News Clips

The need for meaningful community engagement is not limited to decisions about in-person polling places. Effective policymaking requires this kind of engagement for the entire slate of reforms needed for safe and healthy voting in November, from expanded early-voting options to full language access. No voter should risk their health in order to exercise their fundamental right to cast a ballot. But if we do not preserve in-person voting, we will risk the health of our democracy.

“Lawsuits like these are designed to force counties to pull eligible voters off the rolls, and that’s just not the way democracy is supposed to work,” said Suzanne Almeida, interim executive director for Common Cause Pennsylvania.

“Saints are those who agree with your cause and will fight for it until the bitter end,” McBride observed in her mellifluous Louisiana lilt. “Sinners are those who vehemently oppose your cause and will to the day they die. People in the first two categories will never switch their opinions. It’s the savables, those caught in the middle, we all try to sway because there’s hope for them.”

“I think the general public would be interested to know what members of Trump’s extended family are being paid by campaign donors,” said Paul Ryan, a campaign finance legal expert at the watchdog group Common Cause.

Paul S. Ryan, a vice president for the good governance group Common Cause, said he’s seen all sorts of shenanigans in a long career immersed in campaign finance issues. But this one’s a true head-scratcher, he said. “It is odd,” Ryan said. “I’ve been doing this for 20 years and this is a first for me.”

Bob Phillips, executive director of Common Cause North Carolina and an advocate of the changes, notes that more than 70 percent of North Carolina households have two or fewer members. Requiring voters to meet with a notary or have two others witness a ballot could require more contact than some voters want.