News Clips

“Consider the real risks of an unmanageable quantity of review requests, including those that are made in bad faith and the limits of time and resources for county officials,” said Anne Gray Herring of Common Cause Georgia.

"You shouldn't be targeted because of your social economic status," said Aunna Dennis, the executive director of Common Cause Georgia. "You shouldn't be targeted because of the life situation that you're going through at that point in time. So this bill is just inequitable ... It's really only tried to give accessibility to balloting options to people who are privileged to not have hurdles or challenges when it comes to voting."

“A lot of our maps here are drawn behind closed doors, and there’s not a lot of input from the public that’s able to be given,” said Morgan Drayton, policy and engagement manager at Common Cause Maryland. “So this would do a lot to make these processes more transparent.”

This is the first time in 30 years that the court has decided to rehear two cases, said Bob Phillips, executive director of Common Cause North Carolina. "I do think that North Carolina, unfortunately, is often looked upon as a model for bad democracy and can be the playbook for other states," Phillips said. "And we're almost like the laboratory for some of this, that we think is extremely harmful."

"Oral arguments were heard in December, and a decision is expected by June, and if the Supreme Court rules in favor of these lawless North Carolina lawmakers, it would have a near-immediate impact on Marylanders. This case could pave the way for dramatic and discriminatory cuts to our popular early voting and mail-in voting options, widespread voter roll purges, discriminatory barriers to voting access, baseless challenges to fair election results, fewer protections against voter intimidation and widespread gerrymandering." - Joanne Antoine, Executive Director of Common Cause Maryland

“SB 2 seems like an acknowledgement by the state that they do a crappy job of educating Texans about voting and a concession that they have no plans to do better,” said Anthony Gutierrez, executive director of Common Cause Texas. For the 2022 election cycle, the Texas Legislature allocated $3.5 million for voter education efforts. Advocates say that’s not enough to reach the more than 16 million registered voters in the state. “The real problem here is, if you’re increasing the penalty for a crime, you would think the state would take some responsibility for telling people what the law is, so [voters] know not to break the law,” Guitierrez said, adding that the increased penalties could also keep some eligible voters away from the polls. “The public will see this, wonder what is going on and wonder if it’s even worth the hassle of going to vote if there’s voting police out there and if they risk getting charged with felonies if they’re not up to speed on all of the new election laws.”