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Lawyers'
Committee for Civil
Rights Under Law
1401 New York Avenue, NW
Suite 400
Washington, DC 20005
For
Immediate Release
Contacts:
Stacey
Gates
202-467-4999
John
C. White
(410) 580-5127
Kim Alton
(202)
662-8317
October
23,
2006
Election
Protection Launches National Voter Assistance Hotline
Service Offers Live Aid to Voters, Database to
Track Problems and Trends, Poll Monitors and Legal Volunteers
to be Mobilized in 16 Key States
As the November elections approach, the nonpartisan
Election Protection coalition is launching its national
1-866-OUR VOTE voter assistance hotline and the poll
location web site www.MyPollingPlace.com.
1-866-OUR-VOTE is the only national voter assistance
hotline staffed by live call center operators trained
to provide state specific assistance to all voters.
Lawyers, poll monitors and additional volunteers will
be mobilized in 16 key states across the nation to assist
voters in the days leading up to the election and on
Election Day. Led by People For the American Way Foundation,
the NAACP, and the Lawyers' Committee For Civil Rights
Under Law, Election Protection (EP) has operated in
every election cycle since 2001, and is the nation's
most far-reaching nonpartisan effort to provide voter
assistance and protect voter rights. The services will
include bilingual assistance for areas with a heavy
concentration of Spanish-speaking voters.
Trained volunteers will staff the Hotline providing
immediate, state specific, assistance to callers. Call
center operators will inform voters and solve problems
on issues such as voter identification requirements,
voting machine malfunctions, problems at the polling
place, and voter intimidation. National call centers
will be located in Washington, New York, Baltimore,
and San Francisco. Local call centers will be hosted
in Florida, Georgia, Louisiana and Minnesota.
While the toll-free hotline will be available to voters
nationwide, EP's ground operations will be concentrated
in precincts most at risk for disenfranchisement, including
low-income communities, African American and Latino
communities, and areas with a history of voting irregularities.
The coalition will operate in Arizona, Florida, New
Jersey, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Louisiana, Texas,
Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, North Carolina, Michigan,
Massachusetts, South Carolina and Minnesota:
• Conducting GOTV, encouraging early voting
and use of absentee ballots
• Organizing Local Legal Coordinating
Committees to holistically address voters' needs,
coordinate comprehensive legal field programs, work
with local election officials, and develop legal responses
to problems on and before Election Day
• Systematically working with elections
officials in targeted areas to clarify voter ID rules,
increase poll worker training, and oppose onerous
restrictions on voter registration procedures
• Publishing Voters' Bills of Rights for
all 50 states
• Producing and distributing educational
materials for voters on new ID requirements
• Organizing volunteers to serve as Election
Day poll monitors in targeted precincts
By working with local elections officials, and if necessary
as a last resort, taking immediate legal action, EP
volunteers attempt to remove obstacles to voting that
arise before the election or on Election Day, including
confusion over polling places, voting sites that do
not open as scheduled, and snafus with new electronic
voting systems. Most recently, the coalition helped
keep the polls open late for frustrated voters in Maryland's
September primary, where human error and poor election
administration caused failure and widespread malfunctions
in populous Montgomery County and Baltimore City.
EP's database, the Election Incident Reporting System,
records such problems, allowing the lawyers to track
them in real time and take appropriate action. The database
has been used to support the coalition's efforts in
lawsuits across the country to advocate for voter rights.
The information also supports advocacy organizations
working to improve voting laws at the local, state and
national level, and provided information for a report
on disenfranchisement in the 2004 elections called “Shattering
the Myth,” available here.
“The November election may well be a crucial turning
point for the nation. It's imperative that voters have
faith in our electoral system, that they go to the polls
in great numbers, and that their votes will be counted.
That's the Election Protection goal: helping every voter
cast a vote that will count,” said Ralph G. Neas,
President of People For the American Way Foundation.
“This election poses significant challenges for
voters more than any time in recent history, with an
estimated 30 million voters using new machines for the
first time. The 1-866-OUR-VOTE hotline serves as a lifeline
to voters and is available now to help navigate new
requirements as well as answer questions about voter
eligibility or the location of your polling place,”
said Barbara R. Arnwine, Executive Director of the Lawyers'
Committee.
“NAACP units across the nation will be strategically
positioned on Election Day to ensure that every registered
voter has an opportunity to exercise their right to
vote and that their vote is counted. The information
that we receive and process through the Election Protection
hotline will allow us to rapidly deploy our voter empowerment
ground forces to areas of specific concern to protect
voters' rights,” said Bruce Gordon,” president
of the NAACP.
Throughout the year, Election Protection Coalition partners
push for reforms in election administration. EP staff
and legal team members work with election officials,
file lawsuits to challenge election laws and procedures
that would lead to disenfranchisement, provide direct
assistance to voters, and document election problems
and abuses. For more information about EP, visit www.EP365.org
or www.866OurVote.org.
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