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Voting & Elections 09.3.2020

Associated Press: Trump suggests polling place double-check for mail-in voters

Karen Hobart Flynn, president of Common Cause, said: “You cannot test election integrity rules by breaking them, any more than you can rob a bank to make sure your money is safe.”

Voting & Elections 09.3.2020

USA Today: North Carolina elections chief says 'It is illegal to vote twice in an election' after Trump comment on double voting

"President Trump’s repeated requests to his followers to commit felonies are felony crimes themselves because he is inciting the commission of those crimes," said Karen Hobert Flynn, president of the election watchdog organization Common Cause. "You cannot test election integrity rules by breaking them any more than you can rob a bank to make sure your money is safe."

Voting & Elections 09.2.2020

New York Times: How a Smooth Election in Massachusetts Could Be a Cautionary Tale

Acknowledging problems in the Massachusetts election, Pamela Wilmot, the executive director of Common Cause Massachusetts, nevertheless attributed the high primary turnout to the state’s shift toward voting by mail. “Compared to the problems we’ve seen in other states, it really was a relatively smaller percentage of the voters that faced these issues,” she said, adding that Massachusetts had benefited from a decline in coronavirus infection rates. Partly as a result, she said, “we did not experience a poll worker shortage.”

Voting & Elections 09.1.2020

Newsweek: Old Navy Will Pay Employees To Work At The Polls, Joining Corporate America In Encouraging Workers to Vote

Sylvia Albert, the director of voting and elections at Common Cause, a watchdog group, said the main issue big companies need to tackle is not getting their employees to vote but to work the polls. "The reality is that the government has been unable to really secure poll workers on a national scale," Albert said. "People just don't think about it. They go to vote and there's the same person there that was there the last time they went to vote. But when you tell people, you being there can actually ensure that people in your community are able to vote a ballot that counts, that's an amazing gift," she added. While there has been an increasing push to make Election Day a national holiday, Albert points out that it is not the end-all-be-all for a democracy. While it may be one step towards ending vote suppression, hourly workers would still need to clock in on holidays. It will take a collective effort from citizens, companies and the government to encourage voters to shape the country's future and Albert thinks that companies are a crucial player. "Corporate America has a gigantic stage and a lot of power. They could have a really positive effect if they step up," she said.

Money & Influence 08.29.2020

CNN: Kanye West's strange presidential bid unravels thanks to a messy ballot access operation

Under federal law, presidential candidates must file monthly reports in an election year if they have raised or spent $100,000 -- or anticipate doing so during the course of the year, said Paul Ryan, an election law expert who oversees policy and litigation at Common Cause. The bigger legal jeopardy might be for the Trump campaign if evidence ever emerged that they operated in concert with West to benefit the President's reelection, Ryan said. "If the Trump campaign is asking Kayne West to do these things -- qualify for the ballot, etc. -- then arguably the Trump campaign is soliciting an illegally large, in-kind contributions to the Trump campaign in the form of every penny Kanye West spends," he said.

Money & Influence 08.28.2020

VICE News: Kanye West Is Breaking Campaign Finance Law and Keeping His GOP Backers a Secret

“He’s either violating the reporting requirements or doesn’t anticipate to spend $100,000 or more on his presidential campaign, and the latter part seems unlikely,” said Paul S. Ryan, the head of litigation at the good government group Common Cause. “He’s missed an FEC reporting deadline on August 20 and is in [likely] violation of the law.” ... But if West simply refused to comply, the FEC would have to step in and actually vote to bring him to court. Since Trump has failed to nominate enough people for a quorum on the FEC’s commission, that means the organization is totally toothless. And if his campaign continues to refuse to follow the law, it might be impossible to know exactly how deep the GOP’s involvement in West’s campaign is until well after the November election. “The law wasn’t designed to deal with the wealthy spoiler candidate who’s trying to avoid disclosure to help another candidate,” said Ryan. “Kanye West isn’t the typical candidate so this enforcement mechanism isn’t going to work for his campaign.”

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