Media Center

At a time when too many Americans do not think they have a meaningful voice in their democracy, when confidence in our institutions is at historic lows, and cynicism at record highs, this democracy reform package is needed more than ever. These reforms are working at the state level, empowering citizens and breaking down barriers to participation for all Americans, irrespective of political party.

Today, ten organizations urged Senators to carefully weigh the highly controversial record of James E. “Trey” Trainor III, President Donald Trump’s nominee to the Federal Election Commission (FEC). In a letter to the full Senate, the groups emphasized that Trainor, a Texas campaign finance attorney who served as counsel to the president’s campaign committee, has taken a number of hostile stances against existing campaign finance laws.

Today Common Cause filed complaints with the Federal Election Commission (FEC) alleging that Michael Waddell, the host of the hunting show “Bone Collector”, and a Wisconsin businessman made illegal undisclosed independent expenditures in connection with the 2016 and 2020 presidential campaigns of Donald Trump. Additionally, Waddell appears to have made excessive in-kind contributions during the 2016 presidential campaign.

On Friday, Common Cause filed an amicus brief in the U.S. Supreme Court in Husted v. A. Philip Randolph Institute, in support of a challenge to Ohio’s aggressive voter roll purge program that stripped hundreds of thousands of Ohioans of their right to vote prior to the 2016 election. The brief focuses on a similar program in Georgia that also disenfranchised hundreds of thousands of voters and which Common Cause has challenged in court. The Husted brief emphasizes that the High Court’s decision will impact similar programs and millions of registered voters around the country.

Today’s revelations from DHS that 21 state election systems were targeted by Russian hackers is troubling on a number of levels. First it should never have taken the federal government so long to share this information with the targeted states. Perhaps most disturbing is the fact that some states have told reporters that they were unaware of being targeted.

Americans have a right to know who is trying to influence their vote—whether hostile foreign nations like Russia, corporate front groups, or wealthy special interests. Facebook’s announcement this afternoon that it shared evidence of fake Facebook accounts and Russian political ads with Special Counsel Mueller and Congressional investigators was slow in coming but it is a step forward as are the broad brushstroke descriptions of their new policies.