Non-stop, well-funded, nonprofit progressive activism is the “new normal” in Kansas elections

The Voter Network, “peer pressure with a purpose,” has huge funding from non-profit health foundations

Sep 18, 2023

Updated Dec. 11, 2023. New EIN is now known.

This is the first of a two-part series about The Voter Network, which Mainstream Coalition hatched in 2016.

Part 2: Healthcare nonprofit foundations and others dump $1 million into Kansas elections for “peer pressure with a purpose”
The Voter Network: History and Financials

Progressive nonprofits are steering Kansas elections in ways unknown to most, which includes “year-round civic engagement.”

A recent Watchdog Lab article exposed Blueprint Kansas Inc. doing business as KSVotes.org to register voters. This group registered nearly 86,000 voters through their online voter registration system focused on progressive and Democratic groups.

KSVotes.org can now use the data they have collected on these nearly 86,000 voters to influence Kansas elections.

At nearly the same time that Blueprint Kansas evolved their voter registration service, the Mainstream Coalition Education Foundation changed their name to The Voter Network, and evolved their “toolkit” of election resources to include new projects, KSBallot.org and Voter-to-Voter.

The Voter Network now touts connections to 34,000 Kansas voters via their 2500 ambassadors in 92 of the 105 Kansas counties.

Blueprint Kansas can sway perhaps 86,000 voters and The Voter Network can sway perhaps 34,000 voters.

And some wonder why Kansas Democrat Laura Kelly won over Republican Derek Schmidt for governor by 22,258 votes in last year?

Current Voter Network impact on Kansas elections

The Voter Network’s Voter-to-Voter project claims contacts with 34,000 Kansas voters with their 2500 ambassadors, who often focus on finding “low-propensity” voters.

Mainstream Coalition

Like many organizations, Mainstream Coalition consists of two nonprofits, a 501(c)(3) and a 501(c)(4), as well as a Political Action Committee (PAC).

Mainstream has a long history of progressive political activism in Johnson County.

On Oct. 10, their GOTV (Get-Out-The-Vote) GALA at the Marriott in Overland Park will promote participation in the November local general election, especially in Johnson County.

Let’s focus next on recent projects through the 501(c)(3) nonprofit.

The Voter Network

The story is a bit confusing. The 2019 501(c)(3), Mainstream Education Foundation, renamed itself to The Voter Network and operated with that name in the 2020 and 2022 elections.

However, earlier this year The Voter Network Foundation, was launched as a new “independent” organization, and Mainstream brought back a newly named 501(c)(3), Mainstream Civic Engagement.

Business documents can be found at the Kansas Secretary of State site about this new organization, but its nonprofit status cannot be verified yet with the IRS.

The 2023 The Voter Network Foundation may be “independent” from Mainstream, but it shares the same street address.

Documentation for funding of The Voter Network must include older documents for money given to Mainstream. This is part of the second article.

Mainstream renamed its 501(c)(3) and later launched The Voter Network as a new “independent” organization, before bringing back its “new” 501(c)(3), Mainstream Civic Engagement.

The two main projects of the Voter Network are KSBallot.org and Voter-to-Voter.

In addition The Voter Network provides a “toolkit” of election resources to progressive activists.

Updated Dec. 11, 2023: The EIN of the Voter Network Foundation is 92-1581742, which was made public in their IRS “determination letter” dated Sept. 21, 2023.

The IRS “determination letter” dated Sept. 21, 2023 states the effective date of exemption for The Voter Network Foundation was Jan. 9, 2023.

KSBallot.org

Progressives can register to vote using the online KSVotes.org site (also known as Blueprint Kansas), but information about candidates is needed before voting. KSBallot.org fills that “gap.”

The example above was from the recent primary election, since the site is not yet active for the November general election.

A voter can go to the KSBallot.org site (or the Spanish version, KSBoleta.org) and be guided through a voting process shown in the Election Center at the right in the figure above. The Voter must enter their address to get this process started.

Election Center Resources
Get Registered To Vote
Pledge to Vote
Research Your Ballot
Find Out How to Vote
Request a Ballot

One of the options is to “Research Your Ballot,” where information about candidates can be explored — for the candidates who feel comfortable using a progressive web site.

KSBallot.org provides options to complete an online ballot that can be printed or emailed. What does KSBallot.org do with information it collects about a voter’s address?

After exploring information about candidates, one can “Add to My Ballot” and create a ballot that can be printed, or emailed to the voter if an email address is provided.

There are options for “reminders” about when and where to vote later.

But what happens with the data KSBallot.org has collected with these online ballots?

The street address, and possibly an email address, is revealed about a voter in the process. It’s relatively easy to connect an address to the voters at that address. An email address could reveal exactly who the voter is to KSBallot.org

This data collected by KSBallot.org could be used to encourage or discourage voter participation in a variety of ways, including targeting in future elections!

Voter-to-Voter: Peer Pressure with a Purpose

Mainstream’s “Be a Voter” initiative was renamed to “Voter-to-Voter” to use peer-to-peer contacts to encourage voting.

The web site is frank about its intent: “Peer Pressure with a Purpose”

Voter-to-Voter ambassadors are encouraged to find 10 friends and help them vote. What does the “we’ll help” mean above in reaching “out to them with election reminders”?

Voter-to-Voter has over 450 teams looking mostly for “low-propensity” voters.

There is a bigger story impacting Kansas elections, which will be the subject of a future articles: Integrated Voter Engagement. The Voter Network is just one part.

Volunteer Toolkit

Examples of election resources:

Questions Unanswered by The Voter Network

Responses to the following questions were requested via email to The Voter Network on Aug. 31.

Their responses will be posted here when received:

Does The Voter Network, KSBallot.org, and Voter-to-Voter provide an online “Privacy Policy” or a specific “Terms of Use” on your website?
Will you share your code on GitHub (like KSVotes.org does) showing how you process data you collect?
When a voter completes an online ballot at Ballot.org who else ever has access to that data? How long is that ballot data retained?
Are the voters identified by your Voter-to-Voter Ambassadors ever sent communications of any kind (text, email, phone, ...) by anyone other the Ambassador?
Why are your board members and donors all liberal and progressive activists if your concern is to promote voting for all?
With your concerns to promote voting for all, why should Republicans or conservatives use your tools when your organization and your partners are openly hostile to their ideas?
Will you agree that "non-partisan" can still be very biased?