Press Release - The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights
Civil and Human Rights Coalition Supports House Members’ Call for Scrutiny of Voter Disenfranchisement Laws
For Immediate Release
Contact: Shin Inouye, 202.869.0398, inouye@archives.civilrights.org
July 13, 2011
Wade Henderson, president and CEO of The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, issued the following statement in support of House Members’ call for greater scrutiny of state voter disenfranchisement laws. Legislators, led by Ohio Congresswoman Marcia Fudge, held a press conference today to discuss their outreach to Attorney General Holder on the matter and their special order on the issue tonight:
“The concerns that Congresswoman Fudge and her colleagues are raising about the spread of state voter ID laws and other measures aimed at disenfranchising voters are critical to the civil and human rights community, and to our democracy. Voting is our most fundamental right as citizens; it’s the right that makes all other rights possible.
Yet instead of making voting more accessible, a number of states are enacting or considering measures that would deny voting rights to the 11 percent of voters who do not have government-issued identification— and an even higher percentage of seniors, people of color, people with disabilities, people with low incomes, and students. States are also limiting early voting and enacting other barriers to make it more difficult to participate in elections, thereby curtailing the voting rights of some citizens.
These measures deserve serious scrutiny. The Justice Department must vigorously enforce our voting rights laws so that every eligible voter is permitted to cast a vote and to have that vote counted. Our nation has come too far and has too much at stake to allow new forms of discrimination to suppress this fundamental right.”
Wade Henderson is the president and CEO of The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, a coalition charged by its diverse membership of more than 200 national organizations to promote and protect the rights of all persons in the United States. The Leadership Conference works toward an America as good as its ideals. For more information on The Leadership Conference and its 200-plus member organizations, visit archives.civilrights.org.
