ACLU to Protect Voting Rights

ACLU is Site of Election Day Voting Rights "Command Center"

ACLU is part of St. Louis Voting Rights Coalition to Ensure Everyone's Right to Vote

St. Louis, Oct. 29, 2004:The office of the American Civil Liberties Union Of Eastern Missouri (ACLU-EM) will serve as the Legal Command Center from which the St. Louis Voting Rights Coalition will communicate with volunteer poll workers stationed at more than 70 polling places throughout St Louis. The Voting Rights Coalition of St. Louis is a nonpartisan, ad hoc group working to prevent the kinds of voting rights violations that occurred during the 2000 presidential election, and the Command Center is part of the Coalition's elaborate plan to ensure that all eligible voters are able to cast their ballots on November 2. The Command Center, which will be staffed by volunteer attorneys and other workers, will provide legal advice to poll monitors and dispatch attorneys to polls if needed. The Center will also have a Coalition attorney assigned at the Board of Elections for problems that cannot be solved at the polling site, and attorneys ready to go to court if problems cannot be resolved.

ACLU-EM Legal Director Denise Lieberman will serve as the Command Center coordinator and also played a major role in training the volunteers poll workers. She said, "Our goal is simple. It is to make sure that every eligible voter who wants to vote gets to cast a ballot." Lieberman represented the ACLU-EM in a March 2001 class action lawsuit brought by the ACLU, Urban League of Metropolitan St. Louis, and the Mound City Bar Association against the St Louis Election Board addressing the voting practices and procedures that impede full access to the vote. ACLU-EM Executive Director Brenda Jones said, "the ACLU is fully committed to this effort to keep people from being disenfranchised again as many were in the 2000 presidential elections."

More than 200 volunteer poll monitors - who can be identified by their bright, neon vests - have been recruited to stand outside polling places to provide assistance to anyone who might need it. They have been trained to assist voters in dealing with a wide range of potential problems.

The Legal Command Center will open before the polls open and remain open until the polls are closed.

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) defends civil liberties and the principles of equality and justice. The ACLU of Eastern Missouri, based in St. Louis, is an affiliate of the national organization.