Voting Rights

This evening, a panel of Common Cause’s national policy experts and state leaders briefed the media on the state of voting nationally and in California, Georgia, New Mexico, and Pennsylvania.

"What we are seeing are things that we usually see on Election Day," Susannah Goodman, director of election security for Common Cause, told reporters. "There are glitches in the system, but election administrators have learned from the past and they have resiliency built in." ... And then there were issues that voting rights groups described as "weird."   A priest in Toledo was unexpectedly checking the identification of voters, said Catherine Turcer, executive director of Common Cause of Ohio. In Summit County, home to Akron, a man was seen observing polling places before being asked to move along. Katya Ehresman, an organizer for Common Cause of Texas, said there were a handful of incidents of alleged voter intimidation within 100 feet of polling locations, but the problem wasn't widespread. She said there was "overwhelming enthusiasm" for voting statewide. "I'm really excited about the turnout we are seeing," Ehresman said.

This afternoon, a panel of Common Cause’s national policy experts and state leaders briefed the media on the state of voting nationally and in Ohio, Texas, and Florida.

But Suzanne Almeida, director of state operations for Common Cause, said late Tuesday that monitors were relieved by how quiet the day had been. “I am happy to report that today has been relatively quiet on the political violence front,” she told reporters late Tuesday. “We were absolutely prepared for more significant incidents, but they simply have not come to fruition.”

Susannah Goodman, director of election security for the government watchdog group Common Cause, says some polling sites are seeing their lines of voters grow because of issues with voting machines, including ballot scanners that need fixing. ... But Goodman stresses there are no major concerns so far. "These are things we see in every election cycle. There are glitches in the system. But election administrators have learned from the past and they have resiliency built in."

“What we are seeing are things that we usually see on Election Day,” said Susannah Goodman, director of election security at Common Cause. “Sometimes voters are going in and one of the voting machines isn’t working, or lines are a little longer.”