Voting Rights

The head of Common Cause Georgia, Aunna Dennis, called it “irresponsible” to speculate about “potential” double voting, possibly deepening voter distrust in elections systems. “We wholeheartedly agree that people who intentionally vote twice should be subject to the usual criminal penalties for election law violations,” Dennis said in a statement. “But we are concerned that voters who were simply trying to vote may get caught up in the dragnet.”

“Allowing voters to vote [absentee] on Election Day and having their ballots count is just another way to increase the number of people who can be involved in the process, really, at any time, but particularly in the uncertainty of this year,” said Sylvia Albert, director of voting and elections at the nonpartisan nonprofit Common Cause.

With so much money being invested in suppressing the vote by the Trump campaign and the GOP, not to mention secret and unaccountable dark money groups, Comedy Central's The Daily Show with Trevor Noah launches America's Got Suppression! Co-hosts Roy Wood, Jr. and Desi Lydic interview three contestants, including Common Cause's Vashti Hinton-Smith whose vote is suppressed by gerrymandering that split the North Carolina A & T campus into two congressional districts, diluting the voting power of students at the HBCU campus. And HBCU Democracy Fellow Jaden Peay had his vote suppressed by onerous Voter ID laws. Watch to see who the real winners are when it comes to vote suppression.

Co-hosts Roy Wood, Jr. and Desi Lydic interview three contestants, including Common Cause's Vashti Hinton-Smith whose vote is suppressed by gerrymandering that split the North Carolina A&T campus into two congressional districts, diluting the voting power of students at the HBCU campus. And HBCU Democracy Fellow Jaden Peay had his vote suppressed by onerous Voter ID laws. 

“President Trump and Postmaster General DeJoy’s continued attempts to try to rig the election by undermining the USPS received a strong bipartisan warning today: don’t mess with the USPS,” Karen Hobert Flynn, president of Common Cause, said in a statement Saturday. “As the nation continues to suffer from the effects of the coronavirus pandemic, a robust and dependable USPS is needed more than ever.”

"What he’s laying the groundwork for is for his supporters to believe that the election is not properly conducted so they rally behind him when or if he challenges the results,” predicted Sylvia Albert, director of voting and elections at Common Cause.