Election Integrity

The government accountability group Common Cause Texas called the move "another attempt to scare voters away from the ballot box by sewing doubt in the integrity of our elections." "Either this is a hasty move in response to partisan pressure, which should be discouraged from the Secretary of State's office, or it is a deceitful omission that should be looked at skeptically," Katya Ehresman, voting rights program manager for the organization said in a news release. "Texas should focus on strengthening the security of our elections, not removing systems, like ERIC, that ensure checks and balances especially given the SOS office's history with illegal voter purges."

At a time when the freedom to vote remains under attack, Congress will provide a down payment in the omnibus spending bill to provide additional resources for election officials across the country who face a variety of threats and obstacles in helping Americans make their voices heard at the ballot box. This $75 million that Congress is allocating is only a fraction of the investment that will be required to protect our elections and the will of voters from threats both foreign and domestic.

The inclusion of the Electoral Count Reform and Presidential Transition Improvement Act in the omnibus spending package is a vital first step in protecting the votes and voices of all Americans. Enacting these reforms to ensure that the will of the voters will be respected and followed is particularly important in light of Donald Trump’s announcement that he is again running for the White House and his public call to terminate the U.S. Constitution in order to overturn the 2020 election and declare himself president. We know from the January 6th Select Committee that Trump knows he lost that election, but he continues to repeat his Big Lie despite the fact that his own appointees at the Department of Homeland Security declared that the 2020 election was “the most secure in U.S. history.”  

Susannah Goodman, director of election security for the government watchdog group Common Cause, says some polling sites are seeing their lines of voters grow because of issues with voting machines, including ballot scanners that need fixing. ... But Goodman stresses there are no major concerns so far. "These are things we see in every election cycle. There are glitches in the system. But election administrators have learned from the past and they have resiliency built in."

“What we are seeing are things that we usually see on Election Day,” said Susannah Goodman, director of election security at Common Cause. “Sometimes voters are going in and one of the voting machines isn’t working, or lines are a little longer.”

“The attack on Mr. Pelosi is deeply disturbing and part of a larger trend,” said Suzanne Almeida, director of state operations for Common Cause. he attack happened as a rise in threats against lawmakers investigated by the U.S. Capitol Police has doubled since the last midterm cycle, according to the Associated Press. The government watchdog group Common Cause says it is more concerned about this and not other election issues like voter intimidation because most states have systems in place to make sure voters can safely vote. “The Election Protection Coalition in most states has a plan to respond, will have volunteers at targeted polling locations, will be watching online for violent rhetoric, dis and misinformation,” Almeida said.