In recent years, several states have devoted time, money, and resources into creating offices focused on “election integrity” that prop up the false idea that widespread voter fraud is a threat to our elections. 

But those offices — many created in response to lies about 2020 pushed by former President Trump, who this week was barred from appearing on Colorado’s 2024 primary ballot — don’t just serve the purpose of elevating false claims. As the Washington Post’s Justin Jouvenal reported this week, these “election integrity” units “overwhelmingly targeted minorities and Democrats for prosecution” while obtaining only 47 convictions — the vast majority of which “represent small-bore cheating” and not systemic issues with election integrity.

“At best, these ‘election integrity’ units are for show, designed to placate far-right election denialists in the conservative base,” our executive director Heather Sawyer told the Post. “At worst, they are used to justify new voting restrictions and to intimidate people — especially racial minorities — from exercising their right to vote.”

• The Post’s analysis also found that 76 percent of those prosecuted whose race or ethnicity could be identified were Black or Hispanic. White voters constituted just 24 percent of defendants. Registered Democrats made up 58 percent among those whose party was identified; Republicans 23 percent.

Our own investigation has shed light on how these “election integrity” units waste taxpayer money and undermine democracy, and how conservative leaders appear to have launched the units in part as a stunt to drum up political support.

• Documents we obtained, reported on by the Houston Chronicle in late 2021, showed that the division created by Texas AG Ken Paxton had a budget that grew from $1.9 million in October 2020 to $2.2 million by September 2021, but closed only three cases that year. 
• We obtained an internal memo from Virginia AG Jason Miyares’ office — whose unit, as the Post notes, did not return a single guilty verdict — describing the unit as “a restructuring of existing resources” and emphasizing that staff who already work on election-related cases would be assigned to the unit but that “no additional or new funds are required.” 
• We also obtained records from Arizona’s unit that show it filed 17 election-related cases from when it was established in 2019 through 2021. The state’s current attorney general converted the unit into a voting rights entity in 2023. 

As 2023 draws to a close, we’re taking a look back at how American Oversight used public records requests and litigation to investigate abuses of power and threats to our democracy.

Attacks on Education
In Florida, we sued for records regarding Gov. Ron DeSantis’ attacks on public education, obtaining records that provided telling and alarming details about the state’s rejection of the AP African American studies course, its restrictions on math and social studies textbooks, and recent hires at New College of Florida.

• The Tampa Bay Times and the Miami Herald reported on documents that revealed how Department of Education reviewers of the AP African American Studies course sought to whitewash the history of slavery and racial injustice in favor of a minimized and conservative-friendly view of our nation’s struggles with race relations.
• Other documents we obtained, reported on by the Washington Post, revealed textbook publishers’ frustration with the state’s onslaught of restrictions for math and social studies textbooks. In the absence of clear guidance from the state, publishers changed lessons to remove references to different cultures, providing a glimpse of how far-right restrictions combined with inadequate definitions have resulted in denying students crucial information and context about the world.
• Records reported on by Inside Higher Ed illuminated the conservative political connections of recent hires at New College, the public liberal arts school that DeSantis has overhauled to be more conservative. Many top hires had little to no prior experience working in higher education — but they did have close ties to DeSantis allies or conservative politics.

The Election Denial Network
Three years after Trump attempted to overturn an election, the election denial movement remains one of the gravest threats to U.S. democracy. We continued our work mapping out the activists undermining confidence in our elections, and looked ahead to a major threat to voting rights in 2024.

• We published our in-depth report examining the push to discredit the leading tool used by states to maintain up-to-date voter rolls: the nonpartisan Electronic Registration Information Center, which in the last two years has become a target of far-right misinformation and conspiracy theories. Our report draws upon thousands of pages of government records we obtained to show how the attacks on ERIC are being perpetrated by many of the same people who sought to overturn the 2020 election.
• We published a detailed guide to records we obtained showing how those named or referred to in this year’s federal and Georgia election interference cases against Trump remained active in the election denial movement.
• Other documents reported on this year include emails sent by former DOJ official Jeffrey Clark — a co-defendant in the Fulton County case and a co-conspirator in the federal case — in the days after the Jan. 6 insurrection. The Washington Post cited the records in a report on how Clark has become a “rising legal star for Republicans” despite his role in trying to subvert the will of the people. 

Abuses of Power in the States
Our investigations in states across the country helped bring much-needed transparency in Wisconsin and demonstrated the chilling effect of the wave of attacks on LGBTQ and reproductive rights.

• • We filed a lawsuit against a secret panel convened by Wisconsin Assembly Speaker Robin Vos to advise on the potential impeachment of a state Supreme Court justice. Our litigation brought to light the names of panel members and pried loose documents revealing that two of the three members had advised Vos against pursuing impeachment.
• Emails we obtained demonstrated the lengths to which the Missouri health department went to remove resources about youth and LGBTQ sexual health from its website in January 2023.

Trump Accountability and Other Investigations
From continuing to fight in court for the public’s right to government records to or ongoing tally how much taxpayer money went to lining Trump’s pockets, here’s what else we worked on this year:

• In a victory for transparency, a court in September ordered Immigration and Customs Enforcement to redo its search for records we requested back in 2021 related to deaths of people in immigration custody, and to release them to the public. 
• We filed lawsuits seeking the release of documents detailing incidents of white supremacy across the US armed forces. “The American people have the right to know how their military has responded to racist and extremist incidents,” American Oversight’s Executive Director Heather Sawyer said.
• Documents we obtained revealed that the Pentagon spent nearly $1 million at Trump properties from July 2017 to November 2019.
• In June, the House Judiciary Committee referred to records we obtained that showed the politicized roots of Special Counsel John Durham’s years-long, multimillion-dollar investigation into the origins of the FBI’s Trump-Russia inquiry.

On the Records
During a hearing on Tuesday in our lawsuit seeking records from Vos’ impeachment panel, former Chief Justice Patience Roggensack’s lawyer confirmed that she has produced all documents that could be subject to the state’s public records law and responsive to American Oversight’s requests.

• “Speaker Vos’ impeachment panel may have remained cloaked in secrecy without American Oversight’s demand for much-needed transparency through the courts,” Sawyer said. “Now that our requests for records held by the panel members are resolved, we will work to ensure that all of the records held by Speaker Vos are provided to the public as required by Wisconsin law.”
• The court scheduled an additional status conference on Jan. 25, 2024, to discuss Vos’ compliance with the open records portion of our lawsuit.

American Oversight wishes you a happy new year, and we thank you for your continued support. We look forward to having you follow our work in 2024.

Other Stories We’re Following

Election Denial and Threats to Democracy

• Jury orders Giuliani to pay $148 million to election workers he defamed (New York Times)
• Defamed Georgia poll workers who won $148M from Giuliani sue him again (Washington Post)
• To protect election workers, Ohio senators would hide their addresses (Ohio Capital Journal)
• Former Wisconsin GOP chair says false electors were ‘tricked’ (Wisconsin Public Radio)
• Trump says Nevada fake electors treated ‘unfairly’ during rally in Reno (Associated Press)

Voting Rights

• A lawsuit by Latinos in Kansas claims their city’s election method is unfair (Washington Post)
• Voting rights groups file sweeping lawsuit against NC redistricting plans (North Carolina Newsline)
• Georgia redistricting tests if the Voting Rights Act protects ‘coalition districts’ (NPR)
• Bills would restore federal voting rights for Mississippians convicted of felonies (Mississippi Today)

In the States

• Absentee mayor: Miami’s Francis Suarez blurs line between public duty, pursuit of wealth (Miami Herald)
• Another Colorado Democrat resigns from legislature, citing low pay and ‘vitriol’ at Capitol (Colorado Sun)
• Missouri lawmaker wants to abolish state’s K-12 education department, transfer its powers (Springfield News-Leader)

National News

• A ‘delicate matter’: Clarence Thomas’ private complaints about money sparked fears he would resign (ProPublica)

LGBTQ Rights

• Experts say Florida’s informed consent forms for gender-affirming care are misleading, confusing (Florida Phoenix)
• DeWine is ‘taking a hard, hard look’ at bill that would ban gender-affirming care to trans youth (Ohio Capital Journal)
• School clubs for gay students move underground after Kentucky’s anti-LGBTQ law goes into effect (Hechinger Report)

Abortion and Reproductive Rights

• A Black woman was criminally charged after a miscarriage. It shows the perils of pregnancy post-Roe (Associated Press)
• Ohio Supreme Court rejects six-week ban appeal (Ohio Capital Journal)
• Amarillo City Council says it needs more time to debate abortion travel ban (Texas Tribune)
• Attorneys for Kentucky woman seeking abortion withdraw lawsuit (Associated Press)

Government Transparency and Public Records Law

• Arkansas attorney general rejects proposed ballot language for initiated act aimed at bolstering state’s Freedom of Information Act (Arkansas Democrat-Gazette)
• Locked out of local government: Residents decry increased secrecy among towns, counties, schools (Associated Press)
• Justice Dept. launches database to track misconduct by federal officers (Washington Post)
• Jails’ medical provider asks to seal contract outlining its services (West Virginia Watch)
• Oklahoma House subpoenas Ryan Walters for State Department of Education records (Tulsa World)

Immigration

• Gov. Greg Abbott signs bill making illegal immigration a state crime (Texas Tribune)
• Groups sue over new Texas law that lets police arrest migrants who enter the US illegally (Associated Press)
• As border extremism goes mainstream, vigilante groups take a starring role (Los Angeles Times)
• Family protests Border Patrol killing of Tohono O’odham man as civil rights lawsuit looms (Arizona Mirror)

Jan. 6 Investigations

• Appeals panel rejects Meadows’s request to move Georgia case to federal court (New York Times)
• New details emerge showing secrecy from White House on planned march on Jan. 6 (Washington Post)
• Trump’s lawyers ask full appeals court to review gag order restricting his speech in election case (Associated Press)
• Prosecutors try to nudge Trump election case ahead despite freeze on the case (New York Times