News Clips

Jay Heck, the executive director of Common Cause of Wisconsin, said he is “terrified” by the idea of the state holding the election on Tuesday given the mounting health risks. For the first time in nearly 25 years in his role, he is not encouraging people to vote in person, which “flies in the face of everything I believe in.” “It’s insanity. It’s just insanity,” an emotional Heck said midday Monday, before the governor’s order, describing the ways people could contract coronavirus at a polling place. “It makes me cry thinking about what is going to happen tomorrow. It really does.”

Jay Heck, director of Common Cause Wisconsin, a voting-rights group, likened the spring election to a cosmic calamity. "The upcoming election is hurtling toward the state of Wisconsin like some unstoppable meteor," said Heck. "It is terrifying, because nobody knows what's going to happen."

Some communities, such as those on Native American tribal lands, aren't as well-served by the U.S. postal system, and mail-in ballots should include pre-paid postage so citizens don't have to pay for the right to cast a ballot, says Karen Hobert-Flynn, president of Common Cause. But she's for any idea that "makes sure there's fair and safe voting for all." "Even as we are worried about this public health threat, we need to remember that it can't distract us from the ways we can fight it," Hobert-Flynn says. "That means we have to come together locally, nationally and internationally to stop the spread (of the virus) and part of that is ensuring our democracy continues to function."

Democrats and voting activists have accused GOP lawmakers of trying to suppress voter turnout intentionally to help an incumbent candidate for the state Supreme Court, conservative Justice Daniel Kelly, win reelection. “They have cynically calculated that lower turnout will help the conservative candidate,” said Jay Heck, executive director of Common Cause in Wisconsin.

“The recent oil boom in New Mexico has unleashed more than an ocean of oil and gas money: It has unleashed a gusher of campaign contributions, a flurry of lobbyists offering expensive dinners and a mammoth public relations offensive financed by one of the largest and most powerful professional associations in the state,” Common Cause Executive Director Heather Ferguson said in a statement Tuesday.

Government watchdog group Common Cause has called on all states to "expand vote-by-mail programs and absentee voting wherever possible." "This is a time for our country to be united to protect each other as we face COVID-19, and that includes rethinking the way we manage our elections in many states," Karen Hobert Flynn, the nonprofit's president, said in a press release.