Press Release:

March 23, 2026

VETERAN ELECTION LAWYERS FROM BOTH PARTIES LAUNCH THE BIPARTISAN AMERICAN ELECTION PROJECT TO DEFEND CONSTITUTIONAL PRINCIPLES GOVERNING U.S. ELECTIONS

Organization Files Amicus Briefs Supporting Georgia and Massachusetts Against Federal Government’s Lawsuit to Obtain Their Unredacted Voter Registration Databases 

Lawyers affiliated with both the Democratic and Republican parties today announced the formation of the Bipartisan American Election Project (BAEP), a nonpartisan organization dedicated to defending the constitutional principles and democratic norms essential to the conduct of free and fair elections in the United States and to public confidence in the results. 

Chief among the principles and norms that BAEP was formed to uphold and defend are the professional, nonpartisan conduct of elections, the testing of outcomes in close races through the procedures provided by state laws, such as recount, contests and litigation, and the acceptance of the results.  BAEP will intervene at the federal, state, and local levels through public communications, filings with administrators, and participation in judicial proceedings, including amicus curiae briefs. 

Today, BAEP filed amicus curiae briefs in support of the States of Georgia and Massachusetts who are defending lawsuits brought by the United States Department of Justice to obtain their complete, unredacted electronic voter registration data bases. 

BAEP is led by Bob Bauer and Ben Ginsberg. Beginning with their 2013 co-chairmanship of the Presidential Commission on Election Administration, Bauer and Ginsberg have collaborated across the partisan divide to support the nonpartisan, professional management of the electoral process. Their work together includes leading Pillars of the Community, which encourages constructive dialogue between state and local community leaders and election officials to build public confidence in nonpartisan administration of voting systems.

BAEP’s work is supported by Board members Dana Remus, former White House Counsel to President Biden, and Donald Verrilli, former Solicitor General of the United States under President Obama, election litigator John Devaney, and by a senior advisory group whose members include election litigator and former Reagan Justice Department official Michael Carvin and former Chief Counsel for the Food and Drug Administration, Daniel Troy, a veteran of the Reagan and George W. Bush administrations. BAEP also retains state and local counsel without regard to party affiliation to represent it in legal filings such as the ones announced today. The organization is led day-to-day by Executive Director Lanny Acosta, Jr., a retired U.S. Army Judge Advocate.

The amicus curiae briefs filed today in support of Georgia and Massachusetts show that the federal government demands for their complete, unredacted voter rolls are not authorized by the 66-year-old civil rights law on which the Department of Justice relies. More fundamentally, BAEP argues for the recognition of constitutional first principles that support each state’s defense: 

 “The Constitution …. entrusts States with the primary responsibility for administering elections because state governments are closer to the people and more responsive to their needs. Congress’s Elections Clause authority operates against this backdrop, and courts must read federal election statutes to mean what they say—not stretch them to intrude where Congress did not mean to go. Nor may the United States stretch their meaning in an attempt to “nationalize” federal elections.” 

The briefs filed by BAEP can be found below.

Politico:

Former political rivals take on Trump’s push to nationalize voting

A pair of former political rivals is teaming up again to fight against President Donald Trump’s effort to impose federal control over state election functions ahead of the midterms.

The Bipartisan American Election Project is the latest effort by Ben Ginsberg and Bob Bauer to advocate for the nonpartisan administration of elections and push back on federal encroachment over an area delegated by the Constitution to the states. …

Link to full story by clicking here.