Вашингтон, округ Колумбия—This morning a panel of Common Cause’s national policy experts and state leaders briefed the media on the voting trends seen in yesterday’s election nationally and in Florida, Georgia, Michigan, Ohio, Texas, and Pennsylvania.  

If you missed today’s media briefing, you can view the recording здесь.   

Find select quotes from the briefing, in order of speakers, and important election information below. 

Regarding voters overcoming voter suppression and the Big Lie:
“Voters overcome many of the obstacles—voter suppression, a lack of education around new voting rules, and gerrymandering—to turn out in record numbers. Election workers and election officials were resilient in dealing with any problems that arose and were able to change procedures or modify things in order to make sure that voters were able to access the polls,” said Sylvia Albert, director of voting and elections at Common Cause.

Regarding voters rejecting intimidation and violence at the polls:
“The bottom line is voters rejected intimidation. They rejected the idea that we should be scared to cast our ballot on Election Day and they showed up in force. Now it’s time for Congress to support the voters and pass national voting rights legislation so that it is not so difficult for voters to do what they showed up to do yesterday,” said Suzanne Almeida, director of state operations at Common Cause.

Regarding disinformation spreading online:
“Our team has been monitoring social media for election missing disinformation working to counter the impact and spread of disinformation about voting in elections. We’ve seen and will continue to see bad actors and disinformation spreaders push the narrative that only election night results are valid, and that counting ballots after election day isn’t an indicator of widespread fraud, particularly if it looks like high profile election deniers are losing,” said Emma Steiner, disinformation analyst at Common Cause.

Regarding the isolated but preventable issues in Texas:
“We seem to get a lot more of those ‘minor’ problems in Texas than in other states.  I attribute that to it being a state where our government really doesn’t invest in our election infrastructure or robust public education the way they do in some of my colleagues’ states.

We are now going to try to turn our attention to try and get laws passed in Texas next year to try to fix some of these problems that we saw and get things like online voter registration and more accurate wait time indicators,” said Anthony Gutierrez, executive director of Common Cause Texas.

Regarding voters’ rejection of violence and intimidation in Pennsylvania:
“Pennsylvania made clear that we believe in free and fair elections without violence and without intimidation. We’re proud to have stood up for freedom for everyone in the state,” said Khalif Ali, executive director of Common Cause Pennsylvania.

Regarding the 1,000-plus calls that came into Florida’s Election Protection hotline:
“Some of the key issues that we did address related to voting by mail and was a big topic of questions from voters, as well as voter registration and voter ID questions. We also had voters with concerns about aggressive electioneering at some polling places and heard about several issues with accessibility for voters with disabilities,” said Amy Keith, program director of Common Cause Florida.

Regarding the record voter turnout despite some avoidable obstacles:
“We witnessed, throughout this election cycle, delays in absentee ballots being delivered in key districts and issues with some machines as well as some issues of poll workers targeting by poll watchers. Despite all those things that happened, we are still resilient in Georgia, and we know going into December that our voices will be heard at the ballot box,” said Аunna Dennis, executive director of Common Cause Georgia.

Regarding an overall successful Election Day and improvements for accessibility issues in Ohio:
“When we look at what happened in Ohio, the biggest thing that came through the hotline was accessibility issues. We worked with local officials to fix the signage and it gives us a sense of what to do going forward. Overall, we should be looking at this election as a success for our officials and for our voters,” said Кэтрин Терсер, исполнительный директор Common Cause Ohio.

Regarding voters rejecting chaos, lies, and hate in Michigan:
“We have faced lies about our voting and elections system ever since the 2020 election. And yesterday, I’m proud to say Michiganders resoundingly rejected those lies and conspiracy theories. Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson defeated a major peddler of the Big Lie—and that’s good news for truth and our freedom to vote. We are tired of the chaos, the lies, and the hate. We know the freedom to vote belongs to all of us—Democrats, Republicans, and Independents,” said Quentin Turner, program director of Common Cause Michigan. 

Important Post Election Day Information 

Florida: Voters rejected Amendment 2, which would have abolished Florida’s Constitution Revision Commission and taken away a generational opportunity for Floridians to amend and update their constitution every 20 years.

Georgia: Voters may head back to the polls Dec. 6 for a run-off election in the U.S. Senate race between Sen. Raphael Warnock, the Democratic incumbent, and the Republican challenger Herschel Walker.

Огайо: If Ohioans turned in a vote-by-mail ballot postmarked by Nov. 7, they are encouraged to track their ballot. Voters can do so by heading to the Secretary of State’s website здесь. The site will also lead voters to be able to track their provisional votes.

Pennsylvania: If voters needed to cast a provisional ballot, they should follow up with the county per the instructions provided. For more information, voters can visit the Department of State’s website by clicking здесь.  

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