Voting & Elections

Hacked machines. Undercounted elections. Broken touchscreens. Impatient voters. Sound like a nightmare? It could be a reality for millions of New York voters as early as April. For years, the voting machine company ES&S has spent more than $600,000 lobbying New York officials to purchase certain machines, including ExpressVote XL, and soon they might get the green light. The machine provides a touchscreen allowing voters to mark their ballot electronically instead of on the traditional paper ballots. It then tabulates votes.

“The Legislature should have done some funding for this in 2017, 2018, 2019. But there’s no time now,” said Liza McClenaghan, state chair of Common Cause Florida, a voter advocacy group.

At a time of deep partisan divide in Washington, Congress deserves credit for allocating significant additional resources for election security in the face of ongoing attacks on our election infrastructure by hostile foreign governments. This $425 million can be put to good use toward critical contingency plans for the 2020 elections should election systems fail due to foreign interference. As national intelligence agencies have warned the attacks on our election infrastructure are ongoing.

Critics say the partisan nature of Will’s case is clear. “Let’s be honest, Esenberg wouldn’t be pursuing this if it was going to decrease the number of conservative Republican voters as opposed to Democratic and progressive voters,” said Jay Heck, executive director of Common Cause Wisconsin. ... “They’ll wait in line and then they’ll find out that they’re not registered and then they’ll be told they have to register,” Heck said. “You’ll have people who just say ‘to hell with it’”.

"To Majority Leader McConnell, we ask: why are you afraid of all Americans having their full right to vote?" Sylvia Albert, director of voting and elections at Common Cause, said in a statement.

Two more House Republicans have announced their retirement, adding to over a dozen House Republicans that will not be seeking re-election in 2020. Suzanne Almeida from the Common Cause Redistricting Counsel explains what role redistricting may have played in their decision.