Recent FEC Ruling That Foreign Interests Can Finance Referendum Campaigns In U.S. Would Be Overturned By Freedom To Vote Act Pending In Senate
The Federal Election Commission (FEC) recently ruled that foreign governments, foreign corporations, and other foreign interests can finance referendum campaigns in the United States.
This interpretation of the existing foreign ban on influencing elections in the country has opened the door to unlimited foreign spending to influence high-profile policy issues on ballot initiatives, which often may be the same issues being fought out in candidate campaigns.
In dismissing an enforcement case against a Canadian corporation that was alleged to have made donations to a Montana ballot initiative committee, the FEC held that a referendum campaign is not an “election” within the meaning of the current statutory ban on foreign national contributions or expenditures in connection with U.S. “elections.”
The Freedom to Vote Act, the voting rights, anti-corruption legislation pending in the Senate, however, will close this loophole.
“The last thing we want is China, Russia, Iran, or any other foreign country being able to spend money on their own propaganda to influence important policy decisions being made by the voters in a state,” Democracy 21 President Fred Wertheimer said. “Fortunately, the sponsors of the For the People Act in the House and its successor in the Senate – the Senator Manchin compromise Freedom to Vote Act – foresaw the potential danger of this foreign intervention occurring and the legislation would prevent it.”
Section 6004 of the Freedom to Vote Act amends the term “Federal, State, or local election” in the existing ban on foreign spending in U.S. elections to include “a State or local ballot initiative or referendum” if the spending is by a “foreign principal.” A “foreign principal” includes a foreign corporation, partnership or association, as well as a foreign government or foreign political party, or any of their agents. The term also includes any individual who is outside the United States and who is not a U.S. citizen.
Thus, under the reform contained in the Freedom to Vote Act, the existing ban on spending by foreign nationals to influence U.S. elections will be strengthened to prohibit foreign governments, corporations, and other foreign interests from spending money to influence state ballot initiative campaigns, such as the one at issue in the recent FEC decision.
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