However, Stephen Spaulding, vice president for policy at the group Common Cause, said this would put even more pressure on the health of democracy in current political environment.

"This opens up a significant risk to the perception that the winners and losers of an election are not determined by voters, but by those who stand to gain financially," he said.

Common Cause has sent a filing to the commission, asking that it reject the proposal. Leadership with the House Task Force on Strengthening Democracy issued a...

“How do they get anything done? Are the important decisions going to be deadlocked? The consequences of that, as we are learning, could be devastating,” said Bob Phillips, executive director of Common Cause North Carolina.

Early voting polling sites and schedules must be approved by the unanimous support of a county election board under current law, Phillips said. If a member of the county board objects, the state board must decide. If it cannot, he said, current law says the only early voting site would be the county board...

Susan Lerner, the executive director of the watchdog group Common Cause New York, said it was too soon to know if Adams had acted improperly. But she said the indictment was evidence that the city’s public financing system was working as intended.

“The campaign finance system we have in New York City deliberately makes it harder for people who want to buy influence,” Lerner said. “The lesson here is do not try to game the system because you will be caught.”

“We know there are folks engaging with these state agencies who otherwise aren’t registered to vote, so this is a great way to ensure they’re getting on the voter rolls,” said Geoff Foster, the executive director of Common Cause Massachusetts, which played a key role in getting the state’s Medicaid AVR system passed.

“AVR was a huge win to address … the disconnect keeping a certain part of our population who are otherwise eligible to vote from getting on the voter rolls. And Medicaid recipients are certainly part...

The state of the republic is precarious. But I am hopeful that democracy will prevail because it is resilient.

We the people have faced serious threats in the past, including even the Civil War, and we have overcome them. We must continue to pass laws to strengthen our democracy in many states. In other states, we will not back down from defeating a new generation of Jim Crow laws crafted to keep targeted communities from the polls.

Julia Vaughn, executive director of the nonpartisan political watchdog group Common Cause Indiana, pointed to one indicator of a healthy democracy.

"Voter turnout is one of the ways that we judge whether or not you have a vibrant democracy," said Vaughn. "You know, are people participating? Do they want to come out and make their voices heard through the electoral process?"

Vaughn said it's more proof that concern is growing as the next presidential contest draws near.

"People have had a sense of...

"Allowing New Yorkers to vote by mail increases voter turnout in harder to reach populations, including young people and voters of color," said Common Cause New York in a statement released the day the bill passed. “(N)ot only is this absolutely legal under our constitution, but the right thing to do."

“These things take time. You don’t just earn the public trust overnight,” said Pedro Hernandez, the Legal and Policy Director for California Common Cause, a voting rights and government transparency group. “We have to show the county’s voters that we are taking concerns seriously.”

In Hernandez’s view, the buck must ultimately stop at the Board of Supervisors. An oversight commission may ultimately help bring light to concerns and potential election issues, but it does not have the authority to resolve those issues.

"It was very shocking to see this attempt to have artificial entities have voting rights," said Claire Snyder-Hall, executive director of Common Cause Delaware, a watchdog group.

"We're seeing voter suppression all over the county, and this is the flipside," she added. "It's not saying the residents of Seaford can't vote, but it's diluting their votes by allowing nonresidents to vote."

"Allowing New Yorkers to vote by mail increases voter turnout in harder to reach populations, including young people and voters of color," said Susan Lerner of Common Cause-NY. "We know vote by mail works: New York did it successfully in 2020 when faced with the COVID-19 pandemic ... not only is this absolutely legal under our Constitution, but the right thing to do."