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Public News Service: Voting rights groups call constitutional convention efforts a threat to democracy

Geoff Foster, executive director of Common Cause Massachusetts, said there are no rules in the Constitution for how to govern a convention and no guarantee, even the First Amendment, would be safe.

"There's great risk and great potential harm to everything already enshrined in our Constitution if we do open up this Pandora's box," Foster cautioned.

Foster pointed out a convention could potentially allow unelected delegates and special-interest groups to enshrine their agenda into a founding document.

Sacramento Bee/Yahoo! News (Op-Ed): What has California’s Voters Choice Act helped accomplish?

While the Voters Choice Act was never intended to be a panacea for all voting challenges facing California, one thing is very clear: The law is a reform worth revisiting and reinvesting in, and still holds promise for expanding electoral participation across the state and across many voting groups.

Colorado Newsline: Trump brief asks Supreme Court to put โ€˜decisive endโ€™ to 14th Amendment challenges

Colorado Common Cause, which supported the plaintiffsโ€™ case with an amicus, or friend-of-the-court, brief before the Colorado Supreme Court, on Friday urged the U.S. Supreme Court โ€œto set a critical legal precedent to safeguard the future of American democracy.โ€

โ€œThe Supreme Court must embrace its role as an active defender of our Constitution, or else it may crumble under the immense pressure it will surely face in the years to come,โ€ Aly Belknap, the groupโ€™s executive director, said in a statement.

PolitiFact: FALSE: โ€œIllegal immigrants now have the right to vote in New York.”

Susan Lerner, the executive director of the voting rights group Common Cause New York, said that only U.S. citizens can vote in New York state.

"Permanent residents and people authorized to work here are documented and approved by the federal government," Lerner said. "They pay state and federal taxes, and pay into Social Security as well. In many cases, theyโ€™ve lived in the United States for decades. There is nothing โ€˜illegalโ€™ about them."

Yahoo! News/Providence Journal: ‘Relentless grind’: Providence City Council is a big job. Some members aren’t always doing it.

"Certainly the fact that it is very low-paying, thatโ€™s kind of a reflection of the value that has pervaded for a long time in America โ€“ that legislatures should be made up of regular citizens or residents of the state or city that theyโ€™re representing," said John Marion, executive director of Common Cause Rhode Island. "But we know that it can result in bodies not being necessarily as representative of a community as [they] could be because the lack of pay means that people who donโ€™t have flexible jobs or donโ€™t have a source of...

New York Times: Candidates Lay Groundwork For Fraud Cries Before Caucuses

โ€œThis follows the general playbook, the election denier playbook of just pre-emptively laying the groundwork for claims of fraud in the event of a loss,โ€ said Emma Steiner, the Information Accountability Project Manager at Common Cause. โ€œItโ€™s sort of future-proofing.โ€

Texas Tribune/San Antonio Express-News: Texas GOP chair Matt Rinaldi backed a group with white supremacist ties โ€” while working for its billionaire funder

Anthony Gutierrez, executive director of the watchdog group Common Cause Texas, said Rinaldiโ€™s legal representation of Wilks was โ€œshocking,โ€ especially in light of the ongoing scandals involving Defend Texas Liberty that Rinaldi has been involved in.

โ€œWe all know money equals power in Texas politics and billionaires like the Wilks use their wealth liberally to bend public policy to their liking all the time,โ€ he said. โ€œBut it's still pretty shocking.โ€

Yahoo! News/Kansas City Star: Do you trust far-right politicians working to remake the Kansas and US Constitutions?

โ€œThe delegates could write amendments that revoke any of our most cherished rights โ€” like our right to peaceful protest, our freedom of religion, or our right to privacy,โ€ the progressive watchdog group Common Cause warns. Hyperbole? Maybe. The point is we simply donโ€™t know.

Public News Service: Bill aims to restore voting rights for those incarcerated in Alabama, US

Keisha Morris Desir, justice and mass incarceration project manager for Common Cause, said the Inclusive Democracy Act is the first of its kind to include voting rights for people even if they are still behind bars.

"This is the first really expansive bill that would allow everyone -- including those who are currently incarcerated, on parole and probation -- to vote in a federal election," Desir explained.

New York Times: How to Boost Voter Turnout With Just One Signature

โ€œIt makes for more efficient elections and is less confusing to voters, too,โ€ said Susan Lerner, executive director of Common Cause New York, a nonpartisan good government group.

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