American elections work because we have tried-and-tested systems in place to make sure votes are cast fairly and counted correctly, and that when threats arise, everyone has their part to play: lawmakers, poll workers, voting rights advocates, and everyday voters alike. 

 

To understand how our elections continue to evolve, this season of Democracy Decoded takes a deep dive into our electoral system, exploring the checks and balances that make the process safe, secure, and accurate.

 

Host Simone Leeper will investigate the ways in which Congress took action after the January 6th attack on the U.S. Capitol to update an outmoded election law. She’ll also meet election workers who persevered through the thorny 2020 election, help you better understand your rights as a voter, learn how AI is impacting our democracy, and so much more.

This season of Democracy Decoded will equip you, the American voter, with insights that will empower you to participate fully in our democracy. Join us in this timely journey, and stay up to date on every episode: follow us on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts.

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In this bonus episode we’re featuring content from one of our favorite podcasts called “When the People Decide”. Host Jenna Spinelle explores what happens when neighbors and local government work together to make their communities stronger and more inclusive.

The episode takes place in Decatur, Georgia and tells the story of “Decatur 101” a straightforward class open to anyone in Decatur to learn about how their city government worked.

We hear from Linda Harris, the originator of the class, and Decatur 101 participants about why understanding how your government works, empowers you to begin advocating for changes you want to see in your community.

 

Links

https://www.thepeopledecide.show/ (When the People Decide website)

@PeopleDecidePod (When the People Decide Twitter)

 

About CLC

Democracy Decoded is a production of Campaign Legal Center, a nonpartisan nonprofit organization which advances democracy through law at the federal, state and local levels, fighting for every American’s right to responsive government and a fair opportunity to participate in and affect the democratic process. You can visit us on the web at campaignlegalcenter.org.

 

About The Democracy Group

Democracy Decoded is part of The Democracy Group, a network of podcasts that examines what’s broken in our democracy and how we can work together to fix it.

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In this bonus episode we’re featuring content from our friends at Future Hindsight, an award-winning podcast that takes big ideas about civic life and democracy and turns them into action items for all of us.

Host Mila Atmos is passionate about unlocking the power of everyday citizens, and each week you can join her on the show as she zeroes in on what you can do to get engaged and stay engaged.

In this episode, Mila Atmos interviews Kelly Dittmar, the Director of Research at the Center for American Women and Politics at Rutgers University about why diversity among women serving in public office strengthens our democracy, and how we can support more women to run in and win elections.

 

Links

https://www.futurehindsight.com/ (Future Hindsight website)

“Updating the FEC Candidate Salary Rule Could Help Increase Diversity in Office” (Campaign Legal Center)

 

About CLC

Democracy Decoded is a production of Campaign Legal Center, a nonpartisan nonprofit organization which advances democracy through law at the federal, state and local levels, fighting for every American’s right to responsive government and a fair opportunity to participate in and affect the democratic process. You can visit us on the web at campaignlegalcenter.org.

About The Democracy Group

Democracy Decoded is part of The Democracy Group, a network of podcasts that examines what’s broken in our democracy and how we can work together to fix it.

 

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

We are beyond thrilled to announce that our podcast “Democracy Decoded” has been nominated for a Webby Award in the category of Public Service & Activism podcasts!

Please visit this link and vote now for “Democracy Decoded” to help these important conversations reach even more ears!

 

How to vote:

1. Click the green “vote” button under Democracy Decoded.
2. Register with the Webby Awards website when prompted.
3. Check your email for an email from Webby that says “Action Required” and click the green “verify your account” button.

That’s it, you’re done! Thank you!

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The 2020 election was…unique. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, many states took steps to make voting safer and more accessible. After that, we saw a backlash and some states erected barriers to voting access. The 2022 midterm election then offered an opportunity to assess our voting landscape. In this episode, we discuss what we learned from the 2020 presidential election, the 2022 midterms, and how we can work together to make the promise of democracy real for us all.

Host and Guests:

Simone Leeper litigates a wide range of redistricting-related cases at CLC, challenging gerrymanders and advocating for election systems that guarantee all voters an equal opportunity to influence our democracy. Prior to arriving at CLC, Simone was a law clerk in the office of Senator Ed Markey and at the Library of Congress, Office of General Counsel. She received her J.D. cum laude from Georgetown University Law Center in 2019 and a bachelor’s degree in political science from Columbia University in 2016.

Trevor Potter is the founder and President of Campaign Legal Center. He leads CLC in its efforts to advance democracy through law. A Republican former Chairman of the Federal Election Commission (FEC), Trevor was general counsel to John McCain’s 2000 and 2008 presidential campaigns and an adviser to the drafters of the McCain-Feingold campaign finance law. To many, he is perhaps best known for his recurring appearances on The Colbert Report as the lawyer for Stephen Colbert’s super PAC, Americans for a Better Tomorrow, Tomorrow, during the 2012 election, a program that won a Peabody Award for excellence in reporting on money in politics.  Trevor has provided testimony and written statements to Congress on federal election proposals, campaign finance regulation and, recently, the effects of the January 6th attack on our democracy. He has also taught campaign finance law at the University of Virginia School of Law and Oxford University, and he has appeared widely in national broadcast and print media. During the 2020 election season, Trevor was named to the cross-partisan National Task Force on Election Crises. 

Aseem Mulji is Legal Counsel for Redistricting at Campaign Legal Center. He litigates voting rights, redistricting and campaign finance cases, and supports advocacy efforts to improve democracy at the federal, state and local levels. Aseem previously worked at the Participatory Budgeting Project, where he supported efforts to expand participatory democracy in the U.S. At CLC, Aseem has served as counsel in voting rights and redistricting cases such as TN NAACP v. Lee (M.D. Tenn.), VoteAmerica v. Schwab (D. Kans.), and Soto Palmer v. Hobbs (W.D. Wash.). He supports CLC’s actions against the Federal Election Commission for failures to enforce campaign finance laws. He also works to advance various democracy reforms, including state-level voting rights acts, ranked-choice voting, public financing and measures to ensure ballot access for justice-involved voters.  

Derek Perkinson is the New York State Field Director and Crisis Director for the National Action Network (NAN).  He oversees NAN’s advocacy and organizing efforts throughout the state of New York, the thirteen New York City chapters and coordinates national crisis concerns. Derek was recently a part of the coalition which helped bring about the John R. Lewis Voting Rights Act of New York. He has moderated  and served as a panelist on numerous occasions to speak up against discriminatory practices. Before joining NAN, Derek worked at the Black Institute – a think tank and nonprofit advocacy organization – where he served as the Chief Community Organizer in their New York City office. He has years of experience organizing communities of color to advocate and engage in political campaigns, criminal justice reform, economic justice, census, and voting rights, civic engagement, and immigration policy.

Gilda Daniels is a Voting Rights Consultant for Campaign Legal Center. She provides her expertise and support on CLC's Voting Rights cases. Gilda has served as a deputy chief in the Department of Justice, Civil Rights Division, Voting Section, in both the Clinton and Bush administrations. She has more than a decade of voting rights experience, bringing cases that involved various provisions of the Voting Rights Act, the National Voter Registration Act and other voting rights statutes. Before beginning her voting rights career, Gilda was a staff attorney with the Southern Center for Human Rights, representing death row inmates and bringing prison condition cases.

Links:

New York Joins Other States in Enacting State-Level Voting Rights Act (Campaign Legal Center)

Virtual Event Video — Barriers to the Ballot Box: A Conversation with Author Gilda Daniels (Campaign Legal Center)

Ranked Choice Voting (Campaign Legal Center)

About CLC:

Democracy Decoded is a production of Campaign Legal Center, a nonpartisan nonprofit organization which advances democracy through law at the federal, state and local levels, fighting for every American’s right to responsive government and a fair opportunity to participate in and affect the democratic process. You can visit us on the web at campaignlegalcenter.org.

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Voting in person is still the most popular way to vote for many people. Whether it’s a personal preference, a cultural experience in one's community, or an opportunity to get help from poll workers, millions of Americans head to the polls in person on the first Tuesday in November. In this episode we learn about the history of Election Day (seriously, why a weekday in late fall?) and the challenges that many Americans face when they try to vote in person.

Host and Guests:

Simone Leeper litigates a wide range of redistricting-related cases at CLC, challenging gerrymanders and advocating for election systems that guarantee all voters an equal opportunity to influence our democracy. Prior to arriving at CLC, Simone was a law clerk in the office of Senator Ed Markey and at the Library of Congress, Office of General Counsel. She received her J.D. cum laude from Georgetown University Law Center in 2019 and a bachelor’s degree in political science from Columbia University in 2016.

Valencia Richardson is Legal Counsel for Voting Rights at Campaign Legal Center. Her work focuses on addressing local-level election compliance under the Voting Rights Act in the Deep South. Prior to joining CLC, Valencia was a voting rights organizer and activist. Before law school, Valencia was a Fulbright grantee to Mexico and a student voting rights organizer for the Andrew Goodman Foundation, for which she served as a board member. She is the author of a nonfiction book, “Young and Disaffected,” and published “Voting While Poor: Reviving the Twenty-Fourth Amendment and Eliminating the Modern-Day Poll Tax” in the Georgetown Journal on Poverty Law and Policy. Valencia has litigated various voting rights cases in state and federal court, including Pascua Yaqui v. Rodriguez, Pettaway v. Galveston County, as well as Aguilar v. Yakima County, the first case litigated under the Washington Voting Rights Act.

Samantha Kelty is a Staff Attorney with the Native American Rights Fund in its Washington, DC, office.  Samantha litigates to eliminate obstacles to voting faced by Native Americans. At NARF, she has successfully litigated or settled major victories for Native American voting rights, including securing compliance with the National Voter Registration Act in South Dakota, ballot assistance in Montana and Nevada, ballot receipt extension deadlines in Nevada, and on-reservation polling places in Montana and Nevada.  She also represented amicus curiae National Congress of American Indians before the United States Supreme Court in advocating for the use of ballot collection and equal access by Native American voters under Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act.  In addition to litigation, she is a member of the Native American Voting Rights Coalition, a nationwide alliance of advocates, lawyers, academics, and tribal representatives that addresses Native American voting issues nationwide.

Terry Ao Minnis is the senior director of the census and voting programs for Asian Americans Advancing Justice | AAJC. Terry is a widely respected authority on voting rights. She was one of the key leaders in the campaigns to reauthorize the Voting Rights Act in 2006 as well as to address the Supreme Court's decision in Shelby County v. Holder. Appointed to the American Bar Association’s Standing Committee on Elections in 2020, Terry was named one of the four living 2020 National Women’s History Alliance Honorees: Valiant Women of the Vote. She is one of NOW’s 100 Sisters of Suffrage as part of their celebration of the centennial anniversary of the passage of the 19th amendment.

Links:

Voting Must Be Accessible (Campaign Legal Center)

Why the U.S. Needs Equitable Access to In-Person Voting (Campaign Legal Center)

Giving Voters Time Off To Vote Would Help Promote Fair Representation (Campaign Legal Center)

Fair Fight Action v. Raffensperger (Campaign Legal Center)

Native Voters Still Face Obstacles, White House Outlines a Path Forward (Campaign Legal Center)

Securing Safe Voting Options on the Pascua Yaqui Reservation (AZ) (Campaign Legal Center)

About CLC:

Democracy Decoded is a production of Campaign Legal Center, a nonpartisan nonprofit organization which advances democracy through law at the federal, state and local levels, fighting for every American’s right to responsive government and a fair opportunity to participate in and affect the democratic process. You can visit us on the web at campaignlegalcenter.org.

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Voting at a polling place on Election Day may be easy for some, but many voters  face significant challenges. Transportation, work schedules, and the location of polling places can make it tough for voters with families, jobs, a disability, and more to vote in person.

During the 2020 presidential election, when the COVID-19 pandemic was in full force, many states expanded vote-by-mail access to protect voters from getting sick. There were also drive-thru voting and ballot drop-boxes, which  opened many voters’ eyes to how accessible voting could be.

In this episode we look at how vote-by-mail works, why it’s secure and accurate and how it helps more voters make their voice heard.

Host and Guests:

Simone Leeper litigates a wide range of redistricting-related cases at CLC, challenging gerrymanders and advocating for election systems that guarantee all voters an equal opportunity to influence our democracy. Prior to arriving at CLC, Simone was a law clerk in the office of Senator Ed Markey and at the Library of Congress, Office of General Counsel. She received her J.D. cum laude from Georgetown University Law Center in 2019 and a bachelor’s degree in political science from Columbia University in 2016.

Reynaldo (Rey) Valenzuela has been working in the field of elections for over 32 years. He currently serves as the Director of Mail-In Voting and Election Services for Maricopa County, Arizona that presently serves over 2.4 million registered voters. He supports the administration of several election processes to include the candidate/campaign filing division, customer service division, early voting department, and shared oversight of the tabulation process. Rey serves or has served on various election related panels for various organizations to include as a local election official representative for Arizona on the Bipartisan Policy Center (BPC) or as a deputy member of the Election Officials of Arizona (EOA) Association. He also served for 15 years as one of the two Representatives from Arizona on the Election Assistance Commission Standards Board.

Jonathan Diaz is Senior Legal Counsel for Voting Rights at Campaign Legal Center. He litigates voting rights cases on behalf of voters across the United States, and works to advance laws and policies that expand the freedom to vote for all Americans. Before joining CLC, Jonathan was a litigation associate in the New York office of Jenner & Block LLP, where he litigated a variety of civil and criminal matters. He represents voting rights plaintiffs and amici in numerous cases, including Raysor v. Lee, VoteAmerica v. Raffensperger, Thompson v. Alabama and Brnovich v. DNC. Jonathan also participates on behalf of CLC on a number of democracy reform coalitions, coordinating CLC's work with partner organizations at the national, state and local levels. He also frequently provides commentary on voting rights and election law issues in the media; he has been quoted in publications including the New York Times, the Miami Herald and ProPublica, and has appeared on Univision, NPR and CNN, where he was an election law analyst for the 2020 election cycle.

Michelle Bishop leads a team to support NDRN's national network on voting rights and voter engagement for people with disabilities. She also works in coalition with the civil rights community in Washington, DC to ensure strong federal policy regarding voting rights and election administration from a voter-centric and intersectional perspective. Michelle loves democracy so much that she registered to vote on her 18th birthday, even though it wasn’t an election year. It is ill-advised to get her started talking about the historical significance of the first peaceful transfer of the US presidency or the intricacies of the Electoral Count Act. Disabled herself, Michelle comes to NDRN with over 15 years experience in the disability vote.

Links:

Here’s Why You Should Have the Freedom To Vote By Mail (Campaign Legal Center)

Demystifying Vote-by-Mail for All Americans (Campaign Legal Center)

Combatting State-Level Bills Restricting The Freedom To Vote (Campaign Legal Center)

Voter Participation Nonprofits Are Crucial for Democracy. We Must Protect Their Work. (Campaign Legal Center)

About CLC:

Democracy Decoded is a production of Campaign Legal Center, a nonpartisan nonprofit organization which advances democracy through law at the federal, state and local levels, fighting for every American’s right to responsive government and a fair opportunity to participate in and affect the democratic process. You can visit us on the web at campaignlegalcenter.org.

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The right to vote is a basic American freedom, but  for people with felony convictions, figuring out if they can vote is a huge task. This episode looks at the history of felony disenfranchisement laws and explains how denying the freedom to vote to an entire class of citizens hurts voters, communities and our democracy. Also, Tennessee voters share their experiences regaining the freedom to vote after a felony conviction.

Host and Guests:

Simone Leeper litigates a wide range of redistricting-related cases at CLC, challenging gerrymanders and advocating for election systems that guarantee all voters an equal opportunity to influence our democracy. Prior to arriving at CLC, Simone was a law clerk in the office of Senator Ed Markey and at the Library of Congress, Office of General Counsel. She received her J.D. cum laude from Georgetown University Law Center in 2019 and a bachelor’s degree in political science from Columbia University in 2016.

Dawn Harrington is the founder and Executive Director of Free Hearts, an organization which was created to reunite families and keep families together by providing support, education, and advocacy, organizing families impacted by incarceration. During her time in prison, Dawn was disturbed by the impact of incarceration on families, especially moms and kids, and was inspired to make a difference upon her release. Today, Dawn is also Director of Special Projects of National Council for Incarcerated and Formerly Incarcerated Women and Girls, Just Leadership USA fellow, and advisory board member for Nashville Defenders and Unheard Voices Outreach. She has a Bachelor’s degree in Recording Industry Management and Public Relations from Middle Tennessee State University and a Master of Business Administration degree in Information Technology from Bethel University.

Blair Bowie manages CLC’s Restore Your Vote project, which focuses on ending felony disenfranchisement by democratizing access to rights restoration services and working with directly impacted communities to dismantle systemic barriers to the ballot box through advocacy, litigation and policy change. Prior to joining CLC, Blair worked for five years as an advocate and organizer with the aim of increasing political equality and accountability. As the democracy advocate with the U.S. Public Interest Research Group, she co-authored several reports on the post-Citizens United impact of money in politics, coordinated campaigns and messaging across the organization’s chapters, and served as its federal lobbyist on campaign finance reform.

Gicola Lane works directly with CLC's Restore Your Vote team to restore voting rights to people with past felony convictions through direct services, community empowerment and public education. Prior to joining CLC, Gicola served as a community organizer for more than five years for nonprofits, campaigns and grassroots groups. From 2018 to 2021, as a statewide organizer for Free Hearts, a Tennessee-based nonprofit led by formerly incarcerated women that organizes and provides support to families impacted by incarceration, Gicola trained hundreds of people across the state of Tennessee on the rights restoration process, and helped numerous people restore their right to vote.  

Milton Thomas was born and raised in Nashville, Tennessee and now works as a maintenance worker at the Martha O’Bryan Center. The Martha O’Bryan Center is a faith-based organization which provides assistance to residents in Nashville experiencing poverty, and Milton enjoys being able to help his community through his job there. He is passionate about voting and has voted in every election since having his voting rights restored in 2020. He would like to thank Gicola Lane, Keeda Haynes, and Howard Gentry for being very instrumental in him getting his voting rights back. Milton is also the father of five children.

Links:

Success! Study Shows That CLC’s Restore Your Vote Outreach Increases Voter Participation (Campaign Legal Center)

CLC’s Restore Your Vote Toolkit Cited As Key Resource in DOJ Guide (Campaign Legal Center)

CLC Urges Federal Agencies To Offer Greater Assistance with Voting Rights Restoration (Campaign Legal Center)

About CLC:

Democracy Decoded is a production of Campaign Legal Center, a nonpartisan nonprofit organization which advances democracy through law at the federal, state and local levels, fighting for every American’s right to responsive government and a fair opportunity to participate in and affect the democratic process. You can visit us on the web at campaignlegalcenter.org.

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America is a democracy, but is that democracy accessible to every American? When the Constitution was ratified, only white men who owned property could vote, which was only 6% of the population. In the more than 200 years since then, many Americans are still being denied the right to have a say in key decisions that impact our lives. 

In this episode Simone talks with Brittany Carter from the NAACP Legal Defense Fund about the history of voting rights, and how African Americans risked their lives and safety for the freedom to vote. Then, CLC lawyers Paul Smith and Danielle Lang explain what voting access looks like today, and what barriers still exist for many Americans including people with disabilities, people of color and those with felony convictions.

Host and Guests:

Simone Leeper litigates a wide range of redistricting-related cases at CLC, challenging gerrymanders and advocating for election systems that guarantee all voters an equal opportunity to influence our democracy. Prior to arriving at CLC, Simone was a law clerk in the office of Senator Ed Markey and at the Library of Congress, Office of General Counsel. She received her J.D. cum laude from Georgetown University Law Center in 2019 and a bachelor’s degree in political science from Columbia University in 2016.

Paul Smith has four decades of experience litigating a wide range of cases. He has argued before the U.S. Supreme Court 21 times and secured numerous victories, including Lawrence v. Texas, the landmark gay rights case. In addition, Paul has argued several voting rights cases at the Supreme Court, including Vieth v. Jubelirer and Gill v. Whitford, involving partisan gerrymandering, LULAC v. Perry, involving the legality of Texas’s mid-decade redrawing of congressional districts and Crawford v. Marion County Election Board, involving the constitutionality of a voter identification law. Paul previously served as a partner in the law firm of Jenner & Block, where he was chair of the firm's Appellate and Supreme Court Practice and co-chair of the firm's Election Law and Redistricting Practice. 

Danielle Lang has worked as a civil rights litigator her entire career and now leads CLC's voting rights team dedicated to safeguarding the freedom to vote. She has led litigation against Texas's racially discriminatory voter ID law, Florida's modern-day poll tax for rights restoration, Arizona's burdensome registration requirements, North Dakota's voter ID law targeting Native communities, and numerous successful challenges to signature match policies for absentee ballots. Previously, Danielle served as a Skadden Fellow in the Employment Rights Project of Bet Tzedek Legal Services in Los Angeles, where she represented low-wage immigrant workers in wage and hour, discrimination, and human trafficking matters. From 2012 to 2013, Danielle clerked for Judge Richard A. Paez on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.

Brittany Carter is the Political Participation Fellow at LDF, focusing on voting rights litigation and voter protection efforts. She is a member of the legal team litigating Milligan v. Merrill, a high-profile case which was argued before the Supreme Court of the United States, charging that the congressional redistricting map drawn by the Alabama legislature denied Black residents equal opportunity to participate in the political process and elect candidates of choice. Prior to LDF, Brittany served as a law clerk to the Honorable Sam A. Lindsay of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas.

Links:

Voting Must Be Accessible (Campaign Legal Center)

To Make Elections Accessible, Modernize Voter Registration (Campaign Legal Center)

About CLC

Democracy Decoded is a production of Campaign Legal Center, a nonpartisan nonprofit organization which advances democracy through law at the federal, state and local levels, fighting for every American’s right to responsive government and a fair opportunity to participate in and affect the democratic process. You can visit us on the web at campaignlegalcenter.org.

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Why does American Democracy look the way it does today and how can we make it more responsive to the people it was formed to serve? Democracy Decoded, a podcast by Campaign Legal Center, examines our government and discusses innovative ideas that could lead to a stronger, more transparent, accountable and inclusive democracy. In the new season, host Simone Leeper covers everything you need to know about voting in the U.S. – how it works, what barriers exist to voting, and how to make our voting system more inclusive. Because our democracy works best, when every voter can participate.

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In this bonus episode, Simone explores the backstory behind a case of foreign interference in U.S. elections which had far reaching consequences, both in America and abroad. Joined by two former Campaign Legal Center staff members who uncovered the scheme, she examines the case of Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman – the Trump allies who laundered a six-figure contribution to a super PAC through a shell corporation and pushed for the removal of the U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine.

 

Guests:

Brendan Fischer currently serves as Deputy Executive Director at Documented, having served as Director, Federal Reform at CLC from 2016-2022. He has expertise in campaign finance, government ethics, lobbying and political transparency issues, and is a frequent commentator for national news publications. He also has spoken at conferences and events nationwide on money-in-politics issues. Before CLC, Brendan was General Counsel with the Center for Media and Democracy, where he led the watchdog group’s legal research and advocacy efforts.

Maggie Christ is a law student at New York University School of Law. For four years prior to attending law school, she worked at the Campaign Legal Center as Campaign Finance Researcher (2017-2020) and Senior Researcher (2020-2021). At CLC, she investigated campaign finance violations, researched money-in-politics trends, and supported the campaign finance program’s enforcement, litigation, and advocacy work. Maggie is a graduate of Swarthmore College, where she received a bachelor’s degree with high honors in History and Economics.

Tara Malloy is CLC’s Senior Director of Appellate Litigation & Strategy. She litigates a wide range of campaign finance and election law cases in courts across the United States, and has expertise in campaign finance, political disclosure and ethics issues. Tara has represented parties or amici curiae in many recent campaign finance cases that reached the U.S. Supreme Court, including Citizens United v. FEC and McCutcheon v. FEC, as well as in political disclosure cases involving laws from various states and municipalities.

 

Links:

“CLC Complaint Results in Arrest of Two Ukrainian-American Trump Donors Connected to Giuliani” (Campaign Legal Center)

“What the Impeachment Inquiry Has Highlighted About Lev Parnas, Igor Fruman, and Rudy Giuliani's Corrupt Activities in Ukraine” (Campaign Legal Center)

“The Real Backstory to the Arrest of Two Ukrainian-American Trump Donors” (Campaign Legal Center)

“Who was Rudolph Giuliani really working for?” Op-Ed by CLC’s Trevor Potter and Delaney Marsco (Washington Post)

“Ex-Giuliani Buddy Lev Parnas Convicted in Illegal Foreign Influence Operation” (The Daily Beast)
 

“Lev Parnas Sentenced To 20 Months In Prison For Campaign Finance, Wire Fraud, And False Statements Offenses” (U.S. Department of Justice)

 

About CLC

Democracy Decoded is a production of Campaign Legal Center, a nonpartisan nonprofit organization which advances democracy through law at the federal, state and local levels, fighting for every American’s right to responsive government and a fair opportunity to participate in and affect the democratic process. You can visit us on the web at campaignlegalcenter.org.

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In this bonus episode we’re featuring content from a new podcast called “When the People Decide”. Host Jenna Spinelle explores the basics of the ballot initiative and the history of how it caught on in the United States.

She investigates the backstory behind a campaign in Michigan to end partisan gerrymandering in 2018 which is part of a legacy of ballot initiatives dating back to the 1800s. After becoming disillusioned with the results of the 2016 election, Katie Fahey took to Facebook to gauge the interest of grassroots mobilization amongst her colleagues, friends and family. 

Now the executive director of a nonpartisan voter reform organization, Fahey shares how the ballot initiative excited everyday people about becoming active in politics, including its 10,000 volunteers, and how they were inspired to make political changes in their communities.

 

Links

https://www.thepeopledecide.show/ (When the People Decide website)

@PeopleDecidePod (When the People Decide Twitter)

“Victory! Fair Congressional Maps Upheld by Michigan Court” (Campaign Legal Center)

“Two Ways Politicians Are Making It Harder To Pass Ballot Initiatives” (Campaign Legal Center)

 

About CLC

Democracy Decoded is a production of Campaign Legal Center, a nonpartisan nonprofit organization which advances democracy through law at the federal, state and local levels, fighting for every American’s right to responsive government and a fair opportunity to participate in and affect the democratic process. You can visit us on the web at campaignlegalcenter.org.

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

We want to hear from you! Thank you for taking a few minutes to complete our survey. Your feedback helps understand what you love about Democracy Decoded and how we can make it even better. To show our thanks, you’ll be entered into a drawing for a chance to win a $50 American Express gift card. We appreciate your time!

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Across the country, voters are organizing to protect their right to elect candidates of their choice. In the final episode of Season 3 of Democracy Decoded, host Simone Leeper explores the changing landscape of state and local elections, and some of the initiatives that can help ensure voters can choose candidates who truly represent their interests. This forward-looking episode offers a glimpse into innovative reforms that hold the promise of strengthening democracy.

Simone speaks with Susan Soto Palmer, a community advocate and plaintiff that Campaign Legal Center represented in a landmark discrimination case in Yakima County, Washington. Mark Gaber, Senior Director for Redistricting at CLC delves into the problems with at-large districts and how they dilute the voting power of communities of color. Then, the Executive Director of Alaskans for Better Elections, Juli Lucky, explains to Simone how Alaska has enacted ranked choice voting and why states around the country are using this tool to improve democratic elections. Alexandra Copper, Legal Counsel for Litigation at CLC, breaks down how ranked choice voting can ensure that voters' voices are being heard. 

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Democracies work best when everyone can participate meaningfully, but wealthy special interests and a small number of big donors have come to dominate the funding of political campaigns - if money is speech, some people (and groups, and corporations) are speaking MUCH louder than others.

In the season finale, Simone dives into the world of public financing, examining how two cities on opposite sides of the country took important steps to provide candidates with public funds to support their election efforts. Programs like those now in use in Seattle, Washington and Washington, D.C. can reorient our elections by encouraging the best and brightest candidates to seek public office and motivating them to connect with the people they want to represent.

 

Guests:

Catie Kelley is senior director of Policy & Strategic Partnerships at CLC, overseeing the organization’s policy work at the federal, state and local levels. She is leading CLC's work to address the emerging threats of election sabotage. Previously, Catie built and ran CLC's state campaign finance program. In that capacity, she worked with state and local stakeholders and policymakers to advance innovative policies designed to decrease the influence of money in the political process. She began her legal career in the Federal Election Commission's Office of General Counsel. 
Read her full bio here.

René LeBeau has over 20 years of elections experience at the state, county, and city level. In 2016, she joined the Seattle Ethics and Elections Commission to implement and administer the first-ever Democracy Voucher Program. She is a life-long Washington resident who calls Seattle home.

Wayne Barnett has helmed the Seattle Ethics and Elections Commission for 18 years, after completing three years with the Massachusetts State Ethics Commission. He started his public service work with stints with Congressman John Dingell and Senator Kent Conrad, before studying law at New York University.

Councilmember Christina Henderson is an At-Large member of the Council of the District of Columbia. Christina’s career has been guided by the principle that one’s zip code should not determine your opportunity for success, and she is excited to work each and every day to make this principle a reality for all DC residents. As a trusted political advisor, Christina has counseled United States Senators, DC Council members, and state and local education officials on an array of domestic policy issues which deeply impacts families and children. Christina lives in Petworth with her husband Nu, their daughters Jordan and Cameron, and rescue dog Langston.

Dexter Williams is a native Washingtonian who grew up in the Hillcrest neighborhood of Ward 7, where he currently lives. He organized residents, with other leaders around the city, to establish the DC Fair Elections program. Dexter works for RepresentUs, focusing on making election systems around the country better and is also the elected Ward 7 Democratic State Committeeman, where he educates voters about the democratic process and works to build interest and participation in the Democratic Party. He is currently running for DC Council At-Large.

 

Links for Part One:

Democracy Voucher Program (Seattle.gov)
 

“Seattle candidates again vie for ‘democracy vouchers’ as they pivot to November election” (The Seattle Times)

Elster v. City of Seattle (Campaign Legal Center)

“Supreme Court Leaves Seattle’s Democracy Voucher System in Place” (Campaign Legal Center)

Links for Part Two:

Fair Elections Program (dc.gov)

“What We Learned from DC’s Fair Elections Program” (Campaign Legal Center)

“The Fair Elections Program is changing politics as usual in D.C.” (The Washington Post)

 

About CLC

Democracy Decoded is a production of Campaign Legal Center, a nonpartisan nonprofit organization which advances democracy through law at the federal, state and local levels, fighting for every American’s right to responsive government and a fair opportunity to participate in and affect the democratic process. You can visit us on the web at campaignlegalcenter.org.

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

This week, Simone examines some of the gaps in our campaign finance laws that have allowed foreign entities to spend money to influence our elections.

She focuses on a recent story that took place in Maine, speaking with two state legislators who introduced bills to combat foreign interference in their state – a bigger concern than most would expect, especially considering the cause of their concern comes not from a hostile foreign government, but from one of our closest allies.

Guests:

Aaron McKean serves as Legal Counsel for State and Local Reform at Campaign Legal Center, working with state and local partners to develop and advocate for campaign finance reforms that lift the voices of voters and lead to a more transparent democracy. Prior to joining CLC, Aaron was a legislative attorney at the Wisconsin Legislative Reference Bureau, a nonpartisan legislative service agency, drafting legislation for members of the Wisconsin Legislature. He also served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Azerbaijan from 2009 to 2011. He is a graduate of the University of Wisconsin Law School and the University of Wisconsin–Madison.

Senator Richard A. Bennett a former President of the Maine Senate, has 14 years of public service in the Senate and House. He has represented western Maine since 2020 and earlier for four terms in the Maine Senate, from 1996 to 2004. From 1990 to 1994 he served two terms in the Maine House of Representatives. He has earned a reputation as a reformer and staunch advocate for fiscal discipline, balanced budgets, term limits, governmental accountability, and Maine’s precious outdoors heritage. Senator Bennett is a Maine native and has family roots in Oxford County going back over two centuries.

Kyle Bailey is a former state legislator and social entrepreneur with nearly two decades of experience managing candidate campaigns, ballot measure campaigns, and start-up nonprofits. Kyle managed the ballot campaign that won the nation’s first statewide ranked choice voting law in Maine in 2016, and the 2018 ballot measure campaign that protected the voter-approved law from legislative repeal. In 2012, he led in-state fundraising for the 2012 campaign that won the nation’s first statewide ballot measure campaign for the freedom to marry for same-sex couples.

 

Links:

“Maine Misses Chance to Fight Foreign Election Interference” (Campaign Legal Center)

“Maine judge quashes Hydro-Quebec power line plan for now” (Marketplace)

“Mainers Again Flex Their Independence to Protect Their Vote” (The American Leader)

Protect Maine Elections


About CLC

Democracy Decoded is a production of Campaign Legal Center, a nonpartisan nonprofit organization which advances democracy through law at the federal, state and local levels, fighting for every American’s right to responsive government and a fair opportunity to participate in and affect the democratic process. You can visit us on the web at campaignlegalcenter.org.

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

This week, Simone takes a closer look at the Federal Election Commission - the only government agency tasked solely with overseeing the integrity of our political campaigns – with one of the FEC’s commissioners, Shana Broussard. 

She also takes a deeper look at our current campaign finance system, and how that system has failed to keep up with modern times – namely by failing to adequately regulate online ads. She is joined by some former Senate staffers who were part of an effort to change that. 
 

Guests:

Commissioner Shana M. Broussard joined the FEC in 2008 as an attorney in the Enforcement Division of the Office of General Counsel. In 2015, she was assigned on detail as Counsel for Commissioner Steven T. Walther, advising the Commissioner during his tenure as Chair in 2017 and continuing in that role until her own appointment as Commissioner. Commissioner Broussard previously was an Attorney Advisor at the Internal Revenue Service, Office of Professional Responsibility, and Deputy Disciplinary Counsel at the Louisiana Attorney Disciplinary Board. She also worked as a New Orleans Assistant District Attorney and was appointed in that role to the Violent Offenders Strike Force.
Read her full bio here.

 

Adav Noti coordinates all of CLC's programmatic activities, overseeing CLC's efforts to fix the campaign finance system, protect voting rights, ensure fair redistricting and promote government ethics. He has conducted dozens of constitutional cases in district courts, courts of appeals and the United States Supreme Court. Prior to joining CLC, Adav served for more than 10 years in several capacities within the Office of General Counsel of the Federal Election Commission. From 2013 to 2017, as associate general counsel for policy, Adav oversaw all legal recommendations regarding the FEC’s regulations and advisory opinions.
Read his full bio here.

Lindsey Kerr is a Senior Vice President for The Messina Group. She is a veteran of Capitol Hill, having served in the House and the Senate, including time as the chief of staff for Senator Amy Klobuchar (D-MN). In 2021, Lindsey served as the top Senate Democratic staff representative responsible for working with the Joint Congressional Committee on Inaugural Ceremonies to plan, oversee, and execute the Presidential Inauguration. Prior to that, she worked in the House of Representatives as senior counsel to Representative Keith Ellison (D-MN). Lindsey started her career on Capitol Hill as a fellow with the American Political Science Association. She holds bachelor’s, master’s, and juris doctorate degrees from Georgia State University in Atlanta.
See her full bio here.

Truman Anderson is former chief-of-staff to the late U.S. Senator John S. McCain III of Arizona and is now a consultant to the McCain Papers Project at Arizona State University. He holds a doctorate in History from the University of Chicago, was a lecturer at the London School of Economics in International History, and served for many years as the Executive Director of the Stuart Family Foundation in Lake Forest, Illinois. He is a veteran of the United States Marine Corps.

 

Links for Part One:

About the FEC (Federal Election Commission)

“Let’s Celebrate the FEC’s 47th Birthday By Strengthening the Agency’s Enforcement Abilities” (Campaign Legal Center)

“Democrats’ Improbable New F.E.C. Strategy: More Deadlock Than Ever” (New York Times)
 

Links for Part Two:

Disclosure Rules for Digital Political Spending (Campaign Legal Center)

“FEC Symposium Draws Attention to Online Advertisement Disclosure Loopholes” (Campaign Legal Center)

“What You Need to Know About the Honest Ads Act” (NPR)

“Lawmakers Seek to Curb Foreign Influence by Closing Online Political Ad Loopholes" (OpenSecrets.org)

 

About CLC

Democracy Decoded is a production of Campaign Legal Center, a nonpartisan nonprofit organization which advances democracy through law at the federal, state and local levels, fighting for every American’s right to responsive government and a fair opportunity to participate in and affect the democratic process. You can visit us on the web at campaignlegalcenter.org.

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

This week, Simone is joined by two CLC experts, Erin Chlopak and Brendan Fischer, as well as attorney Peter Earle and “BadAss Grandmas” Ellen Chaffee and Dina Butcher. These guests help explain two key instances in which big money spending impacted local communities. Importantly, they also explain how every day citizens can make their voices heard.

Campaign finance can sometimes seem like something far removed from our everyday lives, maybe something that only matters in Washington. But there’s a lot going on at the state and local levels, too, and there’s a lot that everyday citizens can do to influence things and ensure their community’s voices are heard.
 

Guests:

Dr. Ellen Chaffee is a consultant to university governing boards after a long career in higher education research and administration. This included two university presidencies, presiding over two national professional associations, and serving on boards of directors. After decades of political independence, she agreed to be a running mate to a gubernatorial candidate, which taught her "too much" about how the current political system works and how unsuited she is for that arena. Her alter ego, BadAss Grandma for Democracy, works to improve America's flawed democracy, which is a root cause of most social problems.

Dina Butcher’s grandson’s friend dubbed her BadAss after seeing her picture on a brochure promoting an initiated measure to amend the ND Constitution regarding having an ethics commission and requiring transparency in political influence on elections. This 2018 campaign led to many of her fellow Republicans questioning her loyalty. As a first generation American, born to German-Jewish refugees who fled Germany in 1939, she feels she needs to speak up against the militant right infiltration of the Republican party. Since she tended a Goldwater campaign headquarters “trailer” in King George County, Virginia with a pause while her husband served in the FBI, she has been a Republican activist, run for elective office in 1996 and served in three Republican administrations. This graduate of Skidmore College with teaching credentials earned at Minot State College, says her daughters say “she has lost her filters and gained her voice” in this her ninth decade.

Erin Chlopak leads CLC’s work to promote and defend strong campaign finance laws and ensure that existing laws are enforced. Through litigation, advocacy and public education, Erin works with CLC’s campaign finance team to make our political system more transparent and accountable, and to protect the right of every American to participate in the democratic process.
Read her full bio here.

Peter Earle was born in Mexico City on June 22,1950, and emigrated to the United States in 1955.  He graduated from the Chicago-Kent College of Law with High Honors in 1988. As an attorney, Mr. Earle has been selected for an AV Preeminent rating by Martindale-Hubbell each year for the last 30 years. Mr. Earle has also successfully litigated numerous individual lead poisoning cases resulting in the expansion of the risk contribution doctrine in cases where the plaintiff is unable to identify the manufacturer of the product that actually caused the injury. Thomas v. Mallett, 701 N.W.2d 523 (WI 2005); Gibson v. American Cyanamid, 760 F.3d 600 (7th Cir. 7/14/14). He is widely regarded as an aggressive bilingual lawyer dedicated to enforcing the rights of working people and holding accountable those who abuse authority.

Brendan Fischer currently serves as Deputy Executive Director at Documented, having served as Director, Federal Reform at CLC from 2016-2022. He has expertise in campaign finance, government ethics, lobbying and political transparency issues, and is a frequent commentator for national news publications. He also has spoken at conferences and events nationwide on money-in-politics issues. Before CLC, Brendan was General Counsel with the Center for Media and Democracy, where he led the watchdog group’s legal research and advocacy efforts.

 

Links for Part One:

“Bad Ass Grandmas Say Alaskans Should Vote for More Transparency in Elections” (Campaign Legal Center)

“How Our Government Put Money and Oil Before the People of North Dakota” (Campaign Legal Center)

“Ballot Initiative in North Dakota Aims to Increase Transparency” (Campaign Legal Center)

“Badass Grandmas” on Facebook

“North Dakotans for Public Integrity” on Facebook

About the North Dakota Ethics Commission   
 

Links for Part Two:

“Secret Money Puts Our Health and Safety at Risk” (Campaign Legal Center)

“Senate Must Act to Bring Dark Money to Light” by Peter Earle (Daily Kos)

"Poisoned by their homes: how the US is failing children exposed to lead” (The Guardian)

Lead-Safe Wisconsin

 

About CLC:

Democracy Decoded is a production of Campaign Legal Center, a nonpartisan nonprofit organization which advances democracy through law at the federal, state and local levels, fighting for every American’s right to responsive government and a fair opportunity to participate in and affect the democratic process. You can visit us on the web at campaignlegalcenter.org.

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Joined by Sheila Krumholz, Executive Director of OpenSecrets, and Norman Ornstein, chair of the Board of Campaign Legal Center, host Simone Leeper looks back on the history of campaign finance law in the United States.

As they trace historical events from the Watergate scandal to the Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision and beyond, Simone and her expert guests explore the scandals, legislation and judicial decisions that have helped shape the current system and the root causes of the ever-growing cost of our elections.

 

Guests:

Sheila Krumholz is the executive director of the Center for Responsive Politics, a nonpartisan watchdog group that tracks money in politics on its website, OpenSecrets.org. Krumholz became Executive Director in 2006, prior to which she was CRP’s research director for eight years, supervising data analysis for CRP’s website, OpenSecrets.org, and for CRP’s partners and clients in the media, academia and elsewhere. Krumholz has testified before Congress and the Federal Election Commission on issues related to government transparency and is cited frequently in prominent national media outlets. She regularly makes presentations to scholars, government officials, NGOs that conduct research and advocacy, meetings of professional news organizations, and trains reporters on CRP’s data tools and resources. Currently, Krumholz serves on the board of the Institute for Nonprofit News. She has a degree in international relations and political science from the University of Minnesota.
Learn more about OpenSecrets, the nation's premier research group tracking money in U.S. politics, here.

 

Norman J. Ornstein, CLC's Board Chair, is a resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research. He is co-host of AEI’s Election Watch series, is a contributing editor and columnist for National Journal and The Atlantic, and a BBC News election analyst. His campaign finance working group of scholars and practitioners helped shape the major law, known as McCain/Feingold, that reformed the campaign financing system.
View his full bio here.

 

Links:
 

Money-in-Politics Timeline (OpenSecrets.org)

"The Tillman Act: 34 Stat. 864 (1907)" by Paweł Laider and Maciej Turek (Basic Documents in Federal Campaign Finance Law)

Mission and history (The Federal Election Commission)

﷟HYPERLINK "https://www.fec.gov/about/mission-and-history/"Federal Election Campaign Act (FECA) (The Federal Election Commission)

“Anniversary of U.S. v. Nixon Shows Why We Should Restructure the FEC” (Campaign Legal Center)

Buckley v. Valeo (Oyez.org)

Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission (Oyez.org)

“How Does the Citizens United Decision Still Affect Us in 2022?” (Campaign Legal Center)

McCutcheon v. Federal Election Commission (Oyez.org)

 

About CLC:

Democracy Decoded is a production of Campaign Legal Center, a nonpartisan nonprofit organization which advances democracy through law at the federal, state and local levels, fighting for every American’s right to responsive government and a fair opportunity to participate in and affect the democratic process. You can visit us on the web at campaignlegalcenter.org.

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Joined by Trevor Potter, president of Campaign Legal Center and a Republican Former Chairman of the Federal Election Commission, host Simone Leeper breaks down the basics of America’s campaign finance system. At the root of their discussion is an examination of how illegal coordinated campaign spending occurs, and why it has not been properly addressed.  

Trevor speaks about his appearances on the Colbert Report and discusses what has changed (or not changed) in campaign finance over the past ten years. He also reveals his fears that the current lack of transparency and outsized spending by special interests on our elections is leading to the disillusionment of American voters who feel they're not being heard - that their voices don't matter because somebody with a lot of money is able to simply buy the results they want.

 

Host and Guest:

Simone Leeper litigates a wide range of redistricting-related cases at CLC, challenging gerrymanders and advocating for election systems that guarantee all voters an equal opportunity to influence our democracy. Prior to arriving at CLC, Simone was a law clerk in the office of Senator Ed Markey and at the Library of Congress, Office of General Counsel. She received her J.D. cum laude from Georgetown University Law Center in 2019 and a bachelor’s degree in political science from Columbia University in 2016.

Trevor Potter is the founder and President of Campaign Legal Center. He is a former Chairman of the Federal Election Commission, and was General Counsel to John McCain’s 2000 and 2008 presidential campaigns, and an adviser to the drafters of the McCain-Feingold law. To many, he is perhaps best known for his recurring appearances on The Colbert Report as the lawyer for Stephen Colbert’s super PAC, Americans for a Better Tomorrow, Tomorrow, during the 2012 election, a program that won a Peabody Award for excellence in reporting on money in politics.

View his full bio here.

 

Colbert Episodes:

Season 7, Episode 43: Colbert PAC – Trevor Potter

Season 7, Episode 52: Colbert Super PAC – Trevor Potter

Season 7, Episode 124: Colbert Super PAC – Trevor Potter & Stephen’s Shell Corporation

Comedy Central’s “Colbert Super PAC”
©2022 Comedy Partners. All Rights Reserved. CBS, all related titles, characters, and logos are trademarks owned by Viacom International Inc.

 

Links:

About the FEC (Federal Election Commission)

Cost of Election statistics (OpenSecrets.org)

“PACs, Super PACs & Dark Money Groups: What's the Difference?" (Campaign Legal Center)

“How Does the Citizens United Decision Still Affect Us in 2022?" (Campaign Legal Center)

“Ten Years After Potter’s Interview on Colbert’s Show, Illegal Coordination Still Pervades” (Campaign Legal Center)

 

About CLC:

Democracy Decoded is a production of Campaign Legal Center, a nonpartisan nonprofit organization which advances democracy through law at the federal, state and local levels, fighting for every American’s right to responsive government and a fair opportunity to participate in and affect the democratic process. You can visit us on the web at campaignlegalcenter.org.

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Why does American Democracy look the way it does today and how can we make it more responsive to the people it was formed to serve? Democracy Decoded, a podcast by Campaign Legal Center, examines our government and discusses innovative ideas that could lead to a stronger, more transparent, accountable and inclusive democracy. Host Simone Leeper speaks with experts from across the political spectrum and takes a deep dive into the forces fueling our elections, not just in our nation’s capital but at all levels of government. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

We want to hear from you! Thank you for taking a few minutes to complete our survey. Your feedback helps understand what you love about Democracy Decoded and how we can make it even better. To show our thanks, you’ll be entered into a drawing for a chance to win a $50 American Express gift card. We appreciate your time!

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When we elect representatives, we expect them to be held accountable to the people they represent and the laws they are subject to. But how can voters be sure that elected officials are acting with their best interests in mind? In this enlightening episode of Democracy Decoded, host Simone Leeper explores the pivotal role that state and local ethics commissions play in safeguarding the integrity of the democratic process and dives into some of the scandals that have brought about their creation. This episode underscores how independent oversight is crucial in preventing corruption. 

Simone begins by talking to Jeremy Farris who shares his first hand experiences with the creation of an ethics commission in New Mexico. Kedric Payne, the Vice President, General Counsel and Senior Director of Ethics at Campaign Legal Center, explains how commissions fight corruption and offers insights on how they can be implemented across the country. Senior Legal Counsel for Ethics at CLC, Delaney Marsco, describes the mechanisms that allow ethics commissions to hold government officials accountable. Simone then speaks with LeeAnn Pelham, a longtime democracy advocate who directed ethics commissions in California, who tells the story of the scandal that sparked the creation of the ethics commission in Los Angeles. 

Host and Guests:

Simone Leeper litigates a wide range of redistricting-related cases at CLC, challenging gerrymanders and advocating for election systems that guarantee all voters an equal opportunity to influence our democracy. Prior to arriving at CLC, Simone was a law clerk in the office of Senator Ed Markey and at the Library of Congress, Office of General Counsel. She received her J.D. cum laude from Georgetown University Law Center in 2019 and a bachelor’s degree in political science from Columbia University in 2016.

Jeremy Farris is the Executive Director of the New Mexico State Ethics Commission. He previously served as General Counsel to New Mexico’s Department of Finance and Administration and practiced law at litigation firms both in Atlanta, Georgia and Albuquerque, New Mexico. Jeremy clerked for the Honorable Julia S. Gibbons on the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit; the Honorable Judith K. Nakamura on the New Mexico Supreme Court; and the Honorable James O. Browning on the United States District Court for the District of New Mexico. He holds a law degree from Harvard Law School, a doctorate and masters degree from the University of Oxford, where he was a Rhodes Scholar, and a Bachelors of Science from the Georgia Institute of Technology.

Kedric Payne is Vice President, General Counsel and Senior Director of Ethics at Campaign Legal Center. He specializes in government ethics, lobbying law and election law. He began his career in private practice and has since served in the three branches of federal government. Prior to joining CLC, he advised on executive branch ethics laws as a deputy general counsel at the U.S. Department of Energy.  He also enforced legislative branch ethics laws and standards of conduct as deputy chief counsel of the Office of Congressional Ethics, where he was one of the office’s first investigators. Prior to OCE, Kedric practiced political law at Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom, and advised lobbyists and government contractors on compliance with federal, state and local laws governing campaign finance, lobbying and ethics. Kedric began his career as a litigator at Cravath, Swaine & Moore in New York.

Delaney Marsco is Senior Legal Counsel, Ethics at Campaign Legal Center. She works on CLC’s ethics watchdog and policy reform efforts at all levels of government. Delaney’s work encompasses a wide range of ethics issues, including congressional stock trading reform and conflicts of interest in the federal executive branch. Her watchdog work has led to numerous investigations into ethics violations by members of Congress and senior executive branch appointees, and her expertise is regularly relied on for ethics reform legislation. Delaney’s expert analysis has been featured in national print news publications, including The Washington Post, The New York Times and the Wall Street Journal, and she has appeared on television and radio programs on CNBC, C-SPAN and NPR. Prior to joining CLC, Delaney was an associate in Goldman Sachs’s financial crime compliance division, where she created, tested and administered firm-wide electronic surveillances.

LeeAnn Pelham has worked to advance accountability and public trust in local government for over 30 years. As Executive Director of voter-created ethics commissions in both San Francisco and in Los Angeles, LeeAnn initiated and led political reform programs to strengthen the effectiveness of government and promote its responsiveness to the public. At both agencies, she was responsible for the development, implementation and enforcement of local ethics, lobbying, and campaign finance laws, including broad public disclosure programs, compliance guidance, and public campaign financing systems that provide matching funds for eligible city candidates. She has also provided executive direction and guidance to support ethics and organizational performance in public service in leadership roles with the Council on Governmental Ethics Laws (COGEL) and while serving as Director of Ethics and Corporate Governance for the Santa Clara Valley Water District. Prior to working in local government, LeeAnn conducted performance audits for the California Auditor General’s Office and was a Senior Political Organizer for Common Cause in Washington, D.C.

 

Links:
Ethics Commissions Across the Country are Using Innovation to Fight Corruption

Top Ten Enforcement Upgrades for Ethics Commissions

 

About CLC:

Democracy Decoded is a production of Campaign Legal Center, a nonpartisan nonprofit organization which advances democracy through law at the federal, state and local levels, fighting for every American’s right to responsive government and a fair opportunity to participate in and affect the democratic process. Learn more about us.

 

Democracy Decoded is part of The Democracy Group, a network of podcasts that examines what’s broken in our democracy and how we can work together to fix it.

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

We want to hear from you! Thank you for taking a few minutes to complete our survey. Your feedback helps understand what you love about Democracy Decoded and how we can make it even better. To show our thanks, you’ll be entered into a drawing for a chance to win a $50 American Express gift card. We appreciate your time!

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Campaign contribution limits are one of the few mechanisms in place to prevent wealthy special interests from spending unlimited money to rig the political system in their favor. But there are some states where it’s just too easy to skirt around these limits and other states that actually don’t have limits at all. In this episode of Democracy Decoded, host Simone Leeper highlights how without campaign contribution limits, the vast financial resources of special interests can outweigh the priorities of everyday citizens. Experts and advocates discuss the intricacies of the electoral playing field, and how to best protect the voter’s right to elect candidates who truly represent their values. They highlight the work of grassroots coalitions and advocacy groups working together for fair and equitable campaign finance laws in states like Illinois and Oregon.

Simone speaks with Alisa Kaplan, the Executive Director of Reform for Illinois, who illustrates how a provision in state law allows candidates to amass unlimited campaign contributions. Campaign Legal Center’s founder and President Trevor Potter, and Patrick Llewellyn, Director of State Campaign Finance, offer insights into the broader landscape of states without contribution limits, and the importance of these laws in preserving the integrity of the democratic process. Simone also speaks with Kate Titus, the executive director of Common Cause Oregon, about a recent amendment in Oregon that introduced the possibility of contribution limits in the state, and the years of advocacy by voters that led to change.

Host and Guests:

Simone Leeper litigates a wide range of redistricting-related cases at CLC, challenging gerrymanders and advocating for election systems that guarantee all voters an equal opportunity to influence our democracy. Prior to arriving at CLC, Simone was a law clerk in the office of Senator Ed Markey and at the Library of Congress, Office of General Counsel. She received her J.D. cum laude from Georgetown University Law Center in 2019 and a bachelor’s degree in political science from Columbia University in 2016.

Alisa Kaplan is the Executive Director of Reform for Illinois. She joined the organization in 2018, drawn to its long history of fighting for campaign finance reform and against systemic corruption. As Executive Director, she leads RFI’s policy development, advocacy, and educational initiatives and oversees operations. A Yale graduate with a J.D. and Ph.D. in Political Science from Northwestern University, Alisa brings expertise in law and the political process and a background in community organizing, grassroots activism, and nonprofit administration. She has been a Faculty Lecturer at Northwestern, teaching Constitutional Law, Civil Rights, and Law and Politics. In her role at RFI, Alisa feels fortunate to be able to spend every day fighting for a more ethical and equitable Illinois government that works not just for the wealthy and well-connected, but for everyone.

Trevor Potter is the founder and President of Campaign Legal Center. He leads CLC in its efforts to advance democracy through law. A Republican former Chairman of the Federal Election Commission (FEC), Trevor was general counsel to John McCain’s 2000 and 2008 presidential campaigns and an adviser to the drafters of the McCain-Feingold campaign finance law. To many, he is perhaps best known for his recurring appearances on The Colbert Report as the lawyer for Stephen Colbert’s super PAC, Americans for a Better Tomorrow, Tomorrow, during the 2012 election, a program that won a Peabody Award for excellence in reporting on money in politics.  Trevor has provided testimony and written statements to Congress on federal election proposals, campaign finance regulation and, recently, the effects of the January 6th attack on our democracy. He has also taught campaign finance law at the University of Virginia School of Law and Oxford University, and he has appeared widely in national broadcast and print media. During the 2020 election season, Trevor was named to the cross-partisan National Task Force on Election Crises.

Patrick Llewellyn is Director, State Campaign Finance at Campaign Legal Center. He directs CLC’s work with state and local stakeholders and policymakers to advance innovative campaign finance policies. Prior to joining CLC, Patrick worked as an attorney at Public Citizen Litigation Group, where his practice focused on government transparency and he represented nonprofits, journalists and researchers at all levels of federal court, and as a staff attorney/teaching fellow in the Civil Rights Clinic at Georgetown University Law Center, where he supervised law students on voting rights, workers' rights and other civil rights matters in state and federal courts.

Kate Titus serves as executive director of Common Cause Oregon. She brings to this work a background in public policy and community organizing, having worked previously for a number of other public interest organizations including Public Citizen and Oregon Action. Kate is a graduate of Connecticut College, and earned a Masters in Public Administration from Harvard.

 

Links:

Campaign Contribution Limits: Overview

State-by-state comparison of campaign finance requirements

Campaign finance requirements in Illinois

Campaign finance limits could come up short in Oregon Legislature — again

Public Financing of Elections

 

About CLC:

Democracy Decoded is a production of Campaign Legal Center, a nonpartisan nonprofit organization which advances democracy through law at the federal, state and local levels, fighting for every American’s right to responsive government and a fair opportunity to participate in and affect the democratic process. Learn more about us.

Democracy Decoded is part of The Democracy Group, a network of podcasts that examines what’s broken in our democracy and how we can work together to fix it.

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

We want to hear from you! Thank you for taking a few minutes to complete our survey. Your feedback helps understand what you love about Democracy Decoded and how we can make it even better. To show our thanks, you’ll be entered into a drawing for a chance to win a $50 American Express gift card. We appreciate your time!

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When elected officials aren’t prioritizing the needs of their constituents, voters can make their voices heard on a state and local level through ballot initiatives.  In this episode of Democracy Decoded, host Simone Leeper breaks down the power of ballot initiatives, showcasing how everyday citizens can use this tool of direct democracy to bring about significant change. She speaks with advocates, politicians and experts who have had first-hand experience in crafting and enacting these ballot measures. This episode serves as an inspiring reminder that through the ballot initiative process, ordinary people have the ability to make an impact in their community.

Simone talks to Micheal Davis Jr., the Executive Director of Promote The Vote, about the ballot initiatives in Michigan that have expanded voting access. She then brings in Lata Nott, Senior Legal Counsel of Voting Rights at Campaign Legal Center, who explains how ballot initiatives allow voters to circumvent their state legislatures when they feel that they are not being truly represented. Simone then turns to Arizona, where former Attorney General of Arizona Terry Goddard and CLC Senior Legal Counsel for Campaign Finance Elizabeth Shimek discuss Proposition 211, also known as the Voters’ Right to Know Act, an initiative designed to help shine light on the original sources of secret campaign spending in Arizona and ensure voters know who is spending big money to influence their ballots.

 

Host and Guests:

Simone Leeper litigates a wide range of redistricting-related cases at CLC, challenging gerrymanders and advocating for election systems that guarantee all voters an equal opportunity to influence our democracy. Prior to arriving at CLC, Simone was a law clerk in the office of Senator Ed Markey and at the Library of Congress, Office of General Counsel. She received her J.D. cum laude from Georgetown University Law Center in 2019 and a bachelor’s degree in political science from Columbia University in 2016.

Micheal Davis, Jr is Executive Director of Promote the Vote Michigan. A graduate of the University of Michigan with a B.A. in Sociology, Micheal has led statewide electoral operations and coordinated advocacy campaigns, locally and across the country for the last 15+ years. Micheal previously worked for Ann Arbor’s Community Action Network and the AmeriCorps VISTA, where he served with the Youth Empowerment Project. He then joined State Voices, supporting efforts to increase civic engagement on a national level. In the decade since, Micheal has been active in advancing workers’ rights, including electoral campaigns within the labor movement, serving as the Political Director for the Michigan AFL-CIO and leading the outreach and expansion of its organizing department. Micheal is thrilled to lead the Promote the Vote team and to continue the fight to ensure fair democratic elections and practices in Michigan for years to come.

Lata Nott is Senior Legal Counsel, Voting Rights at Campaign Legal Center. Before joining CLC, Lata was the Deputy Director of Policy for State Voices, where she provided state-based organizations with legal, legislative, and strategic support for voting rights, voter protection, and redistricting programs.  Prior to that, she was the Executive Director of the First Amendment Center at the Freedom Forum; she remains a fellow at the Freedom Forum, serving as a subject matter expert on First Amendment and free expression issues and regularly speaking to the media, policymakers, and the general public about the implications that existing laws, proposed legislation, and tech company policies have for free expression and civic engagement. 

Terry Goddard served as Arizona Attorney General from 2003 to 2011. He focused on protecting consumers and fighting trans-national organized crime. He led the Arizona effort against international money laundering and the polygamous sects in Northern Arizona and Utah. In 2010, he received the Kelly-Wyman Award, the highest recognition given by the state attorneys general. Terry also served as Mayor of Phoenix from 1984 to 1990.  He was elected President of the National League of Cities and named Municipal Leader of the Year in 1988. Since 2016, Terry led an initiative effort to stop anonymous political contributions in Arizona elections. After 3 unsuccessful attempts to qualify for the ballot, on the fourth try 72% of Arizona voters approved the Stop Dark Money initiative. Terry currently teaches at Arizona State University College of Law.  

Elizabeth Shimek is Senior Legal Counsel, Campaign Finance at Campaign Legal Center. Prior to joining CLC, Elizabeth worked as Chief of Staff for Wisconsin State Representative Greta Neubauer, where she worked with policymakers and stakeholders to develop innovative public policy, increase public engagement in the legislative process, and push back against efforts to undermine our democratic systems. Elizabeth has served as an advisor to state-level political campaigns and caucuses and previously worked as an attorney specializing in political and government law at Maistelman & Associates in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

 

Links:
Arizona Leads on Stopping Secret Spending

Midterm Ballot Initiatives Strengthening the Freedom to Vote Win Big

Proposal 2: Voting rights proposal approved in Michigan

States are Making it Harder for Ballot Initiatives to Pass

 

About CLC:

Democracy Decoded is a production of Campaign Legal Center, a nonpartisan nonprofit organization which advances democracy through law at the federal, state and local levels, fighting for every American’s right to responsive government and a fair opportunity to participate in and affect the democratic process.Learn more about us.

Democracy Decoded is part of The Democracy Group, a network of podcasts that examines what’s broken in our democracy and how we can work together to fix it.

 

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

We want to hear from you! Thank you for taking a few minutes to complete our survey. Your feedback helps understand what you love about Democracy Decoded and how we can make it even better. To show our thanks, you’ll be entered into a drawing for a chance to win a $50 American Express gift card. We appreciate your time!

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An enormous amount of work goes into planning for Election Day. For months, poll workers and election administrators prepare to run their local elections smoothly to ensure that no one is left out of the democratic process. In this episode, host Simone Leeper takes listeners on a journey through the intricate process of running a local election, from its initial stages to the final vote tally. This comprehensive exploration highlights the checks and balances in place to facilitate voter participation and to guarantee that the final results will be accurate. In interviews with election administrators and experts, this episode underscores the commitment to ensuring free, fair and secure elections while promoting inclusivity and accessibility for all eligible voters.

Simone engages in a captivating conversation with two experienced election workers: Scott Jarrett from Maricopa County, Arizona, and Lorena Portillo of Las Vegas, Nevada. They provide a valuable insider's perspective on the behind-the-scenes workings of the electoral process. Simone also speaks with Campaign Legal Center’s Director of Voting, Advocacy and Partnerships, Jonathan Diaz, who breaks down the election process, from voter registration and polling station setup to ballot counting and result certification. Each guest offers a detailed glimpse into the meticulous planning and execution that goes into safeguarding the democratic process.

 

Host and Guests:

Simone Leeper litigates a wide range of redistricting-related cases at CLC, challenging gerrymanders and advocating for election systems that guarantee all voters an equal opportunity to influence our democracy. Prior to arriving at CLC, Simone was a law clerk in the office of Senator Ed Markey and at the Library of Congress, Office of General Counsel. She received her J.D. cum laude from Georgetown University Law Center in 2019 and a bachelor’s degree in political science from Columbia University in 2016.

Scott Jarrett has been with Maricopa County Elections, a Department of the Board of Supervisors, for over four years. He currently serves as the Elections Director responsible for directing all in-person voting, tabulation operations, candidate filing, campaign finance, and warehouse operations. Scott is a wealth of knowledge directing the department operations and implementing strategic direction. He works closely with the Maricopa County Recorder, Maricopa County Board of Supervisors and reports to the Maricopa County Manager. Scott is also an Elections Task Force member of the Bi-Partisan Policy Center, a member of the Election Assistance Commission Local Leadership Council and serves as president of the Election Officials of Arizona.

Lorena S. Portillo was appointed the Clark County Registrar of Voters in March 2023, bringing more than 25 years of experience in elections to the office. As Registrar, Lorena serves as director of the County Election Department and is responsible for administering all local, state and federal elections for more than 1.3 million registered voters in Clark County. Lorena first joined the Election Department in 1998 as a part-time worker. She soon earned a full-time position with the department and steadily rose through the ranks, ultimately serving as Assistant Registrar of Voters for eight years. Ms. Portillo was born and raised in Las Vegas. She received a Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Phoenix and is a Certified Elections Registration Administrator through The Election Center.

Jonathan Diaz is Director of Voting, Advocacy and Partnerships at Campaign Legal Center. He advocates for laws and policies that expand the freedom to vote for all Americans, and coordinates CLC’s relationships with national, state and local voting rights partners. Jonathan helps lead CLC’s work on combating election interference and participates on behalf of CLC on a number of democracy reform coalitions, coordinating CLC's work with partner organizations at the national, state and local levels. He also litigates voting rights cases across the United States, including VoteAmerica v. Raffensperger (N.D.Ga.), LUCHA v. Fontes (D.Ariz.), and Raysor v. Lee (N.D.Fla./11th Cir./SCOTUS). Jonathan frequently provides commentary on voting rights and election law issues in the media; he has been quoted in publications including the New York Times, Miami Herald and ProPublica, and has appeared on Univision, NPR and CNN, where he was an election law analyst during the 2020 election cycle.

 

Links:
In-Person Voting Access

Count Every Vote, So Every Vote Counts

Election Workers Deserve to Feel Safe. Nevada is Taking Action

 

About CLC:

Democracy Decoded is a production of Campaign Legal Center, a nonpartisan nonprofit organization which advances democracy through law at the federal, state and local levels, fighting for every American’s right to responsive government and a fair opportunity to participate in and affect the democratic process. Learn more about us.

 

Democracy Decoded is part of The Democracy Group, a network of podcasts that examines what’s broken in our democracy and how we can work together to fix it.
 

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

We want to hear from you! Thank you for taking a few minutes to complete our survey. Your feedback helps understand what you love about Democracy Decoded and how we can make it even better. To show our thanks, you’ll be entered into a drawing for a chance to win a $50 American Express gift card. We appreciate your time!

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One of the most crucial but often overlooked aspects of American democracy is voter registration. Host Simone Leeper speaks with expert guests that provide a comprehensive view of the challenges that ordinary citizens face in registering to vote, from convoluted registration processes to restrictive laws and administrative hurdles. 

Julie Hilberg tells her story of how her name was illegally purged from the voting rolls  along with 100,000 other voters in Texas. CLC’s Senior Director of Voting Rights, Danielle Lang, guides listeners through the labyrinth of barriers that many Americans encounter when attempting to register to vote. And Nimrod Chapel Jr. shares how his work with the NAACP in Missouri examines the on-the-ground challenges faced by voter registration groups across the country. With a sobering yet hopeful perspective on voter registration, this episode also explores the efforts being made across the U.S. to modernize this fundamental democratic process.

 

Host and Guests: 

Simone Leeper litigates a wide range of redistricting-related cases at CLC, challenging gerrymanders and advocating for election systems that guarantee all voters an equal opportunity to influence our democracy. Prior to arriving at CLC, Simone was a law clerk in the office of Senator Ed Markey and at the Library of Congress, Office of General Counsel. She received her J.D. cum laude from Georgetown University Law Center in 2019 and a bachelor’s degree in political science from Columbia University in 2016.

Julie Hilberg is a resident of Atascosa County, Texas. She became a naturalized U.S. citizen in 2015 and serves as the Democratic Chairwoman for Atascosa County. Voting and civic engagement are important to Julie and she has enjoyed being able to exercise her freedom to vote since she first registered in 2015.

Danielle Lang is Senior Director, Voting Rights at Campaign Legal Center. She litigates in state and federal courts from trial to the Supreme Court, and advocates for equitable and meaningful voter access at all levels of government. Danielle has worked as a civil rights litigator her entire career. At CLC, she has led litigation against Texas's racially discriminatory voter ID law, Florida's modern-day poll tax for rights restoration, Arizona's burdensome registration requirements, North Dakota's voter ID law targeting Native communities, and numerous successful challenges to signature match policies for absentee ballots.

Nimrod Chapel, Jr. is president of the Missouri State Conference of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. He is an experienced trial attorney with over a decade of practice ranging from work in law firms to state government and covering a wide range of legal issues. Nimrod was responsible for a broad array of complex litigation regarding enforcement of civil rights, discrimination, consumer protection, and wage and hour and accessibility laws throughout Missouri.

 

Links:

I’ve Been a U.S. Citizen Since 2015. My State is Threatening to Purge Me From the Rolls

Modernizing Voter Registration

CLC Represents Missouri Civic Engagement Groups in Challenge to Anti-Voter Law

In Win for Voters, Missouri Judge Blocks Law Restricting Voter Engagement Activity
 

About CLC:

Democracy Decoded is a production of Campaign Legal Center, a nonpartisan nonprofit organization which advances democracy through law at the federal, state and local levels, fighting for every American’s right to responsive government and a fair opportunity to participate in and affect the democratic process. Learn more about us.

 

Democracy Decoded is part of The Democracy Group, a network of podcasts that examines what’s broken in our democracy and how we can work together to fix it.
 

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

We want to hear from you! Thank you for taking a few minutes to complete our survey. Your feedback helps understand what you love about Democracy Decoded and how we can make it even better. To show our thanks, you’ll be entered into a drawing for a chance to win a $50 American Express gift card. We appreciate your time!

----------------

Why do local and state elections matter, and how can voters be sure that their voices are being represented in the lawmaking process? We open the third season of Democracy Decoded with an overview of democracy at the state and local level, and how we can ensure that all citizens can have their voices heard.

In this episode Simone talks with Jawharrah Bahar about her experience losing and then regaining her freedom  to vote, and how that inspired her work with the advocacy group Free Hearts. CLC’s senior vice president Paul Smith explains how and why state and local governments are stepping in directly to protect the right to cast a ballot. Simone also speaks with the Arizona State Director for the organization All Voting is Local, Alex Gulotta. Alex talks about the fight for state and local voting policies that protect the freedom to vote of Black, brown, Native American, and other historically disenfranchised communities.

Host and Guests:

Simone Leeper litigates a wide range of redistricting-related cases at CLC, challenging gerrymanders and advocating for election systems that guarantee all voters an equal opportunity to influence our democracy. Prior to arriving at CLC, Simone was a law clerk in the office of Senator Ed Markey and at the Library of Congress, Office of General Counsel. She received her J.D. cum laude from Georgetown University Law Center in 2019 and a bachelor’s degree in political science from Columbia University in 2016.

Jawharrah Bahar is Director of Outreach at Free Hearts, an organization led by formerly incarcerated women that provides support, education, and advocacy in organizing families impacted by incarceration. In her role she has contributed to legislation, spoken at community events, participated in local advocacy campaigns, and raised community awareness through social media videos. Jawharrah is also a licensed esthetician and owner of Lashing Artistry.

Paul Smith is Senior Vice President at Campaign Legal Center. He has four decades of experience litigating a wide range of cases. He has argued before the U.S. Supreme Court 21 times and secured numerous victories, including Lawrence v. Texas, the landmark gay rights case. In addition, Paul has argued several voting rights cases at the Supreme Court, including Vieth v. Jubelirer and Gill v. Whitford, involving partisan gerrymandering, LULAC v. Perry, involving the legality of Texas’s mid-decade redrawing of congressional districts and Crawford v. Marion County Election Board, involving the constitutionality of a voter identification law. Paul previously served as a partner in the law firm of Jenner & Block, where he was chair of the firm's Appellate and Supreme Court Practice and co-chair of the firm's Election Law and Redistricting Practice. 

Alex Gulotta is All Voting is Local’s Arizona State Director. He brings more than 30 years of experience as a poverty law advocate and more than 20 years as a nonprofit executive director. Alex practiced as a legal aid lawyer before becoming the executive director of the Legal Aid Justice Center (LAJC). After that, he joined Bay Area Legal Aid (BayLegal) as executive director. Under his tenure, BayLegal significantly increased its impact litigation and policy advocacy through the implementation of an impact support structure designed to enable every advocate in the program to participate in high-end impact advocacy.

 

Links:

Voting Must Be Accessible

Why the U.S. Needs Equitable Access to In-Person Voting

I’m Unable to Vote Because I Have a Record, But I’m Not Going to Allow My Past to Be Held Against Me

Midterm Ballot Initiatives Strengthening the Freedom to Vote Win Big
 

About CLC:

Democracy Decoded is a production of Campaign Legal Center, a nonpartisan nonprofit organization which advances democracy through law at the federal, state and local levels, fighting for every American’s right to responsive government and a fair opportunity to participate in and affect the democratic process. Learn more about us.

Democracy Decoded is part of The Democracy Group, a network of podcasts that examines what’s broken in our democracy and how we can work together to fix it.

 

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Federal elections–and their results–play a huge role in how our democracy operates. But decisions made at state and local elections have the most direct impact on people’s everyday lives. The local and state level also influences the way elections are run, and how citizens hold their elected officials accountable. Democracy Decoded is a podcast by Campaign Legal Center that examines our government and discusses innovative ideas that could lead to a stronger, more transparent, accountable and inclusive democracy. In the third season, host Simone Leeper covers everything you need to know about democracy at the state and local level–including where and when citizens can vote, campaign finance contribution limits, and how citizens can protect their communities’ interests in the face of corruption. Because our democracy works best, when every voter can fully participate.

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Election workers are the people in your neighborhood. They’re our friends, neighbors and co-workers who help keep American democracy safe and secure... But in 2020, many of them were maligned, harassed and threatened in battleground states — the targets of bad actors who sought to sow distrust in the electoral process.

How can we better protect and support the many dedicated civil servants and volunteers who provide such crucial work? The thousands of election workers who will staff this November's election are the front line of security and safety for voters. The processes they help carry out have been practiced and refined across nearly three centuries of American elections. Attacks on election workers are a threat to a functional democracy.

In this episode, we talk with Kristina and Steve Reisinger — a wife and husband in eastern Pennsylvania who found a community in their local polling place and were inspired to volunteer. And we also speak with Kelsey Rogers, CLC's senior manager for state advocacy, about the threats being faced by election workers in recent years and the steps some states are taking to protect them. 

Host and Guests:

Simone Leeper litigates a wide range of redistricting-related cases at CLC, challenging gerrymanders and advocating for election systems that guarantee all voters an equal opportunity to influence our democracy. Prior to arriving at CLC, Simone was a law clerk in the office of Senator Ed Markey and at the Library of Congress, Office of General Counsel. She received her J.D. cum laude from Georgetown University Law Center in 2019 and a bachelor’s degree in political science from Columbia University in 2016.

Stephen Reisinger served 4 years in the USMC in Infantry and MP from 1992 to 1996. He attended Carpentry School for 4 years, graduating in 2005. He is the 3rd generation owner of the general construction company that focuses on Public Works and historic restoration. He worked as a field carpenter and superintendent until 2014. In 2017, he moved into project management and purchased the business in October of that year. 

Kristina Reisinger has been an educator for over 30 years, almost all of them at an independent school, Benchmark School in Media. She taught 7th grade Language Arts and Science for most of that time. In 2020, she stepped into administration but quickly soured on all the “office/meeting” work and argued her case to transform her position into that of Instructional Coach so that she could be an “in the trenches” mentor/facilitator working with the students and staff. The kids call her position a “teacher of teachers.” During the summer camp, she is the director of all academic classes.

Kelsey Rogers is Senior Manager for State Advocacy at Campaign Legal Center. Before joining CLC, Kelsey spent seven years at the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, where she helped states across the country pass meaningful gun violence prevention legislation. In her previous roles, Kelsey also worked for the communications and legal departments of Brady. She got her start in politics by volunteering and running student chapters of the Obama for America campaign in 2008 and 2012.

Links:

Who Are Election Officials, and What Do They Do? – Campaign Legal Center

States Should Protect Everyday Americans Who Safeguard Our Democracy – Campaign Legal Center

Election Workers Deserve to Feel Safe. Nevada is Taking Action – Campaign Legal Center

Michigan's elections chief wants to protect voters, poll workers and democracy itself – NPR

State Laws Providing Protection for Election Officials and Staff – National Conference of State Legislatures

About CLC:

Democracy Decoded is a production of Campaign Legal Center, a nonpartisan nonprofit organization which advances democracy through law at the federal, state and local levels, fighting for every American’s right to responsive government and a fair opportunity to participate in and affect the democratic process. Learn more about us.

Democracy Decoded is part of The Democracy Group, a network of podcasts that examines what’s broken in our democracy and how we can work together to fix it.

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Voter registration is the number one obstacle to voting in the United States. It should be easy, accessible and secure, but too often, states are moving backwards; making voter registration more difficult and less equitable. Here, we introduce a new type of episode: an up-to-the-minute interview with an expert to help you better understand some of the most important issues affecting elections. Danielle Lang, a voting rights attorney at CLC, joins Simone to explain why major actions in Arizona and Texas involve what should be a straightforward component of elections: voter registration.

Danielle explains voter purges, mass challenges to voter registrations, and their effects on voters. And she lays out actions that states and individuals alike can take to ensure registering to vote is safe and secure ahead of Election Day.

Host and Guests:

Simone Leeper litigates a wide range of redistricting-related cases at CLC, challenging gerrymanders and advocating for election systems that guarantee all voters an equal opportunity to influence our democracy. Prior to arriving at CLC, Simone was a law clerk in the office of Senator Ed Markey and at the Library of Congress, Office of General Counsel. She received her J.D. cum laude from Georgetown University Law Center in 2019 and a bachelor’s degree in political science from Columbia University in 2016.

Danielle Lang is Senior Director for Voting Rights at Campaign Legal Center. Danielle has worked as a civil rights litigator her entire career. At CLC, she has led litigation against Texas's racially discriminatory voter ID law, Florida's modern-day poll tax for rights restoration, Arizona's burdensome registration requirements, North Dakota's voter ID law targeting Native communities, and numerous successful challenges to signature match policies for absentee ballots. Previously, Danielle served as a Skadden Fellow in the Employment Rights Project of Bet Tzedek Legal Services in Los Angeles, where she represented low-wage immigrant workers in wage and hour, discrimination, and human trafficking matters. From 2012 to 2013, Danielle clerked for Judge Richard A. Paez on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. 

 

Links:

Frivolous Mass Challenges to Voter Eligibility Damaging to Democracy - Campaign Legal Center

Our Strict Laws Ensure Only U.S. Citizens Vote in Federal Elections - Campaign Legal Center

How To Prevent Unfair Voter Purges - Campaign Legal Center

Modernizing Voter Registration - Campaign Legal Center

What Does the U.S. Supreme Court’s Recent Arizona Decision Mean for Voters? - Campaign Legal Center

Texas Expands Push to Halt Democratic Voter Registration Efforts - Bloomberg Law

Tweet from Kyle Huddleston

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton and Bexar County Voter Registration Case - The New York Times

 

About CLC:

Democracy Decoded is a production of Campaign Legal Center, a nonpartisan nonprofit organization which advances democracy through law at the federal, state and local levels, fighting for every American’s right to responsive government and a fair opportunity to participate in and affect the democratic process. Learn more about us.

Democracy Decoded is part of The Democracy Group, a network of podcasts that examines what’s broken in our democracy and how we can work together to fix it.

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

The peaceful transfer of power is a hallmark of American democracy that sets the United States apart — the so-called north star of our electoral system. Yet the attack on the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021 challenged that tradition profoundly. In the lead-up to this November, we answer the question that is on the minds of many voters: Will the months after this presidential election look like the aftermath of the last one?

Fortunately, lawmakers who were caught in the eye of that storm seized the opportunity to make updates to our election laws that were, by some accounts, about 150 years overdue. In 2021, Congress passed the bipartisan Electoral Count Reform Act, or ECRA, in an effort to curtail the tactics that bad actors could use to exploit the Electoral College and to define and streamline the procedures by which states count and certify election results.

Catie Kelley of CLC joins us to explain how an otherwise deeply divided Congress pulled together to pass this important law, and why the passage of this new law will help ensure that this presidential election goes much more smoothly than the last one.

Host and Guests:

Simone Leeper litigates a wide range of redistricting-related cases at CLC, challenging gerrymanders and advocating for election systems that guarantee all voters an equal opportunity to influence our democracy. Prior to arriving at CLC, Simone was a law clerk in the office of Senator Ed Markey and at the Library of Congress, Office of General Counsel. She received her J.D. cum laude from Georgetown University Law Center in 2019 and a bachelor’s degree in political science from Columbia University in 2016.

Catie Kelley is Senior Director for Policy & Strategic Partnerships at Campaign Legal Center. Previously, Catie built and ran CLC's state campaign finance program. In that capacity, she worked with state and local stakeholders and policymakers to advance innovative policies designed to decrease the influence of money in the political process. She began her legal career in the Federal Election Commission's Office of General Counsel. 

 

Links:

We Voted, Now What? How the President is Elected - Campaign Legal Center

Electing the President: From Election Day to the Joint Session - Campaign Legal Center

Enactments Relating to the Electoral Count Reform Act - National Conference of State Legislatures

Congress Passes ECRA to ward off another Jan 6th - NPR

Electoral Count Reform Act Makes It Harder to Undermine Presidential Elections - Campaign Legal Center

Congress Takes Historic Action to Update the Electoral Count Act - Campaign Legal Center

What the Electoral Count Reform Act Means for States - Campaign Legal Center

States Enact Important Legislation to Update Election Laws Ahead of Presidential Election - Campaign Legal Center

Bipartisan Arizona Law Makes Crucial Updates to Presidential Election Deadlines - Campaign Legal Center

About CLC:

Democracy Decoded is a production of Campaign Legal Center, a nonpartisan nonprofit organization which advances democracy through law at the federal, state and local levels, fighting for every American’s right to responsive government and a fair opportunity to participate in and affect the democratic process. Learn more about us.

Democracy Decoded is part of The Democracy Group, a network of podcasts that examines what’s broken in our democracy and how we can work together to fix it.

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Election certification has traditionally been a mostly symbolic process in the United States. You vote, your vote gets counted, your precinct and others get tallied together (“canvassed” is the term of art) and, within a few days, everyone looks at the counts and agrees on a winner. But lately, this banal, bland procedure has become a political flashpoint, as people who question the election process impose unrealistic requirements on certification — and, in some cases, outright refuse to certify elections, even when state law requires them to do so.

In another of this season’s up-to-the-minute episodes, we are speaking with Jonathan Diaz, a litigator and voting rights advocate at CLC, who joins Simone to explain how election certification is supposed to work, how it’s being taken advantage of by bad actors and what CLC and other good-government advocates are doing to push back and see that election laws are carried out.

Host and Guests:

Simone Leeper litigates a wide range of redistricting-related cases at CLC, challenging gerrymanders and advocating for election systems that guarantee all voters an equal opportunity to influence our democracy. Prior to arriving at CLC, Simone was a law clerk in the office of Senator Ed Markey and at the Library of Congress, Office of General Counsel. She received her J.D. cum laude from Georgetown University Law Center in 2019 and a bachelor’s degree in political science from Columbia University in 2016.

Jonathan Diaz is Director for Voting Advocacy and Partnerships at Campaign Legal Center. Jonathan helps lead CLC’s work on combating election manipulation and participates on behalf of CLC on a number of democracy reform coalitions, coordinating CLC's work with partner organizations at the national, state and local levels. He also litigates voting rights cases across the United States, including VoteAmerica v. Raffensperger (N.D.Ga.), LUCHA v. Fontes (D.Ariz.), and Raysor v. Lee (N.D.Fla./11th Cir./SCOTUS). Jonathan frequently provides commentary on voting rights and election law issues in the media; he has been quoted in publications including the New York Times, Miami Herald, and ProPublica, and has appeared on Univision, NPR, and CNN, where he was an election law analyst during the 2020 election cycle.

Links:

Letters of Guidance on Election Certification - Campaign Legal Center

What Happens To My Ballot After I Vote? - Campaign Legal Center

Machine Tabulation, Not Hand Counting, Should Be Used to Count Ballots - Campaign Legal Center

Can Georgia's Election Board Refuse to Certify Results? The Law Says No - Campaign Legal Center

Want Election Results Sooner? Allow Election Officials to Process Mail Ballots Early - Campaign Legal Center

The Courts Will Prevent Local Election Boards in Georgia from Disrupting the Certification of the Election, Officials Say - The Atlanta Journal-Constitution (AJC)

2025 Counting and Certification of Electoral Votes Designated National Security Event - U.S. Secret Service

 

About CLC:

Democracy Decoded is a production of Campaign Legal Center, a nonpartisan nonprofit organization which advances democracy through law at the federal, state and local levels, fighting for every American’s right to responsive government and a fair opportunity to participate in and affect the democratic process. Learn more about us.

Democracy Decoded is part of The Democracy Group, a network of podcasts that examines what’s broken in our democracy and how we can work together to fix it.

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

When New Hampshire voters picked up the phone earlier this year and heard what sounded like the voice of President Joe Biden asking them not to vote in that state’s primary election, the stage was set for an unprecedented election year. The call was a deepfake — and the first major instance of artificial intelligence being used in the 2024 election. With the rise of AI tools that can credibly synthesize voices, images and videos, how are voters supposed to determine what they can trust as they prepare to cast their votes?

To find out how lawmakers and civil society are pushing back against harmful false narratives and content, we talked with experts engaging the problem on several fronts. Stephen Richer, an elected Republican in Phoenix, posts on X (formerly Twitter) to engage misinformation head-on to protect Arizona voters. Adav Noti, the executive director of CLC, explains how good-governance advocates are hurrying to catch up with a profusion of new digital tools that make the age-old practices of misinformation and disinformation faster and cheaper than ever. And Mia Hoffman, a researcher who looks at the effects of AI on democracies, reminds voters not to panic — that bad information and malicious messaging don’t always have the power to reach their audience, let alone sway people’s opinions or actions.

Host and Guests:

Simone Leeper litigates a wide range of redistricting-related cases at CLC, challenging gerrymanders and advocating for election systems that guarantee all voters an equal opportunity to influence our democracy. Prior to arriving at CLC, Simone was a law clerk in the office of Senator Ed Markey and at the Library of Congress, Office of General Counsel. She received her J.D. cum laude from Georgetown University Law Center in 2019 and a bachelor’s degree in political science from Columbia University in 2016.

Stephen Richer is the 30th Recorder of Maricopa County.  He was elected in November 2020 and took office in January 2021. His office of approximately 150 employees records hundreds of thousands of public documents every year, maintains a voter registration database of 2.4 million voters -- the second largest voting jurisdiction in the United States -- and administers the mail voting component of all elections in Maricopa County. Prior to his time as Recorder, Stephen worked in various business sectors and, later, as an attorney at the law firms Steptoe & Johnson LLP and Lewis Roca LLP.  He holds a J.D. and M.A. from The University of Chicago and a B.A. from Tulane University.  He is completing his PhD at Arizona State University.

Adav Noti is Executive Director at Campaign Legal Center. He has conducted dozens of constitutional cases in trial and appellate courts and the United States Supreme Court. He also advises Members of Congress and other policymakers on advancing democracy through legislation. Prior to joining CLC, Adav served for more than 10 years in nonpartisan leadership capacities within the Office of General Counsel of the Federal Election Commission, and he served as a Special Assistant United States Attorney for the District of Columbia. Adav regularly provides expert analysis for television, radio, and print journalism. He has appeared on broadcasts such as The Rachel Maddow Show, Anderson Cooper 360, PBS NewsHour, and National Public Radio's Morning Edition, and he is regularly cited in publications nationwide, including the New York Times, Washington Post, USA Today, Politico, Slate, and Reuters.

Mia Hoffmann is a Research Fellow at Georgetown’s Center for Security and Emerging Technology. Her research focuses on AI harm incidents, aiming to provide a deeper understanding of failure modes and the efficacy of risk mitigation practices. In recent work, she examined the uses of AI in US election administration and their risks to electoral integrity. Prior to joining CSET, Mia worked at the European Commission and as a researcher in Brussels, where she studied AI adoption and its implications. She holds a MS in Economics from Lund University and a BS in International Economics from the University of Tuebingen. 

Links:

How Artificial Intelligence Influences Elections, and What We Can Do About It - Campaign Legal Center

How 2024 presidential candidates are using AI inside their election campaigns - CNBC

Nonprofit group plans ad campaign using AI misinfo to fight AI misinfo - Politico

CLC Op-Ed Examines Artificial Intelligence Disinformation in Elections - Campaign Legal Center

Congress should pass bipartisan bills to safeguard elections from AI - Campaign Legal Center

About CLC:

Democracy Decoded is a production of Campaign Legal Center, a nonpartisan nonprofit organization which advances democracy through law at the federal, state and local levels, fighting for every American’s right to responsive government and a fair opportunity to participate in and affect the democratic process. Learn more about us.

Democracy Decoded is part of The Democracy Group, a network of podcasts that examines what’s broken in our democracy and how we can work together to fix it.

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Imagine you’re at home when you hear a knock. At your door are people who want you to share, in detail, who you voted for in the last election, months ago. When you ask them who they are and where they’re from, they remain vague and perhaps even aggressive.

This was the case for some Americans in the years after the 2020 election, part of a spate of behaviors by election skeptics and deniers that, in some cases, amounted to voter intimidation. The history of voter intimidation in the United States is sordid and violent, especially in the century between the U.S. Civil War and the passage of strong voter protections in the 1960s. But it’s important to remember that voter intimidation is against the law. Whether you’re voting in-person, by mail or via election dropbox, you should never be made to feel unsafe or intimidated while exercising your freedom to vote..

Carly Koppes, the clerk and recorder of Colorado’s enormous Weld County, describes to us the steps she and fellow officials took when they received reports of unwelcome and unofficial vigilante election “auditors” going door to door in 2021. Christina Das of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund walks us through the bleak history of voter intimidation in America. And CLC’s Jonathan Diaz explains how voter intimidation has evolved to become sneakier and more subversive in the digital age — and the steps you can take if you encounter it.

Nationwide nonpartisan Election Protection (EP) hotline:
866-OUR-VOTE (866-687-8683)

Host and Guests:

Simone Leeper litigates a wide range of redistricting-related cases at CLC, challenging gerrymanders and advocating for election systems that guarantee all voters an equal opportunity to influence our democracy. Prior to arriving at CLC, Simone was a law clerk in the office of Senator Ed Markey and at the Library of Congress, Office of General Counsel. She received her J.D. cum laude from Georgetown University Law Center in 2019 and a bachelor’s degree in political science from Columbia University in 2016.

Carly Koppes has been working in the Weld County Clerk and Recorder’s office for twenty years starting in June of 2004. Her main department was the Election department, but she has also worked in the Recording and Motor Vehicle departments during her time working for the Clerk and Recorder office. She received her Colorado Election Official Certification from the Colorado Secretary of State in October 2007 and finished up her national designation of Certified Elections/Registration Administrators (CERA) through the Elections Center's Professional Education Program at Auburn University in July of 2014. Carly is a 2016 graduate of the Leadership Program of the Rockies and in 2019 she received her Public Leadership certification from Pepperdine University through the International Association of Government Officials. Carly was also honored along with the Colorado County Clerks Association to receive the Defender of Democracy Award from The Center for Election Innovation and Research in 2022. In 2023 Carly was appointed to the national Local Leadership Council of the Election Assistance Commission and was elected as the Vice Chair of the Council. Carly is the youngest person to be elected to the position of Weld County Clerk and Recorder.  Carly is currently serving on the Executive Board for the Colorado County Clerks Association; Carly was President of the Colorado County Clerks Association in 2021 and will serve as President in 2026.

Christina Das is Counsel on the Black Voters on the Rise team with LDF, an interdisciplinary team leading year-round election protection and election administration advocacy efforts across the South, using legal, organizing, and advocacy tools to defend and advance the rights of Black voters to participate in our democracy. Christina’s experience includes executing strategic campaigns to expand voter access, such as passing legislation for in-person Early Voting in South Carolina in 2022 and working with state-based coalitions to implement jail-based polling places for eligible detained individuals across Texas. She co-leads the national Election Protection Working Group for Jail and Post-Release Voting and has been working with system impacted individuals over the past four years to break down procedural barriers to accessing the ballot behind bars. Christina will lead LDF's election protection program in Texas for the 2024 cycle and support ongoing litigation efforts. Post-election, she works to safeguard the election certification process from any targeted sabotage efforts, as well as working on future policy and election administration reforms at the local, state, and federal level.

Jonathan Diaz is Director for Voting Advocacy and Partnerships at Campaign Legal Center. Jonathan helps lead CLC’s work on combating election manipulation and participates on behalf of CLC on a number of democracy reform coalitions, coordinating CLC's work with partner organizations at the national, state and local levels. He also litigates voting rights cases across the United States, including VoteAmerica v. Raffensperger (N.D.Ga.), LUCHA v. Fontes (D.Ariz.), and Raysor v. Lee (N.D.Fla./11th Cir./SCOTUS). Jonathan frequently provides commentary on voting rights and election law issues in the media; he has been quoted in publications including the New York Times, Miami Herald, and ProPublica, and has appeared on Univision, NPR, and CNN, where he was an election law analyst during the 2020 election cycle.

Links:

Is Voter Intimidation Illegal? What Should I Do If I Experience It? - Campaign Legal Center

Texas Appeals Court Overturns Crystal Mason’s Conviction, 5-Year Sentence for Illegal Voting - The Texas Tribune

Voter Intimidation in 2022 Follows a Long History of Illegal and Racist Bullying - The Conversation

Retro Report: Poll Watchers and the Long History of Voter Intimidation - PBS LearningMedia

How to Navigate Intimidation and Other Obstacles to Voting - CNN 

About CLC:

Democracy Decoded is a production of Campaign Legal Center, a nonpartisan nonprofit organization which advances democracy through law at the federal, state and local levels, fighting for every American’s right to responsive government and a fair opportunity to participate in and affect the democratic process. Learn more about us.

Democracy Decoded is part of The Democracy Group, a network of podcasts that examines what’s broken in our democracy and how we can work together to fix it.

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

An incumbent president drops out, mid-race. A former president becomes a party’s nominee for the first time in more than a century. There are multiple occurrences of political violence against a candidate. Newly emergent AI tools spread disinformation. And a Supreme Court that may be called upon to decide the race is perceived by the electorate as increasingly politicized.

The 2024 election cycle has already made its share of history. With Election Day now just a week away, we bring you another of this season’s up-to-the-minute episodes. This time we’re speaking with Trevor Potter, president of Campaign Legal Center, who joins Simone to explain how this election has been playing out, and what it all means for you, the voter, as the deadline nears to cast your ballot.

Nationwide nonpartisan Election Protection (EP) hotline:
866-OUR-VOTE (866-687-8683)

Host and Guests:

Simone Leeper litigates a wide range of redistricting-related cases at CLC, challenging gerrymanders and advocating for election systems that guarantee all voters an equal opportunity to influence our democracy. Prior to arriving at CLC, Simone was a law clerk in the office of Senator Ed Markey and at the Library of Congress, Office of General Counsel. She received her J.D. cum laude from Georgetown University Law Center in 2019 and a bachelor’s degree in political science from Columbia University in 2016.

Trevor Potter is President at Campaign Legal Center. A Republican former Chairman of the Federal Election Commission (FEC), Trevor was general counsel to John McCain’s 2000 and 2008 presidential campaigns and an adviser to the drafters of the McCain-Feingold campaign finance law. To many, he is perhaps best known for his recurring appearances on The Colbert Report as the lawyer for Stephen Colbert’s super PAC, Americans for a Better Tomorrow, Tomorrow, during the 2012 election, a program that won a Peabody Award for excellence in reporting on money in politics. 

The American Bar Association Journal has described Trevor as “hands-down one of the top lawyers in the country on the delicate intersection of politics, law and money.” Trevor is the author of several books and manuals on lobbying regulation and disclosure, campaign finance and federal election law. He has provided testimony and written statements to Congress on federal election proposals, campaign finance regulation and, recently, the effects of the January 6th attack on our democracy. He has also taught campaign finance law at the University of Virginia School of Law and Oxford University, and he has appeared widely in national broadcast and print media. During the 2020 election season, Trevor was named to the cross-partisan National Task Force on Election Crises.

Links:

Count Every Vote, So Every Vote Counts - Campaign Legal Center

What Happens To My Ballot After I Vote? - Campaign Legal Center

Want Election Results Sooner? Allow Election Officials to Process Mail Ballots Early - Campaign Legal Center

Electoral Count Reform Act Makes It Harder to Undermine Presidential Elections - Campaign Legal Center

About CLC:

Democracy Decoded is a production of Campaign Legal Center, a nonpartisan nonprofit organization which advances democracy through law at the federal, state and local levels, fighting for every American’s right to responsive government and a fair opportunity to participate in and affect the democratic process. Learn more about us.

Democracy Decoded is part of The Democracy Group, a network of podcasts that examines what’s broken in our democracy and how we can work together to fix it.

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

This week’s episode is short, sweet, and to the point: It’s Election Day, and if you haven’t yet cast your vote, let us be your friendly reminder. Like many of her CLC colleagues, Simone will spend the day monitoring elections. Next week she’ll be back with the final episode of the season, with a look at how this most dramatic election is playing out.

Until then, it’s up to you.

Nationwide nonpartisan Election Protection (EP) hotline:
866-OUR-VOTE (866-687-8683)

 

Host:

Simone Leeper litigates a wide range of redistricting-related cases at CLC, challenging gerrymanders and advocating for election systems that guarantee all voters an equal opportunity to influence our democracy. Prior to arriving at CLC, Simone was a law clerk in the office of Senator Ed Markey and at the Library of Congress, Office of General Counsel. She received her J.D. cum laude from Georgetown University Law Center in 2019 and a bachelor’s degree in political science from Columbia University in 2016.

Links:

Vote.org

About CLC:

Democracy Decoded is a production of Campaign Legal Center, a nonpartisan nonprofit organization which advances democracy through law at the federal, state and local levels, fighting for every American’s right to responsive government and a fair opportunity to participate in and affect the democratic process. Learn more about us.

Democracy Decoded is part of The Democracy Group, a network of podcasts that examines what’s broken in our democracy and how we can work together to fix it.

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

In the end, the worst of everyone’s election fears — political violence, overt foreign interference or a razor-thin margin between Kamala Harris and Donald Trump leading to a hotly contested legal battle — did not come to pass. Instead, Donald Trump won a plurality of votes for president, and did so decisively. On January 20, 2025, he will once again become the country’s most powerful executive.

His victory raises weighty questions for the experts at Campaign Legal Center. Trump ran explicitly on a platform of behaving like an authoritarian, promising to fire U.S. civil servants, threatening opponents with jail, and brandishing military force against would-be dissenters. As his return to power approaches, we grapple with a paradoxical election, in which voters declared their preference for the candidate who repeatedly threatened the American system as we know it.

Joining Simone in this episode are Trevor Potter, CLC’s president and founder, and CLC senior vice presidents Paul M. Smith and Bruce Spiva. They offer their forecasts for the uncertain years ahead and explain what this election did (and did not) signify about the health of American democracy.

 

Host and Guests:

Simone Leeper litigates a wide range of redistricting-related cases at CLC, challenging gerrymanders and advocating for election systems that guarantee all voters an equal opportunity to influence our democracy. Prior to arriving at CLC, Simone was a law clerk in the office of Senator Ed Markey and at the Library of Congress, Office of General Counsel. She received her J.D. cum laude from Georgetown University Law Center in 2019 and a bachelor’s degree in political science from Columbia University in 2016.

Trevor Potter is President at Campaign Legal Center. A Republican former Chairman of the Federal Election Commission (FEC), Trevor was general counsel to John McCain’s 2000 and 2008 presidential campaigns and an adviser to the drafters of the McCain-Feingold campaign finance law. To many, he is perhaps best known for his recurring appearances on The Colbert Report as the lawyer for Stephen Colbert’s super PAC, Americans for a Better Tomorrow, Tomorrow, during the 2012 election, a program that won a Peabody Award for excellence in reporting on money in politics. 

The American Bar Association Journal has described Trevor as “hands-down one of the top lawyers in the country on the delicate intersection of politics, law and money.” He has provided testimony and written statements to Congress on federal election proposals, campaign finance regulation and, recently, the effects of the January 6th attack on our democracy. During the 2020 election season, Trevor was named to the cross-partisan National Task Force on Election Crises.

Bruce Spiva is Senior Vice President at Campaign Legal Center. He is an attorney and community leader who has spent his over 30-year career fighting for civil rights and civil liberties, voting rights, consumer protection, and antitrust enforcement.

Over the past three decades, he has tried cases and argued appeals in courtrooms across the country, including arguing against vote suppression in the United States Supreme Court in 2021. In 2022, in his first run for public office, Bruce mounted a competitive run in the primary election for Washington, D.C. Attorney General. 

In addition to founding his own law firm where he practiced for eleven years, Bruce has held several leadership and management positions as a partner at two national law firms. Most recently, Bruce served as the Managing Partner of the D.C. Office and on the firm-wide Executive Committee of Perkins Coie LLP, where he also had an active election law practice. He first-chaired twelve voting rights and redistricting trials across the country, and argued numerous voting rights appeals in U.S. circuit courts and state supreme courts during his tenure at Perkins. 

Paul M. Smith is Senior Vice President at Campaign Legal Center. He works directly with CLC’s talented team of litigators to protect and advance American democracy through innovative litigation strategies.

Paul has four decades of experience litigating a wide range of cases. He has argued before the U.S. Supreme Court 21 times and secured numerous victories, including in the important cases advancing civil liberties and civil rights, Lawrence v. Texas, the landmark gay rights case, and Brown v. Entertainment Merchants Ass’n, which established First Amendment rights of those who produce and sell video games. 

In addition, Paul has argued several voting rights cases at the Supreme Court, including Vieth v. Jubelirer and Gill v. Whitford, involving partisan gerrymandering, LULAC v. Perry, involving the legality of Texas’s mid-decade redrawing of congressional districts and Crawford v. Marion County Election Board, involving the constitutionality of a voter identification law. He served as counsel for amici in several key campaign finance merits cases including McCutcheon v. FEC (on behalf of Democratic House members), Arizona Free Enterprise Club’s Freedom Club PAC v. Bennett (on behalf of the Committee for Economic Development) and Citizens United v. FEC (on behalf of the Committee for Economic Development).

Links:

www.campaignlegal.org/support-our-work

About CLC:

Democracy Decoded is a production of Campaign Legal Center, a nonpartisan nonprofit organization which advances democracy through law at the federal, state and local levels, fighting for every American’s right to responsive government and a fair opportunity to participate in and affect the democratic process. Learn more about us.

Democracy Decoded is part of The Democracy Group, a network of podcasts that examines what’s broken in our democracy and how we can work together to fix it.

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Donald Trump took office as president on January 20, 2025, having already served one term. Immediately, however, he made clear his second term would be even more unpredictable than his first. He put one of the world's richest men — and his biggest campaign donor — in charge of a shadowy new entity with seemingly unfettered access to government data. Trump also blitzed the system with a barrage of executive orders, which have seemingly upended the government. He has done everything from threatening judges and lawyers to attacking the very concept of birthright citizenship, while Congress has remained largely on the sidelines.

In short, Trump has moved aggressively against many of the checks and balances that American democracy has built in. As he works to consolidate power for the executive branch, other players have stepped up to challenge the president's moves — Campaign Legal Center among them. In this special episode of Democracy Decoded, our host Simone Leeper speaks with Trevor Potter, the president and founder of Campaign Legal Center, and Adav Noti, the executive director of Campaign Legal Center, to discuss what they’ve seen and what they’re doing during this unprecedented moment.

Host and Guests:

Simone Leeper litigates a wide range of redistricting-related cases at Campaign Legal Center, challenging gerrymanders and advocating for election systems that guarantee all voters an equal opportunity to influence our democracy. Prior to arriving at CLC, Simone was a law clerk in the office of Senator Ed Markey and at the Library of Congress, Office of General Counsel. She received her J.D. cum laude from Georgetown University Law Center in 2019 and a bachelor’s degree in political science from Columbia University in 2016.

Trevor Potter is President at Campaign Legal Center. A Republican former Chairman of the Federal Election Commission (FEC), Trevor was general counsel to John McCain’s 2000 and 2008 presidential campaigns and an adviser to the drafters of the McCain-Feingold campaign finance law. To many, he is perhaps best known for his recurring appearances on The Colbert Report as the lawyer for Stephen Colbert’s super PAC, Americans for a Better Tomorrow, Tomorrow, during the 2012 election, a program that won a Peabody Award for excellence in reporting on money in politics. 

The American Bar Association Journal has described Trevor as “hands-down one of the top lawyers in the country on the delicate intersection of politics, law and money.” He has provided testimony and written statements to Congress on federal election proposals, campaign finance regulation and, recently, the effects of the January 6th attack on our democracy. During the 2020 election season, Trevor was named to the cross-partisan National Task Force on Election Crises.

Adav Noti is Executive Director at Campaign Legal Center. He has conducted dozens of constitutional cases in trial and appellate courts and the United States Supreme Court. He also advises Members of Congress and other policymakers on advancing democracy through legislation. Prior to joining CLC, Adav served for more than 10 years in nonpartisan leadership capacities within the Office of General Counsel of the Federal Election Commission, and he served as a Special Assistant United States Attorney for the District of Columbia. Adav regularly provides expert analysis for television, radio, and print journalism. He has appeared on broadcasts such as The Rachel Maddow Show, Anderson Cooper 360, PBS NewsHour, and National Public Radio's Morning Edition, and he is regularly cited in publications nationwide, including the New York Times, Washington Post, USA Today, Politico, Slate, and Reuters.

Links:
The Trump Administration’s (Second) 100 Days: What You Need to Know – Campaign Legal Center
It’s almost Inauguration Day. Will there be any checks on Trump’s power? – The Hill op-ed by Trevor Potter
Bad Signs for Democracy as First 100 Days Begins – CLC newsletter, From the Desk of Trevor Potter
On the Question of Crisis – CLC newsletter, From the Desk of Trevor Potter

About CLC:

Democracy Decoded is a production of Campaign Legal Center, a nonpartisan nonprofit organization which advances democracy through law at the federal, state and local levels, fighting for every American’s right to responsive government and a fair opportunity to participate in and affect the democratic process. Learn more about us.

Democracy Decoded is part of The Democracy Group, a network of podcasts that examines what’s broken in our democracy and how we can work together to fix it.

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

How did American democracy reach such a precarious moment — and what can we do to fix things? Host Simone Leeper examines the fundamental threats to our democracy today, from gerrymandering and corruption to abuses of executive power and the outsized role of money in politics.

Through real stories from everyday Americans and insights from the experts at Campaign Legal Center and other distinguished guests, this season of Democracy Decoded explores how we can use the tools we still have to repair the cracks in the system — and how, together, we can change things for the better.

Learn what’s at stake — and what can be done to solve the challenges facing American democracy. Follow Democracy Decoded on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts.

About CLC:

Democracy Decoded is a production of Campaign Legal Center, a nonpartisan nonprofit organization dedicated to solving the wide range of challenges facing American democracy. Campaign Legal Center fights for every American’s freedom to vote and participate meaningfully in the democratic process. Learn more about us.

Democracy Decoded is part of The Democracy Group, a network of podcasts that examines what’s broken in our democracy and how we can work together to fix it.

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

The U.S. Supreme Court has vastly reshaped American democracy — rolling back voting rights, enabling secret money in politics and expanding presidential power. These decisions have a real impact on all Americans by making it harder for citizens to exercise their freedom to vote, easier for wealthy interests to sway elections and more difficult to hold leaders accountable.

In this episode, host Simone Leeper speaks with law professor and co-host of the Strict Scrutiny Podcast Leah Litman, Campaign Legal Center Senior Vice President Bruce V. Spiva and Campaign Legal Center Campaign Finance Senior Counsel David Kolker. Together, they unpack the real-world impact of landmark Supreme Court decisions — from voting rights cases like Shelby County v. Holder and Brnovich v. DNC to campaign finance rulings like Citizens United — and explore what reforms could restore balance, accountability and trust in the Court.

Timestamps:

(00:05) — What do Americans really think about the Supreme Court?

(02:18) — Why does the Supreme Court’s power matter for democracy?

(07:01) — How did Shelby County v. Holder weaken voting rights?

(16:39) — What was the impact of Brnovich v. DNC?

(23:39) — How has the Supreme Court reshaped campaign finance?

(29:24) — Why did Citizens United open the floodgates for money in politics?

(32:37) — How have super PACs changed elections?

(34:02) — How have wealthy special interests reshaped U.S. elections?

(35:44) — What does presidential immunity mean for accountability?

(37:30) — How do lifetime seats protect the Supreme Court from accountability?

(39:22) — What role can Congress play in restoring trust and democracy?

Host and Guests:

Simone Leeper litigates a wide range of redistricting-related cases at Campaign Legal Center, challenging gerrymanders and advocating for election systems that guarantee all voters an equal opportunity to influence our democracy. Prior to arriving at CLC, Simone was a law clerk in the office of Senator Ed Markey and at the Library of Congress, Office of General Counsel. She received her J.D. cum laude from Georgetown University Law Center in 2019 and a bachelor’s degree in political science from Columbia University in 2016.

Leah Litman is a professor of law at the University of Michigan and a former Supreme Court clerk. In addition to cohosting Strict Scrutiny, she writes frequently about the Court for media outlets including The Washington Post, Slate, and The Atlantic, among others, and has appeared as a commentator on NPR and MSNBC, in addition to other venues. She has received the Ruth Bader Ginsburg award for her “scholarly excellence” from the American Constitution Society and published in top law reviews. Follow her on Bluesky @LeahLitman and Instagram @ProfLeahLitman.

Bruce V. Spiva is Senior Vice President at Campaign Legal Center. He is an attorney and community leader who has spent his over 30-year career fighting for civil rights and civil liberties, voting rights, consumer protection, and antitrust enforcement.

Over the past three decades, he has tried cases and argued appeals in courtrooms across the country, including arguing against vote suppression in the United States Supreme Court in 2021. In 2022, in his first run for public office, Bruce mounted a competitive run in the primary election for Washington, D.C. Attorney General. 

In addition to founding his own law firm where he practiced for eleven years, Bruce has held several leadership and management positions as a partner at two national law firms. Most recently, Bruce served as the Managing Partner of the D.C. Office and on the firm-wide Executive Committee of Perkins Coie LLP, where he also had an active election law practice. He first-chaired twelve voting rights and redistricting trials across the country, and argued numerous voting rights appeals in U.S. circuit courts and state supreme courts during his tenure at Perkins. 

David Kolker is Campaign Finance Senior Counsel at Campaign Legal Center. He focuses on both short- and long-term strategies to improve campaign finance laws across the country, and precedent interpreting those laws. David has spent decades litigating cases in both the public and private sectors. 

He worked for nearly 20 years at the Federal Election Commission, where he litigated cases on federal campaign finance law and for several years led the agency’s Litigation Division. He represented the government in dozens of oral arguments, including the government’s defense in SpeechNow.org v. FEC before the D.C. Circuit sitting en banc. He litigated many cases decided by the Supreme Court, including the landmark cases of McConnell v. FEC and Citizens United v. FEC. David joined CLC from the Federal Communications Commission, where he served as the deputy bureau chief, Enforcement Bureau. He previously was a partner at the law firm Spiegel and McDiarmid in Washington. Early in his career, David worked as a trial attorney in the Civil Rights Division of the United States Department of Justice. 

Links:

The Supreme Court Needs to Start Standing Up for Democracy – CLC

The Supreme Court's Role in Undermining American Democracy  – CLC

Supreme Court’s Impact on Voting Rights Is a Threat to Democracy  – CLC

Why the Current U.S. Supreme Court Is a Threat to Our Democracy  – CLC

U.S. Supreme Court Reinstates Illegal Virginia Voter Purge at the Eleventh Hour – CLC

What Does the U.S. Supreme Court’s Recent Arizona Decision Mean for Voters? – CLC

Alito Flags the Fatal Flaw of the Supreme Court Ethics Code – CLC

U.S. Supreme Court Reinstates Illegal Virginia Voter Purge at the Eleventh Hour – CLC

Improving Ethics Standards at the Supreme Court – CLC

Supreme Court tossed out heart of Voting Rights Act a decade ago, prompting wave of new voting rules – The Hill

U.S. Supreme Court Significantly Limits Restraints on Unconstitutional Presidential Actions – CLC

Campaign Legal Center Responds to SCOTUS Ruling Limiting Court Restraints on Unconstitutional Presidential Actions – CLC

Protecting the Promise of American Citizenship – CLC

Bringing the Fight for Fair Voting Maps to the U.S. Supreme Court – CLC

The Supreme Court Must Uphold Fair Voting Maps for Fair Representation – CLC

About CLC:

Democracy Decoded is a production of Campaign Legal Center, a nonpartisan nonprofit organization dedicated to solving the wide range of challenges facing American democracy. Campaign Legal Center fights for every American’s freedom to vote and participate meaningfully in the democratic process. Learn more about us.

Democracy Decoded is part of The Democracy Group, a network of podcasts that examines what’s broken in our democracy and how we can work together to fix it.

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Record-breaking sums of money are pouring into American politics — from billionaires spending hundreds of millions to dark money groups hiding their donors. These sums have given wealthy interests outsized access and influence — while the Federal Election Commission (FEC), created to enforce campaign finance laws, has become unable to fulfill its mission.

In this episode, host Simone Leeper speaks with former FEC Commissioner Ellen Weintraub, Senator Sheldon Whitehouse and Campaign Legal Center President Trevor Potter. Together, they trace how court rulings like Buckley v. Valeo, Citizens United v. FEC and SpeechNOW v. FEC opened the floodgates to unlimited political spending — and explore reforms that could restore transparency, strengthen the Federal Election Commission and curb the outsized role of big money in our democracy.

Timestamps:

(00:01) — Why was an FEC commissioner suddenly removed?

(03:14) — How much money was spent in the 2024 election cycle?

(07:00) — What campaign finance lessons came out of Watergate?

(09:35) — What was the McCain-Feingold Act, and why did it matter?

(10:45) — How did Citizens United and SpeechNow change U.S. elections?

(13:41) — What is dark money and why is it dangerous?

(15:18) — Why has the FEC failed to enforce campaign finance laws?

(21:48) — How did Elon Musk become the biggest mega-donor in U.S. history?

(24:14) — What government power did Musk gain after funding Trump?

(30:03) — How has campaign finance evolved since Watergate?

(33:41) — What reforms could reduce dark money and strengthen transparency?

(40:57) — What must Congress do now to curb big money in politics?

 

Host and Guests:

Simone Leeper litigates a wide range of redistricting-related cases at Campaign Legal Center, challenging gerrymanders and advocating for election systems that guarantee all voters an equal opportunity to influence our democracy. Prior to arriving at CLC, Simone was a law clerk in the office of Senator Ed Markey and at the Library of Congress, Office of General Counsel. She received her J.D. cum laude from Georgetown University Law Center in 2019 and a bachelor’s degree in political science from Columbia University in 2016.

Ellen L. Weintraub served as Commissioner and four-time Chair of the U.S. Federal Election Commission from 2002 to 2025. There, she advocated for meaningful campaign-finance law enforcement and robust disclosure and strove to combat "dark money" and foreign influence in our elections. She has been a critic of the system that gives disproportionate influence to billionaire donors and has refuted unfounded claims of voter fraud. On February 6, 2025, she was informed that the President was removing her from office.

A graduate of Yale College and Harvard Law School, Weintraub has published articles in The New York Times, The Washington Post and leading law reviews and is a frequent speaker on news shows and at conferences at home and abroad. Previously, she practiced law at Perkins Coie LLP and was Counsel to the U.S. House of Representatives Ethics Committee. 

Sheldon Whitehouse represents Rhode Island in the U.S. Senate. Senator Whitehouse serves as a senior member of the Judiciary Committee and the Ranking Member of the Senate Judiciary Courts Subcommittee.

Trevor Potter is President of the nonpartisan Campaign Legal Center. A Republican former Chairman of the Federal Election Commission (FEC), Trevor was general counsel to John McCain’s 2000 and 2008 presidential campaigns and an adviser to the drafters of the McCain-Feingold campaign finance law. To many, he is perhaps best known for his recurring appearances on The Colbert Report as the lawyer for Stephen Colbert’s super PAC, Americans for a Better Tomorrow, Tomorrow, during the 2012 election, a program that won a Peabody Award for excellence in reporting on money in politics. 

The American Bar Association Journal has described Trevor as “hands-down one of the top lawyers in the country on the delicate intersection of politics, law and money.” He has provided testimony and written statements to Congress on federal election proposals, campaign finance regulation and, recently, the effects of the January 6th attack on our democracy. During the 2020 election season, Trevor was named to the cross-partisan National Task Force on Election Crises.

 

Links:

Democracy Decoded: Season 1, Episode 4 – CLC
 

How Does the Citizens United Decision Still Affect Us in 2025? – CLC
 

Dark Money Groups Are Pumping Millions Into the 2024 Election – CLC
 

Elon Musk Stands to Gain Even More Wealth by Serving in Trump’s Administration – CLC
 

New CLC Report Examines FEC’s Role in Letting Big Money Dominate Elections – CLC
 

From Dysfunctional to Destructive (FEC Report) – CLC
 

The Impact of Big Money and Secret Spending on Trump’s Second Inauguration – CLC
 

Have Wealthy Donors Bought the Trump Administration? – CLC
 

Preventing Wealthy Special Interests from Using Shell Companies to Keep Their Political Spending Secret (Case Page) – CLC
 

Opposing Special Interest Loopholes in Campaign Finance Law Enforcement — ECU v. FEC (Rick Scott Appeal - Case Page) – CLC
 

CLC Steps Up to Promote Enforcement of Federal Campaign Finance Law (Case Page) – CLC
 

Defending Federal Limits on Corporate Spending in Elections (Citizens United v. FEC - Case Page) – CLC
 

Campaign Legal Center Releases New Report on the FEC’s Deregulatory Trend – CLC
 

The Agency That’s Supposed To Provide Election Oversight Badly Needs Oversight – CLC
 

Campaign Legal Center Letter Responds to President Trump’s Unlawful Attempt to Exert Control Over the FEC – CLC

About CLC:

Democracy Decoded is a production of Campaign Legal Center, a nonpartisan nonprofit organization dedicated to solving the wide range of challenges facing American democracy. Campaign Legal Center fights for every American’s freedom to vote and participate meaningfully in the democratic process. Learn more about us.

Democracy Decoded is part of The Democracy Group, a network of podcasts that examines what’s broken in our democracy and how we can work together to fix it.

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

The foundation of our democracy is the Constitution, a system of checks and balances and the rule of law. But today, those cornerstones are being blatantly disrespected by a presidential administration attempting to consolidate power at all costs..

In this episode, host Simone Leeper is joined by Campaign Legal Center litigators Anna Baldwin and Brent Ferguson. They examine the most pressing examples of the erosion of the rule of law, from the politicization of the Department of Justice to the stifling of free speech. Along the way, they highlight how Congress and the courts have failed as effective checks — leaving civil society and citizens to defend constitutional principles — and explore the reforms that could restore accountability, protect the rule of law and strengthen democracy against threats.

 

Timestamps:

(00:05) — Why is free speech under attack in the U.S.?

(03:50) — How is political opposition being falsely linked to political violence?

(05:38) — Why is deploying federal troops in U.S. cities a threat to democracy?

(09:50) — How are Congress and the courts failing to check presidential abuses of power?

(15:09) — How has the DOJ been transformed into a political tool?

(20:17) — Why is the Voting Rights Act no longer being enforced?

(21:17) — What’s at stake with the DOJ’s demand for voter data?

(27:27) — How is CLC challenging unlawful executive orders?

(32:30) — What reforms are needed to restore checks and balances?

Host and Guests:

Simone Leeper litigates a wide range of redistricting-related cases at Campaign Legal Center, challenging gerrymanders and advocating for election systems that guarantee all voters an equal opportunity to influence our democracy. Prior to arriving at CLC, Simone was a law clerk in the office of Senator Ed Markey and at the Library of Congress, Office of General Counsel. She received her J.D. cum laude from Georgetown University Law Center in 2019 and a bachelor’s degree in political science from Columbia University in 2016.

Anna Baldwin is a member of Campaign Legal Center's voting rights team working to protect the freedom to vote, litigating cases in state and federal courts, from filing through appeal to the Supreme Court. Prior to joining CLC, Anna spent 14 years in the Civil Rights Division of the U.S. Department of Justice. In North Carolina State Conference of the NAACP v. McCrory, Anna led briefing and appellate argument for the United States to overturn a North Carolina law that purposefully restricted voting and registration opportunities for Black voters in violation of Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act. Anna was also a member of the trial team that successfully challenged Texas’s racially discriminatory voter ID law. Anna has argued eighteen cases before the federal courts of appeal, including four en banc cases. Previously, Anna was an associate in the Washington D.C. office of Jenner & Block LLP, and clerked for Judge James Robertson on the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, and for Judge M. Blane Michael on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit.

Brent Ferguson leads Campaign Legal Center's strategic litigation team, focusing on anti-authoritarianism and litigating in all areas of election law. Brent has worked on protecting and improving our democracy for most of his career. At CLC, he has led litigation teams challenging state and federal laws and policies that seek to unlawfully purge voters, limit voter registration activity and otherwise prevent Americans from exercising their constitutionally protected rights. He has authored academic articles on election law and other constitutional issues in the Washington Law Review, the Cornell Journal of Law & Public Policy, the Emory Law Journal Online and elsewhere. 

Before coming to CLC, Brent was senior counsel at the National Redistricting Foundation, where he helped develop strategy for federal and state redistricting litigation. For four years, he served as counsel at the Brennan Center for Justice, focusing on campaign finance reform and working on a broad range of other democracy issues. He was also an assistant district attorney in the Manhattan District Attorney’s office, where he litigated appeals of public corruption convictions. He clerked for Judge Michael Chagares of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit and Judge Jeffrey Miller of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California.

Links:

Taking Action Against Presidential Abuses of Power | Campaign Legal Center

About CLC:

Democracy Decoded is a production of Campaign Legal Center, a nonpartisan nonprofit organization dedicated to solving the wide range of challenges facing American democracy. Campaign Legal Center fights for every American’s freedom to vote and participate meaningfully in the democratic process. Learn more about us.

Democracy Decoded is part of The Democracy Group, a network of podcasts that examines what’s broken in our democracy and how we can work together to fix it.

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Corruption defines both the perception and reality of government, eroding trust and even threatening national security. Today, the safeguards meant to keep our government accountable are failing. From the mass firing of inspectors general to congressional stock trading and Supreme Court ethics scandals, abuses of power are weakening public trust and raising fears that the U.S. could slide toward kleptocracy.

In this episode, host Simone Leeper speaks with Mark Lee Greenblatt, former Inspector General of the U.S. Department of the Interior; Jodi Vittori, Georgetown University professor and expert on corruption and national security; and Kedric Payne, Vice President and General Counsel at Campaign Legal Center. Together, they trace America’s long fight against corruption — from the founders’ earliest fears to Watergate reforms — and examine how today’s failures of accountability threaten American democracy. The episode closes with solutions for restoring integrity, eliminating conflicts of interest and rebuilding trust in American government.

 

Timestamps:

(00:05) — Why did Trump fire 17 inspectors general?

(07:36) — How has corruption shaped U.S. history?

(11:14) — What reforms followed Watergate?

(18:22) — Why does corruption feel worse in daily life now?

(23:01) — How did Trump weaken watchdog offices and ethics enforcement?

(28:47) — Why does congressional stock trading undermine trust?

(33:58) — What do Supreme Court ethics scandals reveal?

(39:59) — Could the U.S. slide toward kleptocracy?

(46:04) — How does corruption threaten national security?

(56:57) — What reforms could restore accountability and integrity?

 

Host and Guests:

Simone Leeper litigates a wide range of redistricting-related cases at Campaign Legal Center, challenging gerrymanders and advocating for election systems that guarantee all voters an equal opportunity to influence our democracy. Prior to arriving at CLC, Simone was a law clerk in the office of Senator Ed Markey and at the Library of Congress, Office of General Counsel. She received her J.D. cum laude from Georgetown University Law Center in 2019 and a bachelor’s degree in political science from Columbia University in 2016.

Mark Lee Greenblatt is an expert on government ethics and compliance, an attorney and author. Most recently, he served as Inspector General for the U.S. Department of the Interior. His work bolstered the integrity of the agency’s programs, rooting out waste, fraud, and abuse in the Department’s $10 billion in grants and contracts and $12 billion in natural resource royalties. Mark was elected by the 74 Inspectors General to serve as the Chairman of the Council of the Inspectors General on Integrity and Efficiency in 2022. He previously served in leadership roles at the U.S. Department of Commerce Office of Inspector General and the U.S. Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations. He also served as an investigative counsel at the U.S. Department of Justice. He clerked for U.S. District Judge Anita Brody and was a litigator in two international law firms. Mark is the author of Valor, which tells untold stories of 21st century American soldiers, sailors and Marines who faced gut-wrenching decisions to overcome enormous odds. He is a frequent speaker at industry events, and he regularly appears in the news media. He graduated from Columbia University School of Law, where he was a Harlan Fiske Stone scholar, and he earned his undergraduate degree from Duke University.

Jodi Vittori is an expert on the linkages of corruption, state fragility, illicit finance and U.S. national security. She is a Professor of Practice and co-chair of the Global Politics and Security program at Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service. Jodi is also an associate fellow with RUSI’s Centre for Finance and Security and was previously a non-resident fellow with the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. Before joining the Georgetown University faculty, she was the U.S. Research and Policy Manager for Transparency International’s Defense and Security Program and a senior policy advisor for Global Witness. Jodi also served in the U.S. Air Force; her overseas service included Afghanistan, Iraq, South Korea, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Saudi Arabia and Bahrain, and she was assigned to NATO’s only counter-corruption task force. She was an Assistant Professor and military faculty at the US Air Force Academy and the National Defense University. Jodi is also a founder and co-moderator of the Anti-Corruption Advocacy Network (ACAN), which facilitates information exchange on corruption-related issues amongst over 1,000 participating individuals and organizations worldwide. She is a graduate of the U.S. Air Force Academy and received her PhD in International Studies from the University of Denver.

Kedric Payne leads the government ethics program at Campaign Legal Center, where he works to strengthen ethics laws and hold public officials accountable at the federal, state and local levels. He conducts investigations into government corruption and initiates legal actions against officials who violate the law. At CLC, Kedric has been at the forefront of advancing reforms on issues such as congressional stock trading, Supreme Court ethics enforcement, executive branch conflicts of interest, and state ethics commission autonomy. His legal work and analysis have been featured in major media outlets. He has also testified at congressional hearings on government ethics and accountability. Before joining CLC, Kedric built a broad legal career across all three branches of the federal government and in private practice. He began as a litigator at Cravath and later practiced political law at Skadden. He went on to serve as Deputy Chief Counsel at the Office of Congressional Ethics and as a Deputy General Counsel at the U.S. Department of Energy, where he advised on federal ethics laws. Earlier in his career, he clerked for the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.

Links:

 

Understanding Corruption and Conflicts of Interest in Government – CLC
 

Holding Government Officials Accountable for Unlawful Conflict of Interest Violations – CLC
 

Ethics Pledges by Trump Cabinet Draw Questions and Skepticism – NY Times
 

CLC Sues to Stop Elon Musk and DOGE’s Lawless, Unconstitutional Power Grab – CLC
 

Elon Musk Stands to Gain Even More Wealth by Serving in Trump’s Administration – CLC
 

Is Musk Using the FAA to Benefit Himself and His SpaceX Subsidiary, Starlink? – CLC
 

Have Wealthy Donors Bought the Trump Administration? – CLC
 

How a Second Term Introduces More Conflicts of Interest for Trump – CLC
 

CLC's Kedric Payne on Trump's Brazen Removal of Nation’s Top Ethics Official – CLC
 

The public won't get to see Elon Musk's financial disclosures. Here's why that matters.  – CBS 
 

Justice Clarence Thomas Should Be Held Accountable Under Federal Ethics Law – CLC
 

Judicial Conference Decision Lowers Ethics Standards for Federal Judges and U.S. Supreme Court – CLC
 

Improving Ethics Standards at the Supreme Court – CLC
 

The Justice Department Is In Danger Of Losing Its Way Under Trump – CLC
 

Congress Has an Ethics Problem. Now It’s Trying to Get Rid of Ethics Enforcement – CLC
 

A Win for Ethics: CLC, Partners Succeed in Preserving Office of Congressional Conduct – CLC
 

Crypto Political Fundraising Raises Questions About Senate Ethics Committee Efficacy – CLC
 

Stopping the Revolving Door: Preventing Conflicts of Interest from Former Lobbyists – CLC
 

The Trump Administration Has Opened the Door to More Corruption – CLC
 

Solving the Congressional Stock Trading Problem – CLC

About CLC:

Democracy Decoded is a production of Campaign Legal Center, a nonpartisan nonprofit organization dedicated to solving the wide range of challenges facing American democracy. Campaign Legal Center fights for every American’s freedom to vote and participate meaningfully in the democratic process. Learn more about us.

Democracy Decoded is part of The Democracy Group, a network of podcasts that examines what’s broken in our democracy and how we can work together to fix it.

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Presidential power has expanded far beyond what the framers of the Constitution envisioned. From Lincoln and Roosevelt to Nixon and Trump, presidents have pushed the limits of executive authority — often during moments of crisis. Understanding this history is key to understanding what comes next for American democracy

In this episode, host Simone Leeper speaks with American historians Douglas Brinkley and Rick Perlstein, CLC Executive Director Adav Noti and Juan Proaño, CEO of LULAC. In conversation, they trace how the presidency has gathered sweeping power over time; what happens when oversight of this executive power breaks down; and what legal, legislative and civic reforms could restore accountability, prevent presidential overreach and safeguard the constitutional separation of powers that defines the United States.

Timestamps:

(00:05) — Why were federal troops deployed in Los Angeles?

(05:11) — Can the president legally invoke emergency powers?

(07:31) — How did the Founders limit presidential authority?

(09:14) — When did executive orders begin to expand presidential power?

(10:25) — How did FDR and later presidents redefine the presidency?

(13:04) — What did Nixon’s “If the president does it, it’s not illegal” comment really mean?

(15:22) — What are the origins of the so-called unitary executive theory?

(18:21) — How are checks and balances failing?

(19:42) — Is America sliding toward authoritarianism?

(27:57) — How is Campaign Legal Center fighting unlawful presidential overreach through litigation?

(30:00) — Why does birthright citizenship matter for American democracy?

(33:13) — What can be done to stop abuses of presidential authority?

Host and Guests:

Simone Leeper litigates a wide range of redistricting-related cases at Campaign Legal Center, challenging gerrymanders and advocating for election systems that guarantee all voters an equal opportunity to influence our democracy. Prior to arriving at CLC, Simone was a law clerk in the office of Senator Ed Markey and at the Library of Congress, Office of General Counsel. She received her J.D. cum laude from Georgetown University Law Center in 2019 and a bachelor’s degree in political science from Columbia University in 2016.

Juan Proaño is an entrepreneur, technologist and business leader who is active in civic affairs, social impact, and politics He has served as the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC) Chief Executive Officer (CEO) since November 2023. As LULAC’s CEO, Juan oversees the day-to-day operations at LULAC; identifies strategic growth areas; and works to amplify the organization’s advocacy initiatives and action-oriented programs.

Rick Perlstein is an American historian, writer and journalist who has garnered recognition for his chronicles of the post-1960s American conservative movement. He is the author of five bestselling books. Perlstein received the 2001 Los Angeles Times Book Award for History for his first book, Before the Storm: Barry Goldwater and the Unmaking of the American Consensus, and appeared on the best books of the year lists of The New York Times, The Washington Post and the Chicago Tribune. His essays and book reviews have been published in The New Yorker, The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Nation, The Village Voice and Slate, among others. A contributing editor and board member of In These Times magazine, he lives in Chicago.

Douglas Brinkley is the Katherine Tsanoff Brown Chair in Humanities and Professor of History at Rice University, CNN Presidential Historian and a contributing editor at Vanity Fair. He works in many capacities in the world of public history, including on boards, museums, colleges and historical societies. The Chicago Tribune dubbed him “America’s New Past Master.” The New York Historical has chosen Brinkley as their official U.S. Presidential Historian. His recent book Cronkite won the Sperber Prize, while The Great Deluge: Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans and the Mississippi Gulf Coast received the Robert F. Kennedy Book Award. He has received a Grammy Award for Presidential Suite and seven honorary doctorates in American Studies. His two-volume annotated The Nixon Tapes recently won the Arthur S. Link – Warren F. Kuehl Prize. He is a member of the Century Association, Council of Foreign Relations and the James Madison Council of the Library of Congress. He lives in Austin, Texas, with his wife and three children.

Adav Noti coordinates all of Campaign Legal Center's operations and programmatic activities, overseeing CLC's efforts to protect elections, advance voter freedom, fix the campaign finance system, ensure fair redistricting and promote government ethics. Adav has conducted dozens of constitutional cases in trial and appellate courts and the United States Supreme Court. He also advises members of Congress and other policymakers on advancing democracy through legislation. Prior to joining CLC, Adav served for more than 10 years in nonpartisan leadership capacities within the Office of General Counsel of the Federal Election Commission, and he served as a Special Assistant United States Attorney for the District of Columbia. Adav regularly provides expert analysis for television, radio and print journalism.

Links:
 

Voting Is an American Freedom. The President Can’t Change That – CLC 
 

What Are Executive Orders and How Do They Work? – CLC 
 

The Significance of Firing Inspectors General: Explained – CLC 
 

CLC's Kedric Payne on Trump's Brazen Removal of Nation’s Top Ethics Official – CLC 
 

The Justice Department Is In Danger Of Losing Its Way Under Trump – CLC 
 

It’s almost Inauguration Day. Will there be any checks on Trump’s power? – Trevor Potter op-d in The Hill
 

Amidst the Noise and Confusion – Trevor Potter’s newsletter
 

Understanding Corruption and Conflicts of Interest in Government | Campaign Legal Center – CLC 
 

CLC Sues to Stop Elon Musk and DOGE’s Lawless, Unconstitutional Power Grab | Campaign Legal Center – CLC 
 

Trump’s Executive Orders 2025 – Federal Register 
 

Preserving and Protecting the Integrity of American Elections (Trump’s EO on voting) – The White House 
 

Defending the Freedom to Vote from the Trump Administration’s Unconstitutional Presidential Overreach (LULAC, et al. v. Executive Office of the President) – CLC 
 

CLC Sues to Block Trump Administration’s Illegal Election Overreach – CLC 
 

Victory! Anti-Voter Executive Order Halted in Court – CLC 
 

Understanding the election tech implications in the Trump Administration’s executive order – Verified Voting 
 

Independent Agencies Must Remain Independent – CLC 
 

Can President Trump Do That? – CLC 
 

Why Birthright Citizenship Is an Essential Part of Our Democracy – CLC 
 

Authoritarianism, explained – Protect Democracy
 

The Authoritarian Playbook – Protect Democracy
 

U.S. Supreme Court Significantly Limits Restraints on Unconstitutional Presidential Actions – CLC 
 

Reconciliation Bill Passes the Senate Without Two Dangerous Provisions: Campaign Legal Center Reacts – CLC 
 

The “Self-Evident” Case for Opposing Tyranny – Trevor Potter’s Newsletter
 

White House Eyes Rarely Used Power to Override Congress on Spending – NY Times

About CLC:

Democracy Decoded is a production of Campaign Legal Center, a nonpartisan nonprofit organization dedicated to solving the wide range of challenges facing American democracy. Campaign Legal Center fights for every American’s freedom to vote and participate meaningfully in the democratic process. Learn more about us.

Democracy Decoded is part of The Democracy Group, a network of podcasts that examines what’s broken in our democracy and how we can work together to fix it.

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Gerrymandering—the manipulation of voting maps for partisan gain—has been part of American politics since its founding, but today, the problem is reaching a breaking point.

In this episode, host Simone Leeper shares the story of Vicki and Malcolm Reed, a Utah couple who Campaign Legal Center are representing in a landmark lawsuit defending voters’ rights, alongside Mark Gaber, CLC’s Senior Director of Redistricting. Together, they trace how Utahns fought back after lawmakers attempted to overturn a voter-approved ballot measure that created a citizen-led independent  redistricting commission—and how the Utah Supreme Court ultimately sided with voters.

As Malcolm and Vicki’s story unfolds, we also highlight how the current wave of mid-decade redistricting arms race that started in Texas and is now spilling into other  states threatens to weaken voters’ voices nationwide.  We explore how voters, courts and Congress can act to restore fairness to America’s elections and ensure that voters — not politicians — decide the outcome.

Timestamps:

(00:01) — Who are Vicki and Malcolm Reed, and why did they take on Utah’s legislature?

(02:10) — What is gerrymandering, and how does it work?

(05:11) — How did the framers envision fair representation?

(10:10) — What is redistricting, and why does it matter for voters?

(11:25) — What was Utah’s Proposition 4, and how did it aim to end gerrymandering?

(14:42) — What’s the difference between racial and partisan gerrymandering?

(15:12) — How do “packing” and “cracking” weaken voters’ power?

(16:02) — How has technology supercharged modern gerrymandering?

(17:12) — How did Utah lawmakers gut the independent redistricting commission?

(20:44) — Why did Campaign Legal Center sue the Utah legislature?

(23:22) — What happened when CLC argued the case before the Utah Supreme Court?

(25:15) — What did the unanimous court decision mean for Utah voters?

(28:50) — What is happening right now in Texas and other states across the country?

(32:55) — What federal laws could end gerrymandering nationwide?

(36:13) — Why should the fight for fair maps in Utah give us hope for democracy?

Host and Guests:

Simone Leeper litigates a wide range of redistricting-related cases at Campaign Legal Center, challenging gerrymanders and advocating for election systems that guarantee all voters an equal opportunity to influence our democracy. Prior to arriving at CLC, Simone was a law clerk in the office of Senator Ed Markey and at the Library of Congress, Office of General Counsel. She received her J.D. cum laude from Georgetown University Law Center in 2019 and a bachelor’s degree in political science from Columbia University in 2016.

Malcolm and Vicki Reid have been residents of Salt Lake County, Utah for over seven years. Malcolm is registered as a Democrat and Vicki is registered as a Republican but they both consider themselves moderates.Civic engagement is very important to both Malcolm and Vicki and they participated as plaintiffs in the case LWV Utah and MWEG v. Utah State Legislature advocating for fair maps for Utahns.

Mark Gaber manages Campaign Legal Center’s redistricting litigation and policy program, which seeks to achieve fair maps for racial and language minority groups, and to curb the influence of partisanship in redistricting.

Mark has led CLC’s redistricting program to major successes since the 2020 Census. He argued for petitioners in the Wisconsin Supreme Court in Clarke v. Wisconsin Election Commission, which resulted in the invalidation of Wisconsin’s state legislative maps and the transformation of the state’s legislative maps from being among the most politically skewed to among the most politically fair in the country. 

He is lead counsel in League of Women Voters of Utah v. Utah State Legislature, in which CLC has successfully challenged the Utah legislature’s repeal of a voter-adopted initiative reforming the state’s redistricting process and its enactment of an extremely gerrymandered congressional map. In that case, Mark has (to date) argued twice in the Utah Supreme Court, resulting in two unanimous decisions in favor of CLC’s clients.

Mark has also led CLC’s redistricting team to victories enforcing the Voting Rights Act (VRA). These include two cases on behalf of North Dakota’s Native American voters, where he has argued in the Eighth Circuit against a challenge aiming to neutralize the VRA by precluding citizens from filing suit and where CLC’s clients have secured two legislative districts providing Native American voters an equal opportunity to elect their preferred candidates. Mark also led CLC’s successful challenge to Washington’s legislative map, which was found to discriminate against Latino voters in the Yakima region, and CLC’s ongoing challenge to the racially discriminatory Galveston County, Texas, map.

Links:

 

Cartoon, "The Gerry-Mander", 1813 — Smithsonian
 

Gerrymandering: The Origin Story — Library of Congress Blogs
 

LWV Utah and MWEG v. Utah State Legislature — CLC
 

Voting Rights Groups Sue To Ensure All Utah Voters Have a Voice — CLC
 

Opinion: Why we sued Utah lawmakers for alleged gerrymandering — Desert News
 

CLC, Utahns Score Huge Victory in the Fight for Fair Maps — CLC
 

Utahns Score Huge Victory Voiding Amendment D — CLC
 

What Is Gerrymandering? — CLC
 

How Can We Combat Gerrymandering? — CLC
 

Do Independent Redistricting Commissions Really Prevent Gerrymandering? Yes, They Do — CLC
 

New Report Outlines How to Make a Redistricting Commission Effective — CLC
 

Independent Redistricting Commissions: Primer and Best Practices — CLC
 

Redistricting Commissions in the 2021 Redistricting Cycle — CLC
 

League of Women Voters on the Utah win — LWV
 

Understanding the Current High Stakes Redistricting Fight – Trevor Potter’s Newsletter
 

Inside the Trump Administration’s Efforts to Discriminate Against Texas’ Black and Latino Voters — CLC

 

About CLC:

Democracy Decoded is a production of Campaign Legal Center, a nonpartisan nonprofit organization dedicated to solving the wide range of challenges facing American democracy. Campaign Legal Center fights for every American’s freedom to vote and participate meaningfully in the democratic process. Learn more about us.

Democracy Decoded is part of The Democracy Group, a network of podcasts that examines what’s broken in our democracy and how we can work together to fix it.

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Host Simone Leeper shares a quick Election Day 2025 update — Campaign Legal Center staff worked to safeguard elections; millions of Americans exercised their freedom to vote in states across the country; and Democracy Decoded will return next week with lessons learned from this and past elections that we will carry with us into 2026 and beyond.
 

About CLC:

Democracy Decoded is a production of Campaign Legal Center, a nonpartisan nonprofit organization dedicated to solving the wide range of challenges facing American democracy. Campaign Legal Center fights for every American’s freedom to vote and participate meaningfully in the democratic process. Learn more about us.

Democracy Decoded is part of The Democracy Group, a network of podcasts that examines what’s broken in our democracy and how we can work together to fix it.

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Under our Constitution, the federal government and the states have distinct powers — especially when it comes to elections. But the Trump administration has repeatedly tried to interfere with how states run elections, pushing unlawful policies that undermine faith in safe, secure and accurate elections.

Host Simone Leeper sits down with Catie Kelley, Senior Director of Policy and Strategic Partnerships at Campaign Legal Center, and Jonathan Diaz, CLC’s Director of Voting Advocacy and Partnerships, to examine how the Trump administration has attempted to federalize elections, impose unconstitutional voter restrictions and silence Americans.

They unpack CLC’s major court victory against the administration’s unlawful election executive order; explain how new proof-of-citizenship requirements could disenfranchise millions of voters; and discuss lawsuits defending states’ rights and voters’ privacy against federal overreach. They also explore broader threats—from troubling legislation and to presidential attacks on mail-in voting—and what Campaign Legal Center is doing to preserve checks and balances, protect election integrity and defend every American’s freedom to vote.

Timestamps:
(00:00) — What does “federalism” mean, and why is it under attack?

(02:50) — How is the Trump administration overstepping its authority on elections?

(06:44) — What lawsuits has CLC filed to stop the president’s election overreach?

(07:58) — Why are proof-of-citizenship rules so dangerous for voters?

(11:28) — How are military families impacted by new voting restrictions?

(14:50) — Why is the DOJ demanding states’ voter data—and why is it alarming?

(17:56) — How are states pushing back to defend their power and voters’ privacy?

(19:10) — What is the SAVE Act, and how could it silence millions of voters?

(25:16) — Why is mail-in voting under attack again?

(28:41) — How does misinformation from the president erode trust in elections?

(30:51) — What lessons from 2024 should shape the 2026 midterms?

(34:04) — What can states do to strengthen confidence in elections?

(36:24) — What should voters remember heading into 2026 and beyond?

(40:17) — How can Americans hold the line for democracy?

Host and Guests:

Simone Leeper litigates a wide range of redistricting-related cases at Campaign Legal Center, challenging gerrymanders and advocating for election systems that guarantee all voters an equal opportunity to influence our democracy. Prior to arriving at CLC, Simone was a law clerk in the office of Senator Ed Markey and at the Library of Congress, Office of General Counsel. She received her J.D. cum laude from Georgetown University Law Center in 2019 and a bachelor’s degree in political science from Columbia University in 2016.

Catie Kelley is Senior Director of Policy & Strategic Partnerships at Campaign Legal Center. Catie oversees CLC's policy work at the federal, state and local levels. She is leading CLC's work to address the emerging threats of election sabotage. Previously, Catie built and ran CLC's state campaign finance program. In that capacity, she worked with state and local stakeholders and policymakers to advance innovative policies designed to decrease the influence of money in the political process. She began her legal career in the Federal Election Commission's Office of General Counsel.

Jonathan Diaz is Director of Voting Advocacy and Partnerships at Campaign Legal Center. Jonathan advocates for laws and policies that expand the freedom to vote for all Americans; leads CLC's work on combatting election sabotage; and coordinates CLC's relationships with national, state and local voting rights partners.

Jonathan manages CLC's work to protect election results and defend against election sabotage, and he works directly with CLC's litigation, communications and policy teams to help set organizational strategy on voting rights and elections advocacy. He also works directly with election officials at the state and local level to improve election administration processes, and he represents CLC in democracy reform coalitions to coordinate legal, advocacy and messaging strategies with partner organizations across the country.

Jonathan has also litigated voting rights cases in federal courts across the country, including LULAC v. Executive Office of the President (challenging the President's unconstitutional executive order on voting); LUCHA v. Fontes (challenging Arizona's burdensome and discriminatory proof-of-citizenship requirements for voter registration); VoteAmerica v. Raffensperger (challenging Georgia's restrictions on the distribution of absentee ballot applications); and Raysor v. Lee (challenging Florida's conditioning of rights restoration for voters with past felony convictions on the payment of legal financial obligations).

Links:

Victory! Anti-Voter Executive Order Halted in Court  – CLC
Voting Is an American Freedom. The President Can’t Change That – CLC
How CLC Is Pushing Back on the Trump Administration’s Anti-Voter Actions – CLC
Taking Action Against Presidential Abuses of Power  – CLC
What You Need to Know About the SAVE Act  – CLC
Vote-By-Mail: A Secure and Accessible Way to Cast Your Ballot  – CLC
A Raging Battle for Democracy One Year from the Midterms – Trevor Potter’s newsletter

About CLC:

Democracy Decoded is a production of Campaign Legal Center, a nonpartisan nonprofit organization dedicated to solving the wide range of challenges facing American democracy. Campaign Legal Center fights for every American’s freedom to vote and participate meaningfully in the democratic process. Learn more about us.

Democracy Decoded is part of The Democracy Group, a network of podcasts that examines what’s broken in our democracy and how we can work together to fix it.

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

New voting restrictions across the country are threatening to make it harder for millions of Americans to participate in elections. In some states, these barriers have thrown long-registered voters into limbo, as Arizona voter James Wilson learned when he nearly lost his ability to vote because of strict new proof-of-citizenship rules. 

In this season finale, Democracy Decoded examines how these barriers to voting — along with an administration actively attempting to curtail the freedom to vote and a Supreme Court with voting rights cases on its docket — are reshaping access to the ballot.

Host Simone Leeper speaks with election law scholar Rick Hasen and Campaign Legal Center’s voting rights expert Danielle Lang to unpack the rise of new barriers to voting, the future of the Voting Rights Act, the dangers of executive overreach, and the policy solutions and reforms needed to secure the freedom to vote in 2026 and beyond.

Timestamps:

(00:00) — How did one Arizona voter nearly lose his right to vote?

(04:35) — Why are federal actions now threatening elections?

(06:50) — How do proof-of-citizenship laws disenfranchise voters?

(11:48) — What happened inside Arizona’s dual-track voting system?

(15:32) — Who is most affected by modern voting restrictions?

(21:36) — What role has the federal government historically played in protecting voting rights?

(23:49) — Why is the SAVE Act so bad for voting rights?

(25:16) — What is Campaign Legal Center doing to protect the freedom to vote in Louisiana?

(28:38) — What is Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act?

(30:06) — What is the Turtle Mountain v. Howe case?

(34:05) — What reforms are needed to protect elections in 2026 and beyond?

Host and Guests:

Simone Leeper litigates a wide range of redistricting-related cases at Campaign Legal Center, challenging gerrymanders and advocating for election systems that guarantee all voters an equal opportunity to influence our democracy. Prior to arriving at CLC, Simone was a law clerk in the office of Senator Ed Markey and at the Library of Congress, Office of General Counsel. She received her J.D. cum laude from Georgetown University Law Center in 2019 and a bachelor’s degree in political science from Columbia University in 2016.

James Wilson is a resident of Pinal County, Arizona. He’s passionate about voting and has done voter registration work for many years. He first registered to vote in Arizona in 1982 and has proudly voted in many elections since then.

Danielle Lang leads Campaign Legal Center's voting rights team dedicated to safeguarding the freedom to vote. She litigates in state and federal courts from trial to the Supreme Court, and advocates for equitable and meaningful voter access at all levels of government. Danielle has worked as a civil rights litigator her entire career. At CLC, she has led litigation against Texas's racially discriminatory voter ID law, Florida's modern-day poll tax for rights restoration, Arizona's burdensome registration requirements, North Dakota's voter ID law targeting Native communities and numerous successful challenges to signature match policies for absentee ballots. Previously, Danielle served as a Skadden Fellow in the Employment Rights Project of Bet Tzedek Legal Services in Los Angeles, where she represented low-wage immigrant workers in wage and hour, discrimination and human trafficking matters. From 2012 to 2013, Danielle clerked for Judge Richard A. Paez on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.  

Professor Richard L. Hasen is the Gary T. Schwartz Endowed Chair in Law, Professor of Political Science (by courtesy) and Director of the Safeguarding Democracy Project at UCLA School of Law. He is an internationally recognized expert in election law, writing as well in the areas of legislation and statutory interpretation, remedies and torts. He is co-author of leading casebooks in election law and remedies. Hasen served in 2022 and 2024 as an NBC News/MSNBC Election Law Analyst. He was a CNN Election Law Analyst in 2020.


Links:

Voting Is an American Freedom. The President Can’t Change That – CLC

Victory! Anti-Voter Executive Order Halted in Court  – CLC

How CLC Is Pushing Back on the Trump Administration’s Anti-Voter Actions – CLC

Efforts to Undermine the Freedom to Vote, Explained – CLC

Why America Needs the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act – CLC

Protecting the Freedom to Vote Through State Voting Rights Acts – CLC

What Does the U.S. Supreme Court’s Recent Arizona Decision Mean for Voters? – CLC

What You Need to Know About the SAVE Act  – CLC

In-Person Voting Access – CLC

Modernizing Voter Registration – CLC

A Raging Battle for Democracy One Year from the Midterms – Trevor Potter’s newsletter

Four Threats to Future Elections We Need to Discuss Now – Trevor Potter’s newsletter



About CLC:

Democracy Decoded is a production of Campaign Legal Center, a nonpartisan nonprofit organization dedicated to solving the wide range of challenges facing American democracy. Campaign Legal Center fights for every American’s freedom to vote and participate meaningfully in the democratic process. Learn more about us.

Democracy Decoded is part of The Democracy Group, a network of podcasts that examines what’s broken in our democracy and how we can work together to fix it.

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

We are beyond thrilled to announce Democracy Decoded once again has been nominated for a Webby Award in the category of Public Service & Activism podcasts! 

Please vote now for Democracy Decoded by the April 16 deadline to help our expert insights and analysis reach even more ears! 

How to Vote:

1. Visit the following link: https://wbby.co/57462N
2. CLICK the “vote” button under Democracy Decoded.
3. REGISTER with the Webby Awards website when prompted (if you already have an account, sign in).
4. FOR YOUR VOTE TO COUNT: Check your email for a message from The Webby Awards that says “Webby People’s Voice Confirmation”.
5. CLICK the “Make Your Voice Count” button.

That’s it — you’re done! On behalf of the Democracy Decoded team and everyone at Campaign Legal Center, thank you!

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