Washington, D.C. – Today, Congress passed the bipartisan Electoral Count and Presidential Transition Reform Act, legislation that will fortify peaceful transitions of power based on the will of the people for generations to come.
The participation of more than 5,300 voters in an informed opinion poll contributed significantly to its passage. Members of the National Institute for Civil Discourse’s (NICD’s) CommonSense American program took the time to get informed and weigh in with Congress. NICD found broad, bipartisan grassroots support, ranging from 75% to 88% for each of the major updates to the Electoral Count Act and subsequently held more than 50 congressional briefings on these results, focusing particularly on those members of Congress whose support was most crucial for passage.
The success of the bill makes CommonSense Americans three-for-three in Congress. In 2020, our members played an important part in demonstrating overwhelming support to end surprise medical billing, endorsed by Senator Bill Cassidy. In 2021, Senators Rob Portman and Joe Manchin expressed gratitude for our support for passing investments in physical infrastructure. And today, our results were an important consideration for the bipartisan group of 16 senators debating election reform, led by Senators Collins and Manchin, who also encouraged us to pick this as our issue this year because they recognized how helpful our input would be.
All were supported by a vast majority of Americans. In each case, CommonSense American has directly increased Congress’s capacity to pass practical, bipartisan solutions by demonstrating broad support across our divisions at the grassroots level. The unexpected level of impact out of the gate on our first three issues has been a heady experience for our more than 53,000 members. It’s a powerful, real world demonstration of overcoming the perception gap, the impression most have that the American people are far more polarized on the issues that they really are.
“This is a momentous occasion and we are proud to have played a role in advancing this critical legislation,” said Keith Allred, NICD’s Executive Director. “We look forward to continuing to foster discussion and debate across all parties and ideological divides, in a civil and respectful manner, in order to find the common ground that is integral to our nation’s progress.”
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About NICD
NICD works to build the nation’s capacity to engage differences constructively. In 2011, the University of Arizona created NICD after the Tucson shooting that killed six people and wounded another thirteen, including former Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords. In the weeks prior to the shooting, Congresswoman Giffords was already in discussion with the University of Arizona about creating a center to study how to improve the quality of discourse. The galvanizing power of that event brought together founding honorary co-chairs George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton and an impressive bipartisan group of other leaders to honor Congresswoman Giffords idea to work on these issues. Americans are offered a variety of opportunities and resources to engage differences constructively at https://civildiscourseinstitute.org/.
Keith Allred
(202) 870-1089
MEDIA CONTACT:
Matt Landini (202) 713-9640 matt@blulightstrategies.com or
Steve Rabinowitz (202) 494-7655 steve@blulightstrategies.com