I’m sure I had vaguely understood what feminism was in high school. But it wasn’t until I got to college that I started hearing murmurs that women could do anything. What a strange thing to say, I thought.
I attended an all-girls high school, so whenever someone won an award for being the best at something, it was a girl—fastest runner, highest...
To reduce political corruption, we need real transparency about who is spending big money on elections so that politicians can no longer receive unlimited, secret money from wealthy special interests to support their campaigns. Voters should be able to make informed decisions on Election Day and hold politicians accountable.
Fortunately, there...
President Donald Trump said in an interview on Fox Business Network that he is opposed to funding the United States Postal Service because it needs the money for mail-in voting, and without proper funding, it is not equipped to handle a surge in the fall. Both Democrats and Republicans use mail-in voting and absentee ballots because it is a proven...
On August 13, 2020, the U.S. Supreme Court rejected an attempt by the Republican National Committee to reinstate a requirement that would force absentee voters in Rhode Island to find two witnesses or a notary public to sign absentee ballots for them to count.
Rhode Island was in the minority of states with such a requirement. This is a good...
When President Richard Nixon resigned 46 years ago, in the wake of the Watergate scandal that shook the nation, he spoke of “healing the wounds of this Nation.” He concluded that to heal from one of the largest political scandals the country had ever seen, orchestrated by Nixon and his administration, he must resign.
Despite his personal desires...
President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Voting Rights Act (VRA) into law on August 6, 1965, exactly 55-years-ago today. The best way to honor this anniversary would be to offset the damage done by the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to gut the VRA by restoring the law to protect communities of color from assaults on their voting rights.
The recent...
Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds signed an executive order on August 5, 2020 restoring voting rights to most people with felony convictions who have served their time. Iowa was the last state in the U.S. to make all people with felony convictions apply for clemency and receive an individual order restoring that person’s voting rights.
Iowans with past...
In response to a recent tweet from President Donald Trump, several prominent Republican lawmakers reminded the President that the U.S. Constitution clearly mandates when the election for President must be held.
Many of these lawmakers made reference to Article II of the U.S. Constitution, which gives Congress the authority to determine the timing...
On July 30, 2020, President Donald Trump suggested the possibility that the Nov. 3, 2020 presidential election might be delayed, saying on Twitter without evidence that the results of voting in November would be flawed.
Suggesting the possibility of moving the general election is an extraordinary statement for a sitting President to make and is...
Super PACs are required to publicly disclose all of their donors. But in the last three months alone, super PACs on both sides of the political spectrum have hidden the true source of tens of millions of dollars of campaign contributions.
Thanks to the Supreme Court’s decision in Citizens United, super PACs may raise unlimited amounts from...
Join us virtually on August 3, 2020 at 7:00 PM Eastern for a screening of Rigged: The Voter Suppression Playbook. Rigged chronicles how the right to vote is being undercut by a decade of dirty tricks. In this age of COVID-19 and the associated stresses on voter access, the need to see this award-winning documentary has never been greater—nor more...
In a trend taking hold around the country, Rhode Island voters are increasingly turning to vote-by-mail as a safe method of casting their ballots during the COVID-19 pandemic. Eighty-three percent of Rhode Islanders exercised their right to vote by mail ballot in the June 2020 presidential primary.
In a victory for voting rights, the state of...
Campaign Legal Center (CLC) filed a complaint with the Federal Election Commission (FEC) against President Donald Trump’s reelection campaign and joint fundraising committee on July 28, 2020. The campaign and its committee violated the law by laundering nearly $170 million in campaign spending through firms headed by Trump’s former campaign manager...
Former Members of Congress (FMC) hosted a virtual panel “Voting Amidst a Pandemic,” with Campaign Legal Center (CLC) President Trevor Potter as the moderator and Rep. Diana DeGette (D-CO) and Rep. Greg Walden (R-OR) as the panelists. The panel focused on the challenges of absentee voting, ways to address those challenges, and how to safeguard the...
By Tony Dechario, a CLC 2020 summer intern, and Austin Graham, legal counsel for CLC's state & local reform program
In poll after poll, Americans across partisan and demographic lines consistently support transparency in the democratic process, in recognition of the critical role that disclosure plays in shining light on the political influence of...
As New York voters increasingly rely on the state’s absentee voting system to cast their ballots during COVID-19, more New York voters will be at risk of disenfranchisement because the state erroneously rejects their ballot for issues that have nothing to do with their eligibility.
In the 2018 general election, state election officials discarded...
Voters have a right to know which wealthy special interests are spending big money to secretly influence our vote and our government to rig the political system in their favor. We need to know if our elected officials might be tempted to serve their wealthy donors instead of listening to our voices on the issues that matter most to our long-term...
States need to make reasonable accommodations so voters can cast a ballot without unnecessary risk of contracting COVID-19. But far too often, they don’t make these changes voluntarily, so advocacy groups have to take states to court.
Campaign Legal Center (CLC) filed a federal lawsuit on July 23, 2020 challenging Rhode Island’s witness/notary...
Everyone must be able to vote to fully participate in our democracy, yet the state of Tennessee recently decided to make it harder for some of its citizens to exercise their right to vote.
Since 1981, under Tennessee law, a person convicted of a felony in another state is eligible to register to vote in Tennessee if their civil rights have been...
President Donald Trump signed a memorandum calling for undocumented people to be excluded from being counted toward congressional representation after the 2020 Census on July 21, 2020. This move is a deliberate attempt at political gain at the expense of the accuracy and legitimacy of the census.
The Fourteenth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution...
I am writing this piece to pay tribute to John Lewis, a man I first met nearly 40 years ago.
Much has already been eloquently written about this great American hero. How he was a strong symbol of what it means to be an American, and how he taught us to march on toward a more just country, even when the struggle seemed too hard and we felt too...