837 Search Results Containing "voting"
Texas Tribune/Houston Chronicle: Two years after Texas’ voting rights showdown gripped the nation, lawmakers again push dozens of elections bills
“Looking back over the past few legislative sessions, there have been repeated attempts to find creative ways to prosecute people for what really looks like an honest mistake,” said Anthony Gutierrez, executive director of Common Cause Texas, a nonpartisan organization that advocates for policies such as online voting registration and ending gerrymandering. “There’s no infrastructure to tell people what the process is for when you can vote again [after release from prison] or how you can vote again.”
Found in: Common Cause
HuffPost: Democrats Are Mounting A Push To Expand Voting Rights After Big State-Level Midterm Wins
“New York historically has been a state that did not keep up with other states’ election administration and voting reforms,” Susan Lerner, executive director of Common Cause New York, a nonprofit that works on democracy-related issues, said.
Found in: Common Cause
Republican Legislators Petition NC Supreme Court to Toss Precedent, Rehear Voting Rights Cases Involving Discrimination Against Black Voters
Found in: Common Cause North Carolina
Secretary of the State Thomas urges 10 days of early voting
Secretary of the State Stephanie Thomas made her first policy recommendation Thursday, urging legislators to pass a law authorizing 10 days of early voting, beginning with the 2023 municipal elections.
Found in: Common Cause in Connecticut
NPR: Despite mail voting changes, ballot rejections remain relatively low in 2022 midterms
Sylvia Albert, director of voting and elections at Common Cause, says that since the beginning of the pandemic, voting by mail or absentee has become significantly more popular. In response, some states expanded access to mail in voting. "What we also saw in 2020 was the demonization of vote by mail," Albert says. "This really affected state legislatures during the 2021 sessions. So, even though we saw a lot of states expand access, we saw other states restrict access." She says that includes laws that set new limits on drop boxes, new ID requirements, as well as tighter deadlines for turning in a mail ballot. Albert says that even if the percentage of mail ballots that are thrown out remains relatively small, there were still hundreds of thousands of people in the U.S. "who tried to have their voices heard but were silenced" when their ballot was tossed out. "We know that elections are getting closer," she said. "And we know that every small policy change actually can make a big difference — and a difference enough to flip an election." Particularly in local races, Albert says, a few rejected ballots could have made a difference in the outcome of an election.
Found in: Common Cause
Public News Service: MN Part of Push to Expand Access to Voting
Annastacia Belladonna-Carrera, executive director of Common Cause Minnesota, said expanding voting access is always a good thing, but added the work needs to be done with precision. "For us, it's not just about the title of the bill, it's not just about the concept of the bill," Belladonna-Carrera explained. "It's about those nooks and crannies that really speak to meaningful maximization of transparency, accountability, rights." Belladonna-Carrera acknowledged moving too quickly can lead to unintended consequences. She feels a single, unforeseen negative effect would be enough for fringe groups to perpetuate false claims of systemic election problems.
Found in: Common Cause
Common Cause Texas Prepares to Defend Voting Rights During Upcoming Legislative Session
Voting access will be a major issue as Texas's state legislature gavels in on Tuesday.
Found in: Common Cause Texas
Voting rights advocates call for removal of two Surry County Board of Elections members after refusal to certify 2022 election results violates lawful duties & oath
Found in: Common Cause North Carolina
New Berkeley Report Prompts Call for Deep-Pocketed App Promoter to Scrap Vulnerable Online Voting Plans
Today, the University of California Berkeley Center For Security in Politics issued a statement reporting on the conclusions of a Working Group convened with funding from Tusk Philanthropies to develop standards that would ensure internet voting can be secure and private. The Working Group concluded that it could not issue such standards, stating “the current cybersecurity environment and state of technology make it infeasible for the Working Group to draft responsible standards to support the use of internet ballot return in U.S. public elections at this time.”
Found in: Common Cause
How Long Should Connecticut Voters Get For Early Voting?
“Studies of states with early voting days on the Sunday before the election have found that the day that was by far the most popular early voting day for Black voters was those Sundays, showing that this is also a racial justice issue, making sure that whatever early voting plan we have is inclusive,” Zaccagnino said. Thomas said she has found broad consensus that some form of weekend voting should be included in the early voting period, though she had yet to settle on whether it should be the weekend immediately prior to an election, when local officials might be conducting necessary work between the close of an early voting period and Election Day.