News Clips

The good government group Common Cause is monitoring voting concerns around the country. Its president, Karen Hobert Flynn, said most of the problems reported to date are fairly typical. "We are waiting to see what else will come out," she said.

"I think we're a seeing a groundswell of public interest in government, including how campaigns are funded, even how we draw our (legislative and congressional district) lines," says Elena Nunez, director of state operations and ballot measure strategies for Common Cause and one of the authors of the report. "I think that some of it is a reaction to the hyper-polarization" in the country now, Nunez adds. "People are paying attention to not just the game, but the rules of the game. We are seeing a shift, and some great opportunities to increase participation and give some voice to the people," Nunez says. "People are coming together to say there's a better way to do this."

"This shows there appears to be a gap in the law – a presidential candidate like Donald Trump could be blasting out these campaign commercial-like videos to millions of views, but viewers would not have real-time information about who is paying for them," Steven Spaulding of government watchdog group Common Cause told ABC News.  "So, we might start seeing a new trend of political campaigns blasting out videos to millions of viewers and voters will not have information to know who is paying for it to better evaluate the message," Spaulding added.

Susan Lerner, executive director of Common Cause New York, previously worked for a good-government advocacy group in California, giving her a clear picture of the states' contrasting policies. "I've worked in the two extreme examples of how much dysfunction there can be," she said. "In California, there's too much direct democracy and in New York there's none. Neither is the right solution. I came out of California feeling its initiatives were out of control — and now I'm nostalgic for them," recalling instances when California lawmakers would tackle difficult issues to defuse a potential initiative campaign.

The average challenger in a House race in the 2014 midterms had about $60,000 of “cash on hand,” as it’s called. The average Senate challenger had about $750,000, according to the Center for Responsive Politics in Washington. Wait until you see what candidates have in their coffers for this election. Common Cause's Stephen Spaulding talks with Kimberly Adams about where it's all going.

“There is no good reason why New York doesn’t have early voting; our elected officials have decided, at least up until now, that it’s not worth the trouble,” said Susan Lerner, the executive director of Common Cause New York, a nonpartisan group advocating for improvements to the state’s voting system. “The most logical explanation is: It’ll be expensive or complicated for the counties. It’s uniformly popular in every other state that has it, whether it’s a red state or a blue state,” she added. “The public likes it, election administrators like it, so it’s an embarrassment — to be blunt — that New York is not willing to assist voters in providing early voting.”