ALEC Sets Sights On New Anti-Voting Bills in States

A right-wing think tank known for drafting model legislation for state GOP lawmakers, is expanding its state-level anti-voting efforts.

In a recent press release, the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) announced an anti-voter push with a new “Process and Procedures Task Force” to focus on passing a new slate of state-level voter suppression bills. 

It’s not new territory for ALEC — in recent years, ALEC has been responsible for drafting the language for controversial anti-voting bills like the Safeguard American Voter and Elections (SAVE) Act and the School Board Election Date Act — but the new task force “will expand these efforts.” 

According to the release, the task force will focus on “streamlining government, strengthening voter ID requirements, blocking foreign influence through illicit campaign donations, and addressing concerns over the late arrival and counting of mail-in ballots.”

That last topic — grace periods for mail-in ballots — is the latest target in the GOP’s war on voting, Democracy Docket has reported. Trump’s sweeping anti-voting executive order would press states to reject all mail-in ballots that arrive after Election Day, as would the national SAVE Act. And a GOP lawsuit challenging Mississippi’s ballot receipt deadline law is poised to be considered by SCOTUS. Currently, 16 states and Washington, D.C. allow for these ballots. 

Founded in 1973, ALEC has long worked behind the scenes as a Republican “bill mill” to push a myriad of far-right anti-voting, anti-democracy policies into state legislatures across the country.  The group counts thousands of state lawmakers among its dues-paying members and boasts its policy-making influence in state legislatures. For more than two decades one of ALEC’s top priorities has been to pass various voter ID laws that disenfranchise student, disabled, low-income, elderly and minority voters in as many states as possible. 

Since 2023, ALEC has pushed the SAVE Act on both the federal and state levels, drafting language for state lawmakers to introduce their own versions of the sweeping anti-voter bill that would disenfranchise millions of voters. With its new anti-voting task force, ALEC plans to renew a push for states to pass the Only Citizens Vote Act — an anti-voting bill that goes further than the federal SAVE Act by banning noncitizens from voting in “any and all public elections on any and all matters.” Some cities in California, Maryland and Vermont, as well as Washington, D.C., allow noncitizens to vote in local elections, but the Only Citizens Vote Act would bar them from voting in every election — even if they’re legal U.S. residents. 

“It’s time to safeguard the electoral process through the principles of federalism, transparency, and constitutional integrity,” ALEC CEO Lisa B. Nelson said in the release announcing the group’s new anti-voting task force. “For more than a decade, we’ve watched the rise of misinformation, media manipulation, and coordinated campaigns designed to undermine faith in elections. Now is time to act.”