Election Protection Hotline

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>From Our Friends at the National Disability Rights Network

The Election Protection Coalition is once again hosting the
1-866-OUR-VOTE hotline, where voters can call to report problems
and receive advice on what to do. The Election Protection Coalition
is a nonpartisan alliance of civil rights and civic organizations
committed to protecting the rights of all voters to cast their
ballot. The hotline (1-866-OURVOTE/687-8683) is an immediate, on-
the-spot resource staffed by lawyers, law students and other
volunteers trained to resolve voting problems.

For those of you who are not familiar with the Election Protection
Coalition, below is a more detailed description about the Election
Protection effort. Election Protection will only have lawyers and
volunteers on the ground available to go to (some) polling places
in 20 states (Alabama, Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana,
Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi,
Missouri, New Jersey, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, South
Carolina, and Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, and Wisconsin). However,
Election Protection is also happy to walk voters in other states
through their problems on the phone. Attached in both Word and PDF
is a flier for the disability community about the Election
Protection hotline. The logo and other picture in both versions
have been given alt-tags, so they are readable with screen
readers.

We encourage voters with disabilities that encounter voting issues
to contact the hotline so that we as a community can continue to
catalog and pinpoint the issues that voters with disabilities are
facing. The National Disability Rights Network (NDRN) will have
primary responsibility for providing back-up to the Election
Protection hotline on accessibility issues for voters with
disabilities. However, you should know that NDRN will not field
each and every such call, and therefore most calls may, at least
initially, be addressed by volunteers with less experience on
disability voting rights issues; however, these volunteers should
have most of the basic accessibility information in their state
manuals.

This will be just the second election in which Election Protection
will have staff devoted specifically to handling calls from voters
with disabilities. Therefore, it will be critical that voters with
disabilities provide feedback to us so that we can work with our
coalition partners to improve this service for future elections.

Thanks and please visit our website for Election Day resources for
voters with disabilities:
http://www.ndrn.org/issues/voting/day/default.htm

Christina Galindo-Walsh, Senior Staff Attorney
Nat'l Disability Rights Network (NDRN)
900 Second Street N.E., Suite 211
Washington, DC 20002
Voice: 202-408-9514, Ext. 110
TTY: 202-408-9521
http://www.ndrn.org
_________________________________________________________________

Election Protection

Election Protection, the nations largest non-partisan voter
protection coalition, is led by the Lawyers Committee for Civil
Rights Under Laws National Campaign for Fair Elections, the
NAACP, the National Bar Association, and People For the American
Way Foundation. Election Protection guides voters through the
voting process, helping to ensure that all eligible voters have
the opportunity to cast a meaningful ballot and have their vote
counted.

While Election Protection is a resource for all Americans, the
program centers on traditionally disenfranchised communities
including: African Americans, Latinos, and other racial, ethnic,
and language minorities; seniors; young people; low-income voters;
and individuals with disabilities.

What is Election Protection?

In 2000, millions of Americans, primarily those in minority
communities, were denied their right to vote through a combination
of illegal threats and intimidation, ineffective voter education,
inadequately trained poll workers, and voting machines that did
not work. To respond to these challenges, the Election Protection
coalition was formed to ensure that all voters have the
opportunity to participate in the political process.

During the 2004 election cycle, Election Protection mobilized
25,000 trained volunteers, including 8,000 legal volunteers, who
were recruited to monitor polling places, educate voters,
facilitate a dialogue with local and state election officials,
provide legal support to poll monitors, and answer the voter
protection hotline, which received over 200,000 calls from voters
in all 50 states. The news media reported few problems with the
2004 elections; however, the stories we heard were of an inability
to participate and well-resourced, deliberate efforts to
disenfranchise eligible voters. Over 3 million voters cast
provisional ballots in 2004, but only 1.6 million of those ballots
were counted and as many as 52% of new registration applications
from voters who registered through third-party registration groups
were rejected. Our 2004 experience demonstrated the need for an
Election Protection program that starts earlier to support voter
registration efforts as well as ongoing election reform work.

Collecting Invaluable Data

Election Protections unparalleled data collection also provides
invaluable support for potential litigation and prospective reform
efforts, demonstrates the impact of provisions that disenfranchise
voters (such as voter identification proposals), engages
activists, and creates sustainable coalitions to work on election
reform. It provides real stories of real people stories that are
invaluable for our litigation and advocacy programs. The Election
Incident Reporting System (EIRS) allows us to monitor, track,
record and respond to problems across the country in real time.
EIRS is the first database of its kind and includes the most
comprehensive reporting of election irregularities in the country.
Calls to the national hotline and reports from the field are
entered in to one database for follow-up by our legal volunteers.
The data is also available on a public website for other
organizations and individuals to view
https://epc.voteprotect.org/index.php?display=EIRMapNation&tab=ALL
EIRS data from 2004 formed the basis for our special report,
Shattering the Myth: An Initial Snapshot of Voter
Disenfranchisement in the 2004 Elections,
(http://lccr.3cdn.net/77c10ed5a1a9fbeb13_v2m6i6r4d.pdf)
co-authored with the NAACP and People For the American Way
Foundation. Our 2004 data also enabled us to locate plaintiffs for
our historic lawsuit, League of Women Voters of Ohio v. Blackwell.
Recently, EIRS data from the Orleans Parish primary election on
April 22, 2006 was used to help improve election administration
for the general election on May 20, 2006. We are currently
tracking data for ongoing work in Arizona and Missouri.

Helping Voters

Election Protection protects voters rights before, during and
after Election Day, giving voters the information and resources
they need to cast a meaningful ballot. From support for
registration programs to creating voter education materials to
providing direct assistance through the national hotline, Election
Protection is a support system for eligible voters who otherwise
would be unable to cast their vote

Successful Election Protection programs are critical to a
meaningful election reform. The National Campaign for Fair
Elections uses Election Protection data to help address the
challenges confronting our electoral system through a
comprehensive strategy of litigation, legislative advocacy,
communications, and citizen education.

Election Protection 2006

Our program this year will focus more intensely on fewer locations
to provide more effective, efficient assistance to voters
throughout the voting process, from registration through Election
Day. Learn more about how you can participate in your community.
http://www.nationalcampaignforfairelections.org/pages/
election_protection_in_targeted_communities

We have already begun Election Protection work in key states.
Through our work in Louisiana, the Election Protection coalition
created the first success story of Election Protection 2006.
Together with the Louisiana Voting Rights Network, a large and
dynamic coalition of national and local civil rights and community
organizations, the Lawyers Committee assisted displaced voters
throughout the country and those who voted in person in Orleans
Parish in the April 22 primary and May 20 general election. Learn
more about our Orleans Parish Election Protection program.
Election Protection has been actively monitoring developments in
Arizona, Missouri, Pennsylvania, Ohio and other states throughout
the primary season.
http://www.nationalcampaignforfairelections.org/pages/
orleans_parish_election_protection

As with past programs, a broad national coalition, as well as
state and local coalitions, will lead efforts in targeted
locations around the country. The American Bar Association and
dozens of other organizations are Election Protection co-sponsors.

The Lawyers Committee is the lead legal organization for Election
Protection. Working with our Board members and pro bono network,
the Lawyers Committee is recruiting diverse networks of volunteer
attorneys to respond to problems throughout the election process.
We are also coordinating meetings with election officials, to help
ensure a smoother system for voters. Updated Voters Bills of
Rights and legal manuals are being created for all 50 states. The
866-OUR-VOTE hotline will again be available to assist voters
across the country throughout the registration process and early
voting as well as on Election Day. Our legal field program will
include legal command centers, mobile field attorneys, and poll
monitoring. In order for the Election Protection Program to
provide a holistic response to voting problems, we must also
combine our legal efforts with an extensive field component.

_________________________________________________________________

For more voting news issues, see:
http://www.aapd.com/dvpmain/votenews/indexvotenews.php