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

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."

Republican lawmakers call on IRS to investigate nonprofit

Walter's commentary came after two Republican lawmakers called on the IRS to investigate the Voter Participation Center for alleged partisan activities. The letter from Republican Sen. Tom Cotton of Arkansas focused on the ad strategy that the nonprofit used on Meta to target voters, claiming it targeted progressives. The ads were also of concern in a letter from New York Republican Rep. Claudia Tenney, who further brought up Lopach's professional background working for Democratic candidates and causes.

An IRS spokesperson said by law federal employees cannot confirm or deny that they are investigating any tax matter.

Walter, formerly part of the George W. Bush administration, cited Tenney's letter in his article, and further accused the Voter Participation Center of going against the IRS law for non-profits by having the effect of favoring Democrats.

"Mr. Lopach is of course a longtime Democratic Party operative, so I'm not sure he deserves the benefit of the doubt," Walter said in an interview with USA TODAY. "The smartest Democratic party operatives have understandably long used demographics to win elections, all sides do that. When charitable groups do it, it is illegal."

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Banning charities from voter registration would be historic departure

As the Voter Participation Center pointed out, churches are allowed to conduct non-partisan voter registration pushes under the same 501(c)(3) regulations. But Walter said he would rather have religious leaders be allowed to talk about politics in the name of free speech while being barred from taking action on registering people to vote.

"It's a shame for it to be the churches, but this is such a serious problem that it is an unfortunate cost that has to be made," he said.

But Lopach said such a move would impact a host of community groups that help people register to vote.

"If this went away, churches, synagogues, deeply respected nonprofits that have been part of the fabric and history of our country for decades, if not more than a century, would no longer be able to do the work of voter engagement," Lopach said.

The Voter Participation Center isn't the only voter registration non-profit that thinks so. Andrea Hailey, CEO of one of the largest 501(c)(3) voter registration nonprofits, Vote.org, said it would be "a disaster for our democracy," especially for local elections outside major election cycles.

"Campaigns in down-ballot races simply do not have the resources to run voter registration drives," Hailey said in a statement emailed to USA TODAY. "Ultimately, shutting down organizations like Vote.org, or depriving us of the philanthropic support we need to sustain our platform, would leave a giant void and cripple the infrastructure our democracy needs to thrive.”

'Elections should be a contest of ideas, not a contest of who gets to vote'

Lopach said nothing the Voter Participation Center does is partisan, and the organization should not be viewed through a partisan lens.

The center focuses on registering the "new American majority" of people of color, young people and unmarried women, estimating those populations together make up 71% of eligible unregistered voters.

Over the last two decades of its existence, Lopach said it has registered 6.4 million voters.

"The work we do is very much about creating a representative electorate. And sadly, even today, there remains a belief that some Americans have the right to vote and the other Americans do not," Lopach said. "You hear the undercurrent of that message in the way different candidates or organizations talk about our populations."

Pushback against the organization has increased in recent years, Lopach said, and he worries that their critics see people of color through a partisan lens.

"Elections should be a contest of ideas, not a contest of who gets to vote," he said.

Contributing: Erin Mansfield, Stephen J. Beard

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Could voter registration nonprofits be the next conservative pushback?