News Clips

“Today’s executive order is a critical first step to ensuring California’s November 2020 election is safe and accessible,” said Jonathan Mehta Stein, Executive Director of California Common Cause. “While other states are fighting for access to vote-by-mail ballots, Governor Newsom has ensured that for California voters and we can now push ahead, together, on the difficult work of ensuring in-person voting sites for voters with language needs, voters with disabilities, voters without reliable access to mail, and other voters who need in-person voting to access their vote.”

Ranked choice’s superiority is perhaps most clear in situations like this year’s Super Tuesday, where early voting combines with a big field. But it has other advantages; among them: It can prevent “vote-splitting” in races with multiple candidates from one party. For state and municipal elections, it can replace expensive winnowing caucuses and primaries altogether, saving money and time, but still giving voters the same level of choice...

When the Los Angeles City Council ultimately approved the new system Wednesday, the California Clean Money Campaign, California Common Cause and other groups said they were sorely disappointed.

A candidate paying himself a salary is “highly irregular,” said Kathay Feng, executive director of California Common Cause, who thinks the vast majority of candidates would refrain from doing it for fear it would look bad to voters and potential campaign donors.

Kati Phillips, spokeswoman for California Common Cause, which supports campaign finance reform, predicted the measure is not going away. “We will see this again,” she said.

California Common Cause, a nonpartisan good-government group, reported an unusually high number of calls from people experiencing problems voting, which could indicate higher turnout and confusion over changes in polling places, said spokeswoman Kati Phillips.