MIDWEST VOTING RIGHTS PROGRAM
The right to vote is fundamental to a healthy democracy.
We are continuing our decades-long effort to help ensure compliance with election law and fair access to the vote.
The Midwest Voting Rights Program of Chicago Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights includes the following focus areas:
Providing election day resources via the Election Protection program.
Partnering with incarcerated and returning community members to expand voting rights.
Ensuring racial equity in redistricting (drawing voting precinct boundaries).
Engaging in litigation in defense of civil rights or compliance with election law.
Advocating for racially equitable election laws in Illinois and Indiana.
We work to eliminate barriers to voting and civic participation, especially in communities of color and low-income communities.
Election Protection
A nonpartisan voting rights program that trains legal professionals to serve as poll watchers and answer the 866-OUR-VOTE hotline.
In 2001, the national Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law launched the Election Protection program, which leverages the legal community’s knowledge of election law to combat disenfranchisement.
Election Protection is now the nation’s largest non-partisan voter protection coalition, deploying thousands of volunteer attorneys during every general election to oversee the balloting process and ensure voting laws in each state are upheld.
Registered voters can be denied the right to vote by a range of issues, including:
faulty equipment
poorly designed ballots
late polling place openings
incorrect information from poll workers
voter intimidation
Election Protection:
Provides comprehensive voter information and educates the public on their right to vote.
Offers nonpartisan hotlines to answer voter questions and report problems.
Sends monitors to polling locations to oversee procedures and answer on-site questions.
Collects voter data and experiences, which are used to drive election law reform through community education, legislation, and litigation.
Chicago Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights is grateful to the national Lawyers’ Committee and Kirkland & Ellis LLP for their critical support and partnership on Election Protection.
Program facilitator:
Cliff Helm
chelm@clccrul.org
Follow the link for ELECTION PROTECTION volunteer training &
voter resources
Information on how to participate in call center or field observation duties on election day.
Links to local and state election boards for voter registration and polling locations.
Advocacy for Voting Rights and Fair Elections
Supporting election law enforcement and racially equitable election laws in Illinois and Indiana.
Chicago Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights is ever vigilant against election law violations or attempts to diminish voter access.
We listen to voters and community leaders and help to pass laws that increase access to the polls or stop harmful laws that do the opposite.
MIDWEST VOTING RIGHTS PROGRAM - Case Highlights
Challenged an Indiana county’s inappropriate requirement for extra voter identification beyond what is required by state law.
2022
Provided legal representation to Indiana partners, Common Cause Indiana and League of Women Voters of Greater Lafayette, in drafting and filing an administrative complaint with the Indiana Election Commission. The complaint was successful in challenging a local county’s imposition of an additional ID requirement beyond what is required by law - ID that many young voters lack, including young voters of color. The Commission concluded that county election officials violated state and federal law and ordered officials to retrain staff and improve their processes.
Filed a federal lawsuit claiming the redistricting plan for East St. Louis, Illinois, is racially biased.
2021
Filed a federal court lawsuit on behalf of United Congress of Community and Religious Organizations (UCCRO) and the Illinois State Conference of the NAACP challenging the state’s 2021 legislative redistricting plan. The Complaint alleged that the district drawn around the predominantly Black communities of the East St. Louis Metro East area had been racially gerrymandered to dilute Black voting power.
Helped establish Automatic Voter Registration in Illinois, which increases the rate of voter turn out.
2017
Played a critical role as a member of the Just Democracy Illinois Steering Committee in the passage of SB 1933, which created Automatic Voter Registration (AVR) in Illinois with bipartisan support. Governor Rauner signed the bill into law in August 2017 making Illinois the tenth state in the county and the first in the Midwest to implement AVR. This policy increases voter roll accuracy as registration information is constantly updated; in addition, it eliminates mistakes due to processing paper registration forms by hand.
