Foreign Money in Elections: The Swiss Billionaire Behind 26 States | Jason Snead

[00:00:14] Welcome to The Jenny Beth Show. Jason Snead, welcome back to the show. I'm so glad you're with me today. Thanks for having me on again, Jenny Beth. Good to be with you. Well, let's start first with the poll worker training that you're doing so that people know the call to action. And then I want to talk about the other things that your organization, Honest Elections Project, are doing to help prepare for the 2027 state legislative sessions. Well, you know, one of the most impactful things that I think that my organization has been doing is to help prepare for the 2027 state legislative sessions.

[00:00:44] And what the organization has done over the last few election cycles is join with a coalition of other groups, including Tea Party Patriots and engage in grassroots trainings to get people signed up as poll workers. And for those who haven't done this before, you know, in order to run an election of any size, you need volunteers stepping forward to actually, you know, man the polling places, check people in, check IDs, handle ballots and make sure that the elections run. And that's where the urgent

[00:01:14] urgent need for poll workers comes in. You know, we've got thousands of precincts and voting locations all across the country and they have to be staffed, not just on election day, but during the whole early voting period. And then you've got tabulation to think about too. And so we've been, you know, leading this year, a, an effort to get poll workers trained in critical states where there's urgent need. We've already done three events as part of this, as part of this series, our coalition has in Texas, two events in Ohio.

[00:01:42] And on the 28th, we'll be going down to Georgia for the next in this particular event series. So if folks are interested in becoming a poll worker, these are great opportunities to get trained to learn what it actually looks like inside of an election, how the laws and the process function and what those job responsibilities would entail, while also getting the opportunity to hear from some of our elected officials.

[00:02:06] And of course, all of our coalition organizational partners about some of the critical election integrity issues that are facing our state. So we'll be, we'll be hitting Georgia on the 28th in the Atlanta area and Alpharetta. And then we'll be going out to Nevada and Wisconsin over the next month, giving people an opportunity again to, to learn how to work the polls. Or if you can't get a poll worker spot, how to become a poll observer, which is also a critically important position.

[00:02:34] So explain the difference between a poll worker and a poll observer or a poll watcher. Yeah. So these are, are, are two really important jobs that are really necessary if you're going to have a free and fair election, but they do very different things. If you're a poll worker, you're the person who is actually on site on staff, working the polls, making sure that the election actually goes off. Right.

[00:02:59] So you're responsible under the law for performing particular functions that include making sure that the voter who's checking in at a polling location is who he says he is, making sure that the ballots are being handled properly, making sure that if you're using electronic tabulators that they're functioning, you know, all of those sorts of things that go into actually working a polling location.

[00:03:18] If you're a poll observer, right? Sometimes they're called watchers or observers, terminology changes a little bit. Those are folks that are brought in to either do nonpartisan or partisan observations that are designed to make sure that elections have the transparency that we all expect them to have. So you're the folks that are also in polling locations, but your job is more to keep track of things, right? If you see something that maybe suggests that laws aren't being followed or corners are being cut,

[00:03:47] then you can take notes, you can watch and you can report it up the chain and then somebody else can take action to try to correct that. But, you know, those are two very different functions. Now, historically, conservative organizations and and the Republican Party have been very interested in getting people signed up as poll observers.

[00:04:06] But I think that actually what we need to be doing first and foremost is getting poll workers signed up. And there's a really reason for that. It's because if you are interested in secure elections, one of the best and most important things that we can do is make sure that people who are also interested in secure elections are the people who are actually working the polls, right? The left is out there right now trying to engage their base and get them into these positions to staff these places.

[00:04:35] I would much rather have folks that are interested in the rule of law and the security of elections actually making sure that nothing untoward is happening in the first place because they want to make sure that they're following the law. And so if you if you have the opportunity, I encourage people to sign up as poll workers. If you don't, if those positions are already full, then take a look at the observer programs that are offered because we need those.

[00:04:58] And especially in those states where you have longer early voting windows, the demands to recruit either workers or observers are huge because these are long days. And if you're talking about two or three weeks of voting, then you need people in those in those positions for a much longer period of time than a lot of people tend to think. Yeah, I the way that I normally talk about it is I will say that a poll worker is the one who if something goes wrong, they are allowed to talk.

[00:05:28] And when you can talk, you can oftentimes solve the problem on the spot and take care of it. So it never really becomes a big issue. You just something arises, a question arises, you take care of it and it's it's done. A poll watcher or observer can see that something's going wrong, then they have to go outside, call, report it in. And usually the solution winds up happening post-election.

[00:05:57] Sometimes it will happen right there at the precinct, but oftentimes that happens post-election. So the poll worker really is able to solve problems and prevent election, major election issues from arising. And then also, if are anyone from our audience is listening and watching from the state of Pennsylvania, they call the poll workers judges, I think, of elections and maybe even inspectors.

[00:06:24] Well, maybe inspectors is the wrong the wrong word, but they call them judges of elections, I think, in Pennsylvania. Yeah, the terminologies do change for each of these positions. And then, of course, within the poll worker segment, you've got different positions that you would be responsible for filling. So, you know, just so that nobody can can accuse me of false advertising here. These are often very long days that you're working.

[00:06:53] You know, we just did events in Ohio. And some of the positions that people are signing up for are positions that can have you on your feet in a polling location for 12 or 15 hours at a stretch because you have to work the entire essentially an entire day. It's not broken up by shifts.

[00:07:36] Elections, especially if you want elections where we have in-person voting like I know I do and probably most of the people in the conservative movement do. Well, that creates a demand for people actually working those precincts to make sure that it actually can happen.

[00:07:50] And so if we want those sorts of elections, if we want the voting experience to be easy, if we want it to be in-person, well, then we also, I think, have to put a little skin in the game ourselves and volunteer our time, even if it's hard, in order to make sure that we have enough people working those polling locations so that you can pull off an election. Because that's actually one of the arguments that you hear from the left for all mail, right, is that it's expensive and it's hard to keep all of those voting locations open.

[00:08:17] So let's take that argument away from the left by signing up as conservatives. I know a lot of us are very frustrated about the state of election security in a lot of places. This is one very tangible thing that we can all do in order to address those concerns, make sure elections are working, and make sure that people that are interested in the rule of law are making those decisions.

[00:08:39] Because to your point, Jenny Beth, right, you're not going in as a poll worker to, quote unquote, stop fraud, but you will probably stop things from happening just by being there and by being committed to doing it right. That's right. That's exactly right. And oftentimes, certainly I think fraud happens, so I'm not dismissing that fraud happens and deliberate misconduct happens.

[00:09:04] Sometimes it's just mistakes that happen, and that's one of the best things that poll workers can do is help prevent the mistake, like just fix the mistake on the fly so it is done. And it's pretty easy to do. I often give an example of it where it's like, oh, your next-door neighbor walks in and you're working the polls, and you're like, oh, hey, Jason, it's so good to see you. I'm so glad you're here. How are your kids?

[00:09:32] And you start processing it, and maybe you forget to ask for the voter ID. So you're sitting right next to them working the polls, and you're like, hey, don't forget the voter ID. You solve it right there, but you just got in a conversation because it's your next-door neighbor, and you're working the poll right in your own backyard. Sometimes those kind of mistakes happen, and that's where this is simple, innocuous example.

[00:09:58] But my point is that's how the people working the polls can solve the problem. If you're watching it and it happens, you're not allowed to talk. You're not allowed to interfere. So you have to go outside and make a call to the hotline, and by the time you do all that, the ballot may have already been cast. So it's very important to be the poll worker. And you're right. Those are long, long, long hours. But it's so important, and we need people to step up and do it.

[00:10:27] Yeah, that's right. I mean, it's a very long day, but it's a rewarding one. It's a rewarding one. It's something that a lot of people who volunteer for this, they will come back and they'll do it again and again because they consider it part of their civic duty. And I have a great deal of confidence in the conservative movement to be able to deliver these positions. There are areas of critical need.

[00:10:50] And again, even if your slots are already filled this year, then you should still come to these events because you can learn about this process. You can learn what a good and well-run election looks like. And then there's always going to be another election down the road where maybe those slots aren't going to be filled, and it would be fantastic to get more people volunteering so that we can lower that average age. We can expand the base of people who are doing the poll working in this country, and we can make sure that the left doesn't fill those positions because you know,

[00:11:20] nature abhors a vacuum and so does the left. They'll fill those positions with their people. And, you know, maybe when somebody forgets to check ID, that, you know, that guy is not going to lean over and say, hey, you forgot to check that person's ID. So we need to make sure that we have the folks there that are committed to following the law so that we can have a well-run election that we can all have confidence in. Absolutely. Okay, so you've got Georgia coming up and then also Wisconsin and Nevada, correct? That's right. That's right.

[00:11:49] So we're going to be next going to Reno and Las Vegas, and that's going to be September 11th for the Reno event and September 12th for the event in Las Vegas. And then we'll be up in Wisconsin in early October, Waukesha County on the 2nd and Brown County on the 3rd.

[00:12:09] And so these are going to be, again, fantastic opportunities for folks if you're in those areas, Reno, Vegas, Waukesha or Brown counties, for you to come out, learn about how elections are supposed to run. And also to engage with organizations like Tea Party Patriots, Heritage Action, Turning Point, Honest Elections and others.

[00:12:31] And actually get the latest on how the election integrity fight is shaping up both nationally and in your state. And we always have some invited speakers as well. We always try to get your elected officials in the room so you can hear and actually talk directly to them, which is hard to do these days in many cases. So we're going to have Congressman McCormick with us in Georgia, and then we've got some invites out for all of these events with some key election leaders.

[00:13:01] So they're good events, and we also give you free meals when you show up. So we're not just asking for your time. We're at least giving you some good food. We just had a really fantastic Chick-fil-A breakfast in the Columbus area at the Ohio event. So we'll have more information as we get closer to those next events. But the upcoming event on the 28th in Georgia in the evening, so there'll be a dinner program in Alpharetta.

[00:13:29] And you can find all the information for that at the Eventbrite website, HEPaction4.eventbrite.com if you want to RSVP. It is free. There will be a dinner and a great program. That's terrific, Jason. Very, very good. And I hope when you're in Wisconsin, that Congressman Brian Steele will be able to attend at least one of the events. He's been a huge advocate for the SAVE Act and then the SAVE America Act.

[00:13:58] So I'm hoping that he's able to make it. Yeah, he's been a real leader on these issues. And, I mean, as chair of the House Administration Committee, he's been a real leader on these issues. He's been a real fighter for election integrity, specifically with the SAVE Act and then the SAVE America Act. But he's got a lot of great policy proposals that have been put forward to try to fix some of the problems that have been caused by other federal laws in the election context.

[00:14:25] You know, the National Voter Registration Act has caused a lot of problems since it was implemented 30 years ago. And that's not just about proof of citizenship. Right. And I'm not saying that to diminish the importance of proof of citizenship. But, you know, we also need to remember that there are other problems with that law. So it's critical that we get proof of citizenship done and we get that done correctly. But there are a lot of other issues because of the way the National Voter Registration Act was written that make it harder to clean up the voter rolls and really put D.C.

[00:14:55] in a position of dictating to the states things that states should be able to do themselves. And, you know, that might sound kind of compelling in a way. Right. If we're saying, well, we could finally tell California how to conduct a proper election because they seem to always be dropping the ball. But the way that it's been twisted over the years through litigation and lawfare, it's really binding the hands of conservative states that are trying to move the ball forward on election integrity. So there's a lot of other things that we could be considering.

[00:15:23] And that particular issue has been one that Congressman Steele has been really leading on. So, well, we'll certainly hope to have him out there. I think it'd be a great opportunity to hear directly from him about what his future plans are as well. But regardless, it's been it's been good to see such committed leadership on these issues from him. Yes, absolutely. It is very good to see that committed leadership.

[00:15:47] And, you know, one thing that I think should happen and maybe it happens through the NVR. Maybe it happens through the NVR. Maybe it happens somewhere else. But here's something that really bothers me a lot. You register to vote now when you get your driver's license pretty much in every state, except for Alaska, who they they do register to vote when they get their driver's license.

[00:16:14] But they also have automatic voter registration through their state pipeline fund, their permanent fund dividend. And that's how they register people automatically. But in most other states who are doing automatic registration, it's through the driver's license office. And even if it's not automatic driver's license, automatically through the driver's license office because of the National Voter Registration Act.

[00:16:41] When you get your driver's license, you're asked if you want to register to vote and you can get registered right there. OK, so you do that and you go and you take your driver's license in and they cut it and they void out your driver's license that you like if you're renewing or you are you've moved and you've got to get a new license because you've moved. So that one is gone. It's no longer valid. And they give you a new one.

[00:17:06] And if you change states, they alert the other state that that old license is no longer valid. And now the person has a new license in a new place. You register to vote at the exact same place. And I think most people think when they register to vote and they say, yeah, I want to go ahead and register to vote. The same process that's voiding the driver's license is also voiding the voter registration.

[00:17:30] But it's not. And so you wind up staying registered in multiple counties within a single state or across multiple states if you've moved. And I think that's something that should be changed with the National Voter Registration Act. Since you're you're registering to vote there because of the federal government. It's just one of those things I think would help keep the voter rolls more clean. Well, I actually I agree with that 100 percent.

[00:17:58] And I think that there are some reforms that should be considered to the NVRA to basically allow or require that. But there's actually some reforms that can be done at the state level to make that possible. And that's actually something that we've been developing over here at Honest Elections Project is a model bill. And that model bill has been actually adopted by ALEC, the American Legislative Exchange Council, which is a group of conservative lawmakers as a model policy there as well.

[00:18:25] And essentially what this does is say, look, within the confines of the NVRA, you generally if you're dealing with people that have moved out of state, you're left with two ways to remove them. One is that if the voter requests to be removed, specifically requests to be removed or confirms that they've changed residence in writing, then you can immediately remove them.

[00:18:49] But if you can't, then what you're left with is a process where, you know, let's say that I move out of the state of Virginia and I don't vote in the next election. Well, then Virginia will send a postcard to my address. And if I don't respond, which most people don't to that postcard confirming if I'm still a resident, then Virginia has to wait two election cycles, which means it could be as long as four years before they can remove me. The problem here, of course, is that that means there is a constant, constant lag with our voter rolls.

[00:19:19] And when you consider that when you look at Census Bureau estimates, about 20 million voting eligible Americans move every single year. You're talking about a lot of people moving. You're talking about a lot of bloat that can build up on our rolls and states are basically incapable of keeping up with it. But, but there is some language in the NVRA that we think actually helps us here. So you'll recall when I was talking about the two track approach here, right?

[00:19:46] The first option is a voter can request to cancel or confirm in writing a change in residence. Well, I would argue because of the fact that you cannot register to vote without indicating that you are a resident of a new state, that to your point, registering in a new state is written confirmation of a change in residence.

[00:20:08] And so what that model bill that we developed does is say that states are going to start exchanging this information one on one so that if I move from Virginia to Ohio and register to vote in Ohio, Ohio can tell Virginia, send the information that they need to get a hard match. And then Virginia can immediately remove me under the terms of the NVRA. There are a few states that do this. They act on voter registration information. They act on driver's license information.

[00:20:37] And we think that every state should be doing this. It's a common sense thing that can make it dramatically easier for states to clean up their voter rolls. And this is going to be one of those opportunities where when one state helps another by sending the information out, they'll also get it back, which means that now you've got two states that can clean up their rolls and do it much, much more quickly. So this is exactly the sort of common sense thing that so far hasn't been done. And we want to help push next year to get some laws passed in order to make sure that it does.

[00:21:07] Well, Jason, so let's shift over to the things you're going to be working on in state legislative sessions next year. That's one of the places where your group really focuses in on and hones in on. My group at Tea Party Patriots Action, we focus on Capitol Hill most often because we're supporting people around the entire country. And it's easier to keep a singular message across the country.

[00:21:33] But you are focused in on state level action and you've got legislative sessions coming up. So state legislatures are going to be meeting again beginning in January. And you've got several really good things on the horizon with that. Tell us about this. That's right. So state legislative seasons tend to work a little differently than what we see in Congress. So they're usually shorter. They usually start in January.

[00:22:00] And depending on the state, they could end in any time between March and June. So it's much more of a sprint than a marathon. And what we have learned over the last few years is that there is a lot of opportunity in our state houses all across the country. If you're talking about election issues in particular, states are where the majority of the action is. Under the Constitution, states are the primary regulator for elections.

[00:22:26] So most of the laws, most of the procedures, most of the rules that actually govern voting in the United States are developed and implemented at the state and local level. So I've always thought it was critically important that we engage in states. And through our both C3 and C4 operations, we do policy development, we do advocacy, and we do lobbying in states across the country to try to move the ball forward.

[00:22:52] And next year, we're really going to be focused on four key priorities. First is going to be getting states to pass their own versions of the SAVE Act, right? We need states adopting laws that require upfront proof of citizenship to vote. And we need that because the SAVE Act may not pass in its full form.

[00:23:12] But even if it does, I think we need to be prepared for the potential of a future democratic presidency and a future democratic Congress to act in ways that might wind up undoing some of that work. So we need to be prepared at the state level with additional defenses, right? A layered defense or a defense in depth. Choose your terminology.

[00:23:34] But we need to have those independent laws in place to protect our elections if D.C. ever becomes hostile to election integrity like it was in 21 and 22 when they tried to blow up the filibuster to pass H.R.1 and rewrite the nation's voting laws and turn us all into California. The other thing that we're going to be really focused on is helping states clean up their voter rolls with that interstateless maintenance package that we were just talking about a moment ago, right?

[00:24:00] Making it possible for states to act on information from another state that somebody has registered to vote so that they can actually go in and clean up their rolls quickly and immediately. And that's going to do two things. First, that's going to help conservative states get additional information so that they can clean up their voter rolls. The other thing that's going to do is make it harder for our blue states to pretend this isn't a problem, right?

[00:24:25] Because if you look at population shifts and demographic shifts, where are people moving from and where are they moving to? They're moving from places like California and New York and they're moving to places like Florida and Texas. And so what we're going to see is that when a lot of people move into Texas and Florida or other red states and they register to vote, those red states are going to be in a position to start alerting blue states.

[00:24:50] Hey, there are tens or hundreds of thousands of people that have registered to vote in our state. And because of the laws that we just changed, not only do we want to act on that information, but those voters are when they sign on the dotted line requesting to be canceled. Now, I don't think that California is going to want to act on that.

[00:25:07] But suddenly it's going to be a new opportunity for our organizations to put additional pressure on politicians in New York and California and other blue states to admit that they've got serious problems with their voter rolls because now they're getting all of these requests to cancel from red states and they aren't acting on them. So it's about shifting the window of opportunity here, building pressure on the left by forcing them through the weight of facts to admit that they've got big problems.

[00:25:35] And the third thing that we're going to be doing is getting foreign money out of politics. This is one of the biggest problems that we have seen manifest in recent years, and it's also been one of the biggest fights. So we've actually had 11 states now pass laws to ban foreign money in the ballot measure process after we developed a bill to deal with this when we realized that the left is basically taking in foreign money hand over fist, laundering it through 501c4s on the left, and then spending money on ballot measures.

[00:26:03] So there's a group on the left called the 1630 Fund. They're one of the biggest supporters of these ballot measure campaigns that have rewritten state election laws, abortion, raise the minimum wage, all of the things that are on the left. And while they were spending $130 million in 26 states to push a left-wing agenda at the ballot, they were also taking in almost $300 million from a Swiss billionaire. And so that's just one example of this problem.

[00:26:31] But there is a huge problem where foreign nationals are laundering money through the left into American politics, and they are using ballot measure campaigns as one of the most immediate ways to change the laws in this country. And that's something that needs to stop. So we've done that in 11 states, and we're going to keep pushing. And then finally, we know there are a lot of states with good laws, but they can be better. And so we're working with states on what we call our Easy Wins Program.

[00:26:58] These are our opportunities to improve and fix your laws so that if you, say, have a voter ID law, but it doesn't have a true photo ID requirement, well, my team can come in and work with you to actually make sure that it does. So there's a lot of opportunity in our states, and I think we've had a lot of successes so far, but there's always more work to be done, and we can't afford to take our photo off the gash right now. No, we really can't. So, Jason, a couple of things about what you were just saying with each of these.

[00:27:28] Let's start with the state version of the proof of citizenship. Part of the reason, well, the reason that I asked Mike Lee, Senator Mike Lee, to create what ultimately became the SAVE Act was because of the Supreme Court ruling that affected the state of Arizona. So the state of Arizona allowed proof of citizenship. They got challenged. It went to the Supreme Court.

[00:27:55] The Supreme Court came back and said, you must accept the form from the National Voter Registration Act because it stems from the National Voter Registration Act, federal law. Federal law is supreme law of the land. And that form only has a simple checkbox. So the state of Arizona now has bifurcated their ballot.

[00:28:13] If you show proof of citizenship, you get everything on the ballot, president, Senate, Congress, governor, lieutenant governor, all the way down to the precinct committee, ma'am, which is their most local office. If you haven't shown proof of citizenship, you still get to vote for president, Senate and Congress. So in these states where you're passing the state version of the voter ID, which I think is very important to do. I'm not saying it is not.

[00:28:42] I think it's very important to do that. How do you overcome that Supreme Court case? Well, you can't at the state level. And that's why you need to that's why you really need to have the SAVE Act. Right. Right. But my point about the defense in depth is that if if we either can't get the SAVE Act across the finish line because the Democrats are refusing to vote for really anything, even voter ID. Right. Even something as simple as voter ID, which 90 percent of Americans agree with both voter ID and proof of citizenship.

[00:29:11] So if you can't get that done or if you get it done, but a future Congress can turn it off, well, then our states are left exposed to non-citizen voting again. And so what we want to do is work in the states to pass an Arizona style plan. And again, we've got a model bill on this. It's based on what Arizona does with some improvements that have been developed as a result of the lessons that have been learned implementing Arizona.

[00:29:35] But what it says is that if you are registering to vote in a state through any process except that federal form, then we want you to show upfront proof of citizenship or we aren't going to process your registration. Right. These back end checks are cumbersome. They are difficult. They are imprecise. So we want to put the onus on you to give us the documents that we need in order to make sure that you are a citizen. And that's not a difficult thing to do. Right. Millions of people already do this at the DMV.

[00:30:05] If you have a real ID in your pocket right now, you have already demonstrated citizenship or lawful presence. Right. So you've got the documents in your possession. There are millions of American citizens that have already done what you need to do in order to prove citizenship.

[00:30:21] This isn't very difficult. But under the terms of our model bill, if you are using that federal form and you're checking that box and you don't provide proof of citizenship, then what you do is you try to verify citizenship. And if you can't, you make them a federal only voter, which means that eventually, unless they cure with a birth certificate or something else that proves their citizenship, unless they cure that ballot, you're only going to get to vote for Congress.

[00:30:48] And that's because of the fact that we have this federal law and we have this Supreme Court ruling that really misinterprets that law. But nevertheless, it is there and we have to sort of work within that framework. So what we need is the Save America Act. We would love a court case that overturns that intertribal council ruling in the Supreme Court that you were talking about.

[00:31:08] And then we need our states to act so that no matter what happens in the future, at the very least, you can protect your presidential elections and you can protect your state and local elections from the risk of non-citizen voting. OK, that sounds like a reasonable plan. It is, of course, if people are watching this, they're going to be like, no, we want the Save America Act. And you and I both want the Save America Act. A hundred percent.

[00:31:33] And I am on very strong ground saying that because I'm the one who asked Senator Mike Lee to write it in the first place. And we've been around the entire country on bus tours. I counted up the states I've been to advocating for the Save America Act. I think I'm at 27 or 28 states in the last two and a half years working on the Save America Act. So I clearly want it passed to the federal level.

[00:32:00] And also, whether it's passed or whether we have to keep working on it to get it passed to the state level, what you're saying here makes a lot of sense. It's a layered defense and making sure that we are ready to go if the change of Congress and the change of who controls the White House happens and they overturn the Save America Act if it got enacted.

[00:32:24] This is a way to just make sure we are still going to ensure only American citizens are voting in our elections. I think it's a brilliant way to handle this very real and very big problem in our country, Jason. Yeah, we're rooting along with you for the Save America Act. And I can't claim to have been in 27 states. I think that's incredible work that you're doing there, Jenny Beth.

[00:32:50] But we are certainly 100 percent committed to getting the Save America Act done. But I got to tell you, I have been in this fight long enough to know that we need to have multiple arrows in our quiver. We need our states passing these laws. And the other thing that passing these types of laws will do is show just how common sense this is, right? I mean, voter ID, for instance. It would be great, again, if we get the Save America Act to require this nationwide.

[00:33:17] But as it is, you've got 36 states that have voter identification requirements. So those aren't all photo ID laws. But you can't tell me that it is some radical, crazy idea if 85 or 90 percent of the American public supports this and 36 states have laws on the books to say, well, at a minimum, you have to show me something to show that you are who you say you are. Let's keep in mind, it only takes 38 states to amend the Constitution. So that's how close to just common sense supermajority that is.

[00:33:47] And so as we get more states passing these independent proof of citizenship laws, it's going to be even harder for the left to insist that somehow this is some sort of crazy radical idea. Yeah, you're exactly right about that.

[00:34:01] And I, one thing that I found very interesting is that when I talk to people in one of those states that already has voter ID and you talk about the Save America Act and you explain what's in it and that there's voter ID in it, they're like, but wait, we already have that. And then you have to explain, well, yes, your state, my state has voter ID, but these other states don't. And they're like, oh, they totally need to pass this.

[00:34:30] So even and that happens, I've had that happen even with liberal Democrats. They're like, well, yeah, of course you need voter ID. And this isn't controversial. It's common sense. That's right. And and that's why you see when we do polling, right, 66 percent or so of Democrats will say, yeah, you should have to show an ID.

[00:34:50] More than 70 percent of minority voters say that you should have to show ID, which just completely debunks these claims from the left that somehow these are are radical or discriminatory policies. Every time Chuck Schumer says he's for voter ID, he always votes against it in the Senate. Right. And I think that the more of those sorts of things that we can point to, the easier it is for us to make sure that the American people understand just how how far out of step the left really is and how radical they are.

[00:35:20] It's not radical to say, show me an ID to vote. It's radical to say, don't show me an ID to vote. And that no matter what they say, no matter what the talking point is, that is where the left is today. Now, one other thing about this point that you just made about people saying, well, we already have a voter ID in my state. We see that, too, but we see it in a slightly different context.

[00:35:41] Sometimes I'll meet with legislators in states across the country and I'll be talking to them about ways they can improve their laws and I'll get something similar. Well, we already clean up the voter rolls. We already have citizenship checks, but they're back end checks, not front end checks. Or we already have voter ID laws. You know, George is a good example of this, a pretty strong photo identification requirement. But there are exemptions in the law that allow somebody to vote without showing an ID.

[00:36:09] I think it's time to get rid of those exemptions. Ohio just did that. The only exemption that you have in Ohio to showing a photo ID to vote in person is a religious exemption, which I understand. And support. But we have states like Texas and Georgia and others that have hardship exemptions or something similar that basically allows somebody to check a box and say, because of a hardship, I couldn't get an ID. And then you vote a regular ballot.

[00:36:33] Those are holdovers from litigation or from the reality that we used to have to preclear these sorts of laws through the Justice Department prior to the Shelby County opinion from the Supreme Court. And I think it's time to take a close look at that. In fact, my team has already done that and and get rid of those exemptions and recognize that in 2026, it is time to say, show me an ID or you don't vote. I think that 90 percent of Americans would agree with you on that.

[00:37:02] I don't think this is as controversial as Chuck Schumer wants to pretend that it is. OK, now, what about foreign money and elections and out of politics? And you said you've got 11 states who've already passed this and one person largely has been funding things related to it. What's going on with that? Yeah. So this is one of the most interesting, high opening things that I've learned in the last few years.

[00:37:30] So let's let's start by looking back a few decades when Congress passed a law to make it illegal for net for foreign nationals to contribute to political campaigns in the United States. And that's a very common sense thing. It I mean, I think that we all understand if you're running for political office, we want you to be accountable to the American public and to the American voters, not to people overseas that have, you know, potentially ulterior motives, might not be looking out for the best interests of the United States.

[00:37:59] So for decades, it has been illegal for foreign nationals to contribute to candidate campaigns or to PACs. And that's a really good firewall that helps to make sure that we we don't wind up getting into a weird sort of perverse incentive structure where candidates are campaigning based on the interests of people overseas. But there's an exemption in that law because that law does not cover ballot issue campaigns. It only works for candidates.

[00:38:26] But an issue campaign is considered part of state legislative function. And so that federal law doesn't apply when you're talking about something like a constitutional referral from your state legislature or a citizen initiative. And, you know, we have some states that have citizen initiatives, some that don't. Almost every state has them at the local level. Right. These local measures that citizen groups can put on the ballot. But the point is that that's not covered.

[00:38:51] And so what we discovered was that there are groups on the left that are taking money from foreign nationals and then spending in these ballot measure campaigns. The biggest example of this is a group called the 1630 Fund, which has taken about three hundred million dollars from a Swiss billionaire. His name is Hans-Jörg Wies. Sounds like a Bond villain, but he is a real guy. And he is one of the biggest political donors to left wing causes in the United States.

[00:39:18] He's not a citizen. He's he's actually said he never wanted to be a citizen of the United States, but he wants to meddle in our politics. And so he's given about three hundred billion dollars to this one left wing group. And while he's been doing that, they have been spending one hundred and thirty million dollars driving left wing ballot measures in twenty six states. And so this is a huge pipeline for foreign money coming into our politics. And we wanted to get that out. So we've been working with states.

[00:39:45] We started with Ohio, where the 1630 Fund was spending heavily in 2024 to advance a ballot measure to take control of the state's redistricting process. Right. So here you've got foreign tied money driving a ballot measure to decide who's going to control Congress in the United States. It's absurd. So we started working with Ohio. We got Ohio lawmakers to pass a ban on foreign money. Every Democrat in the Ohio legislature, by the way, voted against that.

[00:40:14] That shows you how committed they are to keeping the foreign money flowing when it serves their political interests. But we got it done in Ohio. And then over the last couple of years, we've got it done in 10. More states. Every state should be passing this ban to make sure that foreign nationals cannot contribute to these campaigns and that groups that are taking money from foreign nationals cannot contribute to these campaigns either. We don't want to make it easy to launder money through.

[00:40:40] We want to make it as difficult as possible for this sort of foreign influence to creep into our political process. That's one of those things which is extremely popular. It is bipartisan and it should be bipartisan. We should all agree only American citizens should be voting in American elections and only American citizens should be influencing American elections. Yeah, I don't think that that would be an issue at all if it was polled. Maybe you've already polled on it.

[00:41:06] But I think that the majority, super majority of Americans would agree with this and want only American citizens funding American elections. It's crazy that every single Democrat in the state of Ohio voted against this initiative. And it just tells you where where they are. And they're out of step where the American people want them to be.

[00:41:32] Yeah, that story in Ohio was was really one of the most shocking examples I've seen recently of just how far out there the left is and how willing to throw their own quote unquote principles under the bus the moment that they become inconvenient. Because after all, we were told for about a decade up to this point, you know, oh, my gosh, there are elections being stolen with Russian collusion and foreign interference.

[00:41:55] But that was just a way to attack Donald Trump the moment that we actually came with receipts to show that there were millions of dollars in foreign money being laundered into this ballot measure process. Well, they all threw up their hands and said, you can't prove it. There's nothing to see here and we don't want to ban it because, of course, they were hoping that they would get that money and that money would help them pass this redistricting measure that promised to flip between three and six congressional seats in Ohio.

[00:42:21] So Democrats were quite literally trying to buy a majority of the Ohio congressional delegation. And we see how tight the margins are in Congress today in the House of Representatives. Three to six seats could have changed which party controls Congress and they were willing to use foreign tide money to do it. But it gets even worse than that, because when we got this bill done, it got done in a special session.

[00:42:45] And the governor of Ohio called that special session and said, we're going to fix the problem with Ohio law to make sure that the Democratic presidential nominee could be on the Ohio ballot because the Democratic convention came too late that year under Ohio law to make the ballot. So we're going to fix this problem and we're going to get this foreign money problem done.

[00:43:07] And they were willing to tank the ability of their own presidential nominee to be on the Ohio ballot in order to keep the money flowing. That shows you how committed they are to this when their political agenda is on the line. They are willing to use foreign money to help them.

[00:43:24] And when we got the law done, you also had Mark Elias, who happens to be Hans-Jord Wies' attorney, suing to overturn that law, arguing that, in fact, foreign nationals have a right to interfere in American politics. It's absolutely absurd. Yeah, it is absolutely absurd. I can't imagine that the Supreme Court would say that that's OK. Maybe I'm wrong.

[00:43:50] I don't know where a foreign national would have that kind of right or privilege to be able to do that. I mean, right now they have the privilege to do it because states are allowing it. But it should definitely not be a right that they are granted somehow. So I'm glad that you are working on this. And I have a feeling most people haven't heard of this man from Switzerland.

[00:44:16] And you're saying he is very, very much behind this. Is he doing this in other places? I would imagine when people heard you said one person, they immediately thought of George Soros. But that's not who you said. Well, that's right. There's there's more than more than a few left wing mega donors that have been spending heavily to influence our politics. Hans-Jord Wies, the Swiss billionaire, is one of the biggest. And most people have never heard of him. He likes to operate behind the scenes.

[00:44:45] He appreciates his anonymity. That's why one of the things that we've been really trying to do is make sure that he is no longer anonymous. And he has given overall about half a billion dollars to left wing causes. He's he's big on environmental issues. He's big on social issues. And of course, he's been giving a lot of money to the 1630 fund, which has been spending on these ballot measures. And so he's decided, even though he doesn't want to become an American citizen, that he thinks he has a right to meddle in our political affairs. And I don't think that he does.

[00:45:15] I don't think that he has a right to do that. And to your point, I think that the courts are agreeing with us. Mark Elias tried to defeat this law in Ohio. He failed. He tried to defeat this law in Kansas in front of what he thought was a friendly judge. Right. It was it was a liberal judge.

[00:45:32] And even the liberal judge threw the case out immediately in the district court, which is usually where Mark Elias gets his wins, saying that this is common sense that a state legislature can say foreign nationals and foreign funded groups cannot interfere in the American political process. Yeah, it is completely common sense. I'm glad the judge was smart enough to see that.

[00:45:55] OK, the the last one we talked about cleaning the voter rolls before you mentioned mentioned that as part of your your four points. But when you're talking about making good laws better, you talked about Ohio. What are other states where you can show a few more examples of that? Yeah. So one of the problems that we sometimes run into is this sense of, well, we've already taken care of this problem.

[00:46:22] Right. You know, we we've already tightened up our voter I.D. law once. We've already made it easier to clean up the voter rolls. We've already brought in, you know, new data sets to help prevent noncitizens from voting. Or we've mandated that you've got to use the save program at the federal level. We really don't need to do anything else.

[00:46:39] And one of the biggest things that, you know, Jenny Beth, I know that you and Tea Party Patriots and Heritage Action and a number of other organizations have been pushing is the need for conservatives to stay engaged in this fight and to recognize that there is no silver bullet and that we cannot afford, even when it's tempting for political reasons to to say, well, we did election integrity last year. This year we want to do three other important things.

[00:47:03] We have to do election integrity every year and we have to recognize that our laws, even when they're good, are usually not as good as they can be. Right. So voter I.D. is a good example of this. If your state has a voter I.D. law, but it is not a true photo I.D. requirement. Right. Show a driver's license or a state issue I.D. or a passport, a government issued document that has your photo and your name on it or else you don't vote.

[00:47:30] Then you don't have the strongest law that you can have. Many states will have exemptions baked into them. Many states will have alternatives for non photo I.D. baked into them. We want to get rid of that and say, bring an I.D. to the polls. And if you don't have an I.D., we'll give you a provisional ballot. You vote that you come back and you show us your I.D. And then we'll count that ballot. That's the way to go. Ohio has moved towards that standard. They've got one of the strongest in-person voter I.D. laws in the country now.

[00:47:58] And they've shown that not only can you do it, but you can then enact that law and it's going to survive. Right. There's going to be court challenges, but we should not be afraid of that. Proof of citizenship is another one. We want upfront proof of citizenship because back in checks don't always work. We want to make sure that we're getting the documents that you need to verify eligibility at the beginning of the process, not trying to do this at the end. And there are many states that say, well, we do the citizenship checks. We've got this problem under control.

[00:48:28] But you don't. And there are a lot of those sorts of things, right? Basic stuff in the election integrity space that states think they've already resolved, but they really haven't. And what we want to do is make sure that they understand that they can make a few tweaks. They can get an easy win. And then they will have a much, much stronger law that aligns much more closely with what the norm and best practice actually should be.

[00:48:54] And then, of course, there's a lot of work that can be done in states that have things like automatic voter registration, which should be banned, ballot harvesting, which must be eliminated. There are things like that that states can tackle. And again, we want to make sure that people understand what is the right way to do this and that we always need to be fighting. Those are excellent, excellent items that you're working on. And also, what about voter ID for mail-in ballots, Jason? Yeah.

[00:49:22] So this is one of the most important areas going forward that states need to focus on because we're never going to get rid of mail voting altogether, right? We're always going to have service members serving overseas, people that are absent, people that are disabled, and seniors that want to vote by mail. And so I'm all in favor of getting rid of all mail elections. I never think that you should have a state mailing somebody a ballot unless they have requested it, right? That's a very basic thing.

[00:49:48] You certainly shouldn't be doing what California is doing where they're mailing a ballot to everybody on their voter rolls. That is a terrible practice. That invites fraud. And that's a huge waste of taxpayer money on top of all of that. But what we want to do is we want to secure those mail ballots to the maximum extent possible. So that means getting rid of drop boxes. That means getting rid of ballot harvesting. If you need somebody's assistance, that should be somebody that you actually know and trust, right? It should be your husband, your wife.

[00:50:17] It should be your parents. Something like that. Not somebody that happens to work for one of the political parties or one of the political campaigns or one of the left's nonprofits coming to your door and, you know, quote unquote, helping you, right? We want to make sure that we're limiting ballot harvesting. And we want to get voter ID requirements on the ballot as well. A lot of times the way that states do it, if they do any kind of identity verification at all, is they'll use a signature to try to verify identity. But the problem with that is that signature matching is subjective, right?

[00:50:47] And so if you're looking at a signature, you can have two people that disagree about whether it's valid. And a lot of states will use signature matching, particularly on the left, will use signature matching. And if they can't get a signature verified on the first round, they'll bounce it up to another person. And if that person won't sign off on that signature, then they'll bounce it up to another person. And eventually somebody is going to say, yes, that's a valid signature. So it's not really verification. Signature verification is imprecise. It's unreliable.

[00:51:14] It can reject a valid ballot and it can allow a fraudulent one in. And so what we want to do is move towards a voter ID standard. And one of the easiest ways to do this is to write your driver's license number on a ballot. And then when you get the ballot in, you can do both the signature comparison and the number comparison, right? And if all of that information checks out and the ID number matches what is in your voter file,

[00:51:39] then you can reliably say that that mail ballot has been cast by the person who says that they are casting this ballot. There are a couple of different ways to do this. There's the one alternative to do photocopies. Sometimes it's photocopy plus a notary or the driver's license number approach. There are a few different ways to do this. But the point is that we want to move from subjective signature matching to objective voter ID for mail ballots as well. That's great, Jason.

[00:52:08] Well, Jason, how can people find you and find out more about the work that you're doing and follow it? Well, you can check out the website, honestyelections.org. That's got all of the model bills that we've been talking about. We're actually in the process of uploading a whole new batch of model policies on things like eliminating vote harvesting, setting a maximum of one week for early voting so that we actually get closer to election day instead of election season like the left wants.

[00:52:37] And you can find out all the latest about the news of the organization and our activities as well. You can also follow us on X or on Facebook at Honesty Elections, or you can follow me at Jason W. Sneed. I'm pretty active on X, and you can see all the latest of what we're doing, where we're fighting, and where we're engaged. And the best part about my job is that I get to go to the stage just like you do and work directly with people on the ground,

[00:53:04] with the grassroots, with lawmakers to fight to make it easier to vote and harder to cheat. And that is something that really, really not only is critical but depends on the continued engagement of conservative activists and the conservative grassroots to make sure that we cannot and never will take our eye off the ball. Absolutely. Jason, I am so glad you're doing such amazing work with Honest Elections Project. Thank you so much for joining me today, Jason Sneed. Thank you, Jenny Beth. Great to be with you.

[00:53:33] If you enjoyed today's conversation, go ahead and hit like and subscribe. It really helps us reach more people who care about liberty and the Constitution. You can find this and other episodes at JennyBethShow.com, as well as Facebook, YouTube, Rumble, Instagram, X, and your favorite podcast platform. The Jenny Beth Show is hosted by Jenny Beth Martin. The Jenny Beth Show is a production of Tea Party Patriots Action.

[00:54:00] For more information, visit teapartypatriots.org.