News Clips

“We have talked to inmates who have said that, you know, in trying to contact representatives, it's been a non-responsive situation.” Says Khalif Ali, Executive Director of Common Cause Pennsylvania. Ali says these inmates don't feel adequately represented in prisons outside of their permanent addresses and will disenfranchise 7,000 people.

Khalif Ali, executive director of Common Cause Pennsylvania, a good-government advocacy group that works on issues related to voter access, called the subpoenas approved Wednesday a “frightening violation of voters’ privacy and an egregious abuse of power.” “There’s no explanation about what they intend to do with the information, or why they think they need it,” he said in a statement. “They also have not announced any plans for security measures to protect the information from disclosure. … Pennsylvanians deserve to have their private information protected by the people they elected to office, not used as political fodder to appease lies told by a former president.”

“You have jails with the actual policies in place, and there’s a gap between the policy and actual implementation,” said Khalif Ali, head of Common Cause Pennsylvania. “If you simply say, ‘Oh, yeah, you guys can vote,’ and there’s nothing else, you’re essentially telling them: ‘Figure it out.’”

“The goal of the Sunshine Act is to encourage and guarantee the public’s right to participate in government decision making, and all agencies should take steps to make it easier for the public to attend public meetings,” she said. “ When virtual technology is used in addition to in-person public meetings, it can result in increased public participation.’’ Khalif Ali, executive director of Pennsylvania Common Cause, offered a similar view.

Khalif Ali, who directs Pennsylvania’s chapter of government accountability nonprofit Common Cause, called the change “is an important step toward fully representative legislative districts in Pennsylvania” that has been “a long time coming.”

“While this process has historically been conducted behind closed doors with little to no public input, 2021 is our year to flip the script and ensure that the voices of our communities, particularly those of Black, Indigenous, Latinx, Asian, Pacific Islander, and other communities of color, are at the center of the conversation,” said Khalif Ali, executive director of Common Cause in Pennsylvania.