News Clips

Elections expert Sylvia Albert of Common Cause predicted the scenario is inevitable: "We will see somebody who denies the 2020 election win office. We will."

"Mr. Berman should've immediately disclosed what he knew to the public, and certainly should have provided all of these details during his 2020 congressional testimony," said Susan Lerner, executive director of Common Cause/NY. "It is not acceptable for public officials to hoard valuable information — about possible illegality — in order to cash in on it, when their first obligation must be to the people they're sworn to serve."

Threats have become so commonplace that election clerks consider it a part of their job, said Anthony Gutierrez, executive director of Common Cause Texas. "These election administrators keep saying that they report things to law enforcement or local DAs and nothing happens, like nobody's being prosecuted," Gutierrez said. Common Cause, which does election protection work, is also looking at potential ways to hold people who attack election workers accountable. What has complicated that task, Gutierrez and others say, is that numerous people in leadership positions keep casting doubt on the way elections are administered. For an elected state official to embrace that narrative, Gutierrez said, "really perpetuates this feeling that the people running our elections are doing something wrong, or trying to rig the elections. Just naturally, that's going to create an environment where you're asking for some kind of violence to happen."

“I don’t want to give them more power than they actually have to undermine us and our faith in the election process,” said Sylvia Albert, director of voting and elections for Common Cause, a nonpartisan organization that advocates for expanded voter access. “We have a huge infrastructure with thousands of election officials and checks and balance. In places where there are bad intentions to harm voters, we are all working to ensure those don’t happen.”

“Officeholders are deciding on matters that present a choice between a fundamental belief in democracy or authoritarian rule; between you and me having power in our vote and voice, or others taking that way from us,” said Karen Hobert Flynn, president of Common Cause in a prepared statement with the Scorecard’s release.  See the full results at https://democracyscorecard.org.

Common Cause New Mexico, which filed an amicus brief in support of the plaintiffs, hailed Mathew’s decision for having far-reaching consequences. “Judge Mathew’s decision is a signal to elected officials everywhere who want to snub their noses at the constitution, foment mob violence and disobey the law,” said Mario Jimenez, executive director of Common Cause New Mexico, in a statement. “Our elected officials—and candidates—must obey the law. They are not above it. That’s the very essence of democracy, and this ruling affirms it.”