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Groups Urge Census Changes to Accurately Count Prison Populations For Redistricting

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Groups Urge Census Changes to Accurately Count Prison Populations For Redistricting

Today, Common Cause and the Prison Policy Initiative urged the U.S. Census Bureau to change how it counts prison populations each decade. The Bureau’s use of differential privacy, the intentional infusion of inaccurate information into population data, creates unnecessary miscounts in data used by state and local officials for redistricting. In a letter to Director Robert L. Santos and other senior officials, the groups emphasized that the populations of correctional facilities are already publicly available and that differential privacy is...

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David Vance

National Media Strategist
dvance@commoncause.org
240-605-8600

Katie Scally

Communications Director
kscally@commoncause.org
408-205-1257

Ariana Marmolejo

Regional Communications Strategist (West)
amarmolejo@commoncause.org

Jennifer Garcia

Regional Communications Strategist (South)
jgarcia@commoncause.org

Kenny Colston

Regional Communications Strategist (Midwest)
kcolston@commoncause.org

Common Cause’s network of national and state democracy reform experts are frequent media commentators. To talk with one of our experts, please reach out to any member of the press team above.

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Associated Press: Slow population growth costs Ohio a House seat, census shows

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Associated Press: Slow population growth costs Ohio a House seat, census shows

Catherine Turcer, executive director of Common Cause Ohio, said the new rules Ohio voters have approved will require districts to be more compact — by keeping counties and municipalities whole, among other things — and will make districts more competitive.

“One of the things we know we won’t have is ‘the snake on the lake,’” she said, referring to Ohio’s 9th District, which strings along Lake Erie to merge the distant cities of Toledo and Cleveland, both heavily Democratic. That’s a gerrymandering tactic that...

Miami Herald/McClatchy: Florida gains one U.S. House seat after 2020 Census results are released

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Miami Herald/McClatchy: Florida gains one U.S. House seat after 2020 Census results are released

Dan Vicuna, the national redistricting manager with Common Cause, one of the groups that helped draw Florida’s current congressional map, said Florida has more time than other states to draw new boundaries despite Census delays caused by COVID-19.

“We’ll be keeping a watchful eye on whether the process is fair and transparent as required,” Vicuna said, adding that some states will face a deadline crunch to draw districts in time for the next election, “but fortunately Florida is not one of them.”

Associated Press: Population growth gives North Carolina a 14th US House seat

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Associated Press: Population growth gives North Carolina a 14th US House seat

“In order to avoid illegal map-rigging, the redistricting process in 2021 must be transparent, nonpartisan and include robust public input — and be completely free from gerrymandering,” Common Cause North Carolina Executive Director Bob Phillips said in a news release after Monday’s announcement. Common Cause was a plaintiff in both federal and state partisan gerrymandering lawsuits in the 2010s.

Spotlight PA/Philadelphia Inquirer: Pennsylvania will lose a U.S. House seat after redistricting

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Spotlight PA/Philadelphia Inquirer: Pennsylvania will lose a U.S. House seat after redistricting

“If anything, the climate is more tense now than it was 10 years ago,” said Khalif Ali, executive director of the good-government group Common Cause Pennsylvania. “Once again, I anticipate districts that don’t really reflect registered voters and the people of Pennsylvania, and I also expect a veto from Gov. Wolf and then onto the Supreme Court.”

For those reasons, and more, Ali said it’s important for Pennsylvania to adopt an independent commission to helm the state’s redistricting process — a long-sought change...

Census Apportionment Totals Released, Sets Redistricting Cycle in Motion

Press Release

Census Apportionment Totals Released, Sets Redistricting Cycle in Motion

Today, the Census Bureau released apportionment data, which determines the number of representatives in the House of Representatives for each state and the Electoral College. Undoubtedly, this census endured unprecedented challenges from the COVID-19 pandemic, which disrupted, delayed, or canceled virtually every census operation. This was exacerbated by the political interference from the previous administration, including attempts to add an untested, eleventh-hour citizenship question to the census form and unconstitutionally exclude...

New York Post: Ajit Pai becomes latest ex-FCC chairman to join a private equity firm

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New York Post: Ajit Pai becomes latest ex-FCC chairman to join a private equity firm

Former FCC Chairman Michael Copps found the news disappointing. He said commissioners tend to be more sympathetic to private equity firms and corporations when they are commissioners if they know that they might also, one day, become their future employers.

“We have a serious revolving door problem at the FCC,” Copps told The Post. “This is not encouraging.”

Private equity firms often put too much debt on media companies and do not have the public interest in mind, according to Copps. He raised the present...

USA Today: Supreme Court to debate whether nonprofits must reveal donors despite threat of violence

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USA Today: Supreme Court to debate whether nonprofits must reveal donors despite threat of violence

"Even though they're saying the case had nothing to do with elections and is not about public transparency, if there's a bad ruling here it could be leveraged to expand these exemptions from transparency in election spending," said Beth Rotman, national director of money in politics and ethics at Common Cause. "If you're going to expand those exemptions so broadly, then you're going to really take away a lot of the transparency that we have in political disclosure laws." 

New York Times: Voting Rights Standoff Stalls Trump-Inspired Ethics Measures

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New York Times: Voting Rights Standoff Stalls Trump-Inspired Ethics Measures

“It’s critically important that the For the People Act remain big, bold and together,” said Aaron Scherb, the director of legislative affairs for Common Cause, one of several groups working with Democrats on the bill, adding, “People don’t want piecemeal solutions to comprehensive problems.”

Salon: Bills targeting local officials who resisted Trump could allow GOP to “overturn election results”

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Salon: Bills targeting local officials who resisted Trump could allow GOP to “overturn election results”

"America is one of the only democracies that does not have elections run by a nonpartisan government entity," Sylvia Albert, director of the voting and elections program at the nonpartisan voter advocacy group Common Cause, said in an interview with Salon. "What you're seeing right now is the danger of politicians running elections. We should all be very much on guard."

Missouri Independent/Kansas City Star: Medical marijuana firms awarded licenses by Missouri are raising money for Gov. Parson

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Missouri Independent/Kansas City Star: Medical marijuana firms awarded licenses by Missouri are raising money for Gov. Parson

“When someone sees industry leaders are able to, not even have a seat at the table but actually pay for the table, that doesn’t speak well for how policy decisions are going to be made,” said Beth Rotman, director of money in politics and ethics for Common Cause. 

Pointing to next week’s fundraiser for Parson, Rotman said things don’t have to be illegal or corrupt in order to be problematic.

“In many instances it’s clear,” she said, “to get the face time, to get the phone call returned, to get...

Common Cause Urges U.S. House Members to Support D.C. Statehood Bill (H.R. 51)

Press Release

Common Cause Urges U.S. House Members to Support D.C. Statehood Bill (H.R. 51)

Common Cause is urging every member of the U.S. House of Representatives to vote “yes” on the Washington, D.C. Admission Act (H.R. 51) when it goes to a floor vote today. The legislation would make Washington, DC the 51st state in the nation. The letter notes that Common Cause plans to key-vote final passage of H.R. 51 in our next Democracy Scorecard, which we send to our 1.5 million members.

Conviction of Derek Chauvin for George Floyd’s Murder Does Not Alleviate Need for Policing Reforms

Press Release

Conviction of Derek Chauvin for George Floyd’s Murder Does Not Alleviate Need for Policing Reforms

Today’s conviction of former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin for the murder of George Floyd is a small step but we still have so far to go to address the underlying racism, police brutality, and lack of police accountability behind it. The conviction represents accountability but not justice.

George’s Floyd’s murder must serve as one more catalyst to bring about systemic change and dismantle the white supremacy that drives deadly policing in the United States.

In the wake of this conviction, so much...

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