Voting Rights

Today, Common Cause and the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, called on Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey to suspend the Twitter account of President Donald Trump for his repeated violations of Twitter’s Civic Integrity Policy by spreading disinformation about the 2020 Election to millions of Twitter users online. The letter points to President Trump’s repeated attempts to disrupt the proper counting of ballots, undermine the democratic process, and stir unrest through his tweets.

There were several voting issues reported to nonpartisan voting rights groups in Pennsylvania but people turned out and were able to cast their ballot, despite "significant obstacles" to do so, according to Suzanne Almeida, interim executive director for Common Cause Pennsylvania.  "An election is successful when every single eligible voter is able to cast their ballot and have equal access to a positive experience at the polling place. We did not see that yesterday, so that being said, we also did not see a disaster," Almeida said at a Pennsylvania Election Protection Coalition news briefing.

In our democracy every vote counts and every vote must be counted. The will of the people is reflected in how we cast our ballots. Politicians do not get to decide whose votes will count and whose votes won’t count. We choose our politicians, they do not choose us.

Pennsylvania's voting code allows but does not require the so-called ballot "curing" procedure used by the Montgomery County Board of Elections, said Suzanne Almeida, the interim director of the Pennsylvania branch of Common Cause, a government watchdog organization and democracy advocate. "This is another attempt to cast out perfectly valid votes,” Almeida said during an Election Day conference call with reporters.

“As we approach the end of the voting period and polls start to close in the Eastern time zone, I'm happy to report that overall, this has been a pretty smooth Election Day for a very challenging year,” Karen Hobert Flynn, president of the good governance group Common Cause, said. “That certainly doesn't mean there were not problems or that voters didn't have barriers, because they did,” she said, calling it “nothing that seems out of the norm.”

"This is an hour by hour, maybe minute by minute situation in Pennsylvania," said Suzanne Almeida, interim executive director of Common Cause Pennsylvania. “We will be prepared, however, to do whatever we need to to make sure every eligible vote gets counted.”