Right-wing organization concerned with 'election integrity' trying to throw sand into gears of presidential race

Plus, a GOP congressman circulates a racist video on social media.

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The White House reprimanded Rep. Mike Collins (R-GA) today after the congressman approvingly shared a video on social media of a group of white Ole Miss fraternity brothers mocking a Black, pro-Palestinian protestor with monkey noises and pantomimes. 

“It’s beneath any person to be sharing that video. It’s beneath any elected official or leader to be sharing that kind of material. The action in that video is beneath who we are supposed to be,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said.

The university is investigating the incident, and at least one member of Phi Delta Theta has been removed from the fraternity. 

Eyes on the Right

A fringe reactionary group called United Sovereign Americans (U4F) is planning to weaponize civil rights law to undermine the integrity of the 2024 presidential election. U4F, which claims to be nonpartisan, has 24 chapters across the country and is run by Marly Hornik, who co-founded the group with known election denier Harry Haury. U4F is seeking legal action against multiple states like California, Illinois, Ohio and Texas because they claim to have “uncovered millions of errors” in voter rolls. 

“If uncorrected, [this would mean] the 2024 election results would be so inaccurate they would be uncertifiable,” the group explains in a video titled “No More Dead People Voting!” Such dilution of the vote, as U4F’s theory goes, undermines the civil rights of all voters by invalidating their suffrage.

And though Hornik and Haury’s plan to properly disrupt the upcoming presidential contest is not likely to succeed, “election experts worry that if even one sympathetic judge rules in their favor, it could sow doubts about the integrity of a presidential rematch between President Biden and Donald Trump,” according to the Los Angeles Times. 

Hence, the group remains undeterred despite previous attempts by Hornik to preemptively impact the 2024 election. This past fall, Hornik received a cease-and-desist letter from the New York attorney general. Hornik and her pre-U4F group, the “NY Citizens Audit Civic Fund,” were found to have been harassing New York voters and had “falsely claimed to be Board of Elections officials and falsely accused voters of committing felony voter fraud."

But maybe such delusions are all a part of the strategy, Hornik has openly expressed that she wants to throw everything at the wall and see what sticks.  

"It doesn't matter that we are going to get turned down in New York. It doesn't matter that we get turned down potentially in California," the LA Times quoted Hornik as saying. "It matters that we get a favorable ruling in Tennessee and Missouri. It matters that we get a favorable ruling in Texas so that there is a diversity of opinion and ultimately that also means that there is a possibility that the matter is settled for the entire country."