News Clips

But Common Cause, a group that opposes the GOP lawmakers, disagreed with the position taken by its own side and urged the justices to decide the case. Neal Katyal, a lawyer for the group, stressed that the court should use the North Carolina case to decide the Independent State Legislature doctrine issue rather than wait until it arises again on an emergency basis “during the 2024 election cycle.”

“Voters who know the truth about our elections have faith in them,” said Liz Iacobucci, election security program manager with the voter advocacy group Common Cause. “But the people who have been led into disbelief — those people can be led into other things, like Jan. 6.”

The right to privately and securely cast a ballot, a pillar of voting rights, has stood the test of time as Arizona’s democracy has faced increasing attacks in recent years. The Arizona Constitution affirms “secrecy in voting shall be preserved,” but Senate Bill 1324 and House Bill 2560 put this at risk. The companion bills, dubbed the “Voter Privacy Violation Act” by civil rights advocates, would make Arizona an extreme outlier by posting detailed voter data and unfiltered ballot images online during the critical post-election leading up to certification of the results.

Anne Gray Herring of Common Cause Georgia said SB 222 creates another deterrent for counties already struggling to recruit and retain election workers. "Our county elections offices are already overburdened and underfunded," Gray Herring said. "This would cut off one of the few remaining means to receive additional funding and prohibit boards of commissioners from choosing to allocate funds to their county elections offices when they identify a need. The county governing authority should have the discretion to provide additional funding as they see fit."

“Now the legislative defendants play a cynical game, hoping that this newly constituted court will reverse course and abdicate its fundamental duty of judicial review,” said Lali Madduri, an attorney speaking Tuesday in court for Common Cause, the North Carolina League of Conservation Voters and citizens like Harper.

Katya Ehresman, voting rights program manager for Common Cause Texas, said everyone knows a voter, a friend or a neighbor who could be affected by the pending legislation. Ehresman said that in some scenarios a person might attempt to vote absentee by mail because they’re 65 or they’re disabled. If they can’t tell whether their ballot was received and are confused about whether their vote was counted, they might try to go vote in person and cast a provisional ballot. “That voter could be liable under SB 2 for a felony penalty” because they were aware they had already cast a ballot by mail, Ehresman said. “Especially if their mail-in ballot was counted that same day. That’s one kind of concern that we potentially see with SB 2.”