News Clips

Aaron Scherb, director of legislative affairs for Common Cause, and Jason Snead, executive director of the Honest Elections Project, talked about state election laws and recent changes to Georgia’s voting laws.

"It is an all-sides attack on voting rights," said Sylvia Albert, director of voting and elections for the voter advocacy group Common Cause. "The reality is that there are hundreds of suppressive proposed laws around the country. "Honestly, it's impossible to even keep track of them," she said, "much less fight back."

“It’s an overreach of power,” said Aunna Dennis, executive director of the Georgia chapter of the voting advocacy group Common Cause. “They’re definitely trying to do an upheaval of our election system.”

Anthony Gutierrez, the executive director of Common Cause Texas, a voting rights organization, is not surprised by the legislation in the Lone Star State, but he is alarmed. “They’re at the forefront of finding new and innovative ways to suppress the vote,” he said of Texas Republicans. “These are blatant attempts to keep people from voting.”

Anthony Gutierrez, executive director of Common Cause Texas, said nonmembers participate in committee hearings "all the time." "This deviation from standard practice to prevent a Black woman from engaging in debate on a bill that would impact Black communities disproportionately is appalling," Gutierrez said. "There is... truly nothing more absurd than Briscoe Cain having to adjourn his committee hearing on his bill that would criminalize procedural mistakes people might make while voting because he made a procedural mistake."

American democracy is resilient. Last November's election "was the most secure in American history," according to the Department of Homeland Security. In the face of immense challenges — threats of foreign interference, rampant disinformation, risks posed by the pandemic — election administrators, organizers, attorneys and advocates worked together to protect the vote. Americans voted in record numbers, casting their ballots safely by mail, drop box and in person. But the work to secure our elections is not over. Recent investigations have revealed vulnerabilities from foreign actors to political campaigns themselves. Email accounts and cell phones of congressional and campaign staff, for example, can be hacked by foreign actors, who have now grown in number and expanded well beyond those from Russia. Other threats are detailed in the bipartisan Senate Intelligence Committee findings of last year, the final report from special counsel Robert Mueller and a 2017 Intelligence Community Assessment.