The Brennan Center for Justice, which is heavily financed by George Soros, is calling for Democrats to spend $250 million to educate voters about any changes that will allow vote-by-mail in the upcoming presidential election, advocating an advertising campaign about those changes in non-English languages.
The recommendations are part of the Brennan Center’s updated $4 billion nationwide funding blueprint for voting reform during the coronavirus pandemic.
Democrat lawmakers have cited the Brennan Center’s coronavirus voting plan as influencing their legislative proposals while the news media has routinely spotlighted the radical proposal.
With other Soros-financed groups, the Brennan Center has been leading a campaign advocating a “vote-by-mail” system in the upcoming presidential election, citing fears that coronavirus makes it too dangerous to vote in person. Some of the groups are using the coronavirus crisis to push permanent changes to the way Americans vote.
Analysts have posited that such proposals help the Democratic Party. Republicans specifically fear the prospect of voter fraud, since mail-in voting would be harder to authenticate.
The original Brennan Center coronavirus voting reform plan released last month was budgeted at $2 billion. This past week, the Center doubled that estimate to $4 billion explaining its original lower cost breakdown “did not include the cost of ensuring the safety and security of the many other statewide and local elections that will occur throughout 2020.”
The Brennan Center’s plan calls for a “universal vote-by-mail option for all voters.” The budget estimates $54 million to $89 million for increased ballot printing and $413 million to $593 million for extra postage costs.
To alert the public about changes to the voting method, the Brennan Center wants a $252.1 million public education campaign which “must include advertising in non-English languages.”
Brennan also wants $85.9 million to bolster online voter registration and it advocates implementing same-day registration. The Brennan blueprint allows for mail-in ballots to be processed prior to the close of polls on Election Day.
The document lobbies for polling place modification and preparation including “same-day registration, real-time address updates, and provisional balloting for certain individuals.” Brennan doesn’t define which “certain individuals” should receive same-day registration.
One section seeks the use of drop boxes to deposit ballots on voting day, calling for jurisdictions to “offer secure drop boxes in accessible locations for voters to drop off ballots directly.”
The plan doesn’t delineate rules for where such drop boxes could be located. Already California, Colorado, Oregon, and Washington use drop boxes statewide and have various locations set up that are not located at official in-person balloting stations.
The estimate allocates $82 million to $117 million for drop box purchase and installation and some $35 million to $47 million for operation and maintenance.
“Drop boxes must be equipped with adequate security measures, such as cameras,” the budget states without providing more specifics about security for the boxes.
Brennan also advocates expanded early voting, with states offering at least two weeks of early in-person voting or a minimum of five days.
“This would be a massive undertaking but I think it’s absolutely necessary to make sure that we are prepared to run our elections in November, and I think all the problems we have been having in primaries in the last few weeks is evidence we need to start now,” said Lawrence Norden, the director of Election Reform at the Brennan Center and one of the report’s authors.
Democrat Sens. Amy Klobuchar (MN) and Chris Coons (DE) cited the Brennan Center’s coronavirus voting plan in a letter to House and Senate leaders, urging extra funding for the scheme. Klobuchar and Coons are among over a dozen Democrat senators who introduced a bill last month to allow for the widespread mail-in ballots, along with other updated voting measures for the upcoming presidential election. Democrat Reps. Suzan DelBene (WA), Earl Blumenauer (OR), and Jamie Raskin (MD) introduced a companion bill in the House.
The Brennan Center for Justice, located at NYU School of Law, is heavily financed by Soros’s Open Society Foundations and is the recipient of numerous Open Society grants.
Breitbart News previously reported the Brennan Center was listed in leaked Open Society Foundations documents as receiving funds specifically earmarked for “litigation to expand access to registration and improve ease of voting.”
Alongside the Brennan Center are a slew of progressive groups tied to Soros money that are working overtime to push mail-in voting.
The Soros-funded Brennan Center’s mail-in ballot plan was weaponized by the Stand Up America activist group, which launched a nationwide program urging Americans to nudge Congress to fund the voting changes. The group’s activities reportedly resulted in more than 19,000 calls to congressional offices in one day alone.
Stand Up America is funded by the Sixteen Thirty Fund, which is managed by the shadowy Arabella Advisors, a for-profit consultancy funded by far-left donors. The Soros-funded Democracy Alliance recommended that donors invest several million dollars into Sixteen Thirty Fund.
The massively Soros-funded American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), which routinely partners with Brennan, has been pumping materials urging coronavirus voting legislation that pushes mail-in voting.
Soros’s Open Society Foundations donated $50 million to the ACLU. The Brennan Center has been the recipient of numerous grants from Soros’s Open Society Foundations totaling over $7,466,000 from 2000 to 2010.
Meanwhile, a coalition of progressive groups are reportedly mounting a multimillion-dollar campaign to not only change the presidential election system to mail-in voting during coronavirus, but to keep the mail-in balloting as part of the permanent way Americans will vote in the future.
The other groups in the mail-in advocacy coalition include the National Association of Non-Partisan Reformers, Public Citizen, Common Cause, National Vote at Home Institute and the Center for Secure and Modern Elections.
Common Cause is funded by Soros’s Open Society Foundations. So is Public Citizen.
The Center for Secure and Modern Elections is a project of the left-leaning New Venture Fund, which doesn’t disclose its donors.
The National Vote at Home Institute is partnered with the Soros-funded League of Women Voters, as well as the Soros-funded Common Cause.
The National Association of Non-Partisan Reformers lists its founding organization members as including FairVote. FairVote is a project of the Soros-funded Center for Voting and Democracy.
A recent Washington Post oped by election experts cited a study finding “people who vote by mail are significantly more likely to make mistakes than those who vote in person… Of course, people who vote in person may make mistakes — but they can more easily ask for help in correcting their ballots.”
Aaron Klein is Breitbart’s Jerusalem bureau chief and senior investigative reporter. He is a New York Times bestselling author and hosts the popular weekend talk radio program, “Aaron Klein Investigative Radio.” Follow him on Twitter @AaronKleinShow.
Joshua Klein contributed research to this article. Follow him on Twitter @JoshuaKlein_
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