Conservative think tank leader calls for banning charities from voter registration efforts

(USA Today)– A conservative think tank leader has called for banning the charitable sector from registering voters amid growing restrictions on access at the polls.

Scott Walter, president of the Capital Research Center think tank, accused the Voter Participation Center − a voter registration nonprofit − of breaking the rules by acting with a partisan slant toward Democrats, citing Republican lawmakers’ calls for the Internal Revenue Service to investigate.

“Alas, the IRS’s history shows it’s unlikely to investigate much less punish VPC,” Walter wrote in RealClearPolitics. “The only solution is for Congress to simplify the law by forbidding the entire charitable sector to register voters.”

After widespread misinformation spread by Donald Trump that the 2020 election was stolen, many states have passed laws that restrict voter access by changing guidelines on absentee voting, early voting and voting on Election Day. Most of those states have Republican-led legislatures.

There have also been several states that have passed laws restricting the activity of third-party voter registration groups with burdensome rules.

“We’ve become the target because we’re good at what we do,” said Tom Lopach, president and CEO of the Voter Participation Center, in an interview with USA TODAY. “We are good at increasing the electorate with eligible Americans, and they don’t like all Americans voting.”

The Voter Participation Center and Center for Voter Information are non-profit, non-partisan organizations founded in 2003 to help members of the New American Majority – unmarried women, people of color and young people – register and vote. Since then, the organizations have helped over 6 million people register and cast ballots.