Trump Administration/Executive Ethics

“Updating the Electoral Count Act would be a great addition to that bill,” said Aaron Scherb, the director of legislative affairs at Common Cause, a good-government group instrumental in pushing the For the People Act. “Because presidential elections only occur every four years, there's kind of a natural ebb and flow of what people pay attention to or what problems rise up.” 

Common Cause is urging every member of the U.S. House of Representatives to vote “yes” on a resolution to create a select committee to investigate the attack January 6th on the United States Capitol by a violent mob attempting to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election. The letter notes that Common Cause plans to key-vote final passage of H.Res. 503 to create the select committee to investigate the deadly insurrection in our next Democracy Scorecard, which we send to our 1.5 million members. 

"These election workers are feeling the brunt of former President Trump and various Republican allies lying about the election," said Sylvia Albert, voting and elections director for the government watchdog group Common Cause. "All of a sudden, these election workers are part of some vast conspiracy." Albert says that what election officials have described represents "a level of threat and intimidation against election officials that you just don't see in a democracy." "We're seeing election officials receive death threats, they've been doxed, they're in hiding," Albert said. The prospect of experienced election workers resigning from these already "thankless jobs," as Albert described them, raises an even more troubling question: Who will replace them?

Tonight, there were no surprises in the opening act of the push to pass the For the People Act in the United States Senate. But grassroots momentum continues to build in a fight that will go on all summer as we continue to make the case to the American people and their representatives in Washington that this legislation must be passed to expand the freedom to vote, break the grip of big money in politics, end gerrymandering, and crack down on corruption.  

“Our summer of mobilization and grassroots actions to pass this bill will continue. Democracy will prevail. Failure is not an option,” Karen Hobert Flynn, president of government watchdog Common Cause, said in a statement.

Stephen Spaulding, senior counsel with Common Cause, said Tuesday’s vote is “the first step in a concerted summer-long fight to get this bill across the finish line.” “It’s by no means over tomorrow,” he said.