Voting & Elections

“Now the legislative defendants play a cynical game, hoping that this newly constituted court will reverse course and abdicate its fundamental duty of judicial review,” said Lali Madduri, an attorney speaking Tuesday in court for Common Cause, the North Carolina League of Conservation Voters and citizens like Harper.

Katya Ehresman, voting rights program manager for Common Cause Texas, said everyone knows a voter, a friend or a neighbor who could be affected by the pending legislation. Ehresman said that in some scenarios a person might attempt to vote absentee by mail because they’re 65 or they’re disabled. If they can’t tell whether their ballot was received and are confused about whether their vote was counted, they might try to go vote in person and cast a provisional ballot. “That voter could be liable under SB 2 for a felony penalty” because they were aware they had already cast a ballot by mail, Ehresman said. “Especially if their mail-in ballot was counted that same day. That’s one kind of concern that we potentially see with SB 2.”

The government accountability group Common Cause Texas called the move "another attempt to scare voters away from the ballot box by sewing doubt in the integrity of our elections." "Either this is a hasty move in response to partisan pressure, which should be discouraged from the Secretary of State's office, or it is a deceitful omission that should be looked at skeptically," Katya Ehresman, voting rights program manager for the organization said in a news release. "Texas should focus on strengthening the security of our elections, not removing systems, like ERIC, that ensure checks and balances especially given the SOS office's history with illegal voter purges."

“Consider the real risks of an unmanageable quantity of review requests, including those that are made in bad faith and the limits of time and resources for county officials,” said Anne Gray Herring of Common Cause Georgia.

"You shouldn't be targeted because of your social economic status," said Aunna Dennis, the executive director of Common Cause Georgia. "You shouldn't be targeted because of the life situation that you're going through at that point in time. So this bill is just inequitable ... It's really only tried to give accessibility to balloting options to people who are privileged to not have hurdles or challenges when it comes to voting."

“A lot of our maps here are drawn behind closed doors, and there’s not a lot of input from the public that’s able to be given,” said Morgan Drayton, policy and engagement manager at Common Cause Maryland. “So this would do a lot to make these processes more transparent.”