Voting & Elections

The House took a critically important step today toward protecting the freedom of every American to vote by passing the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act. The Senate must follow suit and pass this legislation to repair and strengthen the landmark Voting Rights Act which played a key role in beating back the racist and discriminatory Jim Crow laws . New discriminatory voting laws, designed to strip Black and Brown communities of political clout by making it harder for them to vote, are once again being passed after the Supreme Court gutted the Voting Rights Act in 2013. This year, 18 states have already enacted 30 restrictive voting bills that make it harder for Americans to have a say in choosing our elected leaders.

Common Cause is urging every member of the U.S. House of Representatives to vote “yes” on the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act (H.R. 4) to protect the freedom to vote of every American at a time when voting rights are under attack. The letter emphasizes that already this year, 18 states have enacted 30 restrictive voting bills that make it harder for Americans – particularly in Black and Brown communities - to have a say in choosing their elected leaders. The letter also notes that Common Cause plans to key-vote this legislation in our Democracy Scorecard, which we send to our 1.5 million members. 

Stephanie Gómez, associated director of Common Cause Texas, said the bill would give partisan poll watchers “unhinged levels of influence over elections” and said the bill would make it harder for all Texans to vote, particularly voters of color and those with disabilities. Her group also hosted what it called a "honk! for voting rights" protest, encouraging cars to circle the Capitol on Monday morning, hoping for a noisy show of dissent with social distancing baked in.

It is critically important that Congress pass the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act to protect the freedom to vote of every American. The legislation, introduced today in the United States House of Representatives, will repair much of the damage done to the Voting Rights Act by the Supreme Court under Chief Justice John Roberts. In concert with the For the People Act, this legislation will curb the coordinated effort by Republican state legislatures across the country to silence Black and Brown voters who showed up in record numbers last year to vote. Already this year, 18 states have enacted 30 restrictive voting bills that make it harder for Americans to have a say in choosing our elected leaders.

"The politician chooses their district and their voters, and if they don't like a group of their voters, they can carve them off and move them someplace else," said Michael Goff, Maryland president of Common Cause. "They can create their own safe district, what we call safe seats." Common Cause pushes states to turn census numbers over to independent commissions to draw nonpartisan congressional maps. "It's a once-in-ten-year process," said Goff. "Probably the most important political development of the next ten years is happening in the next few months, and most voters don't even know about it."

Litigation and organizing will be key components in the Democratic strategy to counter the onslaught of new election laws, "but can only go so far," Aaron Scherb, the director of legislative affairs at the nonpartisan voting group Common Cause, told Salon, calling the White House line about "out-organizing" voter suppression "insulting to the hundreds of thousands of organizers who worked tirelessly to turn out voters." ... "Certainly the White House has made the calculation that infrastructure's extremely important, which it is, but I think all rights are derivative from voting rights, and I think that needs to be a continued priority from the White House," Scherb said.  He recalled Lyndon B. Johnson traveling the country during the debate over the Voting Rights Act, seeking to put "pressure on the Senate that this is the issue that must get done." "We really need the president and the administration to use its full power of the bully pulpit," he said.