Election Integrity

Despite those warnings, Stephen Spaulding, senior counsel for public policy and government affairs at Common Cause, a government watchdog group, said that Democrats needed to keep every option on the table. “Senate Democrats have the majority and they need to have the ability to govern,” he said. “This idea that it can be costless to filibuster, that you can essentially raise your hands behind closed doors and grind everything to a halt, is unacceptable.”

Voter suppression efforts are escalating in 43 states, as are Republican efforts to block passage of H.R. 1, the massive voting rights bill just passed by House Dems. The Bulwark's Charlie Sykes and Stephen Spaulding of Common Cause help Mehdi understand what's in the bill and what's at stake.

On March 10, Common Cause and Common Cause Georgia filed a complaint with the U.S. Department Justice (DOJ), urging investigation into whether then-President Donald J. Trump, Senator Lindsey Graham, Rudolph W. Giuliani and others violated multiple federal laws by attempting to overturn presidential election results in Georgia via an hour-long Jan. 2 phone call to Raffensperger and other events and communications with Georgia officials.

"Those who won the election, who have the majority are going to be faced with a choice: do they protect voting rights or do they protect the filibuster rule?" said Stephen Spaulding, senior counsel for public policy & senior adviser at Common Cause. "I don't think saying, 'Oh, but the filibuster,' is going to cut it." As for what Mr. Biden can do, the Brennan Center for Justice wrote in October 2020 that the president could improve cybersecurity and direct more federal agencies to offer voter registration. Spaulding said that the president could also provide more resources for the Justice Department to enforce the Voting Rights Act, the National Voter Registration Act and other voting rights legislation. He applauded the White House for supporting the bill and said the administration needs to "really use the bully pulpit" to help pass legislation.

In the 2020 election, we used our vote, whether it was cast early, by mail or on Election Day, to determine the future for our family, community and country. In the face of the COVID-19 pandemic, racial injustice and the confusion and sudden changes to the voting process thrown at us, we showed up and decided the outcome of a free and fair election. Now, after showing our power as voters, some partisan politicians in state legislatures are pushing bills that would restrict our freedom to vote, while Congress is on the verge of passing laws to protect and strengthen it.

Today, Common Cause urged every member of the U.S. House of Representatives to vote “yes” on the For the People Act (H.R. 1) when it goes to a floor vote on Wednesday. The letter notes that Common Cause plans to key-vote final passage of H.R. 1, and possibly amendments that would weaken the bill, in our next Democracy Scorecard, which we send to our 1.5 million members. The pro-voter, anti-corruption bill contains the most comprehensive set of democracy reforms to be introduced in Congress since the post-Watergate reforms were passed in the 1970s. The letter emphasizes that our democracy faces a crisis in the wake of insurrectionists storming the Capitol and more than 250 GOP voter suppression bills – largely targeting Black and Brown Americans - introduced in state legislatures since Republicans lost the White House and control of the Senate.