Two nonprofit organizations that engaged in a direct mail campaign targeting a group of state legislators sued the New Mexico Secretary of State for requiring that they register as political committees. The lawsuit was filed by the Center for Civic Policy and Southwest Organizing Project. Before the June primary, the groups send out fliers addressing several lawmakers' voting records, and all but one was up for re-election. In August New Mexico Attorney General Gary King asserted that the activities crossed the line into campaigning. The Secretary of State ordered both groups to register as political committees and comply with the Campaign Reporting Act by reporting contributions and expenditures.

The groups say their mailers were related to a coming special session of the Legislature, not the election. The lawsuit states that registering with the state would violate their First Amendment rights and that both groups engage in issue advocacy, not express advocacy for the election or defeat of political candidates.

The Congressional Management Foundation (CMF) has released a report Communicating with Congress: Recommendations for Improving the Democratic Dialogue. In June CMF released a draft version of this report and requested that interested stakeholders review the recommendations and submit comments. The report provides some recommendations to every stakeholder, including citizens, Members of Congress, advocacy groups, and congressional offices.

Members of Congress are inundated with e-mail and need more resources to effectively communicate with their constituents. According to the report, "both congressional offices and the organizers of grassroots advocacy campaigns have employed technology in ways that have unintentionally hindered the democratic dialogue. The result has been misunderstanding, frustration, wasted effort, and even anger on both sides, which must be resolved to truly realize the tremendous opportunities for electronic communications between citizens and their representatives in Congress." Advocacy groups try to get around spam filters to deliver batches of letters, while some Congressional offices update software to identify or even avoid such "form letters." Yet, each wants meaningful communication between constituents and Members. The goal of the report is to offer some solutions to the burden that all parties now face.

CMF has developed the "Aggregated Communications Dashboard," which allows for improved communication by:

• Aggregating grassroots communications.
• Verifying that grassroots communications are sent from real citizens.
• Identifying the sponsoring grassroots organization and their vendor.
• Identifying the bill, amendment, or topic of the messages.
• Developing a set of open source communications standards.

CMF recommends the creation of a task force made up of stakeholders in each group with heavy authority to develop a strategy to ultimately implement a new model for constituent communications. For more on the CMF report, click here.

A new survey of 10,000 people conducted by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology released by the Pew Charitable Trusts found that African-American voters waited to vote more than twice as long as others, and Hispanics were asked to show identification more often. Other problems included issues with absentee ballots, and inconsistent application of election laws.

According to the press release from the Make Voting Work (MVW), a project of the Pew Center on the States, "MVW will invest more than $8 million in 2009 to drive advances in the field -- continuing its focus on voter information, voter registration, audits, polling place management, and military and overseas voting."

In addition, electionline.org has just released Election 2008 in Review. Among the many findings, the report addressed that actual turn out was lower than expected and most problems were related to voter registration.

The Mormon Church took an active role in encouraging California voters to support Proposition 8, the ballot initiative that sought to ban same-sex marriages in California. Proposition 8 passed 52 percent to 48 percent. The Mormon Church encouraged members to vote yes on Proposition 8 and helped to fund initiatives in support of Proposition 8.

There is currently an online petition which is attempting to get 5,000 signatures in an effort to convince the Internal Revenue Service's (IRS) Tax Exempt and Government Entities Division to investigate the church's activities surrounding the initiative. Other activists are also asking the IRS to investigate.

In seeking an IRS investigation, activists seem to be relying on the part of the Internal Revenue Code that forbids 501(c)(3) organizations from spending a "substantial part" of its activities on lobbying.

Organizations in California are also alleging that the Mormon Church violated state campaign finance rules. According to the New York Times, "California officials will investigate accusations that the Mormon Church neglected to report a battery of nonmonetary contributions — including phone banks, a Web site and commercials" — on behalf of Proposition 8.

The Times reports that Fred Karger, founder of Californians Against Hate, filed a complaint asserting "that the church's reported contributions — about $5,000, according to state election filings — vastly underestimated its actual efforts in passing Proposition 8."

Last week the the New York Times reported that there are "a growing number of philanthropists whose foundations are spending increasing amounts and raising their voices to influence public policy — a marked shift from their traditional position." The article opens by highlighting the Peter G. Peterson Foundation's efforts to address fiscal responsibility. The foundation financed a documentary examining the United States' addiction to debt titled "I.O.U.S.A."

Take, for example, the efforts by the Rockefeller Brothers Fund to persuade Exxon Mobil, the oil company and descendant of John D. Rockefeller's Standard Oil Trust, to increase its investments in alternative energy. Rather than simply trying to sway corporate executives behind the scenes, the Rockefeller Brothers Fund courted news media coverage, and Rockefeller family members spoke out against Exxon Mobil's leadership, as did the foundation's president, Stephen B. Heintz.

Joel L. Fleishman, author of The Foundation: A Great American Secret, cited three reasons for foundation' interest in influencing public policy: (1) greater ambition to tackle big and seemingly intractable problems, (2) growing frustration over government gridlock caused by partisanship and, (3) an increasing number of foundations that plan to spend down their assets by a specific date, making them eager to make a mark upon the world.

The Atlantic Philanthropies recently published a report, Investing in Change: Why Supporting Advocacy Makes Sense for Foundations, that urges increased foundation support for advocacy.

This year's presidential election has come and gone with minimal controversy, but many argue that doesn't mean there isn't room for improvement. The Alliance for Justice worked on the Election Protection hotline run by Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights and has some examples of the problems on Election day. And in response, suggest some ways to alleviate such issues in the future such as nationwide early voting, same day voter registration, increased penalties for voter suppression efforts, and provide more money to state and local authorities to conduct voter registration efforts.

The Brennan Center for Justice has recently released a policy paper advocating universal voting registration, which would have the government take the initiative on voter registration and ultimately help eliminate accusations of voter registration fraud. And reportedly, the Brennan Center is working with Senator Hillary Clinton (D-NY) on legislation that would ensure all eligible Americans are registered to vote automatically.

On Oct. 30, Americans United for Separation of Church and State (AU) filed an IRS complaint against the General Baptist State Convention of North Carolina for engaging in partisan electioneering. The Convention hosted Michelle Obama, wife of then Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama, at an event on Oct. 29.

According to AU, Michelle Obama praised her husband and told the group about the type of president that her husband would be. AU also stated in its IRS complaint that Ms. Obama's "appearance took on the trappings of a campaign rally, and during it Ms. Obama promoted her husband's candidacy and appealed for votes."

In his letter to the IRS, Rev. Barry Lynn, Executive Director of AU, said that the "appearance by Ms. Obama before this religious group raises a host of issues, and I urge the IRS to investigate the matter."

The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) filed an IRS complaint on Sept. 30 against the Clarion Fund, a nonprofit organization that distributed an anti-Muslim film to 28 million households in swing states during the presidential election season. The DVD, "Obsession: Radical Islam's War Against the West," was distributed in papers in at least 10 states.

CAIR wrote to Steven T. Miller, commissioner of the IRS's Tax Exempt and Government Entities Division, that, "[I]ndependent observers have suggested that the distribution of the DVD was an obvious attempt by the Clarion Fund to participate in campaign activities and intervene in the 2008 presidential election."

According to a CAIR press release quoting the Springfield News-Leader, "Those interviewed in "Obsession" constitute a veritable who's who of Muslim-bashers. Speakers include Walid Shoebat, who once told a Missouri newspaper that he sees 'many parallels between the Antichrist and Islam' and 'Islam is not the religion of God -- Islam is the devil'."

Numerous online resources have popped up lately that allow everyone to participate and protect the election process. Now, you can share your voting experiences with the world. Here are a few online tools;

• VoterStory.org is a web widget to collect voter complaints across the web and feed them to a network of groups standing by to help individual voters and monitor trends.
• Video the Vote is a network of citizens working to document voter suppression and disenfranchisement.
• Twitter Vote Report is a unique way to report on experiences at the polls. Voters can report using Twitter, an online service that lets people send very short messages to one another, such as by sending a text message. Twitter Vote Report aggregates the information and will create maps that show where there are problems.

Now, Go Vote!

At an American Bar Association teleconference, Judy Kindell, senior technical adviser to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) director of exempt organizations, commented on some important issues for charities. BNA Money and Politics ($$) reported on Kindell's comments. 501(c)(3) organizations are "prohibited from engaging in campaign activity, defined as any activity that favors or opposes candidates for public office. This can include endorsement of candidates, contributions to candidates or to political action committees, public statements for or against particular candidates, and distributing materials prepared by the organization or other organizations that favor or oppose candidates." 501(c)(4), (c)(5), and (c)(6) organizations can get involved in campaign activity as long as it is not their primary activity.

Kindell also commented on the Political Activity Compliance Initiative (PACI) that began in 2004. "IRS has only revoked the tax exemption of five organizations—one of them was not even for political activity—and has made its main goal to educate tax-exempts on the issues. Where necessary, IRS also issues letters telling them there is no change in their tax status but advising them not to engage in prohibited activities again." For more on the PACI program, see our IRS enforcement resource center.

Another important topic touched upon was lobbying and the notion that 501(c)(3) groups are not allowed to lobby, which is not true. "Eric Gorovitz, counsel with Adler & Colvin in San Francisco, focused on the lobbying rules, saying he hoped to dispel a widely held myth that lobbying is somehow inappropriate for charities. [. . .] 'Charities that work on issues where there is a community that is underserved, or where stories have been left out of policy debates, are expressly empowered to participate in those debates,' he said."

The Virginia NAACP sued Virginia Governor Tim Kaine, the Virginia Board of Elections and its executive secretary, Nancy Rodrigues, and registrars and election officials in Richmond, Norfolk and Virginia Beach on October 27 for a lack of election preparedness.

The lawsuit claims that the state is unconstitutionally failing to allocate enough voting machines, poll workers and polling places. The NAACP alleges that the problem is particularly acute in heavily minority precincts and that the state's failures can result in long lines and ultimately voter disenfranchisement.

According to the Washington Post, the suit "asks the state to move voting machines to precincts most likely to have long waiting lines; keep polls open for an extra two hours; and use paper ballots in some cases."

An Associated Press article notes that during the Virginia presidential primary, officials in some precincts "ran out of ballots during the primary, leaving voters in tears and forced to mark their preferences on sheets of paper. The makeshift ballots were later rejected."

Americans United for Separation of Church and State has asked the IRS to investigate the Roman Catholic Diocese of Paterson, N.J. and Rock Christian Fellowship in Espanola, New Mexico.

According to AU's letter to the IRS, Roman Catholic Bishop Arthur J. Serratelli has published a letter on Catholic Diocese of Paterson, N.J.'s website and newspaper attacking Barack Obama."

The letter criticizes Obama for his pro-choice stance and encourages parishioners not to vote for Obama.

AU also wants the IRS to investigate Rock Christian Fellowship in Espanola, New Mexico for posting a large display that encourages voters to support republican candidates over democratic candidates.

According to AU, the display has a picture of an aborted fetus with the names Obama, Udall (a Democratic U.S. Senate candidate) and Lugan (a Democratic U.S. House of Representatives candidate) underneath it. Next to that picture is a picture of a healthy baby with the names McCain, Pearce (a Republican U.S. Senate candidate) and East (a Republican U.S. House of Representatives candidate) underneath it.

According to AU, Michael Naranjo, the pastor of the church, told the Santa Fe New Mexican that his purpose is "educating on who stands pro-life and who is pro-death" and that "I'd rather lose my 501(c)(3) than my soul."

Catholic parishioners in the Dallas-Fort Worth area recently received a letter from their local bishops that many of the parishioners felt was advising them who to vote for in the upcoming presidential election. The letter summarized key points of Forming Consciences for Faithful Citizenship, a document issued by the Bishops of the United States.

Many Dallas-Fort Worth Catholics told the Dallas Morning News that they were offended by the letter. "My bishop basically told me that if I vote for Barack Obama, I will go to hell," said Phillip Archer, a Dallas Catholic.

The letter says that it is "morally impermissible" to vote for a candidate who supports abortion if there is another alternative. It also identifies "intrinsic evils" that should dictate how a Catholic should vote.

According to the Dallas Morning News, the letter was read and distributed at parishes across Dallas. It is also being mailed to registered Catholics in the Fort Worth Diocese through its newspaper.

Barry Lynn, Executive Director of Americans United for Separation of Church and State, told the Dallas Morning News that, "This is clearly an attempt on the part of these bishops to do an end-run around the federal tax law ban on electioneering by churches."

It would be impossible to ignore the news surrounding the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, or ACORN, a grassroots community organization that advocates for low and moderate income people and has traditionally been active in registering low income voters. The group has had clear and unacceptable organizational troubles, for example, a relative of one of its leaders embezzled funds from the group. However, on the issue of voter registration, ACORN admits that some of its hired canvassers have turned in forms with fake names, but they say these represent only a tiny fraction of the new voters the group signed up.

After news that the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) opened an investigation into ACORN, Representative John Conyers (D-MI) wrote a letter to FBI Director Robert Mueller and Department of Justice Attorney General Michael Mukasey concerned that such a leak about an ongoing criminal investigation is inappropriate. The letter states, "Moreover, this news is all the more troubling in light of the proven wrongdoing at the Justice Department in the United States Attorneys scandal. As you are aware, there is extensive evidence that political operatives improperly pressured United States Attorneys to investigate and prosecute spurious claims of voter fraud in close proximity to an election. When some did not, they were terminated.

In any case, undeniably some faulty voter registration forms were submitted, but does this result in voter fraud? Even if the voter registration forms are forged, these fake people or even Mickey Mouse will not show up to the polls to vote. Therefore no ballot will be cast, and it will not affect the outcome of an election. And yes, those who submit fraudulent voter registration cards should be punished.

Instead of worrying about fake and unqualified voters from going to the polls, we must ensure that every registered eligible voter can cast ballots that count. For example, the Brennan Center for Justice recently issued a report on the practice of voter purging. The report found that 700 people were removed from the voter lists in Muscogee, Georgia, supposedly because they were ineligible to vote due to criminal convictions. Some of the people removed never even received a parking ticket. Careless purging, possibly rooted in concerns about voter fraud, may lead to such aggressive practices where qualified voters are mistakenly removed from the rolls.

A New York Times editorial agrees, and urges the government do "a better job of registering people to vote. That way there would be less need to rely on private registration drives, largely being conducted by well-meaning private organizations that use low-paid workers."

A Judge recently ruled that a Michigan program that requires clerks to purge voters whose voter cards are returned as undeliverable violates federal law. The National Voter Registration Act allows voters to remain on the election roles for two cycles after the voter registration cards are returned as undeliverable.

According to an ACLU press release, the Judge ordered the state of Michigan to "immediately discontinue their practice of canceling or rejecting a voter's registration based upon the return of the voter's original voter identification card as undeliverable."

The voting purges disproportionately affected students, minorities, and low-income individuals.

According to Matthew Lund, the ACLU cooperating attorney and Pepper Hamilton LLP partner who argued the case, "Michigan voters who were removed from the voting rolls for no reason other than failure to receive their ID card in the mail will now be allowed to vote in November."