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Tallahassee Democrat: How did your Florida lawmaker score in the Democracy Scorecard by Common Cause?
“Officeholders are deciding on matters that present a choice between a fundamental belief in democracy or authoritarian rule; between you and me having power in our vote and voice, or others taking that way from us,” said Karen Hobert Flynn, president of Common Cause in a prepared statement with the Scorecard’s release. See the full results at https://democracyscorecard.org.
Found in: Common Cause
Boston Globe: R.I. Board of Elections calls for new protocols after ballot problems
John M. Marion, executive director of Common Cause Rhode Island, attended Wednesday’s meeting and tweeted, “Big takeaway for me is that there was no process in place that could have caught these mistakes. It’s a new technology implementation, which is hard, but there is a lot we could have learned from other states that have had them for years.” Marion and Steven Brown, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Rhode Island, noted that the printed ballots voters received after using the touchscreen are in English, even if the voter opted to vote in Spanish. “Not only does this obviously undercut the point of having a bilingual voting process in the first place, it is in clear violation of the federal law that requires this Spanish language option in Providence, Pawtucket, Central Falls, and Woonsocket,” they wrote.
Found in: Common Cause
Santa Fe Reporter: NM Judge Bars Insurrectionist Couy Griffin From Public Office
Common Cause New Mexico, which filed an amicus brief in support of the plaintiffs, hailed Mathew’s decision for having far-reaching consequences. “Judge Mathew’s decision is a signal to elected officials everywhere who want to snub their noses at the constitution, foment mob violence and disobey the law,” said Mario Jimenez, executive director of Common Cause New Mexico, in a statement. “Our elected officials—and candidates—must obey the law. They are not above it. That’s the very essence of democracy, and this ruling affirms it.”
Found in: Common Cause
The 19th News: What makes state legislatures uniquely prone to alleged harassment
Heather Ferguson, the state director of Common Cause in New Mexico — a progressive voting rights and elections reform organization — spoke with investigators in the Ayana complaint. Ivey-Soto once referred to Ferguson and her co-director as “hips and lips,” and has publicly admitted to doing so. Ferguson said what concerns her the most is knowing that experiences like hers are happening around the country. “In varying degrees, this is something that occurs in different statehouses based on the level of transparency on harassment, the tolerance level for harassment,” Ferguson said. She calls the bullying and harassment of men lawmakers toward women the “worst kept open secret.” In a state like New Mexico, where the political sphere is “extremely small,” Ferguson said coming forward with a complaint of harassment meant risking “having every bill you touch destroyed thereafter.” “We are frustrated because we have a personal, vested interest in creating a safe work environment,” Ferguson said. “Our statehouse is supposed to be the people’s house. The public should feel safe there. I shouldn’t have to instruct my staff to not go into a senator’s office or be alone for fear of being harassed or bullied.”
Found in: Common Cause
Insider: Out of 18 pro-democracy bills in 2022, the US Senate filibuster torpedoed 17 of them: report
Common Cause also ranked individual members of Congress on their pro-democracy efforts, with 101 members — all Democrats — earning a perfect score. That's a more than 70% increase over the number of members of Congress who had perfect scores (58) in the 2020 Democracy Scorecard. Common Cause President Karen Hobert Flynn cited the legislative filibuster as the roadblock to pro-democracy reform. "In the end, with high levels of support in Congress and an overwhelming outpouring of public support, Congress ran into one of the reasons our democracy needs to be modernized: the filibuster," she wrote in the report.
Found in: Common Cause
Vox: How election deniers could sway the 2024 election
“The problem for Republicans is that the Wisconsin Elections Commission was pretty scrupulous. It did not tilt elections towards Republicans like they thought it would,” said Jay Heck, executive director of the democracy group Common Cause Wisconsin. If a Republican secretary of state presided over elections, they could tighten up rules around voting, from identification requirements to who could cast an absentee ballot and where they could drop it off — policies that, individually, might not cause a huge drop-off in voting, but together, amount to “death by a thousand cuts,” Heck said. And, if the secretary of state did assume the commission’s current power to certify the election results, they could try to disrupt that process as well. Essentially, Heck said, “Republicans are trying to weaken the Wisconsin Elections Commission for 2024 so that, when Trump runs again and Wisconsin will again be a very closely divided state, the election apparatus would be able to make decisions that would be very favorable for a Republican presidential candidate.”
Found in: Common Cause
Bloomberg: Trump Allies Back Mass Challenge to Voter Eligibility in Georgia
Aunna Dennis, executive director of Common Cause Georgia, said the group has heard of similar efforts in Harris County, Texas; and Florida, but the challenges in Georgia are the most extensive currently underway. She said it’s also troubling because Georgia law allows the state to take over local elections boards if it finds them incompetent. Many clerks are worried that if they don’t do a quick vetting of the mass challenges or the challenges lead to longer lines on Election Day, they’ll face a state takeover.
Found in: Common Cause
Atlanta Journal-Constitution: In battleground Georgia, new voters on the rise before ‘22 election
New voters will turn out if they’re concerned about issues that are important to them, such as democracy, taxes, education and housing costs, said Aunna Dennis, executive director for Common Cause Georgia, a government accountability organization. “All these people are joining in democracy and getting their voices heard at the ballot box,” Dennis said. “We have to pay attention to why they want to go out and vote, and what they care about.”
Found in: Common Cause
Santa Fe New Mexican (Op-Ed): For Couy Griffin, the 'aw shucks' defense won't work
Faced with clear evidence that he rallied the mob while it broke Capitol windows and became increasingly violent, he said this was not actually a “mob” but was simply “just a crowd,” like at a sporting event that just got out of hand. And when a D.C. police officer who was there trying to control the “crowd” told the court another story, Griffin continually resisted. He reverted to a claim that antifa, shorthand for left-wing anti-facists, was to blame and said the police officer who died the day after the riot died of natural causes and not from injuries suffered while being attacked with a fire extinguisher. Griffin said everything — from video clips and photos and his own postings — was taken out of context. He didn’t mean anything literally by it.
Found in: Common Cause
Bloomberg: State High Court Races Matter More ‘Than Ever’ In Post-Roe Era
Redistricting is a hyper-partisan issue in the state that’s likely to have a direct but unpredictable impact on the races this year, said Catherine Turcer, executive director of Common Cause Ohio. Only one Republican justice, Chief Justice Maureen O’Connor, ruled against the GOP-controlled Ohio Redistricting Commission. She must retire this year due to age restrictions, meaning a new GOP replacement could clear the legislature to draw lines without court interference. Turcer noted this is the first time justices are running with their party affiliations on the ballot.