836 Search Results Containing "voting"
Connecticut has some of the most restrictive voting laws in the country. Here’s how our voting laws compare to other states.
Found in: Common Cause in Connecticut
Opinion: CT not immune to fight against voting rights
Across the nation, Republican legislators are implementing harsh new restrictions to make it harder for people of color, young people and lower-income people to vote. As an Arizona state legislator explained, “we don’t mind putting security measures in that won’t let everybody vote.” In a display of twisted logic, GOP lawmakers claim that making it more difficult to vote is needed to restore voter confidence in the integrity of elections, confidence they themselves sabotaged, mainly among voters in their own party, by relentless and baseless claims about a stolen election.
Found in: Common Cause in Connecticut
New York Times: Why Kentucky Just Became the Only Red State to Expand Voting Rights
“The election in 2020 helps give them confidence that they could act quickly in expanding access and not have to go slowly,” Sylvia Albert, the director of the voting rights group Common Cause, said of these states. She said that Kentucky did not fall into the category of true expansion, because its new law will provide fewer options than the emergency orders of 2020. “This might be a political calculation made by Democrats in the state, so that Republicans don’t go even further in suppressing the vote like other states have,” she said. “But as an election, voter access bill, it is not successful.” While Kentucky’s compromise — expanding voting access while enacting some more restrictive policies in the name of election security — could serve as a model for other Republican-controlled states, it is more likely to be a blip in a year of G.O.P.-led pushes for voting restrictions.
Found in: Common Cause
Delaware Voting Rights Coalition Launches with Support from General Assembly and Statewide Partnerships
At a virtual press conference that was streamed to social media, community organizations from across the state came together to publicly launch the Delaware Voting Rights Coalition (DVRC), Delaware’s first statewide coalition focused strictly on expanding access to voting.
Found in: Common Cause Delaware
The Guardian: How Republicans are trying to prevent people from voting after ‘stop the steal’
Sylvia Albert, national voting and elections director of the government watchdog group Common Cause, called Republicans’ voter suppression efforts “shameless”. “These bills are shameless, partisan efforts to silence us,” Albert said in a media briefing last week. “And it’s not a coincidence that these bills are being introduced after a free and fair and secure election with record turnout. Americans exercised their right to vote and, in response, these politicians are saying, ‘actually, we didn’t really want you to vote’.” Quentin Turner, Michigan program director for Common Cause, said that Republican suppression efforts in the state targeted communities of color, particularly a proposal to restrict access to absentee ballot drop boxes after 5pm. “A lot of working-class people in Michigan, in Detroit especially, may not be out or done with their day by 5pm,” said Turner. “So they may not be able to go to a drop box that’s close to them. “While it doesn’t specifically say in the bill that it’s targeting Black and brown voters, the nature of the specifications of the prohibition would have a larger adverse impact in those communities.”
Found in: Common Cause
TIME: Marc Elias Fought Trump's 2020 Election Lawsuits. Can He Win The Battle Over Voting Rights?
Elias has also been scrutinized by watchdog groups for his work on campaign finance issues, including his role in convincing the Federal Election Commission to loosen restrictions on congressional lawmakers engaging with Super PACs. “He is not a big fan of restrictions on money in politics,” says Paul S. Ryan, Vice President of Policy and Litigation at the non-partisan accountability group Common Cause. “He has done a very good job as an attorney of fighting for the ability of political parties to raise and spend money however they choose.”
Found in: Common Cause
The Guardian: The next Georgia: Texas and Arizona emerge as voting rights battlegrounds
Anthony Gutierrez, the executive director of the Texas chapter of Common Cause, a government watchdog group, said those statements were significant and could help sway lawmakers, including Dade Phelan, the speaker of the Texas house of representatives. Gutierrez has been involved in fights over voting rights for over a decade and said he could not recall another instance where there was the kind of broad opposition to the bills that exists now. “A lot of us are thinking that Texas is the next Georgia, but I think the big difference is all these prominent voices weighing in are coming in much earlier,” he said.
Found in: Common Cause
HuffPost: John Lewis’s Final Fight For Voting Rights
“It’s absolutely the case that his legacy lives on here,” said Stephen Spaulding, senior counsel for public policy at Common Cause, a nonpartisan nonprofit backing the For the People Act. “I just remember it being a very iterative process by which they worked very closely with outside groups to craft the most robust bill,” Spaulding, who was involved in the roundtable discussions, said. “Mr. Lewis was very involved in the details, as was his staff.”
Found in: Common Cause
How North Carolina Became the Model for Democrats' Nationwide Push to Expand Voting Access
“We in NC have seen it first hand: When you make voting easier and more accessible you tend to see a higher participation rate,” said Bob Phillips, the executive director of the nonpartisan voting rights group Common Cause NC.