Voting Rights
Voting Rights
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.
Voting during COVID-19: Voters should not have to choose between public health and participating in democracy
Voting Rights Cases and Actions
Campaign Legal Center (CLC) is fighting to require states that use signature match policies to examine mail-in or absentee ballots also have “notice and cure” procedures so that voters’ ballots aren’t rejected due to perceived penmanship issues. Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, this issue has gained urgency as more voters choose to use mail-in ballots.
Campaign Legal Center Action (CLCA) sued Texas Gov. Greg Abbott over his last-minute order prohibiting counties from providing more than one location where voters can drop off their mail-in ballots in the lead up to Election Day 2020.
Members of the Pascua Yaqui Tribe in Arizona lack access to safe early voting options. Yaqui voters must now travel 2-3 hours roundtrip by public bus just to vote at the nearest early voting site. CLC is assisting the Tribe to secure a safe early voting site before this fall's election.
Myriad problems in Georgia's June primary are yet more examples of how election issues suppress the voices of Black voters in particular.
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 an on-the-ground campaign to help people with past convictions in all 50 states know their rights.
In November 2018, voters in Florida passed a constitutional amendment automatically restoring voting rights to people with felony convictions. In response, the state legislature passed a bill that conditions the right to vote on wealth — people with the financial means to pay fines and fees from a conviction have their rights restored, while those without means remain disenfranchised. CLC challenged the law in court as a class action that would apply to all affected Floridians, and in May 2020 a federal court declared the law unconstitutional.
Tennessean Dawn Harrington, of CLC client Free Hearts shares how changing the state's restrictive voting laws would help more people have their voices heard.