“It's a charade played by candidates,” said campaign finance expert Paul S. Ryan of the good government group Common Cause. “Their lawyers have told them, 'Keep your mouth shut, because if you don’t, there are legal ramifications. But the FEC will let us get away with it if you just stay quiet.'”

“They are not chosen for their ability to manage or familiarity with election procedures,” said Susan Lerner, the executive director of Common Cause in New York City. “They are chosen for their party loyalty and to provide jobs to the party faithful.”

“He’s doing really important work for voting rights that benefits all voters, but he’s also pushed for a deregulation of money in politics that serves the interests of the wealthy,” said Paul S. Ryan, the vice president of policy and litigation for the nonpartisan government watchdog group Common Cause.

“It is clear when you put democracy reforms on the ballot, those measures win overwhelmingly,” Karen Hobert Flynn, president of Common Cause, said. “From our perspective, we are going to be taking a hard look at where we can move more of these reforms in 2020 and beyond.”

Sarah Goff, the associate director of Common Cause, the good government group, said that the problem with broken scanners was like “a giant paper jam citywide.” ...
Susan Lerner, the executive director of Common Cause, said that the two-sheet ballot was a mistake. “It’s complicated,” she said. “It puts unnecessary pressure on the machine.”

"Gerrymandering is an abuse of power no matter who does it, and both Democrats and Republicans use it for their political gain," said Kathay Feng, national redistricting director for the Common Cause advocacy group.

“We are dealing with a very different climate in 2018,” said Karen Flynn, the president of Common Cause. “We do not have a Department of Justice that is working hand in hand with our network to be solving these problems, we don’t have the protections of the Voting Rights Act, and we have a president that is putting out messages that can feel threatening to many voters.”

"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...

"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...

“The court has now made clear what our clients have been saying all along — the winner of November’s gubernatorial election will appoint three justices to the Florida Supreme Court,” said John Mills, attorney for the Florida branch of the League of Women Voters and Common Cause who filed the lawsuit. “Governor Scott will not, and he has no part to play in these appointments.”