By Trevor Hunnicutt

WASHINGTON (Reuters] – Democrats have set record spending on advertising, lawyers, and other protection-the-vote activities before the 2022 midterm election. They hope to thwart Republican efforts to keep voters from voting.

Worried that a spate of more restrictive voting laws adopted by Republican-controlled states will keep Democrats from registering their votes, donors big and small are filling their party’s coffers.

Last year’s $157 million was the largest for an entire year. The DNC also received $10 million in additional funding in January. OpenSecrets tracks political spending and shows that more than half the national funds for Democrats come from donors who give less than $200.

Party and its allies have kept a greater share of the cash available to combat fires within the few local competitive jurisdictions. Even small adjustments can be enough to make the difference in deciding whether Democrat or Republican wins.

According to a source familiar with the matter, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, which is charged with maintaining the party’s House of Representatives majority in the Nov.8 election, will contribute at least $10,000,000 to voting rights litigation.

This budget of eight figures, not reported before, is likely to match or exceed the DCCC’s 2020 record spending. It comes in addition to a $30m commitment from the DNC for voter registration and litigation, and $10 million from Senate Campaign. According to a source familiar with the operation, Democrats plan the highest spending on these efforts in the history of the organization.

Although still early in development, the party-wide effort includes legal challenges to laws such as voter roll purges, targeted outreach through digital platforms to register new votes and counter misinformation about elections, as well as an attempt to elect Democrats to frequently-overlooked positions in election administration like secretaries-of-state.

“This effort is all-hands on deck to ensure every ballot is counted,” stated Representative Nikema, a Democrat representing Georgia, who spearheaded the DCCC efforts. She said that these investments were needed to stop a “decade-long crusade by Republicans to suppress the vote.”

The official effort will be complemented by spending from other political groups like Priorities USA, American Bridge 21st Century and American Bridge 21st Century. These organizations are typically focused on political ads spending. American Bridge has committed $10,000,000 to this month’s efforts to recruit Democrats to become elected officials in the future and fight attempts to reverse those elections.

Amir Badat (voting special counsel) for the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund said that Democrats have an extensive voter-protection program. The nonpartisan group also conducts significant litigation in voting rights matters.

Badat still said that he is looking forward to new challenges for the year.

He worries that vigilantes will continue to threaten voters and electoral officials in 2020, especially with the new laws that allow poll watchers to better observe voters. The midterms are viewed by him as an opportunity to prepare for next year’s presidential election.

“A lot the things that occur in 2022 are going be an experiment for 2024, mainly from a point of how suppressive tactics may work,” he stated.

REPUBLICANS MATCH EFORTS

A well-funded and equally motivated Republican effort counters Democratic attempts.

According to a person who is familiar with Republican National Committee spending, the party will spend “millions more on voting issues” and ensure that the 2022 and 2024 elections are free and fair. A person familiar with the party’s spending said that it is currently hiring attorneys in 17 targeted states, and has already been involved in more than 30 similar lawsuits.

According to OpenSecrets.com, Democrats are currently neck-and–neck in spending on legal and other related expenses at $52 Million each.

The data revealed that Democrats and Republicans spent approximately $120 million each on legal fees in the 2020 contest between Biden, Republican ex-President Donald Trump.

Texas is home to the Texas House primary on Tuesday. Republican legislators have tightened identification requirements for voters who use mail ballots.

Texas’s largest counties have already shown that an increasing number of mail-in ballots are not meeting new requirements. It could simply be that the voter has a different ID card than the one provided at registration.

Trump supporters flooded courts with lawsuits challenging legitimacy of last year’s election.

Trump telegraphed that the Republican attempt to contest the election failed and was rejected by the courts. The Democrats won the right to allow voters to vote by mail during this pandemic. Biden won the 2020 election, which saw a record number of 155 million votes.

Republicans have tried to restrict access to the polls. Conservative courts, however, have resisted attempts to increase access.

The demand for lawyers is expected to rise. Marc Elias (a mega-lawyer who is a Democrat) split from Perkins Coie LLP last year to start his 65-counselor law firm in Washington, which focuses on litigation.

It expects to face a flurry of issues, such as the Texas restrictions. The party hopes that they can be addressed with quick organizing and aggressive legal action.

According to an advocacy group, the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University School of Law (an advocacy group), legislators in 27 states were considering 250 bills that contained restrictive voting provisions as of January. This is compared with 75 bills one year ago.

The measures are criticized by civil rights activists as having adisproportionate effect on ethnic minority voters, who tend to vote for Democrats in greater numbers.

Anesa McMillan is the deputy executive director at Priorities USA. Priorities USA budgeted $20 million to support its voter rights initiatives. It’s an organized attack on marginalized populations.