Our country has survived the Civil War, two world wars, the Great Depression, the Great Recession, and many other hardships along the way. Although many have been left behind or left out during those struggles, we must expand our efforts for an inclusive democracy so that it lives up to its promise. We survived the insurrection and a coup attempt last year. Can our democracy withstand another attempt in the next presidential election? We cannot afford to find out.

The Senate must immediately pass pending legislation that has...

Khalif Ali, executive director of Common Cause Pennsylvania, said the map in its current form does not allow for a community-level dive, making it harder for residents to provide feedback.

"We don't have the underlying shapefiles," Ali explained. "We have no way again to evaluate whether and how this map divides communities of color. Particularly in Philadelphia, Allegheny County, Lancaster, Dauphin, York, all those counties are really relevant when we're talking about this question of racial equity and adhering to the Voting...

There is no substitute for legislation, and the time to act is now. Recently, more than 150 democracy scholars wrote that “defenders of democracy in America still have a slim window of opportunity to act. But time is ticking away, and midnight is approaching.”

If we are to lead by the “power of our example,” President Biden and senators must step up and do what it takes to pass these bills as quickly as possible. When our leaders embark on the year of action at the summit, this must be a top priority. Democracy is...

“What we’re seeing is they’re kind of putting all these applications into one basket,” said Rebecca Timmons, a communications coordinator at Common Cause, which opposes the Article V convention. “There are no guardrails.”

Anthony Gutierrez, the executive director of Common Cause Texas, told reporters last week that absent congressional action, his state may continue to pass maps that dilute the power of minority communities even as the state continues to grow more diverse.

“This pattern, where groups like ours have to keep going to court every 10 years over maps that violate minority voting rights is just going to keep happening unless we get that action from Congress,” Gutierrez said.

The racial impact of the maps is sweeping. The government accountability watchdog group Common Cause said a quarter of the 36 state legislative seats held by African Americans, all Democrats, would be likely to flip Republican. The district containing the seat that a Black congressman, Representative G.K. Butterfield, has occupied since 1992 also lost much of its Black constituency, and he chose to retire at the end of this term.

Paul S. Ryan, the vice president of policy and litigation at Common Cause, a watchdog group, called the indictment “good news for democracy and small donors,” adding that Mr. Tunstall was perhaps the best known of the fund-raising operatives taking advantage of donors in this way.

“This should send a sign to potential scam artists that the Department of Justice is watching,” Mr. Ryan said.
Mr. Ryan said he expected that a superseding indictment would eventually cover Mr. Tunstall’s past four years of activity....

Jennifer Parenti, Northern Colorado organizer for Colorado Common Cause, said, “Communities of color make up about 30% of the state’s population overall. But unfortunately, this proposed congressional map does not reflect that diversity. It, rather, splits our communities of color across multiple districts, while seemingly prioritizing municipal boundaries and protecting incumbents.”

“In what world does it make sense to appoint someone who took an active role to discredit the will of voters?” said Stephanie Gomez, associate director of Common Cause Texas.

The appointment brought immediate criticism from Democrats and voting groups. “The timing of this announcement is clearly intended to subvert our democratic process in a way that allows Greg Abbott’s completely unsuitable nominee to oversee our 2022 elections without having to face confirmation hearings,” said Stephanie Gómez, the Texas associate director for Common Cause.