News Clips

Anthony Gutierrez, the executive director of Common Cause Texas, a voting rights organization, is not surprised by the legislation in the Lone Star State, but he is alarmed. “They’re at the forefront of finding new and innovative ways to suppress the vote,” he said of Texas Republicans. “These are blatant attempts to keep people from voting.”

Anthony Gutierrez, executive director of Common Cause Texas, said nonmembers participate in committee hearings "all the time." "This deviation from standard practice to prevent a Black woman from engaging in debate on a bill that would impact Black communities disproportionately is appalling," Gutierrez said. "There is... truly nothing more absurd than Briscoe Cain having to adjourn his committee hearing on his bill that would criminalize procedural mistakes people might make while voting because he made a procedural mistake."

“This is Jim Crow in a suit and a tie,” Aunna Dennis, executive director of Common Cause Georgia, told The Times. Dennis said the data her group has studied show the effects of the proposed restrictions would have the greatest impact upon Black and other minority voters. “This is definitely an attack on the voting freedoms and the gains we’ve made in the last 60 years,” she said.

Despite those warnings, Stephen Spaulding, senior counsel for public policy and government affairs at Common Cause, a government watchdog group, said that Democrats needed to keep every option on the table. “Senate Democrats have the majority and they need to have the ability to govern,” he said. “This idea that it can be costless to filibuster, that you can essentially raise your hands behind closed doors and grind everything to a halt, is unacceptable.”

Aunna Dennis, executive director of Common Cause Georgia, said ID requirements for obtaining absentee ballots, would harm older voters, those who are low-income, and college students because they are all less likely to have driver's licenses or other forms of required identification, such as passports or a state or federal photo identification card. Georgia Republicans "are saying that voting should be for the 1% and ... for the privileged," Dennis told CNN.

However, critics like Stephen Spaulding with the watchdog group Common Cause, call it voter suppression. “In the wake of that record turn-out, we are seeing a backlash in some states that are looking to really curtail that access to the ballot box,” said Spaulding. In Washington, there’s a dueling effort by Congressional Democrats intended to expand voter access. The “For the People Act”, or H.R.1, is a sweeping reform bill that could put an end to those state voting restrictions. “It sets a national uniform standard,” said Spaulding. “So, no matter what zip code you live in, you will have access to those basic standards like two weeks of early voting, vote by mail if you want to do it, and automatic voter registration.”