ALEC capitulates..abandons Voter Integrity Promotion under Pressure

Washington, D.C. -  The National Center for Public Policy Research today announced the formation of a "Voter Identification Task Force" intended to continue the excellent work of the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) promoting measures to enhance integrity in voting.

The Think Progress "War Room," a project of the far-left Center for American Progress Action Fund, claimed yesterday that ALEC is discontinuing its work promoting ballot integrity under pressure from ten corporations that had been pressured to do so by the Center for American Progress and another left-wing organization, Van Jones' Color of Change.

"According to the Think Progress 'War Room,' the nine corporations and one foundation that pressured ALEC to stop supporting voter identification measures are: Coco-Cola, Pepsi, McDonalds, Wendys, Kraft, Mars Inc., Reed Elsevier, ATS/American Traffic Solutions and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation," said Amy Ridenour, chairman of the National Center for Public Policy Research. "The Think Progress 'War Room' adds that Blue Cross/Blue Shield piled on after ALEC capitulated, so that's eleven, most of which sell directly to the public. And there are a lot more conservative consumers in the United States than left-wing ones."

"Corporate CEOs who cower in the face of liberal boycott threats need to understand that the left never gives up," added Ridenour. "By falling in surrender to the 'War Room' and its ilk, all these corporations chiefs have done is tell the left they are afraid, which means they will be targeted again and again on issue after issue. If these corporations do not reverse course and immediately grow enough of a backbone to say no when the left tells them what to do, conservatives may as well consider them part of the organized left. It doesn't matter if corporate executives have free-market sentiments hidden deep inside them if they continually surrender to the left's Trotskyite strategy of making relentless demand-after-demand in public."

"Meantime," added Ridenour, "conservatives will kick up our support for voter integrity programs. We're putting the left on notice: you take out a conservative program operating in one area, we'll kick it up a notch somewhere else. You will not win. We outnumber you and we out-think you, and when you kick up a fuss you inspire us to victory."*

Ridenour allows for the possibility that not all of the organizations the 'War Room' claims pressured ALEC to drop work on voter identification really did so.

"To be fair, left-wing groups lie a lot, so if any of the corporations named in this release want to contact us to disavow the Think Progress 'War Room' claims that they helped pressure a conservative/free-market group to stop working for ballot integrity, we will be glad to issue a statement correcting the record," added Ridenour. "We will be glad to reproduce and distribute widely any statement of disavowal any of them care to make. We've set up a special email address just for this purpose: wearenotyellow@nationalcenter.org to facilitate communications. We'll even be glad to spread the word if they did so and now regret it, and want to pledge to never do it again."

Announcements of the activities of the new Voter Identification Task Force are forthcoming. Expect activities to begin at shareholder meetings.

The National Center for Public Policy Research is a conservative, free-market, non-profit think-tank established in 1982. Supported by the voluntary gifts of over 100,000 individual recent supporters, and receiving approximately only one percent of its revenue from corporate sources, it is not particularly vulnerable to boycotts. Americans who support voter integrity are encouraged to make contributions to our work and/or to join us in educating others about the importance of voter integrity efforts.