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Voting & Elections 02.21.2023

VoteBeat: Unequal election policies disenfranchised some Pennsylvania voters in 2022. Explore what each county did.

Ideally, Pennsylvania counties should make it as easy as possible to vote, said Khalif Ali, executive director of Common Cause Pennsylvania, a group that advocates for expanding public participation in the government and protecting voting rights.  “It’s the beauty and the pain that’s associated with the commonwealth,” Ali said. “We have essentially a number of fiefdoms and each of them has their own budgets, their own way of looking at the law, and applying that law on the ground level.” ... Ali of Common Cause said that the different practices across the state favor some voters over others based on where they live. He argued that it violates the spirit of the Pennsylvania Constitution, which states “elections shall be free and equal.”  He emphasized that inconsistencies can discourage voters from participating in the process.  “We need to be able to share information and tell people exactly what’s going on,” Ali said.

Media & Democracy 02.19.2023

Salon: Joe Biden's agenda faces an unprecedented onslaught of dark money: The FCC is just the start

"It's clear the industry sees no problems with the status quo," said Getachew. "In a Senate where the Democratic majority is not high, they only need a couple of Democrats to tilt the balance in their favor." Lobbying campaigns against Sohn, Getachew noted, have included those from the Fraternal Order of Police, which has opposed Sohn on the grounds that she personally supports end-to-end encrypted messaging (over which the FCC has no jurisdiction). The FOP argues it can delay police efforts to access cell phone records. Everyone involved understands that "law enforcement access issues are not in the purview of the FCC," said Getachew. The FOP's opposition to Sohn, he suggested, is "driven by a larger industry."

Bolts/Center for Public Integrity: How one city ended prison gerrymandering

Some of these asymmetries stem from state legislators’ decision to exempt local governments from the laws they passed. Kathay Feng, an advocate at the voting rights organization Common Cause, said this may have been a tactic in some states to avoid paying the cost of local changes, or to sidestep conflicts with “home rule” laws that give localities wide latitude.

Voting & Elections 02.13.2023

The Guardian: ‘We’re hitting the soil’: Georgia activists mobilize voters in an off year

“No matter the time of year, it’s about paying close attention to the laws impacting voters, taking the opportunity to gather the information that’s going to impact their access, and working to keep their best interests in mind,” said Aunna Dennis, executive director of Common Cause Georgia. “We are, of course, a hub for boots-on-the-ground work, but for us, the work is also getting our hands really wet with election reform work, like drafting legislation to create accessibility or even giving testimony, like we will for HB200.”

Voting & Elections 02.13.2023

Wisconsin Examiner: Bipartisan vote tracking measure brings parties together on elections

“My concern always is that a generally positive measure like this might later during the legislative process be amended to include some onerous (anti-voting ) provision which then makes it impossible to support the overall measure,” says Jay Heck of Common Cause Wisconsin. “That occurred a few times in the last session with some voting measures.” One positive aspect of SB-39 is that it’s a stand-alone measure, Heck says, “rather than the mixed packages of bills we saw last session on elections and voting where some parts of the bill might have been something to support but there was always a part (or several parts) of the bill that would be terrible for voters so it could not have been supported as a whole,” Heck adds. “That’s very important.”

Voting & Elections 02.11.2023

NBC News: Sex, drugs and deleted ballots? New Mexico elections official hit with ethics charge

Mario Jimenez, executive director of Common Cause New Mexico and a former elections official, applauded the ethics commission for investigating the matter but said he was nonetheless disheartened to learn of the allegations. "When I read it, I was nothing short of infuriated," he told NBC News. "We're losing public trust."

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