News Clips

"A lot of people don't have faith in the system for obvious reasons, but there is a constitutional process that will take place," regardless of what bad actors may insinuate, Sylvia Albert, the director of voting and elections at Common Cause, told Salon.   "The most important thing voters can do right now is make a plan and make sure that their vote counts," Albert said, explaining that voters need to check their registration now and not wait until it's too late. 

"It's illegal in every state to harass or intimidate a voter away from voting," said Suzanne Almeida, interim executive director of Common Cause Pennsylvania. "There are specific rules in the election code about not standing in the way of a voter and their franchise, and so poll watchers can't do that either."

“This is blatant voter suppression,” said Anthony Gutierrez, executive director of Common Cause Texas, a voting rights group.

“But it’s the implementation and access to those drop boxes that become the question,” McClenaghan said. “The lines for our primary in August were cars in line to drop off their ballots on election night.” Among the challenges, she said: Figuring out where drop boxes are and which ones are available round the clock, as opposed to only when staff are present. She recommends voters check with their local Supervisor of Elections office. “It’s a new thing,” she said, “so everybody’s learning.”

“Double voting is not really an issue in the United States,” said Common Cause Director of Voting and Elections Sylvia Albert, adding that “it’s really hard to vote twice.”

Sylvia Albert, director of voting and elections at Common Cause, also noted that fears over mass voter intimidation efforts in past years have not materialized, even when Trump urged supporters to go to the polls in 2016. “He likes the chaos, he wants to create chaos, because he thinks it benefits him,” Albert said. ‘We don't want to give him what he wants, which is fear and intimidation and chaos.”