Voting & Elections

“This is an indication of wanting, basically, to have a man inside who can undermine,” said Sylvia Albert, the director of voting and elections at Common Cause, a government watchdog group. “Clearly these are not people who believe in the rule of law. And people who run our government need to follow the rule of law. So it is concerning that they are running.”

“The choice to push this legislation forward in the dark, despite overwhelming opposition from the people of Texas, is about the politicians in power doing everything they can to manipulate the outcome of future elections to keep themselves in power,” said Anthony Gutierrez, executive director of Common Cause Texas.

Today, all but six of the Republican Senators turned their backs on democracy and on their nation. History will not be kind to those Senators who voted against even allowing a debate on a bill to create an independent 9/11-style commission to investigate the violent insurrection at the U.S. Capitol by an armed mob bent on overturning the results of the 2020 election by force. That attack left 5 dead and scores injured – including more than 130 law enforcement officers who suffered injuries while defending the Capitol and the members of Congress inside.

“It’s a false choice. It has to be both,” said Stephen Spaulding, senior counsel for public policy and government affairs at Common Cause, a government watchdog group. “They’re both critically important pieces of legislation and it’s a false choice to say I’m for the other and not for this. Because only together will we fully rebalance the state of voting in America to favor access.” Advocates are heartened by polling that shows the measure is extremely popular and the fact that Democrats have held together so far and brought the bill to the verge of a Senate floor vote despite some grumbling from their own caucus. “What you’re seeing is a commitment to a floor vote and getting people on record,” Spaulding said. If Democrats went into the 2022 midterms without doing anything to protect voting rights, it would be disastrous, advocates said. “Voters showed up in record numbers to choose new leadership. There were commitments made across multiple Congresses on both bills and so saying ‘we tried’ isn’t going to work,” Spaulding said. “If these bills weren’t to go to President Biden’s desk, they’d have … to articulate why they did nothing when they had the power to do so.”

Common Cause is urging every member of the U.S. Senate to vote for cloture on the motion to proceed and support the House-passed H.R. 3233 to establish a 9/11-style commission to investigate the violent attack January 6th on the United States Capitol in an attempt to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election. The letter notes that Common Cause plans to score this cloture vote on the motion to proceed to this legislation to create the “National Commission to Investigate the January 6 Attack on the United States Capitol Complex” in the next version of our Democracy Scorecard which we send to our 1.5 million members.

"I wouldn't be surprised if we see something similar in Michigan, Pennsylvania and Florida, because this is a way for these actors to fundraise for elections going into 2022 and 2024," said Aunna Dennis, Executive Director of good government group Common Cause Georgia.