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Voting Rights
Democracy works best when all citizens can vote without barriers.
Voting Rights
Democracy works best when all citizens can vote without barriers.
Voting should be accessible for all citizens, no matter where they live, the color of their skin or how much money they make.
To make every vote count, we need a system that is free and fair to ensure that everyone’s voice is heard, including those who have served their time and paid their debt to society.
CLC believes that state and federal policies should uniformly protect the right to vote and promote voter participation across the United States. Through litigation, policy analysis, state-based advocacy and public education, CLC seeks to protect the right to vote and expand access to the ballot.
The Latest on Voting Rights
Every Eligible Voter Should Have Access to the Ballot
Restore Your Vote: CLC Helps Up to 17 Million People With Past Convictions Know their Rights
Most states restore the right to vote to people after they complete their sentences. In fact, up to 17 million Americans with past convictions can vote right now - they just don't know it because felony disenfranchisement laws in every state can be confusing. CLC launched a website, RestoreYourVote.org and on-the-ground campaign to help people with past convictions in all 50 states know their rights.
CLC Protects Texas Voters
CLC has been fighting against Texas’s discriminatory photo voter ID law since 2011. CLC represents Texas Congressman Marc Veasey and a group for Texas voters who challenged the law as unconstitutional and discriminatory. Years of litigation have ensured that voters in Texas can never be turned away from the polls simply for lacking a certain type of photo ID.
CLC Launches the Voting Rights Institute
CLC joined with American Constitution Society and Georgetown University Law Center to create the Voting Rights Institute in 2014. The VRI works to prepare the next generation of attorneys, experts and activists to preserve our democracy and protect the ability of all Americans to vote
CLC Wins a Victory for Voters in Arizona
CLC challenged the state's extremely complicated registration process in federal court and reached a settlement agreement that eases Arizona's registration process, so that tens of thousands of voter registrations in Arizona would not be rejected because of unnecessary bureaucracy.
Voting Rights Cases and Actions
Texas unlawfully demanded tens of thousands of individuals provide additional proof of citizenship within 30 days or have their voter registration cancelled. CLC serves as counsel in a case challenging this discriminatory voter purge program.
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CLC challenged Arizona’s system of rejecting mail-in ballots because election officials were not “satisfied” that the signature on the ballot matches voter registration signatures. The state was ordered to give voters a chance to fix it.
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In Ohio, eligible voters who are arrested in the days leading up to the Election are being unconstitutionally denied their fundamental right to vote because the state excludes them from its emergency absentee ballot procedure. Ohio’s disenfranchisement of these qualified electors violates the First Amendment and the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution.
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Help CLC Protect Voting Rights Nationwide