ALEC Brings Voter Suppression Activities Out of the Dark and Coddles Fossil Fuel Industry at This Week’s Annual Meeting

The American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) is bringing together state lawmakers, corporate lobbyists, MAGA followers, and right-wing operatives and funders at the four-star JW Marriott Indianapolis this week for its annual meeting, where once again it will strategize about how to further suppress the vote, prop up the fossil fuel industry, push Trump’s priorities, and more.

For over a decade, ALEC — which works with state lawmakers behind closed doors to develop model legislation supporting its far-right agenda — perpetuated the lie that it “doesn’t work on voting issues,” even as it maintained a secret elections working group. The Center for Media and Democracy (CMD) exposed its “Honest Elections” academies held in conjunction with ALEC meetings and Leonard Leo’s dark money-funded Honest Elections Project (HEP).

On June 1, ALEC CEO Lisa Nelson announced the formation of an elections-focused Process and Procedures Task Force chaired by Rhode Island State Representative Jon Brien (R) and HEP’s Executive Director Jason Snead, a longtime ALEC ally. The task force will hold its first meeting this week to consider a number of model bills designed to make it harder to vote and undermine public confidence in the integrity of our elections. .

ALEC’s Veterans and Military Affairs Task Force, launched in January, will also hold its first in-person meeting this week. Iowa Speaker Pro Tempore John Wills (R) serves as the public sector chair of the task force, which is also led by Mike Hutchings, CEO of Combined Arms, who serves as its private sector chair.

Once again the “nonpartisan” ALEC is teaming up with Run Gen Z to hold an “informational meeting” in Indianapolis. The bill mill’s advocacy arm, ALEC Action, has joined forces with the Iowa-based nonprofit to recruit and train young “conservatives” to run for state and local office. As a tax-exempt 501(c)(3) charitable organization, ALEC is prohibited by law from engaging in any electoral activity, including through ALEC Action, over which it exerts full control.

Earlier this year ALEC staff, including Nelson, attended a Run Gen Z event called “100 Days in the Golden Age,” where they “had the opportunity to attend a policy briefing inside the Eisenhower Executive Office Building, led by President Trump’s policy team,” according to an email from the manager of ALEC’s Center to Protect Free Speech.

Speakers at this week’s meeting include former World Wrestling Entertainment CEO and Secretary of Education Linda McMahon, anti-ESG and DEI zealots Will Hild and Vivek Ramaswamy, Indiana Governor Mike Braun (R), and Heritage Foundation President Kevin Roberts, chief architect of the Project 2025 blueprint for Trump’s second act. Roberts gained notoriety last year when speaking in defense of Heritage’s controversial blueprint on Steve Bannon’s War Room podcast, where he claimed the country is in the midst of a “second American Revolution” that will be bloodless “if the left allows it to be.”

Voter Suppression and Election Disinformation

At this week’s ALEC meeting, attendees are considering a number of model bills dealing with elections. The group is once again asking its members to approve a voter ID bill, the Valid Voter Identification Act, despite being forced to disband its elections task force in 2012 due to public backlash against a similar bill and its “Stand Your Ground” model legislation.

Voter ID laws disenfranchise millions of Americans. “As many as 11 percent of eligible voters do not have the kind of ID that is required by states with strict ID requirements, and that percentage is even higher among seniors, minorities, people with disabilities, low-income voters, and students,” the nonpartisan Brennan Center has found.

This new iteration of ALEC’s voter ID model legislation not only calls for an ID requirement, it requires every driver’s license and state ID issued to noncitizens to “display the word ‘NONCITIZEN’ on the front,” potentially assisting Trump’s efforts to round up and deport the undocumented.

Nineteen states and the District of Columbia allow undocumented immigrants to obtain a driver’s license. While these licenses are not emblazoned with the word “noncitizen,” they use other terms to clearly indicate that they cannot be used as an official ID to register to vote or as REAL ID for travel.

ALEC has been working with the little-known, dark-money group Americans for Citizens Voting (ACV) since last summer to move a model state constitutional amendment and a model bill to ban noncitizens from voting, perpetuating the lie that noncitizen voting is common and capable of threatening the outcome of elections. “Every legitimate study ever done on the question shows that voting by noncitizens in state and federal elections is vanishingly rare,” the Brennan Center reported.

ALEC is also offering a workshop on “Safeguarding Elections Against Foreign Interference and Noncitizen Voting” led by Snead, HEP Vice President Chad Ennis, and Americans for Public Trust Executive Director Caitlin Sutherland.

In addition, ALEC politicians will debate and vote on the Mail Voting Deadlines Act, which would require that only mail-in ballots received by the closing of polls on Election Day be counted. This would disenfranchise anyone whose ballot is delayed by the U.S. Postal Service.

Participants in this week’s ALEC meeting will also consider model bills designed to fan the flames of the Big Lie of widespread voter fraud in the 2020 presidential election. The Protecting Election Administration from Private Funding and Influence Act would ban “funds or in-kind goods or services for election administration if those funds or in-kind goods or services are donated directly or indirectly by any person other than a government entity.” This model legislation is likely a response to the unsubstantiated claim among MAGA election deniers that the grants provided by Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg and his wife Priscilla Chan to local election offices around the country cost Trump the 2020 election. Even the Koch-backed Cato Institute debunked the theory years ago, but that hasn’t stopped ALEC election deniers from still pushing for this legislation more than five years later.

The Election Crime Prosecution Act model policy ALEC circulated this week would require state attorneys general to appoint an independent prosecutor to investigate and prosecute voter fraud. The Brennan Center has found that voter fraud is “very rare, voter impersonation is virtually nonexistent, and many instances of alleged fraud are, in fact, mistakes by voters or administrators.”

Aiding Trump

ALEC meeting attendees are debating a few other model policies that support Trump’s anti-immigrant agenda and fuel xenophobia.

The Resolution to Include Citizenship on United States Census, for example, calls on Congress to add a citizenship question on the next census in 2030. Trump had attempted to add this question on the 2020 census but was blocked by the Supreme Court. In 2018, a test run of the census that included a question about citizenship suggested that many noncitizens would simply avoid participating in the census altogether if they were asked that question.

The Act to Strengthen Existing State Human Trafficking Statutes would make it a felony for anyone who “Intentionally conceals, harbors, or shields from detection, or intentionally encourages or induces another to conceal, harbor, or shield from detection, an individual that the person knows has illegally entered or remained in the United States, as determined by the Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement of the United States Department of Homeland Security.” If passed, this model legislation would impose steeper penalties on anyone assisting undocumented immigrants and make sanctuary cities illegal, discouraging individuals and groups from assisting people in this category.

Landlords in the Atlanta area have received subpoenas asking for entire files on tenants “signed by an officer for U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services’ anti-fraud unit,” the Associated Press reported.

The Foreign Adversary and Terrorist Agent Registration and Transnational Repression Act imposes extensive registration and reporting requirements and sweeping restrictions on very broadly defined “foreign agents” of adversaries like China or groups designated by the Secretary of State to be “terrorist organizations” engaging in political activities or any speech deemed to be intended to influence public policy.

Propping Up Fossil Fuels and Stalling Action to Address the Climate Emergency

A large number of bills designed to promote the use of fossil fuels despite the unfolding climate emergency will be debated and voted on at this week’s ALEC meeting.

The Unleashing American Energy Act (which repeats the same language used by the Trump administration) would remove bans and preempt future bans on nuclear energy facilities, hydraulic fracking, and natural gas infrastructure. The model bill also names “energy production as a permitted use” on “land zoned for agricultural or industrial use” without rezoning or further approvals.

At its meetings, ALEC continues to address power grid “reliability” through the promotion of fossil fuels.

An Act to Lower Costs and Increase Reliability of Electric Grids would make it more difficult for solar and wind power generators to recoup costs by requiring that regional transmission organizations pay for “Intermittent power generation…at a 33% discount of the highest price for that period for electricity…or their bid price, whichever is lower.” Intermittent power generation is defined in the model as “electric generation that varies minute-to-minute based on weather conditions.”

The Competitive Transmission and Permitting Reform Act would open electricity transmission projects to competition and exclude power grid upgrades from environmental review if the project is conducted in previously disturbed areas or transmission right-of-ways.

One provision of the proposed Statement of Principles on Establishing an Interstate Compact Regarding Competitively Bid Transmission Projects seeks to end any preferential treatment of renewables, noting that “All aspects of the compact shall pertain equally to all energy generation methods.”

Another model that targets renewable energy usage, the Resolution Directing Regional Transmission Organizations to Implement Electric Reliability Policies, would require state utility commissions to evaluate grid reliability, “accurately value all generation resources based on contributions to grid reliability, and ensure the availability of generation at all hours to meet demand.” Like other model bills mentioned here, the resolution does not require a climate impact analysis.

The Limiting Conservation Easements Duration Act, would put a 20-year cap on conservation easement agreements, negatively impacting efforts to protect ecosystems.

While including some positive steps to potentially increase housing options nationwide, ALEC’s Statement of Principles on Housing opposes housing standards that address the climate emergency through energy efficiency requirements or that restrict the use of appliances or heating systems that are not environmentally friendly.

ALEC meeting attendees are also invited to attend workshops titled “ESG Through Lawfare” and “Lights Out? Examining the Barriers to Expanded American Energy Production.”

Cozying Up to Israel and the Christian Right

ALEC has been at the forefront in promoting the Israeli government’s interests in recent years and will continue to do so this week. The agenda details both a “Combatting Antisemitism Working Group” meeting and a presentation titled “One Key to Combatting Antisemitism Is Education.”

ALEC approved an Act to Prohibit Anti-Semitism in State K–20 Educational Institutions and an Act to Adopt the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) Working Definition of Anti-Semitism at its annual meeting last year.

Opponents fear that relying on IHRA’s definition, which broadly labels criticism of Israel as “anti-semitic,” will expose anti-war and pro-Palestinian activists to prosecution or hate crime charges for speaking out against Israel’s ongoing mass killing of civilians in Gaza or occupation of the West Bank, as Truthout reported in an article tying ALEC to the effort.

This week the ALEC faithful will consider the Recognizing Judea and Samaria Act, which would prohibit the use of “West Bank” in favor of Judea and Samaria. The Arkansas legislature passed a similar law this year, and Senator Tom Cotton (R–AR) reintroduced a federal version of the bill in February.

“The linguistic proposition is aimed at strengthening and supporting Israel’s historical claim to territory that it captured from Jordan in the 1967 war and has occupied militarily ever since,” The New York Times reported. “And it comes as the Israeli military has been conducting intense raids in the area, which it says are intended to eradicate terrorism.”

The National Association of Christian Lawmakers (NACL), also referred to as the “Christian ALEC,” is circulating a similar model policy.

NACL is exhibiting at the meeting and leading a “devotional” on Wednesday morning. Other Christian Right groups exhibiting include: ADF Action, the Wallbuilders’ Pro-Family Legislative Network, and Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America.

Education Policies

ALEC members will be given the opportunity to vote on a couple new model policies designed to further their long-term goal of privatizing the public school system in the U.S.

The Learning Pod Protection Act would prevent states from regulating “learning pods,” defined as small groups of K–12 students who learn together outside of a traditional classroom. Special education requirements, criminal background checks, fire codes, and any other local education-related regulations would not apply to the pods.

A second model policy, the Released Time Education Act, would require school districts to excuse students for one to five hours per week for religious instruction while also awarding them academic credit for attending these sessions. If school districts refuse, they may be held accountable for monetary damages and associated court costs resulting from a legal complaint.

Balancing the Budget and a Constitutional Convention

ALEC has long advocated for using an Article V constitutional convention to amend our nation’s founding document to require Congress to balance the federal budget and dismantle a century of civil rights, labor, and environmental protections.

ALEC claims that unrelated and outdated state resolutions calling for a convention should be counted to meet the threshold of 34 state calls needed to hold a constitutional convention. Using this “time machine” rationale, ALEC claims the threshold was reached in 1979, making Congress legally required to convene a constitutional convention immediately. ALEC and its allies are working on a legal strategy to force a convention.

The Resolution Recognizing the Seriousness of The National Debt and Its Threat to National Security up for debate this week would officially recognize the federal debt as a threat to national security and urge Congress to take action.

The Indiana Senate passed a similar resolution in April.

It’s unclear, however, just how receptive ALEC lawmakers at the conference will be to passing this resolution given that 632 state lawmakers recently signed an ALEC-organized letter urging Congress to permanently extend the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017. With the GOP passage of these tax cuts through Trump’s massive “One Big Beautiful Bill Act” on July 3, experts believe the national debt will increase by $3–4 trillion over the next decade.

ALEC members will also consider a radical State Constitutional Amendment for Term Limits for Congress’ Inflationary Overspenders that, if passed, would ban any member from the majority party in Congress from running in a primary election “following a fiscal year where total federal spending, excluding Social Security and national emergencies approved by 60% of Congress, exceeds the 4-year moving average annual increase in disposable personal income as calculated by the Bureau of Economic Analysis.”

Constitution Amendments to Make it Harder to Raise Taxes

ALEC has long promoted policies that reduce state and local taxes or make it more difficult to raise them. Two model state constitutional amendments considered this week do the latter.

The first would cap annual property tax increases and require a vote to raise the cap, placing an extra burden on cash-strapped localities to fund government and public schools.

The State Constitutional Amendment to Oppose New State Taxes, Increased Spending, and Debt Without Voter Approval would prevent state legislatures and local governments from increasing spending by more than a four-year average inflation rate — up to a 2.5% cap — and require a popular vote to exceed that cap, raise taxes, or increase debt.

ALEC conference goers are also invited to hang out with representatives of Big Tobacco. “Join members of the Philip Morris International Team and the Tax and Fiscal Policy Task Force for a spirited reception offering an opportunity to connect and relax after a day of policy debates and decisions,” the schedule reads.

Anti-Worker Policies

For years, ALEC has promoted model policies that undermine workers’ rights. This year, ALEC members are debating and voting on passage of the Statement of Principles on the Gig Economy.

This statement advocates for loose regulation of gig workers and their employers, suggesting that lawmakers “avoid restrictive legislation, such as classifying gig workers as traditional employees, which can limit flexibility and reduce economic opportunities.” Most gig workers do not receive benefits or guaranteed worker protections due to the fact that they are considered independent contractors under the law.

The proposed statement is consistent with an ALEC-backed bill enacted by the Wisconsin legislature in June designating gig drivers for companies like Uber and Lyft as independent contractors. The bill awaits either a signature or veto from Governor Tony Evers (D).

ALEC Brings Voter Suppression Activities Out of the Dark and Coddles Fossil Fuel Industry at This Week’s Annual Meeting

Voter Suppression and Election Disinformation

Aiding Trump

Propping Up Fossil Fuels and Stalling Action to Address the Climate Emergency

Cozying Up to Israel and the Christian Right

Education Policies

Balancing the Budget and a Constitutional Convention

Constitution Amendments to Make it Harder to Raise Taxes

Anti-Worker Policies

Other Models

About David Armiak

Voter Suppression and Election Disinformation

Aiding Trump

Propping Up Fossil Fuels and Stalling Action to Address the Climate Emergency

Cozying Up to Israel and the Christian Right

Education Policies

Balancing the Budget and a Constitutional Convention

Constitution Amendments to Make it Harder to Raise Taxes

Anti-Worker Policies

Other Models

About David Armiak

Reader Interactions

Leave a Reply Cancel reply