News Clips

Co-hosts Roy Wood, Jr. and Desi Lydic interview three contestants, including Common Cause's Vashti Hinton-Smith whose vote is suppressed by gerrymandering that split the North Carolina A&T campus into two congressional districts, diluting the voting power of students at the HBCU campus. And HBCU Democracy Fellow Jaden Peay had his vote suppressed by onerous Voter ID laws. 

But even if it is likely the directive would lose in court, it is necessary to seek an immediate block to the directive because it could affect the 2020 Census count that is underway, said Kathay Feng, Common Cause’s national director of redistricting and representation. “It could affect response because most immigrant families have a mix of people of different status,” she said. The directive could also affect the Census Bureau’s process in deciding which households to go to, Feng said. Instead of attempting to count every household in the United States, she said, the bureau could “only go to households which they think fall into the category that the president wants counted.”

“We are thrilled that our people-powered campaign to make redistricting in Oregon fair and transparent has scored another victory in court,” said Kate Titus, executive director of Common Cause Oregon which is part of the campaign.

Karen Hobert Flynn, president of Common Cause, said the census affects the fair distribution of $1.5 trillion in federal funding annually for “critical resources like food assistance, medical supplies for COVID-19 recovery, youth programs, and affordable housing.” “This memorandum by President Trump is a blatant attempt to skew how electoral districts are drawn, instill fear and chaos in immigrant communities, and send a message to his white supremacist base,” she said.

“This is really a make or break moment for Oregonians to enact a fair and transparent process in time for the 2021 redistricting,” Kate Titus, executive director of Common Cause Oregon, said during a Tuesday news conference featuring redistricting reform advocates from numerous states. To abide by social distancing, Oregon activists mailed petition signature forms to about a half-million households that each had at least two registered voters, Titus said. They have been getting back thousands of signed petitions daily. But “at this point,” she said, “it’s really too hard to tell” whether organizers will meet the deadline for the 149,360 valid signatures needed for the proposed constitutional amendment.

Kate Titus is executive director of Common Cause Oregon, whose goal is to make the political process fair, transparent and more democratic. She is currently helping to lead People Not Politicians Oregon, a coalition circulating petitions to get an initiative on the November ballot that would create an independent commission to draw boundaries for the Legislature and congressional districts. Our recent conversation has been edited for clarity and brevity.