Democracy Wire

Arapahoe County, CO, has successfully tested a new risk limiting audit to verify election returns

President Miles Rapoport urges justice in Ferguson, MO and national attack on economic and political inequality that fueled violence there.

The Capital Times published an editorial today supporting Common Cause Wisconsin’s call for candidates to make their views known on redistricting reform. Of the 99 Assembly races that will be decided in November, 52 candidates will run without major party opposition as a result of gerrymandering.

Since the Supreme Court, in Shelby Co. v. Holder, eviscerated Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act, a statute that for decades protected against discrimination at polling places in a number of historically-discriminating jurisdictions, states across the country – some previously covered by the act, others not – have been, in quick succession, passing and implementing legislation making it harder for many, including people of color once protected by the VRA, to cast their ballots in elections.

Common Cause Florida Chair Peter Butzin criticized the Florida State Legislature’s proposed congressional map in Reuters yesterday for its continued packing of minority voters to limit their influence on surrounding districts.

Common Cause and the League of Women Voters of Florida jointly wrote two letters to the leadership of the Florida Legislature last week during the special session called to redraw the state’s congressional districts. Judge Terry Lewis ruled that current districts violate new state constitutional provisions forbidding partisanship to be a factor in the redrawing of lines and ordered the Legislature to draw a new map by August 15.