“Not every behested payment is nefarious, but every behested payment deserves scrutiny,” said Jonathan Mehta Stein, executive director at the good government group California Common Cause. “And the explosion of behested payments recently certainly creates a perception among the public that corporations and players in state politics are using this as an avenue to get around our pay-to-play rules.”

This episode, combined with other information, is “more than enough to support (an) inference of nefarious intent” by Republican lawmakers, said lawyer Hilary Klein, a lawyer for Common Cause, another plaintiff. Strach likened the concept maps to “a shiny, irrelevant object” in the plaintiffs’ case.

We believe that our government “by the people” is stronger when more people participate. We believe in free and fair elections. We believe politicians should not be allowed to silence voters, either by nullifying our votes or by creating new barriers to the ballot box.

As advocates for the right to vote, we know a scam when we see it. That’s why we’ll do what it takes to stop these state senators’ “election review” and protect voting rights for all.

Johnson's calls for a legislative takeover of the elections system demonstrate "the firm grasp that the (Donald) Trump wing of the Republican Party has not only everywhere, but particularly here in Wisconsin," said Jay Heck, who runs the state branch of Common Cause.

"It's a lot of political bluster, but it has to be taken seriously in these times," he added.

Joanne Antoine, the executive director of Common Cause Maryland, a nonpartisan group that advocates for fairer maps, said Common Cause had been anxiously awaiting the release of the commission’s proposed maps. She said she was pleased to see that the commission released a variety of proposals.

“We’re happy. … We thought it might be just one map,” she said. “Giving the public and advocates different options to weigh in on is helpful.”

She said advocacy groups will offer feedback in the remaining three...

A group of advocacy organizations led by Common Cause has asked Facebook to revisit its policy of allowing Save America to advertise as long as it doesn’t use Trump’s voice, since it was established by Trump days after the 2020 election. Facebook has not yet made clear whether Trump will be able to operate a campaign under the same rules, possibly permitting him to advertise his 2024 effort on the site.

“The response we got was we have no answer for you at the moment,” said Yosef Getachew, the director of Media and...

Amanda Gonzalez, executive director of Colorado Common Cause, a group that helped draft the amendments that created the independent commission, also filed a brief opposing the new congressional map on the grounds it reduced Latinos’ electoral influence and doesn’t accurately reflect the state.

Still, Gonzalez said she believes the commission is “the most fair and transparent way of creating maps.”

“At the end of the day all Coloradans want is a process they can trust, they want to understand what is...

“There are obviously challenges with a hybrid commission, half politician half citizen. We knew going into this that this was an experiment. As we are learning through this process, we are learning that maybe this is not a format that works well,” said Suzanne Almeida, a redistricting expert at Common Cause who monitors Virginia’s process. “There is a lot more work to be done.”

"Clearly it wasn’t as big of a deterrent as it needed to be to urge the mapmakers to get back to work and figure it out," said Catherine Turcer, executive director of Common Cause Ohio, one group that pushed for redistricting reform.

Deadlines aren't as important as transparency and public input, said Catherine Turcer, executive director of Common Cause Ohio, which pushed for redistricting reform via two constitutional amendments.  

"It is not the end of the world if they miss the deadline," Turcer said. "It is a problem if they don’t lay out a plan and address public concerns about a secretive process."