“We still have the Trump Big Lie that is metastasizing,” said Stephen Spaulding, senior counsel for public policy and government affairs at Common Cause. “Trust is the glue that really holds the system together. When it starts to erode, it really threatens the whole system.”

Groups, such as Spaulding’s, are gearing up for big efforts ahead of the midterms to combat election disinformation. They plan to dispatch nonpartisan poll monitors and scrub social media of inaccurate information, especially about dates, places...

"The politician chooses their district and their voters, and if they don't like a group of their voters, they can carve them off and move them someplace else," said Michael Goff, Maryland president of Common Cause. "They can create their own safe district, what we call safe seats."

Common Cause pushes states to turn census numbers over to independent commissions to draw nonpartisan congressional maps.

"It's a once-in-ten-year process," said Goff. "Probably the most important political development of the next ten...

Other democracy advocates are focused on efforts to take money out of the electoral process. Beh A Rotman, director of money in politics and ethics at Common Cause, has argued for publicly funded political campaigns to level the playing field between ordinary citizens and wealthy interests.

“Citizen-funded election programs step in to create space for policies that favour large swaths of everyday Americans. Particularly when combined with restrictions on lobbyist and government contractor contributions, these reforms represent...

“I would be very happy if it wasn’t not coming down to Pennsylvania, if we were just one of the many states one way or another,” says Suzanne Almeida, a lawyer for the state’s chapter of the watchdog group Common Cause.

The Maryland chapter of the watchdog group Common Cause will send scouts to the voting centers to make sure voters are following Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines and Hogan’s orders to wear masks and remain at least six feet apart.

Activists are allowed, as usual, to campaign as long as they remain at least 100 feet from the polling center.

Joanne Antoine, executive director of Common Cause in Maryland, said she worries people who didn’t receive ballots will crowd voting centers, defeating...

Common Cause legislative affairs director Aaron Scherb said Paul’s failure to quarantine himself potentially endangered the hundreds of individuals he came into contact with in the U.S. Capitol complex in addition to U.S. senators, including janitors, police officers, and food service workers. His use of the Senate gym after its March 19 closure to stop the spread of COVID-19 “calls into question his ability to follow rules,” said Scherb, adding that Paul should have known better because he’s a doctor.

“As a U.S....

“While this is the conclusion of one particular process, this is also a moment where President Trump was, for one of the few times in his life, held accountable for his actions,” said Jesse Littlewood, vice president of campaigns at Common Cause and an organizer of the evening demonstration. Littlewood said having hundreds of people standing outside Congress moments after the impeachment vote will send a symbolic message to legislators about the disappointment many Americans feel.“This is our opportunity to say we’re not going to let...

“It’s a gathering of wealthy corporate funders and the policymakers who protect their interests,” said Anthony Gutierrez, spokesman for Common Cause Texas, which issued a 24-page report this week on ALEC’s influence in Texas, a state with at least 58 affiliated lawmakers, more than any other. The state chairmen are Rep. Tan Parker, R-Flower Mound, and Sen. Kelly Hancock, R-North Richland Hills.“We fully expect new attempts to suppress the vote or gerrymander Texas districts to come out of this conference, and we’ll be standing...

“It doesn’t provide everyone with an equal vote,” said Bob Phillips, the executive director of Common Cause North Carolina. “It really is an inability of citizens to hold their elected officials accountable.”

Were these lawyers lying in 2017? Are they lying today? Either way, the Common Cause plaintiffs rightly argue that the General Assembly should be legally prohibited from making a claim that it flatly contradicted in court one year ago.