INSTITUTE INDEX: Millions of dollars wasted on election denial
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) launched an $1.1 million election police force in 2021, part of a broader effort to fuel election denial narratives. (Image is a still from official video.)
Number of Southern states where Republican election deniers were on the ballot this year for U.S. House, Senate, and key state offices that oversee elections: 11
Estimated amount a handful of mega-donors spent backing these and other election-denying candidates nationally: over $71 million
Amount Michael Rydin, CEO of a Texas construction software company with ties to the Conservative Partnership Institute, contributed to election-denying secretary of state candidate Jody Hice's failed primary run in Georgia: $12,000
Total amount spent by conservative business-supply billionaires Richard and Elizabeth Uihlein of Illinois to support secretary of state candidates who challenged the results of the 2020 presidential election: $63 million
Amount the Uihleins donated to Hice, who lost to Republican incumbent Brad Raffensperger, a non-denier who went on to win the general election: $12,000
Amount Save America, a PAC formed by Donald Trump days after the 2020 presidential election, donated to election-denying secretary of state candidates in three states, including Georgia: $17,000
Of the six election-denying candidates who ran for secretary of state in key battleground states nationally, including Georgia, percent who lost: 100
Number of states that after the 2020 election began funding law enforcement units to investigate alleged voter fraud in an effort to fuel the election-denial narrative: 3
Number of those states that are in the South: 3*
In Georgia, number of investigations launched by the Georgia Bureau of Investigation under a new law giving the agency authority to initiate probes of alleged election fraud without a request from election officials: 0
Amount the Save America PAC has given to the campaigns of election-denying candidates for governor as well as super PACs that support them in Arizona and Georgia, where incumbent Democratic U.S. Sen. Raphael Warnock faces Republican election denier Herschel Walker in a Dec. 6 runoff election: $3.1 million
Budget for Florida's new Office of Election Crimes and Security, which to date has arrested 20 of the state's 14.4 million registered voters for allegedly breaking state election laws: $1.1 million
Amount Virginia's NAACP paid for access to records related to the creating, staffing, and finances of the state's new Election Integrity Unit, which was conceived by Attorney General Jason Miyares to investigate and prosecute violations of Virginia election law: $20,000
Number of known investigations Miyares' new unit has launched to date: 0
* Florida, Georgia, and Virginia.
(Click on figure to go to source.)
Tags
Makaelah Walters
Makaelah is the 2022 Julian Bond Fellow. She previously worked as a reporter for the Watauga Democrat and interned as an editorial assistant for the nonprofit advocacy group Appalachian Voices.