A messy struggle between the present and former management of Vote.org is escalating.
Debra Cleaver, the nonprofit’s founder, mentioned she has filed complaints with 4 states’ attorneys basic alleging that the high-profile voter registration group has defrauded donors, together with by vastly inflating the variety of voters it may register in 2024, monetary mismanagement and utilizing charitable funds for the private good thing about its present CEO.
The allegations comply with a wrongful termination go well with from Cleaver over her firing in 2019 and have prompted a brand new menace of litigation from the group over what it referred to as a “sustained and vindictive campaign rooted in misinformation.”
Vote.org counsel Vanessa Avery, a accomplice at McCarter and English, vigorously denied the claims by Cleaver, saying they had been “categorically false.”
Within the 28-page criticism, shared first with POLITICO, Cleaver alleged there was no severe plan for the group to ship on its pledge to register 8 million voters for the 2024 cycle, which might have been greater than the full variety of voters it had registered throughout its complete 14-year historical past. Vote.org ended up registering 2.2 million voters within the 2024 cycle.
Cleaver, who now runs an identical group referred to as VoteAmerica, filed the criticism with the attorneys generals of New York, California, Pennsylvania and Georgia. POLITICO independently verified all filings besides the one in Georgia. Amongst her claims: that the group initially set an inner purpose to register 6 million voters, however that was elevated to eight million to keep away from the “symbolism of 6 million Jews murdered in the Holocaust.”
“The fact that Vote.org ultimately failed to register 8 million voters is inconsequential to the organization, because that was never the true goal,” Cleaver mentioned within the criticism. “The goal was staying afloat, attracting donor attention, and retaining relevance through the illusion of scale.”
The group is without doubt one of the greatest nonpartisan voter registration automobiles within the nation, nevertheless it has come beneath scrutiny lately over its inner administration. The criticism factors to the instance of Taylor Swift, who beforehand labored with the group. However final yr, when Swift endorsed Kamala Harris, she directed followers to go to Vote.gov to register as an alternative of plugging Vote.org. The criticism alleges a Every day Mail story on inner turmoil on the group helped trigger Swift to keep away from touting the group once more. (A Swift spokesperson didn’t reply to a request for remark.) Vote.org’s spending and alleged inner dysfunction was additionally the topic of a Chronicle of Philanthropy investigation final yr.
The criticism additionally alleges that donor cash was inappropriately used to pay for Vote.org CEO Andrea Hailey’s private journey and notes a soar in bills on Vote.org’s “travel conferences and meetings” totaling greater than $275,000 in 2023. It additionally notes that IRS paperwork present that Vote.org spent nearly $600,000 on authorized charges in 2023 versus $89,000 in 2019 because the group fought wrongful termination lawsuits from Cleaver and one other worker.
Within the Cleaver case, she sued Vote.org and considered one of its human sources distributors. The go well with between Cleaver and Vote.org was dismissed with prejudice with each events dropping their claims and no cash was exchanged between Vote.org and Cleaver, based on the settlement settlement. The settlement reveals the HR vendor paid her $50,000 in a separate deal which mentioned Vote.org wouldn’t reimburse the seller.
The attorneys basic complaints additionally made claims, which POLITICO has not independently verified, that Vote.org has paid for personal safety for Hailey though Cleaver says employees haven’t obtained any threats towards Hailey. Vote.org instructed the Every day Mail that Hailey did obtain threats.
“For the past six years, she has organized a sustained and vindictive campaign rooted in misinformation, aimed at discrediting this organization and its leadership,” Avery, the Vote.org counsel, mentioned in a press release.
Avery defended the excessive voter registration goal for 2024, which Vote.org didn’t meet. “Successful organizations set ambitious goals — no one aims for underperformance,” she mentioned. “We set bold targets because the stakes are high.” She mentioned the group has registered extra voters than another group in American historical past; Rating couldn’t independently confirm this.
When requested why she filed the complaints, Cleaver instructed Rating in a press release: “As the founder, I would like nothing more than Vote.org to succeed. Unfortunately, for five years now Vote.org has been racked by a series of financial, governance, and ethical lapses.”
A spokesperson for the New York legal professional basic’s workplace mentioned they’ve “received the complaint and are reviewing.” Spokespeople for the opposite states’ attorneys generals didn’t reply to a request for remark.
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