Voting Rights

Today, Common Cause Florida and the League of Women Voters of Florida filed suit seeking a temporary restraining order and a preliminary injunction to remove Gov. Rick Scott from any role in the recount of the 2018 Florida General Election. The suit was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Florida Tallahassee Division.

“The court clearly sided with voters today by declaring that an unconstitutional, partisan gerrymander in Maryland squashed political participation and speech,” said Kathay Feng, the national redistricting director for Common Cause. “Gerrymandering is an abuse of power no matter who does it, and both Democrats and Republicans use it for their political gain.”

Voters put a check on President Trump, are seeking balance in our democratic process, and were willing to stand in unnecessarily long lines to send a message. Where voters could cast a ballot to strengthen democracy, they did. With a record turnout, democracy won in many ways in 2018. Now voters must stay engaged to improve infrastructure and hold leaders accountable if they don't work to resolve these issues.

“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.”

“It’s indicative of a pattern with this administration,” said David Vance, a spokesman for Common Cause, a civil rights group that helped recruit 6,500 volunteers to monitor polling locations across the country Tuesday. “It’s an effort to intimidate voters and keep them away from the polls and try to dictate which voters will turn out and which voters won’t. It flies in the face of what the DOJ has done traditionally to protect voters.” ...Said Vance, of Common Cause: “To turn out and make yourself heard is the primary weapon to combat these attempts to suppress the vote.”