News Clips

Kathay Feng, national redistricting director for Common Cause, said once voting maps hit the courts, it becomes more difficult for citizens to weigh in on the process. Speaking at a redistricting seminar, she noted the best way to influence the process was through a ballot. "In some states where you have judicial elections, or there's a way to influence the judges that are chosen, it's making sure that there is a tremendous amount of voter education," Feng urged.

Thursday marks the first day of the Summit for Democracy, a virtual meeting of more than 100 heads of state dedicated to furthering democratic values. But lawyers have been sounding the alarm on the democratic experiment in the U.S. post-Jan. 6 as the country faces two crucial elections in the next four years. Host Scott Tong speaks with Sylvia Albert, director of voting and elections at the watchdog Common Cause, about these dangers.

There is no substitute for legislation, and the time to act is now. Recently, more than 150 democracy scholars wrote that “defenders of democracy in America still have a slim window of opportunity to act. But time is ticking away, and midnight is approaching.” If we are to lead by the “power of our example,” President Biden and senators must step up and do what it takes to pass these bills as quickly as possible. When our leaders embark on the year of action at the summit, this must be a top priority. Democracy is resilient, and they have the power to act. We cannot afford to wait.

“We’re an outlier in that we didn’t do anything this year, but it’s not that surprising because New England has been dragging on this issue for a long time,” Marion said. “Prior to the pandemic, we weren’t building the infrastructure necessary to push this,” Marion said. “We were working on voting rights but we weren’t building as much as we should have.”

“What we’re seeing is they’re kind of putting all these applications into one basket,” said Rebecca Timmons, a communications coordinator at Common Cause, which opposes the Article V convention. “There are no guardrails.”

“It was a long and winding road for Jessica Rosenworcel, but she stayed the course and good sense has now finally prevailed with today’s Senate vote," said Common Cause special advisor Michael Copps, himself a former acting FCC chairman and Rosenworcel's former boss when she was on his FCC staff. "Jessica faces a daunting agenda as chair but she has the experience and dedication to make historic progress leading the FCC. Past commission mistakes must be corrected and new trails blazed to provide our country with the communications ecosystem our democracy so clearly must have." Copps also put in a plug for confirming a third Democrat to the commission so Rosenworcel has a majority. "Needed now is a fifth commissioner, so that a full FCC can get on with its important mandate of protecting the public interest.”