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CONTACT: Kim Alton
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
August 18, 2004

Election Protection Program Gains Support from Nation’s Prominent Legal Organizations

(Washington, DC) – The Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights is pleased to announce that the American Bar Association (ABA) and the National Bar Association (NBA) have agreed to serve as co-sponsors of this year’s Election Protection Program.

During the ABA’s annual convention this month in Atlanta, the group’s Board of Governors announced their co-sponsorship of the Election Protection Program. “I’m extremely pleased that the ABA is joining the effort to ensure that our electoral system works for all Americans this November,” said Barbara R. Arnwine, Executive Director of the Lawyers' Committee.

Leaders of the NBA formally endorsed the Election Protection Program during their annual convention last week in Charlotte, North Carolina. NBA affiliate chapters have been directed to make the Election Protection Program a key priority this fall. Local chapters will be given grants to facilitate full participation in the program. “The disenfranchisement that occurred in minority communities in the 2000 election highlights the urgent need for legal assistance by NBA members,” said Arnwine.

The Election Protection Program is a nationwide initiative that was created in the wake of the 2000 election fiasco in order to prevent voter disenfranchisement from being repeated in future elections. Led by the Lawyers’ Committee, the National Coalition on Black Civic Participation, and People for the American Way Foundation, the coalition has worked over the past three years to ensure that voters in minority communities know their rights and have access to immediate legal advice and assistance on election day.

This year’s effort seeks to mobilize 6,000 legal volunteers in 30 target states with large African American, Latino, and Native American populations. Legal volunteers will staff a toll-free hotline (1-866-OUR-VOTE) from Washington, DC and other cities across the nation in order to guarantee that our democratic process does not exclude our most vulnerable communities.

Founded in 1878, the ABA is the national organization of the legal profession, with over 400,000 members. The NBA, founded in 1925, is the nation’s oldest and largest association of attorneys of color, representing a professional network of over 20,000.

The Lawyers' Committee is a forty year old nonpartisan, nonprofit civil rights legal organization, formed in 1963 at the request of President John F. Kennedy to provide legal services to address racial discrimination.

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