

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
CLC is advocating to fortify the role of Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act in combatting laws and policies that result in racially discriminatory impacts on voters of color.
Congress should pass and President-elect Joe Biden should sign into law the comprehensive set of democracy reforms outlined in H.R. 1 to advance voting rights, strengthen ethics laws, end partisan gerrymandering and decrease the influence of wealthy special interests in our political system.
CLC represents the Tennessee NAACP and individuals who are U.S. citizens with past felony convictions, seeking the right to vote.

CLC and partner voting rights advocacy groups urged Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to institute a series of key reforms to make voting in the January 2021 runoff elections safer during the pandemic.

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.