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VIDEO REPLAY: Common Cause Holds January 14: Southern Legislative and Voting Rights Press Briefing  

Today, Common Cause’s state leaders hosted their first press briefing in a series called ‘Protecting Democracy in the South.’   

During the briefing state leaders from across the south shared new voting rights, ethics, and other democracy-related policy issues they’ll be watching as legislative sessions start kicking off for states like Georgia, Texas, Florida, and North Carolina. 

Executive and policy directors who spoke at today’s briefing from Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, and Texas shared the following:

Rosario Palacios, the new executive director of Common Cause Georgia: While legislators decide their priority areas through the actions on Capitol Square in Atlanta, our focus as an organization is clear: Common Cause Georgia will be advocating for accessible voting rights, voting rights restoration, and government transparency throughout our legislative processes. We proudly remind lawmakers that voters deserve an opportunity to shape democracy at the polls, free from interference or intimidation.” 

Bob Phillips, executive director of Common Cause North Carolina: “Losing North Carolina Supreme Court candidate Jefferson Griffin’s ploy to toss our votes is an injustice. Griffin is demanding that the courts do the unthinkable: throw away the lawful ballots of 60,000 North Carolinians and overturn the election. Join us as we fight back and tell the courts that ‘Our votes matter!’” 

Emily Eby French, policy director of Common Cause Texas: “This legislative session, we’ll be advocating for policies like online voter registration, which would be a monumental leap forward from our current, badly-outdated paper-based system. We’ll be pushing legislation to make it easier for schools to meet the requirements of the High School Voter Registration law, under which public schools are supposed to offer voter registration twice a year to eligible students. We’ll also advocate for campaign finance reform, because Texans deserve a government reflective of all of us, not just those who have the wealth to bend public policy to their will.”  

Amy Keith, executive director of Common Cause Florida: “The Governor’s call for a special session at the end of January, only weeks before the regular 2025 legislative session is set to begin on March 4th, is an unnecessary waste of taxpayer money in an attempt to serve his own political ambitions. Common Cause has long supported direct democracy and the ability of the people to choose to amend their own governing documents. It is particularly concerning to us that the Governor would look to rush through changes to the ballot initiative process in a special session and attack the freedom of everyday Floridians to bring change to their communities through the amendment process, which is a critical tool for Floridians when out-of-touch politicians refuse to listen to the voices of the people of our state.” 

 A video recording of today’s briefing can be found here. 

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