Home : Voting Rights

Letter to Attorny General Mukasey on 2008 Election Protection (10/17/2008)
On behalf of the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights (LCCR), we, the undersigned groups, are writing to highlight urgent priorities for the upcoming November 2008 general election. We appreciate your statement at the September 8, 2008 meeting with voting rights groups held at the Department of Justice committing to make election protection your highest priority. We urge the Department of Justice to follow through publicly, in a widely distributed public letter and/or statement, on those assurances regarding actions the Department will take in advance of the upcoming election. We believe such a letter and/or statement by DOJ will help ensure that rights of all voters, including minority voters, to participate in the election free of intimidation or harassment will be protected.

ACLU Applauds Joint House Hearing on DOJ Role in 2008 Election (09/23/2008)
On behalf of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), and its hundreds of thousands of members, activists and fifty-four affiliates nationwide, we applaud the Judiciary and House Administration Committees for holding this oversight hearing of the Department of Justice (DOJ), Civil Rights Division’s preparation for the 2008 general election. We welcome this opportunity to submit these comments regarding the appropriate role of DOJ in the upcoming November 2008 elections.

ACLU Applauds Senate Judiciary Committee Hearing on DOJ Role in 2008 Elections (09/09/2008)
On behalf of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), and its hundreds of thousands of members, activists and fifty-three affiliates nationwide, we applaud the Judiciary Committee for holding this oversight hearing of the Department of Justice (DOJ), Civil Rights Division’s preparation for the 2008 general election. We welcome this opportunity to submit these comments regarding the appropriate role of DOJ in the upcoming November 2008 elections.

ACLU Letter to Committee on House Administration Leadership on the Universal Right to Vote by Mail Act of 2007 (04/01/2008)

ACLU Testimony for Senate Rules and Administration Committee on Disfranchisement Resulting From Myths About In-Person Voter Fraud (03/11/2008)
On behalf of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), and its hundreds of thousands of members, activists, and fifty-three affiliates nationwide, we commend the Committee for examining how the myth of in-person voter fraud is being used to disfranchise American citizens. We wish to submit this letter as written testimony for the Committee hearing record on March 12, 2008.

ACLU Letter Applauding H.R. 281, The Universal Right to Vote by Mail Act of 2007 (02/28/2008)
On behalf of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), over half a million members and activists, and fifty-three affiliates nationwide, we are writing to express our support for your bill, H.R. 281, the “Universal Right to Vote by Mail Act of 2007.” H.R. 281 would ensure that all Americans have an equal opportunity to vote by mail in federal elections for any reason. This bill would give all voters the choice of voting by mail by eliminating the unnecessary, burdensome, and often intrusive requirements that some states impose on voters requesting absentee ballots.

ACLU Testimony for Voter Suppression and Intimidation Hearing (02/26/2008)
Mr. Chairman and members of the subcommittee, I want to thank you for providing me an opportunity to submit this statement on denial and suppression of the American Indian vote. The examples discussed below are taken mainly from litigation brought by the ACLU Voting Rights Project in Indian Country. Techniques for vote denial and suppression have included the maintenance and manipulation of discriminatory election procedures, the refusal to provide access to registration and voting, the adoption of discriminatory ID requirements for voting, and unwarranted allegations of voter fraud.

ACLU Presses House Committee to Tackle Nationwide Voter Suppression (02/26/2008)
Washington, DC – Voting rights experts testified today before the House Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights and Civil Liberties in a hearing to examine voter suppression in America. The Department of Justice Civil Rights Division, which is tasked with enforcing civil rights and voting rights law, has come under fire since the start of the Bush administration for politicization, resulting in departures of longtime career staff and abuse of its enforcement authority to block access to the polls. Laughlin McDonald, director of the American Civil Liberties Union Voting Rights Project, submitted written testimony illuminating disenfranchisement among American Indian voters.

Testimony before House Oversight Committee by Laughlin McDonald, Director of ACLU Voting Rights Project (10/30/2007)

Letter urging rigorous confirmation hearing for Hans von Spakovsky's FEC nomination (06/13/2007)