Voting & Elections

“There is no good reason why New York doesn’t have early voting; our elected officials have decided, at least up until now, that it’s not worth the trouble,” said Susan Lerner, the executive director of Common Cause New York, a nonpartisan group advocating for improvements to the state’s voting system. “The most logical explanation is: It’ll be expensive or complicated for the counties. It’s uniformly popular in every other state that has it, whether it’s a red state or a blue state,” she added. “The public likes it, election administrators like it, so it’s an embarrassment — to be blunt — that New York is not willing to assist voters in providing early voting.”

We call on all Americans to repudiate this political hate in each and every conversation with family, friend, and colleagues. We cannot ignore the racist and intolerant invective we see in politics, repeated by some news commentators, and flourishing online. Our own president needs to repudiate this hate speech and own his own very significant contributions to setting the tone that makes people think it is okay to vilify and attack politicians, judges, reporters and others who they don’t agree with.

We call on all Americans to repudiate this political hate in each and every conversation with family, friend, and colleagues. We cannot ignore the racist and intolerant invective we see in politics, repeated by some news commentators, and flourishing online.  Our own president needs to repudiate this hate speech and own his own very significant contributions to setting the tone that makes people think it is okay to vilify and attack politicians, judges, reporters and others who they don’t agree with.

Heather Ferguson, executive director of New Mexico Common Cause, said an ethics commission will help build trust in government. Aside from investigating possible corruption, she told the Santa Fe New Mexican that a commission would serve as an educational tool for officials seeking to avoid violating laws. She said the panel should be able to provide opinions much faster than the state attorney general's office, which also weighs in on questions from lawmakers and others.

"Initiatives are a good thing overall," said Aaron Scherb, director of legislative affairs for the government watchdog group Common Cause. "But nefarious tactics are sometimes used by both parties to try and hijack the process ... to get a certain outcome in certain elections." Scherb said partisan use of the measures is growing. It's a tactic that can be especially potent in midterm elections, where turnout is smaller — typically 40 percent, compared with 60 percent in a general election nationally.

Today, Common Cause released a new report on more than two dozen ballot initiatives and state constitutional amendments to strengthen, and in some cases undercut, democracy that will be decided by voters at the state and local level in November. “Democracy on the Ballot” traces the growing momentum behind citizen-driven pro-democracy reforms in recent years and examines initiatives and amendments on ballots in the 2018 general election from Florida to California and from North Dakota to New Mexico and urges support or opposition to each.