News Clips

Suzanne Almeida, the interim executive director of Common Cause Pennsylvania, a nonpartisan organization that advocates to expand access to voting, told Newsweek that the "pattern of litigation" seen in the state in recent months is unlikely to end with Election Day. "We know that Pennsylvania is certainly in the center of the bullseye when it comes to this election. With new voting laws, and a focus from both national campaigns, everyone is fighting for the state's voters. And we don't expect that to stop on Election Day," Almeida said. "We have already seen a pattern of litigation from both parties, but particularly President Trump's campaign where they are attempting to use the courts to clarify or in some cases rewrite election law in Pennsylvania," she added. "But at the end of the day the important thing is that every single vote counts and that voters have confidence in the result—whatever it is."

"Voting is different during a pandemic and voters are going to need to take steps to protect themselves," said Catherine Turcer, the executive director for Common Cause Ohio, an organization dedicated to protecting and improving voters' rights and access to the ballot. "While the increased number of cases makes everyone nervous, we have some basic tools like masks and all Ohio voters who choose to vote in person are encouraged to wear a mask. The poll workers will have masks and PPE for voters who need them."

However, even in states with open carry laws and no restrictions on guns at locations that host polling, such as churches and schools, prohibitions on guns prevail, according to Suzanne Almeida, interim executive director of Common Cause Pennsylvania. "There are valid concerns now," Almeida added, "but we must let voters know about them without involuntarily discouraging them from coming to the polls." "We will have more than 1,000 volunteers at polling stations for questions, and to be eyes and ears on the ground and have voters' backs," Almeida said. "We make sure voters have a good experience."

“I would be very happy if it wasn’t not coming down to Pennsylvania, if we were just one of the many states one way or another,” says Suzanne Almeida, a lawyer for the state’s chapter of the watchdog group Common Cause.

“Just as we are making changes to our election laws… to account for COVID, we also need to account for first-time voters or people using this avenue for the first time,” argues Sylvia Albert, the director of voting and elections at the advocacy organization Common Cause.

“We are seeing the kind of incidents that are likely to happen in every election be blown up to mean there is something fundamentally wrong with Pennsylvania election administration and we can’t trust the Department of State or the counties to give us an accurate count,” said Suzanne Almeida with Common Cause Pennsylvania, a nonpartisan organization that advocates to expand access to voting. “There are any number of reasons why that’s not true.”