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VIDEO LINKS AND QUOTES from Today’s Media Briefing: Fighting for Fair Maps in the Face of Extreme Gerrymandering
Earlier today, a panel of national and state redistricting experts briefed the media on the redistricting provisions within the Freedom to Vote Act and how the legislation will help stop state legislatures’ ongoing attempts to approve gerrymandered maps in the current and future redistricting cycles.
Found in: Common Cause
Austin American-Statesman: Texas Senate begins work on election audit, voting felony bills
"This decision to inject partisan politics into our elections process will only sow doubts in our democracy, distract and divide us, and stick taxpayers with these giant bills," said Stephanie Gómez, associate director of Common Cause Texas. "Texans deserve better than to have our ballots serve as fuel for an election conspiracy," she said.
Found in: Common Cause
Inside Sources/Tribune News Service (Op-Ed): 2020 Election Audits: Bad for Public Trust, Good for Fundraisers
Those who are manufacturing doubts about our election results have a strong profit motive: they need to keep the doubts alive to keep the dollars flowing. But the rest of us can stop falling for their scam, and stop subsidizing these unfounded attacks on America’s elections.
Found in: Common Cause
NPR (AUDIO): Redistricting: What Happens When The Party With Power Gives Themselves More
STEPHANIE GOMEZ: So, you know, we got the text. Like, the maps are out. These are the maps that we have been waiting for. CHANG: Stephanie Gomez is associate director of Common Cause Texas, a nonprofit that works on issues like voting and elections. She was waiting eagerly on Monday when Republican state lawmakers released their first draft of the new congressional map. GOMEZ: I don't know if I'm allowed to cuss, but it was very like, oh, hell, like, it's - the maps are out. It was just - everyone open up the maps, and let's just - let's take a look at everything. CHANG: So remember all that population growth we mentioned in Texas? It's been driven almost entirely by people of color. And it's the reason that Texas next year will gain two more seats in the U.S. House of Representatives, where seats are allocated by state population. GOMEZ: Of course, our eyes were like, OK, we're supposed to get two opportunity districts for minorities. Let's see where they end up putting those. CHANG: When Gomez got a closer look at the new Texas maps, she saw what many Democrats expected and feared. You see, the state's new map would actually reduce the number of congressional districts where voters of color are in the majority, and the map would protect Republican incumbents who might have been vulnerable by packing their districts with even more Trump supporters. The Princeton Gerrymandering Project, which grades redistricting maps on things like how compact or competitive the districts are, gave the Texas congressional map a flat-out F. GOMEZ: It's so hard to be a Texan who is fighting for an equitable democracy. Like, we are constantly being met with our deepest, worst fears.
Found in: Common Cause
Houston Chronicle: Over 1 million Houston voters change congressional districts under GOP redistricting plan
“With 95 percent of Texas population growth in the last decade coming from communities of color, our new congressional districts clearly should have been created to provide them the ability to elect their candidates of choice,” said Anthony Gutierrez, the executive director of the good government group Common Cause Texas. “That did not happen because these mapmakers prioritized the interests of their own political party over those of Black and brown Texans.”
Found in: Common Cause
The Hill: Cities become pawns in redistricting game
“Republicans will oftentimes split cities in order to dilute the votes of Democratic voters in districts that will be heavily Republican, so they want a little piece to bury under the votes of people who vote the other way,” said Kathay Feng, national redistricting director at Common Cause, a government watchdog organization. “Democrats, on the other hand, want to split cities because they can vote in solid Democratic patterns and they want to use them as anchors in as many districts as possible.”
Found in: Common Cause
Washington Post: New York’s redistricting tests Democratic opposition to gerrymandering
“It was a hallmark of the Cuomo administration to introduce bold measures to make great headlines that have little to no substance. The redistricting deal is that kind of deal,” said Susan Lerner, executive director of Common Cause New York, which did not support the referendum, declaring it inadequate. “Clearly the desperate desire for a deal overcame good governance.” So far, critics like Lerner have been right. In its first attempt this year to draw new maps, the commission couldn’t agree, with Democrats drafting one map and Republicans another.
Found in: Common Cause
The Hill: Dozens of lawsuits filed ahead of redistricting presage years of litigation
“Legislatures feel unbridled in what they’re allowed to do,” Feng said. “There were more legal constraints in past redistricting processes that have been eroded by court decisions and that sense that states can now engage in redistricting with far fewer legal constraints has allowed some to engage in very brazen gerrymandering.”
Found in: Common Cause
Austin American-Statesman (Op-Ed): Fair redistricting can help keep lawmakers accountable to the people
This is our year to flip the script and make sure we the people drive this process, not the politicians. That’s why it’s critical that we the people have a say in how our maps are drawn. When the people are prioritized in our democracy, we will have certainty that maps are drawn to benefit us, not the politicians. State legislators must give us ample opportunity to review the maps, weigh in with our own thoughts, and voice our feedback. State legislators should outline an accessible process for multiple statewide public hearings for as many Texans as possible to be heard.
Found in: Common Cause
New York Times: Progressives Worry Their Priorities Will Be Left Behind, Despite Biden’s Bold Words
Stephen Spaulding, a senior counsel at Common Cause, said that engaged Democratic voters were attuned to the filibuster, the Senate’s signature procedural weapon that requires a 60-vote supermajority to advance most bills. “They will have serious questions if it’s not reformed and there is no action to protect voting rights or reproductive rights, both of which are under attack in states across the country,” he said. “They will ask the question: ‘Why did you care more about a Senate rule than these priorities?’”