Examiner Fails to Note Soros’ Funding of Voter ID Controversy

Paul Bedard of the Washington Examiner wrote a piece entitled “Democrats boycott Coke, Walmart over voter ID laws” on April 4. The piece reported the situation well, with one exception: it didn’t mention that one side of the voter identification debate is almost completely fought by Soros-backed organizations.

The focus of the article was on a push by Color of Change, the Center for American Progress and democratic lawmakers to boycott Walmart, Coca Cola and other companies who financially contribute to one of the new voter ID laws’ biggest supporters: the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC). ALEC, as Bedard pointed out, is also supported by Koch Industries.

According to Open Society’s website, Color of Change is a project of Citizen Engagement Link, which received $550,000 from the Open Society Foundation (OSF) since 2009. The Center for American Progress has received over $5.7 million from Soros’ OSF since 2006.

Florida, Texas, Tennessee, Kansas and Wisconsin are all considering laws requiring voters to present photo IDs upon arrival. Most of these states currently require only a signed statement affirming that the person voting is who they say that they are.

According to Bedard, an estimated 2-3 million democratic voters do not have a photo ID.