Do you know what you need in order to vote this year? How about your grandmother? Or your neighbor?
With a pivotal election less than two months away, we’re launching “Let Me Vote,” a nationwide voting rights campaign to make sure all Americans have the information they need in order to vote.
In a time when dozens of states are trying to make it harder to vote, we need to ensure that everyone—especially students, the elderly and communities of color—know their rights. We all need to fight back against voter restrictions, but in the meantime, we can beat these new barriers by getting ready to vote now.
A federal court today struck Texas’s discriminatory voter ID law, which would have prevented many eligible citizens from exercising their fundamental right to vote.
The ACLU had intervened in the case in order to represent individuals and organizations who would be negatively impacted, and protect the right to vote. Today’s decision by a three-judge Washington, D.C. panel comes at a time when the right to vote is under attack nationwide.
“By blocking this law, the court reaffirmed the right of all people in this country to participate in our democracy,” said Nancy Abudu, senior staff attorney with the ACLU Voting Rights Project, which intervened in the case along with the ACLU of Texas.
The ACLU and the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights filed suit today in federal district court in Florida challenging the state’s latest attack on voting rights: purging voters from voter registration rolls.
In May of this year, Secretary of State Ken Detzer distributed nearly 2,700 names for removal from the voter registration rolls, claiming that those voters on the list were not U.S. citizens. The list is fraught with inaccuracies and false positives. In Florida’s most populous county, Miami-Dade, where about 1,600 of the 2,700 ”ineligible” voters are registered, nearly 500 of the targeted voters have already proven to be lawfully registered U.S. citizens. That’s more than a 30 percent error rate.
Congress is back, so we’re looking at a busy schedule this week.
As we mentioned last week, this Wednesday the House Armed Services Committee will mark up this year’s National Defense Authorization Act. We’re keeping a close eye on NDAA amendments, which could affect several diverse civil liberties issues, including LGBT rights, indefinite detention, reproductive rights, and military sexual trauma.
On Monday, May 7, the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights and Human Rights will hold a field hearing in Cleveland, Ohio to examine the impact of Ohio’s new voting law, HB 194.
Did you hear the one about the Florida teacher who registered students to vote but was fined $1,000 when she didn’t turn the forms in right away?
Actually, it’s no joke. Then again, it might be, as Stephen Colbert was good enough to show us last week on The Colbert Report.
What are raising his hackles, according to the ACLU of Florida, are do-gooders like this teacher who have the temerity to lead by example. In a segment on the program, Colbert, with tongue planted firmly in cheek, found truthiness in attempts by Sunshine State officials to sunset various ways to make it easier to vote there.
