“Greg Abbott either didn’t read this bill closely enough to understand what it really does or is deliberately working to make it harder for Texans with disabilities to vote,” Katya Ehresman, the voting rights manager for Common Cause Texas, said in a statement.

Voting rights groups say that does not mean voting is easy, and they have been responding to the restrictions with fresh strategies. In Georgia, for instance, Common Cause set up mobile printing stations across the state so voters could comply with new voter registration rules that require an ink signature on a printed form.

“It’s only through the work of all these communities and groups on the ground that voters have access,” said Sylvia Albert, the group’s national director of voting and elections. “But doing this...

Flight attendants use euphemistic doublespeak because, understandably, they want to avoid terms like “hijacking” and "September 11th.” For similar reasons, Jones spoke in broad terms, without directly invoking Trump or January 6th. (There were also other reasons for this, such as Common Cause’s nonpartisan status.) Even so, the implications were clear. At one point, an organizer sitting in the audience stood, using a cane, and gave an impromptu speech, urging listeners to imagine a Supreme Court opinion that enabled legislatures to rig...

Katya Ehresman, voting rights program director with Common Cause Texas, said voters, county officials and election administrators should have been given the opportunity to testify about legislation set to directly impact them.

Ehresman said that process was concerning and “against values of transparency and public input, which should be core parts of the legislative process.”

“These bills do have a tangible effect on voter turnout, voter apathy, and on the ability for elections administrators to do their job...

The law was backed by the good governance organization California Common Cause, which described it as “a common sense and long overdue pro-democracy reform” that already exists in other states and in certain California cities.

Striking down the law would go against the “will of the people,” said Jonathan Mehta Stein, executive director of California Common Cause.

“This law protects Californians from the pay-to-play corruption and the appearance of corruption that plagues our cities and counties, and...

It's likely the law will be challenged in court. Common Cause Indiana Executive Director Julia Vaughn said "it creates serious questions about violations of the United States Constitution and the Civil Rights Act."

Several organizations including Common Cause say the legislation would disproportionately affect the elderly, minorities who already facing barriers to voting and voters who use alternate voting methods like travel boards or the military post card application. Voting rights groups are especially worried those who are...

“All of these changes together are forcing Harris County voters to live in a different set of circumstances than the rest of the state. This is creating a disparate scenario for those voters and barriers to well run elections,” said Katya Ehresman, voting rights program director at Common Cause Texas. “There’s a clear partisan element to that with Harris County growing in its Democratic stronghold. But there’s also definitely a disparate racial impact element to these bills continuing to pass as the county is home to the largest...

After April’s decision, Alaska became the 13th state to have its highest court interpret the state’s constitution to ban partisan gerrymandering. A further seven states have a statutory ban on partisan gerrymandering, according to Dan Vicuña, national redistricting manager at Common Cause, a Washington D.C.-based nonprofit that campaigns to end gerrymandering across the nation.

“Whether it happens in a red state or a blue state, a constitutional ban on partisan gerrymandering is always a landmark victory for the...

Claire Snyder-Hall, executive director of Common Cause Delaware, an organization that advocates for open government, called this an "outrageous attempt to get wealthy property owners, some of whom don't even live in Delaware, an unfair say in town elections."

"We're seeing attacks on freedom to vote all over the country, and mostly Republicans trying to create barriers to voting," she told Delaware Online/The News Journal. "And this is kind of a different way of getting at the same thing, right?

"It's like 'Oh, we...

“I don’t think that any New York City resident would question whether the real estate interests were giving this money out of the goodness of their heart, or if they felt they were going to get access in return,” said Susan Lerner, head of Common Cause New York, a good government group.

“This is just an end run around the limits,” Lerner said. “And it’s wrong.”

With City Council elections coming up this year and state races again on the horizon in 2024, Lerner, the good government watchdog, argued...