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Today, Rhode Island became the ninth state, along with the District of Columbia, to successfully pass legislation to enable automatic voter registration (AVR). The bill passed by the General Assembly, and headed to Governor Gina Raimondo for signing, could allow eligible voters to automatically register to vote when they interact with state agencies. Since 2015, states have passed or adopted measures that could add millions of eligible voters to the rolls in Alaska, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Georgia, Oregon, Vermont, West Virginia and the District of Columbia.

The Pence-Kobach Commission’s and Department of Justice’s letters seeking information from election administrators are telling signs of a coordinated, partisan effort to remove eligible voters from registration rolls.

Today, Common Cause urged Speaker of the House Paul Ryan (R-WI) to force House Intelligence Committee Chair Devin Nunes’ (R-CA) to fully recuse from the committee’s investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 election after Nunes threatened to “take the investigation over.”

Today, Common Cause urged White House communications director Sean Spicer to return to established norms and allow cameras and live audio feeds at daily White House press briefings.

Today, Common Cause praised the U.S. Senate Select Committee on Intelligence for its investigation into the Russian government’s cyber attacks on the U.S. election infrastructure and urged the Committee to make recommendations which would safeguard the United States from future attacks.

The fundamental right of every American to vote has been under attack since the Supreme Court gutted the Voting Rights Act in its Shelby County decision. It is more than symbolic that today’s reintroduction of the Voting Rights Advancement Act comes just days before the fourth anniversary of that decision; it is desperately needed to stem the rising tide of voter intimidation and suppression efforts enacted across the country.