News Clips

“It’s been helpful and necessary in making sure that our administration of elections is more safe and secure,” said Katya Ehresman, the voting rights program manager at Common Cause Texas. But some Republicans say Texas should no longer be a member of this group. A bill by Houston-area Rep. Jacey Jetton would put an expiration date on the state’s participation in ERIC. Texas would need to create its own alternative cross-check program. Ehresman said other states, such as Kansas and Florida, that have left ERIC have seen worse voter list maintenance and data integrity with their own interstate verification system. “We haven’t seen any defense of these alternatives and how they would be secure, or safe or better for our lists,” Ehresman said. “Texans should not be looking at this bill as an answer to a problem, but instead as a problem in and of itself.” She worries that elections will be less secure if Texas withdraws from ERIC. “It poses a danger to voter fraud, to having less integrity of our voter rolls. And the point is, we know that ERIC is tested,” Ehresman said.

“Oregon generally embraces a positive voting environment,” said Kate Titus, executive director of Common Cause Oregon. “All of these little changes around the edges help.” Titus said the state could revisit further expanding its automatic voter registration system to allow registration to occur through other state agencies in the coming years.

“We’re an outlier in that we didn’t do anything this year, but it’s not that surprising because New England has been dragging on this issue for a long time,” Marion said. “Prior to the pandemic, we weren’t building the infrastructure necessary to push this,” Marion said. “We were working on voting rights but we weren’t building as much as we should have.”

Not all of those honored on this list are registered lobbyists. But they are all key players who the nation’s biggest companies, advocacy groups, labor unions and trade associations turn to when they want their voices heard in the nation’s capital. The ranks of policy experts, influencers and advocates run deep in Washington, but these are the people who stand out for delivering results for their clients in the halls of Congress and the administration. ... GRASSROOTS: Karen Hobert Flynn and Aaron Scherb, Common Cause 

It’s fitting to talk about this piece of legislation as we near the 245th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence because the For the People Act is, at its core, about freedom. It’s about our freedom to vote and choose the future we want to see for our families and communities; freedom from wealthy special interests corrupting our politics and setting the agenda; freedom from partisan politicians rigging the rules and gerrymandering maps to benefit themselves; freedom to hold those we put in elected office accountable with ironclad ethics laws. To protect these freedoms, the Senate should follow the House’s lead in passing the For the People Act, as well as the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act.