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HuffPost: Democrats Are Mounting A Push To Expand Voting Rights After Big State-Level Midterm Wins
“New York historically has been a state that did not keep up with other states’ election administration and voting reforms,” Susan Lerner, executive director of Common Cause New York, a nonprofit that works on democracy-related issues, said.
Found in: Common Cause
Bloomberg: Ohio’s Historic Corruption Case Tests Limits of Citizens United
“We’ve legalized bribery in our campaign finance system,” said Catherine Turcer, executive director of Common Cause Ohio and a longtime Ohio advocate of campaign finance and government reform. “This case proves we’ve essentially set the stage for Ohioans to be taken advantage of. And they were.”
Found in: Common Cause
New York Magazine: Democrats Defeat Kathy Hochul’s Pick to Be New York’s Top Judge
Susan Lerner, the executive director of Common Cause New York, said she was “horrified” Hochul was contemplating hiring a litigator, adding that it would be “a brutal attack on a democratically elected institution.”
Found in: Common Cause
Arizona Republic: Hobbs reveals donations to inauguration; APS 'pleased' to give $250K for celebration at Capitol
"It is absolutely integral that the administration has a transparent and honest line of communication with Arizona and Arizona voters, as well as the different (news) outlets across the state, in order to ensure that Arizonans are able to access that information," said Jenny Guzman, program director for Common Cause Arizona, a government accountability group that launched its office in the Grand Canyon State this month.
Found in: Common Cause
Government Accountability Groups: Independent House Ethics Office Must be Strengthened and Made Permanent
Today, Common Cause and more than 20 other government accountability groups urged every member of the U.S. House of Representatives to codify the independent Office of Congressional Ethics (OCE) into law. The letter follows a recent move by House Republicans to hobble the independent ethics watchdog in the new rules package for the 118th Congress. The letter emphasizes that voters made it very clear in the midterm elections that they are demanding more accountability from their elected representatives in Washington, not less.
Found in: Common Cause
Patriot-News/PennLive (OP-ED): Some lawmakers are trying to sneak through legislation to advance their hardline agenda
Despite Pennsylvania voters’ overwhelming rejection of hardliner policies this past November, as the new legislative session begins, it’s clear very little has changed in Harrisburg. Lawmakers are still using sleight-of-hand tricks to force their hardliner agenda on Pennsylvanians because they can’t pass it through regular legislation. As they have for so many years, these lawmakers have ignored the voice of the people and are trying to circumvent the legislative process by forcing through constitutional amendments that limit voting rights, create unnecessary and expensive bureaucracies, and upset the balance of power in the state government.
Found in: Common Cause
CBS News: George Santos' backers include a migrant smuggler, a big Trump donor and the cousin of a sanctioned Russian oligarch
"This member of Congress has flaunted campaign finance laws," Susan Lerner, the executive director of Common Cause/New York said. "There is no respect for the rules or the voters." According to Lerner, the personal financial disclosures made by candidates are critical for voters to have at their disposal prior to casting their vote. She says "porous" campaign finance laws and lack of enforcement from the FEC have allowed this particular situation to devolve.
Found in: Common Cause
NPR: Despite mail voting changes, ballot rejections remain relatively low in 2022 midterms
Sylvia Albert, director of voting and elections at Common Cause, says that since the beginning of the pandemic, voting by mail or absentee has become significantly more popular. In response, some states expanded access to mail in voting. "What we also saw in 2020 was the demonization of vote by mail," Albert says. "This really affected state legislatures during the 2021 sessions. So, even though we saw a lot of states expand access, we saw other states restrict access." She says that includes laws that set new limits on drop boxes, new ID requirements, as well as tighter deadlines for turning in a mail ballot. Albert says that even if the percentage of mail ballots that are thrown out remains relatively small, there were still hundreds of thousands of people in the U.S. "who tried to have their voices heard but were silenced" when their ballot was tossed out. "We know that elections are getting closer," she said. "And we know that every small policy change actually can make a big difference — and a difference enough to flip an election." Particularly in local races, Albert says, a few rejected ballots could have made a difference in the outcome of an election.
Found in: Common Cause
VoteBeat/Texas Tribune: Ken Paxton wants more power to prosecute election crimes. These bills in the Texas Legislature would give it to him.
Anthony Gutierrez, executive director of Common Cause Texas, said the bills would also hamper election worker recruitment. “The potential for prosecution if you mess something up, that Ken Paxton just decides is not a mistake but a violation of the law, is going to dissuade voters and also the people who are qualified to do those [election administration] jobs from wanting to do those jobs,” he said.