{"id":422,"date":"2018-03-13T21:53:40","date_gmt":"2018-03-13T21:53:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.commoncause.org\/massachusetts\/our-history\/"},"modified":"2024-06-04T17:36:41","modified_gmt":"2024-06-04T17:36:41","slug":"our-history","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.commoncause.org\/massachusetts\/our-history\/","title":{"rendered":"Our History"},"content":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_relevanssi_hide_post":"","_relevanssi_hide_content":"","_relevanssi_pin_for_all":"","_relevanssi_pin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_unpin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_include_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_exclude_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_no_append":"","_relevanssi_related_not_related":"","_relevanssi_related_posts":"","_relevanssi_noindex_reason":""},"class_list":["post-422","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":{"header":{"component_page_header":{"header_type":"default","title":"Our History","lead":"Learn more about Common Cause Massachusetts' achievements throughout the past several decades.","image":6081,"subnavigation":false}},"sidebar":{"helper_enable_sidebar":false,"helper_media_contact":{"heading":"Media Contact","manually_enter_person":false,"person":"","name":"","role":"","phone":"","email":""},"helper_links_downloads":{"heading":"Links & Downloads","links":null}},"page_layout":[{"acf_fc_layout":"layout_wysiwyg","_acfe_flexible_toggle":"","component_wysiwyg":{"content":"<h2>Since 1970, Common Cause Massachusetts has fought for comprehensive democracy reforms.<\/h2>\r\n<strong>1973<\/strong> Law requiring registration and reporting by lobbyists passed\r\n\r\n<strong>1974<\/strong> Open Meeting Law enacted and Office of Campaign and Political Finance created\r\n\r\n<strong>1978<\/strong> State Ethics Commission created and Financial Disclosure Law and updates to Conflict of Interest Law enacted\r\n\r\n<strong>1980<\/strong> State Office of Inspector General created\r\n\r\n<strong>1987<\/strong> Political action committee contributions to politicians limited\r\n\r\n<strong>1991<\/strong> Effort to abolish and weaken state watchdog agencies defeated\r\n\r\n<strong>1994<\/strong> Statewide campaign finance reform increasing disclosure and lowering campaign contribution limits passed\r\n\r\n<strong>1998<\/strong> Clean Elections Law ballot initiative passed\r\n\r\n<strong>2002<\/strong> Inspector General\u2019s office saved from repeal and legislative leaders pay raise defeated\r\n\r\n<strong>2004<\/strong> Redistricting reform initiatives qualified and passed in 15 districts\r\n\r\n<strong>2005<\/strong> Redistricting reform garners endorsements form bi-partisan list of gubernatorial candidates and 60,000 registered voters\r\n\r\n<strong>2006<\/strong> Common Cause\u2019s Campaign for Open Government triples number of cities and towns posting basic information on the Internet\r\n\r\n<strong>2008<\/strong> National Popular Vote legislation passes both houses and Election Day registration legislation passes Senate\r\n\r\n<strong>2009<\/strong> Comprehensive ethics, lobbying, and campaign finance disclosure legislation passed\r\n\r\n<strong>2010<\/strong> National Popular Vote legislation enacted and signed by Governor Deval Patrick\r\n\r\n<strong>2011<\/strong> Common Cause holds Redistricting Olympics and pushes legislature to adopt nationally acclaimed open and transparent redistricting process\r\n\r\n<strong>2012<\/strong> Legislature and 174 municipalities pass resolutions endorsing a constitutional amendment to overturn Citizens United. The Democracy Amendment ballot question calling for a constitutional amendment is supported by 79% of 1,000,000 voters\r\n\r\n<strong>2014<\/strong> MA Disclose Act requiring historic transparency for SuperPACs and the comprehensive Election Modernization Act, establishing Early Voting, online registration, pre-registration, audits of election equipment and more enacted by the legislature\r\n\r\n<strong>2016<\/strong> Key updates added to strengthen the MA Disclose Act and Early Voting implemented for the first time in Massachusetts, widely considered a success thanks to the Early Voting Challenge\r\n\r\n<strong>2018<\/strong>\u00a0Automatic Voter Registration legislation passes both houses and signed by Governor Charlie Baker\r\n\r\n<strong>2020 <\/strong>Save Voting Options in Response to COVID-19 was passed by both houses and signed by Governor Charlie Baker temporarily allowing vote by mail and extended early voting\r\n\r\n<strong>2022\u00a0<\/strong>The VOTES Act was passed by the House and Senate and signed into law by Governor Charlie Baker. This historic reform made permanent no-excuse vote by mail, extended early voting to two weeks, strengthened jail-based voting, enrolled Massachusetts into the Electronic Registration and Information Center (ERIC) and ensured back-end Automatic Voter Registration through the Registry of Motor Vehicles.\r\n\r\n<strong>2023\u00a0<\/strong>No Cost Calls passed the House and Senate and was signed into law by Governor Maura Healey making jail and prison phone calls free in Massachusetts."}}]},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.6 (Yoast SEO v27.1.1) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Our History - Common Cause Massachusetts<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.commoncause.org\/massachusetts\/our-history\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Our History\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.commoncause.org\/massachusetts\/our-history\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Common Cause Massachusetts\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2024-06-04T17:36:41+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.commoncause.org\/massachusetts\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/common-cause-share-image.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"630\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.commoncause.org\/massachusetts\/our-history\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.commoncause.org\/massachusetts\/our-history\/\",\"name\":\"Our History - 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