Past FEC member describes “unlawful and absurd abuse of taxpayer funds.”
As the 2024 election techniques, a” social righteousness” organization in Washington State is making efforts to increase voter commitment by leveraging the national work-study system.
The University of Washington is promoting the work-study place for an intern volunteer at El Centro de la Raza for voting relationship. The Seattle-based firm, known as the Center for People of All Races, describes its work as” social righteousness.”
Republicans are concerned about the Biden-Harris administration’s use of the taxpayer-funded software to support Democrats in the November election, and other jobs similar to it.
Students can apply for a job at the University of Washington to work on El Centro de la Raza’s “voter wedding plan for King County,” focusing on the Latino community and young individuals.
To achieve the agency’s “goal of increasing voting participation”, the learner will perform different tasks that range from creating social media content to assisting” with non-partisan member forums” to managing “voter membership activities”, according to the job description.
In the job listing, the centre says its goal involves building what Martin Luther King Jr. called the” Beloved Community” by “unifying all racial and socioeconomic areas”, supporting human right, and bringing” critical awareness, justice, integrity, and capital to all peoples of the world”.
El Centro de la Raza is” a gathering place for Seattle’s otherwise dispersed”, according to its website.  , And “undoing systemic racism and ending poverty are at the core” of its mission.
The position pays$ 19.97 to$ 21.97 dollars an hour for up to 19 hours per week.
In a recent email, University spokesman Victor Balta stated that the position is “open for students with work study eligibility to apply.”
Balta confirmed that El Centro de la Raza was chosen as a” community service employer” under the Federal Work Study Program and that the position “was chosen based on the non-partisan work around voter registration.”
He added that the organization has been “approved to participate in work study programs at the state level” and has long-time off campus work-study employers.
According to Balta, the university” will not have direct control over the position.” However, when the position is filled, the university will remind” the employer…that]the ] position and]its ] duties/responsibilities must be non-partisan”, he told The Fix.
El Centro de la Raza was also in contact with The Fix twice via email, but they did not respond. Questions pertained to the work-study job, El Centro de la Raza’s goals for the position, and the Department of Education’s expectations for voter engagement work.
MORE: Penn State wants pro-DE I students for voter registration job
Alberto Betancourt, a spokesperson for the U.S. Department of Education, informed The Fix in an email about the department’s expectations for work-study positions.
When students are employed directly by a postsecondary institution, according to Betancourt, the department permits the use of federal work study funds for voter registration activities.
Additionally, it “allows federal work study funds to be used by a Federal, State, local, or Tribal public agency for employment,” he said.
Vice President Kamala Harris announced these guidelines in February, saying students can get “paid through federal work-study to register people]to vote ] and to be nonpartisan poll workers”.
This will “engage our young leaders in this process and activate them in terms of their ability to strengthen our communities,” Harris said in a statement at the time.
” Outrageous misuse of taxpayer funds”
However, Hans von Spakovsky, a former member of the Federal Election Commission, called the voter registration jobs an “abuse of federal resources” in an email to The College Fix.
Von Spakovsky stated in a statement released on Friday to The Fix that” these organizations are political allies of the Biden-Harris administration and the Democrat Party.” He currently works for the Heritage Foundation’s Edwin Meese III Center for Legal and Judicial Studies.
The federal government is paying college interns to perform what amounts to partisan get-out-the-vote work for the Democrat Party, he claimed, which is an unlawful and outrageous abuse of taxpayer funds.
Von Spakovsky claimed that this is the first time the presidential administration has permitted the use of taxpayer funds.
” Unfortunately, given the politicization of the U. S. Justice Department by Merrick Garland as a weapon to be used against the political opponents of Joe Biden and Kamala Harris, the law enforcement agency of the U. S. government will not take action]to] stop this illegal misbehavior”, he told The Fix.
Republicans in Congress also have criticized the Biden administration’s change.
Rep. Virginia Foxx, who chairs the House Education and the Workforce Committee, criticized Vice President Harris for “bill]ing ] this scheme as’ non-partisan’ and one that will ‘ promote voter participation for students.’ Nobody is buying that pitch”.
Biden and Harris are converting the program into a “vote-buying sweepstakes”, the North Carolina Republican said in a March statement.
In a letter to the Department of Education Secretary Miguel Cardona in March, Foxx and other House Republicans expressed concern about the changes to the work-study program.
This decision appeared “partisan and political”, they wrote.  , The lawmakers also noted how certain organizations, like the Alliance for Justice, can “operate under the tax code as’ nonpartisan’ groups” while holding left-leaning bias.
MORE: Burgess Owens questions Pacific U. taxpayer-funded’ equitable’ voter registration job
IMAGE: Kraken Images/Shutterstock
Follow The College Fix on Twitter and Like us on Facebook.