CHANGE Illinois is a nonpartisan, nonprofit leading systemic government and election reforms. CHANGE (the Coalition for Honest and New Government Ethics) champions ethical and efficient government and democracy and includes a diverse group of civic, philanthropic, business, labor, professional, and nonprofit organizations representing millions of Illinoisans. CHANGE Illinois works in collaboration with like-minded reform organizations, playing a leadership role in convening and facilitating efforts around shared policy agendas. The coalition works to improve challenges that undermine our democracy, including gerrymandering, restricted ballot access, voter suppression, uncompetitive elections, corruption, lack of government transparency and unethical lobbying, all of which have led to disillusionment and a decrease in civic participation.
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The New Fight Over Election Observation
Jul 19, 2026
As a member of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), the U.S. has signed the foundational agreement committing all participating states to open elections to external scrutiny and inviting fellow members to observe through the Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR). The 2024 ODIHR observation mission to the U.S. found the fundamentals reassuring—a well-run process, active engagement, free campaigning—but issued 31 recommendations to align U.S. elections with international standards and commitments. Four stand out: federal pre-clearance legislation against discriminatory election-law changes; reassessing the Electoral College; balanced representation in election administration; and guaranteed access for international and nonpartisan observers—notable, since 17 states still legally bar international observation, which is at odds with commitments made by all 57 OSCE states. Yet over a year later, follow-through is thin: no pre-clearance restoration, no Electoral College review, unchanged observer-access laws. Where movement exists—in disinformation tools, in financial disclosure—it remains piecemeal.
An uncomfortable convergence
As part of its methodology, ODIHR typically deploys a Needs Assessment Mission (NAM) months in advance, followed by a report and, depending on the findings, an observation mission. This was the sequence before 2024's vote, but as of this writing, ODIHR's public calendar lists the November 3, 2026, U.S. midterms as upcoming, with no needs assessment or any other recorded activity. The pre-election assessment should already have happened. This isn't proof Washington declined to invite ODIHR—but it breaks with recent cycles, arriving as the administration steps back from other multilateral engagement.
The OSCE's founding agreement is reciprocal: every state invites others to observe its elections. A cluster of authoritarian and backsliding states has quietly abandoned that accord. Russia blocked ODIHR from its 2021 State Duma elections and issued no invitation for the 2024 elections. Belarus hasn't invited ODIHR since 2020. Tajikistan's 2025 mission was canceled due to accreditation delays. Georgia invited ODIHR less than a month before its 2025 local elections—which ODIHR said was incompatible with credible observation. None formally renounced their commitments; they simply made the invitation late, conditional, or absent. The U.S. pattern for 2026 sits uncomfortably close to that category: no rejection on record, just an absence where an invitation should be. Perhaps the writing was on the wall all along, since in 2024 several state election officials refused to meet with ODIHR observers due to perceived concerns about foreign interference.
Diverging tactics abroad
Disengaging from scrutiny at home doesn't predict behavior abroad, where Russia and the U.S. diverge sharply in method—even as the underlying instinct to influence outcomes rather than submit to independent assessment looks similar.
Russia has built a parallel institution. In April 2026, under the patronage of Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, Moscow hosted a conference that drew over 150 delegates from 60-plus countries, formally establishing the International Association for Political and Electoral Expertise (IAPEE), which is backed by Russia's Presidential Administration, the Foreign Ministry, and the Central Election Commission. Its governing board includes figures with documented histories in the occupied Ukrainian territory and Belarus's 2020 election. IAPEE mimics the form of observation—recruitment, deployment, published findings—while replacing oversight with reciprocal validation, in which governments endorse each other's elections. Lavrov cast it as an "immune response by the global majority" against Western "electoral neocolonialism". Russia has already invited IAPEE to observe its own September 2026 State Duma vote—a model built for export across the Global South.
The United States has hollowed out its own infrastructure, then filled the gap with partisan actors. Rather than building a rival institution, the Trump administration cut funding to organizations that long conducted standards-based assessments abroad—the National Democratic Institute and the Carter Center among them—as part of a broader dismantling of USAID's democracy programming.
That withdrawal hasn't meant disengagement—just a different kind of engagement, as diplomats, appointees, and members of Congress move into the space once occupied by professional missions. The House Intelligence Committee led a bipartisan election observation mission to Honduras in November 2025. Republican Senator Bernie Moreno observed Colombia's 2026 election while making his preferences for a winning side known, prompting claims of interference. The U.S. Embassy in Peru deployed its own observers nationwide during the tense 2026 runoff—prompting allegations of influence from left-wing outlets. A long-term Trump ally and political nominee led a U.S. “election observation” delegation and traveled to Romania in May 2025 to monitor the presidential rerun.
These deployments fall short of the Declaration of Principles for International Election Observation, which requires comprehensive, long-term observation across the pre-election, election-day, and post-election periods, oriented toward the process rather than any particular result, and culminating in timely, accurate, impartial public findings. Members instead offered political commentary, praised favored administrations, or lent their presence as a marker of U.S. support—grey-zone validation rather than genuine observation.
Same effect, different design
Russia and the U.S. aren't running the same playbook. Moscow builds an alternative community—a charter, training pipeline, governing council—to escape post-2022 isolation while preserving the appearance of norm-following on its own terms. Washington constructs no new institutions; it quietly disengages from the ones that exist, while funding cuts create a vacuum that diplomats, appointees, and members of Congress fill ad hoc.
The functional result converges: standards-based scrutiny is displaced by actors serving a political-influence agenda—propping up favored governments or candidates within each country's sphere of interest, while the language of observation lends unearned legitimacy. In both, a government's posture toward oversight abroad mirrors its posture at home: diminished tolerance for scrutiny domestically and grey-zone validation internationally are two expressions of the same retreat from accountability.
What would change the trajectory?
Domestically, effective steps can be taken before the 2026 midterms: issue an ODIHR invitation without delay; repeal or preempt state laws that bar international and nonpartisan observers; and address the 2024 recommendations.
Internationally, the U.S. should restore the boundary between diplomacy, partisan endorsement, and impartial observation. First, the U.S. should rebuild support for missions meeting the Declaration of Principles criteria. Second, it should bar members of Congress, appointees, and embassy staff from self-designating as "election observers" unless they have a genuine, independent mission. Finally, it should use the U.S. platform inside the OSCE to defend the Copenhagen Document against Russia's sovereignty-first alternative—while closing the gap between what Washington asks of others and what it accepts for itself.
Ancuța (Anna) Hansen is the director of Perseveras Consulting.
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America at 250: Moving From Independence to Interdependence
Jul 19, 2026
As America marks the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, something unusual is happening beneath the noise of national politics. Organizations that have never coordinated with one another — bridge-builders and conservationists, faith communities and civic clubs, veterans' groups and student movements — are arriving independently at the same conclusion:
Independence was the first step. Interdependence is the next.
The founders declared independence so that a free people could govern themselves. The hard part was never disagreement; Americans have always disagreed. Our challenge is that we increasingly struggle to act as one people despite those disagreements. Because a nation can only become so divided before it faces a choice: continue fragmenting or begin reconnecting.
On July 22, the Leadership Circle will convene online to explore what interdependence actually means in practice, and what it would take to build more of it. Interdependence, in this context, could look like collaborative civic service projects that unite different political groups around a shared local goal, cross-organizational campaigns to support veterans and first responders, or joint town hall discussions led by students, faith leaders, and business communities working together to solve challenges from climate resilience to community safety. The gathering brings together three leaders whose organizations approach the same problem from different angles:
- John Gable, CEO of AllSides, which helps people better understand the world and each other by revealing bias and providing perspectives from all sides of media stories.
- Maury Giles, CEO of Braver Angels, the nation's largest cross-partisan, volunteer-led movement to bridge the partisan divide and strengthen our democratic republic.
- Manu Meel, CEO of BridgeUSA, which empowers young people on college campuses across the country to engage in constructive dialogue and disagreement to improve the quality of politics.
The Leadership Circle is a forum convened by Bill Shireman for philanthropists, corporate leaders, experts, activists, influencers, and strategists to learn together, build relationships, and collaborate around pragmatic solutions for a healthy environment and democracy. Meeting monthly over Zoom and annually at EarthX in Dallas, it exists on a simple premise: ten kinds of power at the same table can accomplish what none can alone. These are conversations, not webinars. Each participant is encouraged to bring insights from their own experiences and organizations to help shape actionable ideas and future partnerships.
The purpose of this particular gathering is modest and ambitious at once: to meet one another, learn from one another, recognize one another, and begin planning together. Our intended outcomes include forging new partnerships between organizations, forming working groups on issues requiring collective action, and initiating cross-sector projects that can be launched or advanced through our collaboration. Success will look like concrete action steps, the development of joint initiatives, and a network of civic leaders working together after the event. The generation of 1776 declared independence. The generation of 2026 has a chance to begin something equally consequential, creating a stronger and more connected America.
Participation is open to anyone interested in that work.
Register: https://us06web.zoom.us/meeting/register/oq3j0mFYSlyLXu_pi1mvyg
Learn more: www.solutioncitizen.org/leadership-circle | Hello@SolutionCitizen.org
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U.S. Vice President JD Vance speaks at the 128th Air Refueling Wing Hangar on July 08, 2026, in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Vance traveled to Milwaukee to deliver remarks on the Trump administration's anti-fraud initiatives.
(Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images)
In Milwaukee, J.D. Vance Ties Trump's Fraud Task Force to Medicaid and SNAP Crackdowns
Jul 19, 2026
MILWAUKEE, Wisconsin– Vice President J.D. Vance visited Milwaukee on Wednesday to promote the Trump administration’s crackdown on fraud at the state and federal levels in programs like Medicare and SNAP.
Speaking inside an aircraft hangar at the Wisconsin Air National Guard’s 128th Air Refueling Wing, in front of a banner reading “Protect Taxpayer Dollars,” Vance cast the anti‑fraud efforts to protect both taxpayers and the programs themselves.
“We’re here to talk about fraud, we’re here to talk about protecting your taxpayer money, and most importantly, we’re here to talk about protecting the programs that exist that are funded by the generosity of the people in this room and that ought to go to the people they’re meant for, and not to make fraudsters rich,” Vance said.
During his speech, the vice president pointed to Milwaukee as an example, highlighting the case of Markita Barnes, a Milwaukee woman convicted of stealing more than $2.3 million through Medicaid fraud tied to prenatal care and sentenced earlier this year. Barnes was first indicted in 2023, during the Biden administration.
Vance also highlighted the administration’s efforts to crack down on suspicious medical equipment billing and skin‑graft reimbursements and announced new investigations into alleged fraud in the H‑1B visa program, arguing that “American jobs ought to go to American workers and not foreign fraudsters.”
Vance was joined by Dr. Mehmet Oz, who heads the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, along with several Republican candidates for office, including U.S. Reps. Bryan Steil and Derrick Van Orden, as well as Tom Tiffany, the GOP nominee for governor.
In his speech, Tiffany said he would “root out fraud” and promised to audit the entire government if elected governor. He called on Tony Evers to release SNAP benefits enrollment lists, a cry he has repeated since last year.
“We need the other side to stop turning a blind eye to this fraud that’s going on in Wisconsin,” Tiffany said
When asked by a local reporter what would happen if Evers did not turn over the SNAP rolls, Vance said it showed where Evers’ allegiance lay.
“He cares more about protecting illegal aliens than he does the good citizens of Wisconsin. It’s a scam, and it has to stop,” Vance said.
Evers spokesperson Britt Cudaback did not address the vice president’s remarks but attacked presumptive GOP gubernatorial nominee Tom Tiffany for saying that there would be “zero fraud” under his administration.
“Newsflash: ‘all of state government’ is already ‘audited’ by the Legislative Audit Bureau as overseen by the Republican-controlled Legislature, which you would think someone who wants to run state government should already know,” Cudaback wrote on X.
While Republicans focus on tightening eligibility for public benefits, the numbers behind FoodShare show how many Wisconsinites rely on the program.
SNAP, or FoodShare in Wisconsin, provides benefits to US citizens and qualified immigrants with incomes at or below 200% of the federal poverty level. In March 2026, 653,721 Wisconsinites received FoodShare benefits, or about 11% of the population. According to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, more than 60% of SNAP participants are families with children. Although it is a federally funded program, there is no legal requirement for state governments to share the information of SNAP enrollees.
In 2025, under Trump’s “One Big Beautiful Bill,” the federal government created new restrictions on SNAP benefits for refugees, asylees and other legally present immigrants. The restrictions took effect in Wisconsin on July 1. Under the new rules, only refugees and asylees who have obtained green cards remain eligible for benefits.
According to reporting by Wisconsin Watch, these changes are putting pressure on Wisconsin refugee support organizations and food banks, which worry affected families won’t be able to make up the gap between lost benefits and the help they can provide.
In his speech, Vance cast the Trump administration’s approach as a necessary tool to ensure those most in need receive benefits, warning that “when… money that ought by rights go to feed poor children, but instead goes to fraudsters, we destroy the social fabric of the United States of America.” But in Wisconsin, eligibility for programs like SNAP is shrinking, leaving many families in need without access.
Abbey Osborn is a journalist based in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
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2026 Democracy Awards Honor Excellence Across Congressional Offices
Jul 19, 2026
The Congressional Management Foundation's Democracy Awards recognize congressional offices that demonstrate excellence in public service. While the headlines often focus on conflict, this year's winners remind us that strong leadership, thoughtful management, and a commitment to continuous improvement strengthen both Congress and the constituents it serves
Constituent service remains one of Congress's core functions, and this year's winners of the Best of Constituent Service Award demonstrate that excellence requires exceptional organizations and internal infrastructure. For example, Senator Adam Schiff's office (D-CA) streamlined processes by creating online forms for casework authorization and privacy releases. This system allows constituents to submit requests in minutes, streamlining a process that traditionally required extensive time and resources, resulting in more efficient casework intake
Meaningful communication is essential to building trust between Members of Congress and the people they represent. This year's winners of the Best of Constituent Correspondence & Engagement Award found innovative ways to strengthen those connections. Representative Mike Flood’s office (R-NE) strategically organizes mobile office hours throughout the district each quarter and ensures concerns raised there are routed to the appropriate staff within 24 hours.
For many constituents, a visit to the Capitol is their most personal interaction with Congress, and this year’s winners of the Best of Constituent Experience in D.C. Award demonstrate how thoughtful planning can make those moments meaningful. For instance, Representative Val Hoyle's office (D-OR) turns constituent visits into memorable events through Member-led evening Capitol tours that begin with a reception-style gathering in the office, featuring home-state food and beverage products, and conclude on the House floor.
Innovation is most valuable when it helps congressional offices better serve their constituents, and this year's winners of the Best of Innovation & Modernization Award showed that modernization is most powerful when it solves practical problems. For example, Representative August Pfluger's office (R-TX) developed the "Pfluger Bot," an AI-powered tool integrated with their internal communication system that automatically categorizes incoming constituent correspondence and routes it appropriately. This technology frees staff to spend more time on constituent work.
At a time when partisan divisions undermine internal collaboration and progress, this year's winners of the Best of Bipartisan Collaboration Award demonstrate the value of sustained relationship-building across political lines. Representative Lucy McBath (D-GA) provides a clear example of such work by participating in a bipartisan prayer group as an avenue to develop meaningful working relationships with colleagues from the opposite party.
The strongest congressional offices are often distinguished by their internal dynamics, and the Excellence in Congressional Management Award recognizes offices that foster effective leadership, strong organizational practices, and a culture of accountability. Representative Ashley Hinson's office (R-IA) promotes transparency and accountability through weekly team-wide reports detailing constituent service metrics, legislative activity, communications performance, and office accomplishments.
The Chief of Staff of the Year Award honors the steady leaders behind every successful congressional office. Chiefs build teams, mentor staff, solve problems before they become crises, and create the culture that allows offices to thrive. While their work is rarely visible to the public, its impact is felt every day by Members, staff, and constituents.
This year's winners tell an encouraging story about Congress. Excellence is built through thoughtful leadership, dedicated public servants, strong organizational structures, and a shared commitment to improving the way congressional offices serve their constituents. These offices remind us that while the challenges facing Congress are enormous, extraordinary work is taking place every day to strengthen the First Branch.
The winners of the 2026 Democracy Awards include:
Best of U.S. Senate Constituent Service
- Senator Ashley Moody (R-FL)
- Senator Adam Schiff (D-CA)
Best of U.S. House Constituent Service
- Representative Kevin Kiley (I-CA)
- Representative Sarah McBride (D-DE)
Best of Constituent Correspondence & Outreach
- Representative Mike Flood (R-NE)
- Senator Jeff Merkley (D-OR)
Best Constituent Experience in D.C.
- Senator James Lankford (R-OK)
- Representative Val Hoyle (D-OR)
Best of Innovation & Modernization
- Representative August Pfluger (R-TX)
- Representative Seth Moulton (D-MA)
Best of Bipartisan Collaboration
- Representative French Hill (R-AR)
- Representative Lucy McBath (D-GA)
Excellence in Congressional Management
- Representative Ashley Hinson (R-IA)
- Representative Greg Stanton (D-AZ)
Chief of Staff of the Year
- Toni-Marie Higgins | Office of Senator John Boozman (R-AR)
- Mike Henry | Office of Senator Tim Kaine (D-VA)
- Elizabeth Amster | Office of Representative Jake Auchincloss (D-MA)
- John Byers | Office of Representative August Pfluger (R-TX)
David Nevins is the publisher of The Fulcrum and co-founder and board chairman of the Bridge Alliance Education Fund.
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