News Clips

Leaders of two nonpartisan organizations sent Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey a letter urging him to take further action to stop Mr. Trump from posting more on his platform about the presidential race. The plea from the presidents of Common Cause and the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law followed Democratic congressmen similarly calling a day earlier for Twitter to suspend Mr. Trump.  Mr. Trump has repeatedly violated Twitter‘s policies recently, they noted, evidenced by the company acting on several of his posts on the social media service after Election Day ended Tuesday. They argued that simply applying warning labels or limiting the spread of Mr. Trump‘s recent posts has proven to be “insufficient,” however, and encouraged Twitter to intervene further. “We fear that, in the absence of action by Twitter, the President may be successful in his goal of delegitimizing the integrity of our democratic processes for many, and not just Twitter users but other voters and members of the public, sowing uncertainty about the voting and elections process and potentially inciting violence against civil servants or others,” they warned in the letter.

“There are specific rules in Pennsylvania about where poll watchers can stand and what they can do,” said Suzanne Almeida, interim director of Common Cause Pennsylvania. “It applies to both parties equally. Everyone has the exact same access. This is not about disadvantaging one party over another.”

There were several voting issues reported to nonpartisan voting rights groups in Pennsylvania but people turned out and were able to cast their ballot, despite "significant obstacles" to do so, according to Suzanne Almeida, interim executive director for Common Cause Pennsylvania.  "An election is successful when every single eligible voter is able to cast their ballot and have equal access to a positive experience at the polling place. We did not see that yesterday, so that being said, we also did not see a disaster," Almeida said at a Pennsylvania Election Protection Coalition news briefing.

Pennsylvania's voting code allows but does not require the so-called ballot "curing" procedure used by the Montgomery County Board of Elections, said Suzanne Almeida, the interim director of the Pennsylvania branch of Common Cause, a government watchdog organization and democracy advocate. "This is another attempt to cast out perfectly valid votes,” Almeida said during an Election Day conference call with reporters.

“As we approach the end of the voting period and polls start to close in the Eastern time zone, I'm happy to report that overall, this has been a pretty smooth Election Day for a very challenging year,” Karen Hobert Flynn, president of the good governance group Common Cause, said. “That certainly doesn't mean there were not problems or that voters didn't have barriers, because they did,” she said, calling it “nothing that seems out of the norm.”

"This is an hour by hour, maybe minute by minute situation in Pennsylvania," said Suzanne Almeida, interim executive director of Common Cause Pennsylvania. “We will be prepared, however, to do whatever we need to to make sure every eligible vote gets counted.”