"By inserting himself into the map-drawing process in this inappropriate and unprecedented way, Governor DeSantis began to diminish the prospect that the Legislature would timely pass a legally- and constitutionally-compliant congressional map," reads the lawsuit filed by Common Cause Florida and Fair Districts Now.

Heather Ferguson of the progressive watchdog group Common Cause New Mexico said New Mexico stands out as a “beacon of light” against states proposing to restrict voting access. She also called attention to vehicle caravans in recent elections that block or intimidate voters at polling locations.

“There’s a lot that’s just not being said,” said Joanne Antoine, executive director of Common Cause Maryland, a nonpartisan group that focuses on government accountability. “When we talk about politics getting ugly, I think redistricting is at the center of all of it.” ...

Common Cause’s Antoine said redistricting presents a bad look for the state.

“Voters have no reason to trust the redistricting process. The process is riddled with problems,” she said. “We continue to punt to this idea of a...

“It’s really outrageous on a number of fronts,” said Beth Rotman, money in politics and ethics program director at Common Cause, a national group that promotes government accountability.

“This ethics agency has a job to do for everyday Americans,” Rotman said. “They have a job to do for we the people who have these laws in place, and they have a job to do and if there has been any potential issue they need to investigate, they need to be able to start to do their jobs and go forward with this without potential...

Common Cause Florida, FairDistricts Now and five individual voters filed a motion late Tuesday asking 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Allen Winsor to recuse himself from the lawsuit the groups filed March 11, asking the federal court to set the new congressional districts.

Winsor, who was appointed to the federal bench by former President Donald Trump, is one of three judges named by Chief Judge William Pryor to a panel to handle the case. Also on the panel is U.S. District Judge M. Casey Rodgers, a George W. Bush...

“At the heart of the map that the governor is pushing, is to dismantle a district that has given Black communities in northern Florida the opportunity to elect a candidate of their choice. The governor’s actions are an effort to bully the Legislature or the courts into adopting a map that takes away people’s voting rights and is unconstitutional,” said Kathay Feng, the national redistricting director for Common Cause, a nonpartisan pro-democracy watchdog group.

“Florida voters overwhelmingly adopted some of the...

"Texas was already the hardest state to vote in before Republicans passed these laws that made it even harder," said Anthony Gutierrez, executive director of Common Cause Texas, in a statement to Salon. "What we're seeing today is a small preview of what we can expect to see at a far wider scale in November unless the federal government finally takes real action to intervene."

Gutierrez said the Texas secretary of state's office was repeatedly told about the potential for these problems when the voting-restriction bill was...

“The winner is chosen in the primary and the primary draws, for lack of a better way of saying it, the most extreme and emotional voters,” said Bob Phillips, who leads the redistricting reform group Common Cause NC.

He said he’s heard state legislators on both sides of the aisle complain that their party’s leaders instruct them not to even mingle with the other side when they’re in Raleigh, let alone vote with them.

“We’ve seen it in Raleigh and seen it in Washington,” he said. “Folks that come...

“The governor of Florida does not have control over all Florida police departments or the FBI,” Sylvia Albert, director of voting and elections for Common Cause, told VICE News when DeSantis first announced his plans. “And by proposing this integrity unit, it seems like that’s what he wants: a personal, political goon squad.”

"PACs are often used as slush funds," Paul S. Ryan, a campaign finance expert at the good government nonprofit Common Cause, told CNN. "Campaign finance law doesn't require PAC money to be used for political purposes, leaving open the possibility that Trump could use PAC funds to pay for private plane repairs."