News Clips

Throughout his presidency, Donald Trump has attacked democratic institutions and undermined independent agencies. Now, as millions of voters are relying on the Postal Service to support our elections during the coronavirus pandemic, Trump is politicizing another once-nonpartisan government agency. Having a political ally with ethical and competence questions like DeJoy lead the agency potentially puts November's election at risk.

"[The] hack occurred in an age when the current president conducts official business on his Twitter account," said Karen Hobert Flynn, president of Common Cause. "Federal agencies such as the Census Bureau and the Center for Disease Control also share news and information through social media. It is time for real government oversight and for meaningful legislation to safeguard these important yet extremely vulnerable platforms."

Just to be sure, though, we asked a couple of campaign law experts how much Mr. West’s filings meant. “Very little,” said Paul S. Ryan, vice president of policy and litigation at Common Cause. Candidates are not required to register with the F.E.C. unless they have raised or spent more than $5,000, but “there is nothing that prohibits someone who hasn’t raised or spent that amount of money from filing,” Mr. Ryan said. “That’s why you see hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of not serious candidates, and to some extent completely fake or joke candidates.” “Filing these two forms with the Federal Election Commission are really the two easiest parts of running for president,” Mr. Ryan said. “Every state has its own rules for what it takes to have your name on the ballot, their own deadlines, their own requirements. That’s the hard part — and then actually running a campaign.”

“The big issue we’ve seen is poll workers saying, ‘We don’t want to work this election because the governor isn’t requiring masks at polling locations,’” said Anthony Gutierrez, the executive director of Common Cause Texas, another voting rights group.

“If things don’t change drastically, we’re going to have huge problems in November,” Anthony Gutierrez, the executive director of the good-government group Common Cause Texas.

Heather Ferguson, executive director of Common Cause New Mexico, said the problems seen in the primary are reflective of a long history of racism. “Democracy has been failing in Indigenous communities for such a long time, and this is yet another example of how they have been disenfranchised and because of how all of these other systems are not in place, it continues to cause trauma and harm to these communities,” she said.