Gene Strandberg, Gilpin County. In 2011, an insider leaked more than 800 ALEC bills and resolutions, a couple of which we will examine thanks to the Center for Media and Democracy and ALECexposed.org. The Animal and Ecological Terrorism Act appeared after animal rights groups produced videos exposing animal abuse at processing plants and commercial farms. It appeared under a variety of names with penalties ranging from a $1000 fine to three years in prison and inclusion on a terrorist list. 

In February 2014, Idaho Governor Butch Otter signed the Agricultural Security Act after Mercy for Animals released a video showing Bettencourt Dairy Farms workers sexually abusing cows. The law was declared unconstitutional in 2015. In April 2013, the Commerce Protection Act was introduced in North Carolina the same day a Butterball employee pled guilty to criminal cruelty to animals. Workers were recorded stomping and kicking birds, throwing them by the neck into metal cages and beating them with metal bars. The investigation also led to the dismissal of a state agriculture official for obstruction of justice. This ALEC bill has been passed in eight states, vetoed in one, and failed but reintroduced in many others. 

The ALEC Voter ID Act is now law in at least 33 states. Texas Governor Greg Abbott claims voter fraud abounds in Texas, which passed the most restrictive law in the country. The truth is, it happened about 120 times from 2000-2015, most were buying votes or claiming fraudulent resident status.

Lorraine Minnite, author of The Myth of Voter Fraud said, “It’s ludicrous. It’s not an effective way to try to corrupt an election.” The Voter ID Act, however, is an excellent way to corrupt elections. More than 600,000 otherwise eligible voters in Texas don’t have an acceptable photo ID. The most affected are African Americans, Latinos, students, the elderly, the disabled and the poor.

A couple individual cases: Finlay McCracken from Virginia, was a student at Trinity University in San Antonio on Election Day in November, 2014. He went to his polling place and presented his valid, current Virginia driver’s license and his voter registration card, but he was not allowed to vote. A concealed-carry Texas gun permit would have been acceptable. 

Disabled, elderly Latina Myrtle Delahuerta was 85 and had trouble walking. She tried for 2 years to get her ID. Many elderly or poor people were born in homes rather than hospitals, resulting in lost documentation and misspelled names on official records. Myrtle’s birth certificate doesn’t match her other legal documents. She is now applying to have her name changed to match her other documents, which costs more than $300. 

African American Hargie Randall was born at home. He went to the Department of Public Safety three times to get his photo ID in order to vote. The first time he was told he needed three forms of identification, so he brought his current voter registration card, some bills and his Medicaid card. Next, he was told he needed a copy of his birth certificate. Birth records before 1950 are available only at the County Clerk’s Office in the county of birth, so Hargie got a ride to Huntsville an hour away. He again took all of his documentation to the DPS office. They still refused to approve his photo ID, because his birth certificate read Randell instead of Randall. His lawyer eventually satisfied a DPS supervisor that it was a clerical error, and Mr. Randall got his card. Despite the fact that three federal courts ruled the law unconstitutional, the U.S. Supreme Court allowed Texas to enforce its Voter ID Act during the 2016 presidential election. 

Did ALEC’s voter suppression laws in at least 33 states win the election for Trump? A study by Ken Mayer and Michael DeCrescenzo of the University of Wisconsin Political Science Department examined two of Wisconsin’s 72 counties. About 17,000-23,000 registered voters in Milwaukee and Dane counties were prevented or deterred from voting by Wisconsin’s voter ID law. Trump won Wisconsin by 22,000 votes. The study was commissioned by the Dane County Clerk’s Office and showed that 77% of those prevented and 80% of those deterred, voted in the 2012 election, and that 8.3% of whites were deterred compared to 27.5% of African Americans. 

Todd Albaugh, former staffer for Wisconsin Senator Dale Schultz pointed out that while in a closed Senate Republican Caucus when the final round of multiple voter ID bills were being discussed, a handful of GOP Senators were giddy about the ramifications and literally singled out the prospects of suppressing minority and college voters. 

As reported by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Albaugh testified that Committee Chair Mary Lazich wanted to pass the bill, which made it harder for students, the poor and the elderly to vote. He also testified that two other Senators, Leah Vukmir and Randy Hopper, were gleeful and “frothing at the mouth” over passing the bill. Schultz, Lazich, Vukmir and Hopper were all ALEC members. Vukmir was ALEC’s national chairman in 2016 and ALEC’s Iron Woman award winner in 2017. 

All of the leaked ALEC bills and resolutions are available at ALECexposed.org. Next time: Citizens United.  

(Originally published in the October 31, 2019, print edition of The Mountain-Ear.)