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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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The Hill: House Democrats renew push for checks on presidential pardons

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The Hill: House Democrats renew push for checks on presidential pardons

“Congress should also explore the idea of independent clemency boards to review clemency petitions and advise the president. This could eliminate biases and conflicts of interest inherent in the current system, which often relies on prosecutors at the Department of Justice to serve as a check on their own prosecutions. Members of such a clemency board should reflect our country's diversity and be representative of stakeholders inside and outside the criminal justice system,” said Karen Hobert Flynn, president of Common Cause.

Common Cause Urges FCC To Reconsider Impact of Broadband Deregulation on Affordable Connectivity For Low-Income Households

Press Release

Common Cause Urges FCC To Reconsider Impact of Broadband Deregulation on Affordable Connectivity For Low-Income Households

Yesterday, Common Cause, along with the Benton Institute for Broadband & Society, the National Hispanic Media Coalition, New America’s Open Technology Institute, the United Church of Christ, OC Inc., and Free Press filed a Petition for Reconsideration with the Federal Communications Commission regarding the FCC’s 2020 Net Neutrality Remand Order. The FCC’s Remand Order concluded that the agency’s deregulation of broadband outweighs any harm to public safety, competition, and affordable broadband for low-income households.

The Guardian: ‘Jim Crow relic’: Senate filibuster stands in way of Democratic voting rights push

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The Guardian: ‘Jim Crow relic’: Senate filibuster stands in way of Democratic voting rights push

“It’s supremely ironic that something that gives rural, sparsely populated states so much power already would further kind of entrench minority rule and further make it difficult to access the ballot box,” said Stephen Spaulding, senior counsel for public policy and government affairs at Common Cause, a government watchdog group.

Keeping the filibuster in place and not passing sweeping voting reforms would have “profound downstream effects”, Spaulding added.

“The American people chose new leaders; they...

Testimony of Karen Hobert Flynn on Preventing Abuse of Presidential Clemency Power

Press Release

Testimony of Karen Hobert Flynn on Preventing Abuse of Presidential Clemency Power

Tomorrow at 9:00 a.m., Common Cause President Karen Hobert Flynn will testify before the House Committee on the Judiciary’s Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights, and Civil Liberties on the “Constitutional Means to Prevent Abuse of the Clemency Power.” Her full written testimony was submitted to the Subcommittee in advance of the hearing. Other witnesses include Georgetown University Law Professor Caroline Fredrickson and historian Timothy Naftali of New York University.

Houston Chronicle: Texans donated $8.9M to Trump as he peddled baseless ‘Stop the Steal’ election fraud claims

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Houston Chronicle: Texans donated $8.9M to Trump as he peddled baseless ‘Stop the Steal’ election fraud claims

“Big time bait-and-switch by Donald Trump and a bunch of other politicians lower in the food chain capitalizing on that opportunity — to rip their own supporters off, really,” said Paul S. Ryan, vice president of policy and litigation at Common Cause, a government watchdog group in Washington, D.C.

“The donors who were defrauded by and large in November and December by team Trump — these were elderly Republican donors who …it’s just despicable to prey on that donor pool, in my opinion,” Ryan said.

Houston Chronicle: New Texas House election committee chairs fought 2020 results, faced discrimination claims

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Houston Chronicle: New Texas House election committee chairs fought 2020 results, faced discrimination claims

“Texas already makes it harder to vote than any other state. Rep. Briscoe being put in charge of the Elections Committee is a clear signal that the politicians in charge intend to make it even harder,” Anthony Gutierrez, the head of Common Cause Texas, a non-partisan public-interest group, said in a statement. “We’ll be fighting to stop them at every step.”

McCarthy & Republican Leaders Embrace Marjorie Taylor Greene & Anti-Democracy Forces

Press Release

McCarthy & Republican Leaders Embrace Marjorie Taylor Greene & Anti-Democracy Forces

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) and the House Republican Conference had a simple choice. They could side with democracy and common decency, or they could embrace racism, Islamophobia, anti-Semitism, anti-immigrant, hate, violence, and the untethered conspiracy theories spewed by Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA). McCarthy and his cohorts should have been voting to expel Rep. Greene from Congress altogether, but instead they refused to even strip her of her committee assignments as the conference once did with former Rep. Steve...

ABC News: How Trump, RNC raised hundreds of millions pushing baseless election fraud claims

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ABC News: How Trump, RNC raised hundreds of millions pushing baseless election fraud claims

The fundraising numbers signal just how potent the election fraud argument became with Trump's most loyal supporters, experts told ABC News. Paul S. Ryan, a vice president of policy and litigation at Common Cause, a Washington-based good-government group, called the fundraising effort deceptive.

"It was based entirely on fraud ... by Team Trump alleging that there were problems in the election, that Trump needed money to hire lawyers to fight and that he won the election," Ryan said. "And in my experience watchdogging money in...

Lansing State Journal (Op-Ed): For the People Act will protect our vote, amplify the voices of marginalized communities

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Lansing State Journal (Op-Ed): For the People Act will protect our vote, amplify the voices of marginalized communities

The events of January 6 in Washington, D.C., were shocking and appalling. We saw armed rioters, incited by President Trump, storm our center of government and loot the U.S. Capitol — which led to at least five deaths. The violent mob, spurred by conspiracy theories and lies, failed in its attempt to overturn the results of an election — the same election Trump’s own Department of Homeland Security said was, "the most secure in American history.”

But this tragic attack on our Capitol should not be understood as just a...

Star-Ledger: Vote-by-mail spurred controversy, fraud charges and maybe the Capitol riot. Now it may become federal law.

News Clip

Star-Ledger: Vote-by-mail spurred controversy, fraud charges and maybe the Capitol riot. Now it may become federal law.

“We should have standardize rules and that’s what this bill is doing,” said Stephen Spaulding, senior counsel for public policy at the advocacy group Common Cause. “This hopefully would tamp down on all of that chaotic litigation by getting these rules settled and setting a national standard.

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