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Voting & Elections 03.28.2022

Roll Call: Biden budget seeks $10 billion over decade to improve elections, make ballots postage-free

Sylvia Albert, director of voting and elections at Common Cause, an independent citizens' lobbying group, said that much money would be “transformative” for states holding elections.  ... Albert said states often save the grant money they receive from the federal government for emergencies or for other unexpected reasons.  “Officials don't have confidence that more money will be coming. They don’t feel free to use it in a way that could expand access,” Albert said, praising Biden's call for sustained funding. “That would really allow election officials to create programs that really maximize access ... without worrying that they are spending money to expand a program but then next year have to roll it all back.” Expanding vote-by-mail programs in underserved areas could help people who live in rural areas and on Native lands vote more easily, Albert added.  The proposal could also solidify a Postal Service policy to deliver ballots regardless of whether they have postage on them. Currently, enforcement of that policy varies across the country, she said. “Adding something like this to law would ensure that that policy is actually followed,” she said.

The Guardian: How gerrymandering allows a purple state to promote Trump’s big lie

Getting people to look beyond congressional gerrymandering and at distortions for state legislative districts can be a challenge, said Suzanne Almedia, redistricting and representation counsel at Common Cause, a government watchdog group. “Particularly, given the polarized nature of the US Congress, it’s a lot more straightforward to tell a story of Democrats versus Republicans on the national level than it is to think through the nuances of what happens on the state level,” she said. The policies that most directly affect people’s lives, she added – school funding, public health policy and voting rights among them – are all decided by state legislatures. One recent survey found that Republicans are more likely to identify state legislatures as an important forum for driving policy decisions.

Voting & Elections 03.24.2022

Salon: “Throwback to Jim Crow”: New Texas voting law means Black voters' ballots get tossed

"Texas was already the hardest state to vote in before Republicans passed these laws that made it even harder," said Anthony Gutierrez, executive director of Common Cause Texas, in a statement to Salon. "What we're seeing today is a small preview of what we can expect to see at a far wider scale in November unless the federal government finally takes real action to intervene." Gutierrez said the Texas secretary of state's office was repeatedly told about the potential for these problems when the voting-restriction bill was going through committee. He suggested that state officials had "ample opportunity" to address these issues but "instead chose to focus on playing politics [as] implementation was left to local officials who received little to no guidance or communication from our state's chief election officer." He predicted "far bigger problems in November when we have exponentially more people showing up to the polls."

Associated Press: Political lobbyists denounce harassment by state senator

Heather Ferguson, a co-signor of the letter and executive director of Common Cause New Mexico, said that Ivey-Soto referred to her and a female colleague by the nickname “Lips and Hips” in 2016. “We walked into a meeting with him,” Ferguson said. “He said, ‘Here comes Lips and Hips.’” Ferguson said she told Ivey-Soto the nickname was sexist and degrading, and that he repeated it later.  She described a “toxic culture” at the Legislature, praised Anaya’s courage for filing a formal complaint and said greater whistleblower protections are needed.

Raleigh News & Observer: Is gerrymandering to blame for more extremism in US politics?

“The winner is chosen in the primary and the primary draws, for lack of a better way of saying it, the most extreme and emotional voters,” said Bob Phillips, who leads the redistricting reform group Common Cause NC. He said he’s heard state legislators on both sides of the aisle complain that their party’s leaders instruct them not to even mingle with the other side when they’re in Raleigh, let alone vote with them. “We’ve seen it in Raleigh and seen it in Washington,” he said. “Folks that come have no incentive to compromise because they’ll only be punished for it.” Phillips said House Bill 2, the controversial 2016 law that became known nationally as the “bathroom bill” and ended up costing North Carolina millions of dollars, is an example of politicians supporting polarizing bills. It’s OK for them to pass laws that please their base even if it goes against popular opinion, he said, because gerrymandering insulates them from any fallout. The state legislative districts in use at the time were later ruled unconstitutional gerrymanders, and Phillips said that looking at those maps, 92% of those who voted for HB2 in the N.C. House either didn’t have an opponent in their previous election or won it by double digits. Phillips said he blames gerrymandering in part for this, since it tends to make politicians beholden more to their party’s furthest wings, but he also blames also other factors, including media coverage focused on the most extreme views from either side. “It may also embolden you to speak in a more shrill, harsh, attacking mode,” he said. “We’ve certainly seen that decline in civility.”

Voting & Elections 03.17.2022

MSN/Austin American-Statesman: Central Texas counties report 'higher than ever' rejection rates for primary mail ballots

“I think we were all worried about vote-by-mail requirements, but I don’t think anyone expected for it to be quite this much of a catastrophe,” said Anthony Gutierrez, executive director of the nonpartisan elections and democracy organization Common Cause Texas, which is is suing state officials over SB 1. Part of the problem, Gutierrez said, is that he is not seeing an earnest effort from the secretary of state to alert voters of the new changes. "The secretary of state seemed to be doing little to nothing to educate Texans about the new requirements until the very last minute," Gutierrez said. "Counties were just given the statute and left to figure it out by themselves.”

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