The complaint, which was filed on Monday with the Utah Lieutenant Governor’s Office, alleges that ALEC and its state chair, Sen. Lincoln Fillmore, R-South Jordan, and its national chairman, Senate President Stuart Adams, R-Layton, “violated federal law and Utah’s campaign financial reporting requirements through the giving of and failure to disclose in-kind campaign contributions.”

Specifically, the complaint alleges that ALEC, through its ALEC CARE program, gave Fillmore and Adams “free sophisticated voter management and campaign software for the 2020 election cycle worth thousands of dollars, despite ALEC’s status as a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt corporation barred from engaging in electoral activity under federal law.”

The complaint, which was also filed by the Center for Media and Democracy, further states that “if Sen. Fillmore and Sen. Adams used the Voter Gravity software provided by ALEC to support their campaigns, their failure to disclose it as an in-kind contribution on their campaign finance reports is a violation of Utah Code.”

Alliance for a Better Utah and CMD requested an investigation into the “alleged violation of Utah campaign finance law by Sen. Fillmore and Sen. Adams,” and requested that Lt. Gov. Deidre Henderson “use her power of subpoena to obtain additional information,” including a “full list of ALEC members in Utah who received free RNC-linked voter management software for their 2020 campaigns” and whether the RNC-linked voter management software “was used by legislators or their staff on state time or in state offices.”

The complaint acknowledges that Alliance for a Better Utah and CMD “do not possess sufficient information to determine if they (Fillmore and Adams) used it for their campaigns.”

The complaint is similar to others being filed against ALEC, which describes itself as “America’s largest nonpartisan, voluntary membership organization of state legislators dedicated to the principles of limited government, free markets and federalism,” in 14 other states.

In a written statement provided to the Daily Herald, Utah Senate Chief of Staff Mark Thomas said the complaint “is a copy-paste and is being used in various states across the country” and called it “an effort by Alliance for (a) Better Utah to spread false information.”

“Alliance for (a) Better Utah and CMD allege Pres. Adams and Sen. Fillmore failed to report in-kind contributions during the 2020 election cycle. Their complaint provided no evidence to support this allegation,” Thomas said.

Thomas also noted that Adams “wasn’t even on (the) ballot during the 2020 election cycle” and said Adams and Fillmore “have not used the software in any capacity.”

Adams won the November 2018 election and is currently serving a term that ends in 2023, according to Ballotpedia. Fillmore ran for reelection in 2020 and received over 65% of votes.

The complaint comes the same week as ALEC’s annual meeting, which is taking place in Salt Lake City this year.

“Alliance for (a) Better Utah and CMD clearly wanted to release this false information the week of the conference in hopes reporters in Utah wouldn’t do their due diligence,” Thomas said.

In an email, ALEC Press Secretary Alexis Jarrett said “ALEC data is not shared with any political party and no political party shares data with ALEC.”

“Further, as stated on the login page for ALEC CARE: ALEC CARE is a constituent management system that helps members better understand and communicate with constituents,” Jarrett said. “All who use the communication and constituent relations platform sign an agreement indicating the platform will not be used for campaign-related purposes.”