United Sovereign Americans

Snippet of LA Times Coverage 5/10/2024

At the June regular County Board meeting, there was a series of speakers on behalf of a national group called United Sovereign Americans, including two co-chairs for their Illinois chapter (jump to video link). They read the text of their proposed resolution for the County Board to pass for an "election audit." The version of the resolution they proposed to the DeKalb County Board is available here (starting on page 15 of the PDF file).

In spite of the name, it does not appear to be affiliated with the far more notorious "sovereign citizens" movement. The LA Times however had a front page article on the group, however, stating:

United Sovereign Americans is part of a cottage industry of far-right election deniers that has sown disinformation since Trump lost his reelection bid. The group aims to scrutinize elections with a legal strategy that can “throw massive amounts of sand in their gears,” [Marly Hornik, co-founder of United Sovereign Americans] said during a February presentation in Orange County.

While the Illinois group here described their activities as attempting to rebuild faith in the election system, many of their statements here and across the country openly question election integrity. The figure that brought the group national from its early and legally troubled years in New York, Harry Haury, is himself a long time part of the "Stop the Steal" movement and participant in debunked election disinformation such as the "2,000 Mules" documentary, according to the LA Times.

The group is extremely litigious in addition to promoting election conspiracies and sowing doubt about the integrity of American voting systems across the United States. The Baltimore Sun noted in its coverage of its Maryland Lawsuit that the group was bragging about "actively preparing litigation in 23 states." On the flip side, the LA Times also highlighted a lawsuit against an LA County Prosecutor last year for relying on "election denier" groups and conspiracy theorists for a case.

This included a description of United Sovereign Americans Co-Founder Harry Haury and his business associate as having "deep ties to the 'Stop the Steal' movement" and related election disinformation efforts.

Champaign County has its own history of political and legal battles over ensuring the County Clerk runs local elections fairly. There are some legitimate concerns about how to spend limited human and financial resources to ensure that everyone who wants to vote can do so without being unfairly burdened. Often that comes down to issues like rural access and transportation issues, high density districts and campus dealing with excessively long lines, and issues of fairness.

Sometimes it's a matter of ensuring protocol and precedent are adhered to, with each party tending to be a bit more critical of the other, and counter-accusations of partisanship (or worse) by the sitting County Clerk over the years.

The reader can decide for themselves if they agree with the concerns raised by a group like United Sovereign Citizens or if they share some of the more mainstream media criticisms of them. It may be worth considering if their solution would be helpful to the ongoing local battles over election integrity and fairness, or just drag us into some national fight far removed from those more tangible local issues.