to crush liberal dominance at the choke points of influence and power in our society,” including by building “networks of citizen activists” and developing “game-changing litigation.”
Leo-connected legal advocacy groups have been filing voter-suppression lawsuits in states across the country, resulting in voters being removed from registration rolls and limiting the deadline for mail-in…
Auteur: Freddy Brewster
