National
Campaign Protects Minority Rights
LDF and Lawyers’ Committee Radio Tour To Inform,
Activate Voters
(Washington, DC – September 22nd) – Dedicated
to protecting minority voters, the Lawyers’ Committee
for Civil Rights and the NAACP Legal Defense Fund (LDF) along
with other public interest organizations, have launched an
Election Protection campaign to safeguard minority voters
and to avert a repeat of the 2000 Presidential Election debacles
this November.
LDF
Director-Counsel and President Theodore M. Shaw and Lawyers’
Committee Executive Director Barbara R. Arnwine this week
kick-off a nationwide radio tour running until Election Day
to inform and activate African-American voters. The radio
tour will promote a national hotline (866-Our-VOTE) where
volunteer lawyers across the country will be available to
answer voters’ questions leading up to and during Election
Day.
In the 2000 elections, many voters were silenced due to flaws
in the electoral process, barriers at the polls and widespread
disfranchisement. African-American and other minority communities
were disproportionately affected. Despite the needs and passage
of the Help America Vote Act, state and local governments
have made few reforms over the past four years to remove potential
barriers. The Election Protection campaign aims to fill that
void.
Voters
can also visit www.ourvote.com to secure state-by-state information
on voter registration, balloting and the Voters’ Bill
of Rights.
LDF,
the nation’s premier civil rights law firm founded by
Thurgood Marshall in 1940, has been involved in virtually
every precedent-setting minority voting rights case and issue
that has come before the U.S. Supreme Court and Congress since
its inception.
The Lawyer’s Committee is a forty-year-old nonpartisan,
nonprofit civil rights organization, formed in 1963 at the
request of President John F. Kennedy to provide legal services
to address racial discrimination.
To
arrange interviews with attorneys for either organization,
contact Elizabeth Jenkins at 202-833-9771.
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