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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: Rhode Island lawmakers approve redistricting map

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Associated Press: Rhode Island lawmakers approve redistricting map

“This is the culmination of a years long effort to maintain the status quo,” John Marion, executive director of the government watchdog group Common Cause Rhode Island, told The Boston Globe. “They did not hide the fact that the goal was to let the incumbents draw the maps as they pleased.”

Associated Press: Minnesota courts release new political district maps

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Associated Press: Minnesota courts release new political district maps

Annastacia Belladonna-Carrera, executive director of Common Cause Minnesota, said in a statement that the courts fell short of the panel’s goal to keep communities of color intact within districts, citing splits between House districts for Black immigrant communities in the northern suburbs of the Twin Cities and Latino communities in the southwestern suburbs.

“Minnesotans don’t want Republican or Democratic maps — we want fair maps that give us a voice in our government, regardless of political party, race, or...

Patriot-News (Op-Ed): Pennsylvania lawmakers are abusing the constitutional amendment process

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Patriot-News (Op-Ed): Pennsylvania lawmakers are abusing the constitutional amendment process

Constitutional amendments – which must be passed in identical form in two legislative sessions before being presented to voters on a ballot – should be used sparingly. And they certainly should not be used to let one branch of government sidestep the checks and balances of the other branches.

But Pennsylvania legislators are now using the amendment process to take power from other branches of government and increase their own influence.

CalMatters: No legal battles for California’s new election maps. But what lessons can be learned?

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CalMatters: No legal battles for California’s new election maps. But what lessons can be learned?

“In the 2001 cycle, there was essentially a gentleman’s agreement that enabled everyone to run for reelection and stay in power,” said Jonathan Mehta Stein, executive director of California Common Cause, which pushed for the independent redistricting commission. “This was a process that was exactly the opposite. The commission was literally moving lines and making massively important decisions on a livestream. They’re going to stumble, and thousands of people are going to watch it. But I don’t think I would trade that for a cleaner...

USA Today: HBCU bomb threats are a painful reminder of past anti-Black violence, students say

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USA Today: HBCU bomb threats are a painful reminder of past anti-Black violence, students say

Sophia Parker, who is a Spelman fellow for Common Cause, a nonpartisan group that defends voting rights, said she thinks there's been "a lack of action taken on behalf of Black Americans" when threats are made against them. ...

Parker and her fellow Spelman students plan to reach out to elected officials this month. The threats Spelman and other HBCUs faced were, in part, caused by pushes to ban discussions about racism from classrooms , she said.

“A lot of my peers who aren’t even that politically...

Columbus Dispatch: Ohio redistricting: Few signs that third time’s a charm for state House and Senate maps

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Columbus Dispatch: Ohio redistricting: Few signs that third time’s a charm for state House and Senate maps

"If there was the will to engage in a robust bipartisan process, they would have already established a schedule," said Catherine Turcer, executive director of Common Cause Ohio. "It just feels like a merry-go-round or some sort of weird Groundhog Day."

Politico: Inside the totally legal, fairly macabre, classically political world of the true Zombie PACs

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Politico: Inside the totally legal, fairly macabre, classically political world of the true Zombie PACs

“Political committees are [standalone] — free-standing corporations … separate from the humans who set them up,” said Paul Ryan, vice president of policy and litigation at the watchdog group Common Cause. “While it’s entirely fair to think of them as the alter ego, in the case of candidate committees, … as a legal matter, they go on in existence even in the event of the death of the candidate or officeholder who set them up.”

Roll Call: State courts continue redrawing maps, as Supreme Court backs off

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Roll Call: State courts continue redrawing maps, as Supreme Court backs off

Critics of the map argued it diluted the power of minority voters. Bob Phillips, the executive director of Common Cause North Carolina, one of the map’s challengers, told reporters on a call Wednesday that the state wants to be “the leader of the path forward to a better way with regards to redistricting.”

“We watched all this train wreck and simply decided we could not sit back and see racist gerrymandered maps locked in for the next decade that will ensure one party in power at the expense of voters of color,”...

Associated Press: Legal experts baffled by sentence for registering to vote

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Associated Press: Legal experts baffled by sentence for registering to vote

Sylvia Albert, director of voting and elections for the government watchdog group Common Cause, said the case shows how states can fail to educate people about voting rights and voter reenfranchisement.

She also called the sentence excessive and said Moses’ race is likely a factor.

“It is well understood and well known that the criminal justice system is harsher on Black and brown defendants than it is on white defendants, and there’s plenty of research to show that,” Albert said.

Reuters: Analysis: In U.S. battle over redistricting, competition is the biggest loser

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Reuters: Analysis: In U.S. battle over redistricting, competition is the biggest loser

"When politicians draw lines that lock in the winners for the rest of the decade, it creates a disillusionment among voters that elections may not matter, because our voices won't be heard," said Kathay Feng, the national redistricting director for the good government group Common Cause.

And without the political middle represented in Congress, "you end up with a dysfunctional body," she said.

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