5/3/18

ALEC-drafted legislation drives American Indians from the polls

South Dakota's Republican earth haters have enjoyed millions in lobbyist benefits from the Koch contribution arm, the American Legislative Exchange Council.
Over the last six years, Republicans in North Dakota adopted a flurry of legislation that effectively revoked the right to vote for thousands of Native Americans and other Democratic voters, according to an investigation of court records, internal emails among state officials, as well as interviews with voters and lawmakers on both sides of the issue. After the North Dakota bill that forced voters to present ID at the polls passed, turnout declined sharply in areas with high Native American populations. Many of the newer laws resemble model legislation drafted by conservative special interest groups like the American Legislative Exchange Council, or ALEC.
Read the rest here.

So-called 'Americans for Prosperity' a Koch-funded group with lobbyists based in Sioux Falls has signaled to legislators that they will lose campaign funding from the Kochs unless they act to reverse the progress the US Environmental Protection Agency has made in South Dakota.

Representative Kristi Noem has been an ALEC Energy, Environment and Agriculture Task Force Member. She was part of a gubernatorial debate sponsored by the earth haters. The group is behind the Convention of States movement, too. If ratified it would give oligarchs lord over the entire voting process and rob American Indian tribes of sovereignty to govern their own resources.

The good news? Third party and unaffiliated candidates will significantly dilute the influence ALEC and AFP have on the 2018 election in the chemical toilet that is South Dakota.



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