Common Cause

In multiple states, common cause works to shape laws to ensure that people's voices and choices are not drowned out by wealthy special interests. We also work to pass and protect strong ethics laws that hold elected representatives and those in public service accountable. Examples include:- in new mexico, we helped to pass a bill that required school board candidates to report campaign contributions and spending over $1,000, increasing transparency and consistency in our elections.- after a long and sustained campaign, common cause finally helped to bring needed campaign finance reforms to oregon, including the imposition of contributions limits for the first time in the state's history.

In multiple states, common cause works to shape laws that will promote open, impartial and inclusive redistricting laws. - in minnesota, we helped the state end the practice of prison gerrymandering, whereby the mapmakers count incarcerated people where prisons are located instead of where they hailed from when drawing legislative districts.- in nebraska, our team helped to block a plan to return the state to a winner take all plan for its electoral college votes due to partisan attempts to game the system and to suppress opposition votes.- in ohio, we spent more than six months recruiting and training thousands of volunteers across the state to collect more than 170,000 signatures from 88 counties for the citizens not politicians amendment.

- with the increasing availability of artificial intelligence tools that make it possible for political campaigns to develop confusing and deceptive advertising materials, common cause worked with legislators and local election officials to create new laws to deal with this emerging technology. * in colorado, we helped to pass the election candidate deepfake disclosures act to that state's elections from the unrestricted use of ai deepfakes in candidate campaigns, so that every voter is informed when a political ad depicts fake speech. * in new mexico, we helped to pass a bill that protected the public from deceptive campaign practices by requiring disclaimers to be included on campaign advertisements that utilize certain artificial intelligence processes, including "deep fakes." * in oregon, we passed a bill that prevents the misleading use of artificial intelligence in campaign communications.- to guarantee that our civil liberties and constitutional processes are protected, we lead the nationwide campaign against the prospect of a dangerous and uncontrollable article v constitutional convention. * in idaho, we worked with a bipartisan group of stakeholders on the ground to help to keep three article v applications from advancing to a floor vote. * similarly, in iowa, common cause worked closely with groups in the state to stop article v bills from making it to the floor in the senate. * after four years of hard work in new york, we convinced the general assembly to rescind all of their prior article v applications.- we helped to deliver a historic victory for the rights of incarcerated people massachusetts by fighting to make it the fifth state to make prison phone calls free statewide, and the first state to include provisions for free calls from county jails.- in colorado, we passed the compensation for state elected officials act to create an independent commission for setting elected official salaries, putting power into the hands of everyday people representing a variety of workforce sectors.