Voting Project

[Rene Seiler]

Establishedin 1965, VRP has worked to protect the gains in political participation won by voters of color since passage of the 1965 Voting Rights Act (VRA). Since its inception, the Voting Rights Project has litigated hundreds of voting rights cases, and has aggressively and successfully challenged efforts to suppress voting or to dilute minority voting strength.

Project V.O.T.E. (Voters of Tomorrow through Education) is a program designed to help students become knowledgeable, responsible voters. This non-partisan program provides information on how to register to vote, student workers on Election Day, and the VoteTexas.gov website. Would you like to know more about the voting process?

Using Section 2 of the 1965 Voting Rights Act, the National Voter Registration Act of 1993 and the 14th and 15th Amendments to the US Constitution, we litigate cases on behalf of voters who are traditionally disenfranchised or face the fiercest voter suppression tactics.

At the time, at least ten South Carolina counties were employing procedures for rejecting absentee ballot applications based on an allegedly mismatched signature. Moreover, South Carolina election law requires officials to reject any absentee ballot that is missing a signature. Election officials do not notify voters in the event a ballot has been marked for rejection.

H.R.1, the For the People Act, has been introduced in the 117th Congress. The legislation is transformative and will restore the voting rights of millions of Americans. The For the People Act would ensure that every American has an equal opportunity to vote without the overly burdensome requirements currently used to restrict voting.

The Virginia State Senate and House of Delegates has passed the Voting Rights Act of Virginia, a key step in ensuring all voters in the commonwealth have equal access to voting. The bill will provide citizens with notice of and the ability to bring a private right of action to challenge potentially discriminatory actions in addition to allowing preclearance review of voting changes by the attorney general of Virginia. Virginia has already enacted important legislation to repeal discriminatory voter ID requirements, expand early voting and implement automatic voter registration.

The Maryland State Legislature is considering the Value My Vote Act, which would give incarcerated persons the right to vote. Oftentimes, individuals in jail are automatically disenfranchised by state and local officials because they are prevented from accessing voter registration or absentee ballot materials, or they are provided misinformation about their eligibility to vote while in jail. The Value My Vote Act would make certain that all incarcerated Marylanders would have access to the necessary resources to cast their ballot, no matter where they are in the criminal justice system.

We convene the national, non-partisan Election Protection hotline, which is made up of over 300 national, state and local partners. Election Protection provides any American with comprehensive assistance at all stages of voting. If you experience barriers to the ballot box, or have any questions about voting, Election Protection is available and ready to help.

For the 2020 election, the 866-OUR-VOTE hotline received calls from 246,000 voters, organized 43,000 lawyers to staff the hotline, held public education events to reach unregistered voters, and more. Our advocacy and initiatives made the difference in ensuring an unprecedented number of voters could cast their ballot and have their vote count.

The UCLA Voting Rights Project is the flagship project of the UCLA Latino Policy & Politics Institute aimed at creating an accessible and equitable system of voting for all Americans through impact litigation, research, and clinical education to expand access to the ballot box.

The UCLA Voting Rights Project was founded in August 2018 by civil rights attorney Chad W. Dunn, J.D. and voting rights social science expert Matt Barreto, Ph.D. to address three significant and overlooked gaps in the voting rights field: training newly graduated, young lawyers and expert witnesses; developing new legal and social science theories for voting rights cases; and advancing voting rights through national and local public policy.

UCLA Voting Rights Project (VRP) is focused on protecting the fundamental right to vote for Americans, especially those in communities that have been historically disinvested in and routinely disenfranchised.

Join voting rights practitioners, expert witnesses, and legal scholars from around the country for sessions to workshop the substantial and procedural pathways to protecting the right to vote during the 21st century.

The UCLA Voting Rights Project seeks current law students committed to social justice for its 2023 Summer Legal Fellowship, a remote 10-week fellowship with select in-person professional development opportunities and special events.

Through field research and coalition building, the RR/CC has pioneered a voter-centered approach to voting system design and development. Voting.REIMAGINED.An innovative voter-centered approach to voting for Los Angeles CountyThe Voting Solutions for All People (VSAP) was developed by the Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk (RR/CC) in 2009 to address an aging voting system and an increasingly large and complex electorate. The project seeks a collaborative approach to voting system design that will put voters at the center and maximize stakeholder participation.

The Vote Center Placement Project successfully hosted 67 community meetings which focused on community input and awareness. More than 2,200 individuals attended a meeting across the County. The Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk will continue to provide outreach and community presentations throughout the remainder of the year and into 2020.

We invite you to attend one of 34 community meetings to learn how your voting experience in L.A. County will be improved! Each community meeting will include a presentation, take-home materials and provide attendees the opportunity to ask questions.

The County is seeking public input to identify vote center locations. Many factors must be considered in identifying locations, including geographic and demographic constraints that could present barriers to voting in particular locations or near sensitive populations. To ensure these considerations are accounted for, the following parameters have been established:

To properly locate accessible and convenient vote centers, the County is conducting a comprehensive analysis of population density, demographics and voter behavior to understand when and where voters are most likely to vote with this new model. This analysis will consider income, ethnicity and languages; seek to understand traffic patterns, street connectivity and barriers to movement. Drawing upon existing research and ongoing community outreach, the County will analyze voter preferences, such as preference to voting near home vs. work, or on weekends vs. weekdays.

The County is identifying and assessing thousands of potential vote center sites to ensure that vote centers and Vote by Mail drop box locations are distributed across the County in a manner that provides greater access and convenience to all voters. The County seeks to make voting a convenient experience and increase voter engagement by placing vote centers where people regularly gather, such as: transit hubs, employment centers, community arts and cultural centers, and shopping and entertainment attractions. With this goal in mind, some of the factors that need to be considered include:

Participatory Budgeting (PB) is a democratic process in which community members directly decide how to spend part of a public budget. The process began in Porto Alegre, Brazil in 1989. Today, there are more than 3,000 participatory budgeting processes around the world, most at the municipal level.

Participatory Budgeting in New York City (PBNYC) plays an important role in giving communities the ability to directly impact the capital budgeting process. It motivates New Yorkers to engage the civic process and make decisions by sharing ideas, developing proposals, and voting on community projects.

This year, 24 Council Members across New York City are asking residents how to spend at least $24 million in capital funding, specifically for local improvements to schools, parks, libraries and other public spaces. PBNYC funds physical infrastructure projects in public spaces, cost at least $50,000 and have a lifespan of at least 5 years.

Ending mass incarceration requires taking a second look at extreme sentences. Learn more about our coalition of legal professionals providing direct representation to incarcerated individuals seeking relief from lengthy or unfair sentences.

Laws in 48 states ban people with felony convictions from voting. In 2022, an estimated 4.4 million Americans, representing 2 percent of the voting-age population, will be ineligible to vote due to these laws or policies, many of which date back to the post-Reconstruction era. In this election year, as the United States confronts questions about the stability of its democracy and the fairness of its elections, particularly within marginalized communities, the impact of voting bans on people with felony convictions should be front and center in the debate.

This 2022 report updates and expands upon 20 years of work chronicling the scope and distribution of felony disenfranchisement in the United States (see Uggen, Larson, Shannon, and Pulido-Nava 2020; Uggen, Larson, and Shannon 2016; Uggen, Shannon, and Manza 2012; Manza and Uggen 2006; Uggen and Manza 2002). As in 2020, we present national and state estimates of the number and percentage of people disenfranchised due to felony convictions, as well as the number and percentage of the Black and Latinx populations impacted. Although these and other estimates must be interpreted with caution, the numbers presented here represent our best assessment of the state of felony disenfranchisement as of the November 2022 election.

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