Posted on 11/02/2021 11:33:20 AM PDT by bitt
The Federal Election Commission has ruled foreign donors can finance U.S. referendum campaigns, opening the door to foreign spending on fights over high-profile policy issues, Axios has learned.
Why it matters: Foreign nationals are barred from donating to U.S. political candidates or committees. But the FEC's decision — allowing them to support ballot committees — provides another avenue for foreigners to directly influence U.S. voters and domestic policy.
A major question stemming from the decision is whether foreign nationals are now permitted to spend money to influence the actual mechanisms of the U.S. democratic process.
That would include congressional redistricting, which is frequently subject to ballot referenda.
The FEC's ruling did not address that question, meaning it will likely be litigated in future fights at the commission.
The decision only concerns federal law; states remain free to outlaw foreign funding for state-registered ballot committees.
Seven states already do so.
In Maine, where a Canadian-owned power company is financing a ballot committee pushing for new energy transmission lines, Gov. Janet Mills, a Democrat, recently vetoed legislation to ban foreign ballot measure funding.
Driving the news: In a 4-2 vote in July, the FEC ruled ballot initiatives are not "elections" under existing federal law, and therefore the foreign donation prohibition doesn't apply.
Two sources familiar with the decision told Axios that FEC chair Shana Broussard, a Democrat, voted with the panel's three Republicans to dismiss the underlying complaint. It alleged illicit foreign funding for a ballot committee in Montana.
The big picture: There are already 61 referenda on state ballots in 2022, according to electoral research service Ballotpedia. The decision has the potential to affect not just policy initiatives, but the mechanics of U.S. democracy itself.
(Excerpt) Read more at axios.com ...
h/t grey_whiskers
Ping.
Well we already allow Mexicans to vote in US elections.
Alive and dead.
There! Fixed it.
The ultimate remedy for unconstitutionally big, Democratic-pirated federal and state governments that are oppressing everybody under their boots...
Consider that all the states can effectively “secede” from the unconstitutionally big federal government by doing the following.
Patriots need to primary federal and state elected officials who don't send voters email ASAP that clearly promises to do the following.
Federal and state lawmakers need to promise in their emails to introduce resolutions no later than 100 days after start of new legislative sessions that proposes an amendment to the Constitution to the states, the amendment limited to repealing the 16th and ill-conceived 17th Amendments.
Insights welcome.
The communist cancer has spread to all organs...
bkmk
We are really circling the drain a little more every day
Kyle Reese: It cant be bargained with, it cant be reasoned with, it doesn’t feel pity or remorse or fear, and it absolutely will not stop... EVER, untill you are dead!
Another hive of enemies.
...or, like the Obama campaigns, they have American citizens and companies violate campaign finance laws by sending money overseas to have it return as donations from separate Visa and American Express gift cards.
and hold office
The FEC can take their new buzzword of ‘transnationalism’ and this new soverienty-chipping policy and shove it where even worms can’t find it
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