Exclusive: Rep. Claudia Tenney bashes “partisan, manipulative, dishonest” GOTV efforts designed “to tip the scales in a competitive House race”

Rep. Claudia Tenney (R., N.Y.) is sounding the alarm about a liberal group sending pre-filled out mail-in ballot application forms, “abusing New York’s weak mail-in voting laws to tip the scales in a competitive House race” in the process.

At the crux of the issue is the Center for Voter Information (CVI), a group that is run by a Democratic Party operative who helmed the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee (DSCC) during the 2016 cycle. Some of its 2024 efforts, according to Tenney, have focused on Cayuga County, which is split between her district and that of Rep. Brandon Williams (R., N.Y.). 

However “all of the applications mailed out by CVI and reviewed by the Tenney Campaign were sent to voters in the 22nd District [Williams’s district],” her campaign noted. “In other words, the CVI only believed voters in the 22nd District deserved to receive these applications in the mail.” 

Tenney’s campaign reviewed hundreds of early mail application forms pre-filled in by CVI sent to the Cayuga County Board of Elections, and found that only 0.42 percent were from registered Republicans. 

Tenney’s campaign further cautioned that CVI’s misleading mailers are confusing older voters who “were already scheduled to receive an absentee ballot as part of the permanent absentee ballot list. These voters unknowingly removed themselves from this list, and will stop receiving ballots after this upcoming election.” 

When reached for comment, CVI’s spokesman simply responded that “CVI and [Voter Participation Center] VPC are nonpartisan,” and attached a link to a September press release where VPC responded to allegations from Tenney that its efforts “exclude from the reach of its ads anyone with expressed interests in 26 categories typically associated with Republican men,” as reported by the Washington Free Beacon. 

Tenney herself chairs the House Election Integrity Caucus, and noted to the Washington Reporter that “under Governor Hochul and her allies in Albany, New York’s election integrity measures have been gutted and left-wing groups like CVI are taking advantage. These mailers are partisan, manipulative and dishonest to voters, and the results are clear. CVI is abusing New York’s laws to lie to voters and turn out Democrats in a partisan way despite their claim that they are ‘nonpartisan.’”

Joining Tenney in sounding the alarm about CVI’s work is Joseph Burns, a partner with the law firm Holtzman Vogel and leading election lawyer in New York State. “New Yorkers of all political stripes should applaud [Tenney’s] efforts to bring attention to the dishonest messages coming from this supposedly nonpartisan 501(c)(4) nonprofit,” he told the Reporter.

CVI’s efforts appear designed to turn out enough Democratic voters to oust Williams next month, but its efforts have been met with mixed results in the past. “Election officials say CVI has made a host of mistakes that have buried their offices in unnecessary paperwork and swamped them with calls from voters,” ProPublica reported during the 2020 election. “Mailers from groups like CVI, which can be mistaken for official documents sent by state or local governments, are confusing voters.”

New Yorkers have found that CVI hasn’t fixed the problems it had in 2020. “Many voters in Cayuga County are rightfully concerned about the pre-filled ballots sent to their homes by CVI, which claims to be non-partisan,” Nathan VeVone, the chairman of the Cayuga County Republican Party, told the Reporter. “It has become clear that this group operates with partisan intent. Their actions are a direct attempt to interfere with our fair election process.” 

“Having been involved in every election through the Board of Elections since I was 18 years old, I can attest that Cayuga County has always upheld its election integrity when other districts may have been called in question,” VeVone added. “There is no place for dirty tactics like this in our nation’s electoral process. I am incredibly grateful for the representation of Congresswoman Claudia Tenney, who tirelessly fights for all of us.”

Tenney’s findings fit with how CVI positions itself within the Democratic Party’s apparatus. CVI, according to Influence Watch, is the “nominally nonpartisan and charitable ‘sister’ [organization of] the Voter Participation Center (VPC).” Influence Watch notes that “while both organizations run general get-out-the-vote campaigns, the CVI runs targeted voter outreach campaigns for candidates. Both organizations are left-of-center, and the VPC’s political spending exclusively goes to supporting Democratic candidates or opposing Republicans.”

Conservatives in New York even suggest that “CVI’s blatant attempt to abuse New York’s mail in ballot law and turnout Democrat voters” could backfire. David Pappert, the chairman of the Cayuga County Conservative Party, added that these tactics are “exactly what we would expect from the Democrat Party. They can’t win on the issues so they manipulate this process. Conservatives in Cayuga County will not be fooled by these shady tactics.”

Tenney, along with Rep. Elise Stefanik, is challenging New York’s universal mail-in voting law.