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Los Angeles Times: A small-city mayor takes on big money and political propaganda
“Corporations can essentially buy elected officials ... by pumping money into getting their preferred candidates into office,” or by opposing those “not as beholden or sympathetic,” said Sean McMorris of California Common Cause, a nonprofit good-government organization.
Found in: Common Cause
Associated Press: Tennessee kickback scandal leaves GOP reps feeling betrayed
Longtime Tennessee public interest lobbyist Dick Williams, who heads Common Cause Tennessee, said the alleged Phoenix Solutions scheme is a “more extreme” example that likely doesn’t indicate a larger problem with the system, which can always use fine-tuning. “It’s an example that in any group of people, including legislators, you’re going to have a few people that are wanting to game the system, one way or another, and be deceitful of, supposedly, their friends even,” Williams said.
Found in: Common Cause
CNN: Florida lawmakers are poised to pass a bill that would create an election police force. What would it do?
"No voter should have to factor the likelihood of getting investigated into their calculation of whether and how to vote. No one should face felony prosecution for helping three friends by taking their ballots to the post office," Sylvia Albert, director of voting and elections for Common Cause, said in a statement in late February. "Our 'government by the people' is stronger and more representative when more people vote."
Found in: Common Cause
VIDEO LINK & QUOTES from Today’s Media Briefing: The Growing Movement for Citizen-Led, Independent Redistricting
Today, a panel of Common Cause’s redistricting experts briefed the media on the major victories local communities are winning in their efforts to transform redistricting into a citizen-led process.
Found in: Common Cause
Reuters: U.S. Supreme Court rebuffs Republicans in electoral map disputes
Bob Phillips, executive director of Common Cause North Carolina, a group defending the state's new districts, called Monday's action a victory. "We're pleased that the U.S. Supreme Court rejected the legislative defendants' shameless attempt to impose their gerrymandered congressional map upon North Carolina," Phillips said.
Found in: Common Cause
Inside Sources/Tribune News Service (Op-Ed): Elected Jailers and the Money Behind Their Campaigns
The Paid Jailer report suggests that industry donations to sheriffs are not only likely damaging to justice and democracy but also incredibly common. Construction companies contribute tens of thousands of dollars and then go on to build bigger jails. Legal firms fund races and end up representing the sheriff’s office in misconduct cases. Our research uncovered more than $6 million in contributions from donors with potential ethical conflicts. More than 40 percent of contributions to sheriffs we studied came from conflicted donors whose influence could incentivize more arrests, lead to more deaths in custody, and keep more people in jail.
Found in: Common Cause
HuffPost: Republicans Ask Supreme Court To Back A Radical Theory On Voting Rights
“If we can say only legislatures are able to make laws regarding the time, place, manner of elections, and courts don’t have any ability to change or constrain those laws, we’re really looking at a significant change in the balance of power between the three branches of state governments, as well as the level of intervention from federal courts in state lawmaking,” said Suzanne Almeida, redistricting counsel for Common Cause, a nonpartisan nonprofit involved in both the North Carolina and Pennsylvania cases.
Found in: Common Cause
Augusta Chronicle: Lincoln County provides open-records 'runaround' in polling closures fight
"They're making it very difficult for people to access services that should be a right that people have," said Aunna Dennis, executive director of Common Cause Georgia. "Trying to put a veil over it doesn't help anything."
Found in: Common Cause
USA Today: Texas primary tidbits: Greg Abbott, Beto O'Rourke, Donald Trump, party in-fighting
"We saw vote-by-mail applications and ballots rejected at unprecedented rates, poll sites opening late or not opening at all due to election worker shortages, and widespread technology issues," said Anthony Gutierrez, executive director of Common Cause Texas. Calling for federal action, Gutierrez said it won't get any easier for Texas or other states: "These issues we’re seeing today will be far bigger problems in November when we have exponentially more people showing up to the polls."
Found in: Common Cause
CNN: Is the Supreme Court ready to upend the power of state courts in disputes over federal elections?
"The elimination of state autonomy is inconsistent with the historical practice and the intent of the Election Clause and invites the risk that federal courts will wrongly interpret state law -- a significant risk given the difficulty federal courts have in mastering 50 different States' laws," Allison Riggs, a lawyer for Common Cause, argued in court papers. She said to accept the Republicans' argument "that partisan gerrymandering claims are immune from state constitutional scrutiny by state courts would require this Court to overrule a century of precedent." "It would lead to an unprecedented upheaval of current election law and foreclose any legal relief for voters from extreme legislation, which state courts already found to be undemocratic," Riggs said in an interview.