News Clips

While sharing voter information may result in more updated voter lists, Georgia election officials shouldn't overly rely on the flood of data from ERIC to "weaponize" voter registrations cancellations, said Aunna Dennis, executive director for Common Cause Georgia, a government accountability organization. "I just hope our secretary of state uses it correctly and makes sure that voters have received information from notifications if they've moved," Dennis said. "It's a good system for checking registrations if the secretary of state's office uses it properly."

In Texas, the leaked video of the Harris County Republican Party’s training, which was published by the voting rights group Common Cause, recalled a similar episode from the 2010 midterm elections. That year, a Tea Party-affiliated group in Houston known as the King Street Patriots sent poll watchers to downtown polling locations. The flood of the mostly white observers into Black neighborhoods caused friction, and resurfaced not-too-distant memories when racial intimidation at the polls was commonplace in the South. The King Street Patriots would eventually evolve into True the Vote, one of the major national organizations now seeking more voting restrictions. Last year, True the Vote joined several lawsuits alleging fraud in the election (all failed) and led countrywide drives to try to recruit more poll watchers.

"We will see a lot of lawsuits," said Kathay Feng, the national redistricting director at the good government group Common Cause, chuckling at a question about how much litigation there will be this redistricting cycle. Redistricting, she said, “is always a breeding ground for people who are discontent with the results.”

Common Cause Redistricting & Representation Counsel Suzanne Almeida helps Joshua understand what's riding on the Census. And she explains why even though President Trump's attempts to keep undocumented people from being counted were unsuccessful, they may have left people confused or scared of answering.

You’ve probably heard of gerrymandering, the term for when politicians redraw political districts to either consolidate power — or break up their opponents’ supporters. But you probably don’t know that it dates back to the earliest years of the country and was named after a district that looked like a salamander. And you also may not know how it directly affects your life. LX News host Nik Z breaks it down with Dan Vicuna of Common Cause.

Kathay Feng, the national redistricting and representation director at Common Cause, a government watchdog group, warned that voting advocates would be closely monitoring for that kind of discrimination. Much of the America’s population growth over the last decade has come from non-white people. “Our top priority is ensuring that states that are adding congressional seats recognize the population growth fueled by communities of color in the upcoming redistricting process,” Feng said in a statement.