Fighting Voter Suppression

This profile was originally published in Defender.

For Annie Benifield, voting is in her blood. Her father was a first generation born out of slavery African American, who lived to be 90 years old and never missed an opportunity to vote once he was given the right. Her father passed in 2004, but his dedication has served as fuel to her fire to make voting a priority in her life.

Now, as the first woman of color to lead the League of Women Voters of Houston, Benifield works overtime to get as many people as possible to the polls.

Today, Protect Democracy filed a lawsuit on behalf of the League of Women Voters of Arizona in the U.S. District Court for the District of Arizona in response to organizations and individuals who have conspired to intimidate voters in the 2022 election through “Operation Drop Box.”

LWV Wisconsin intervened in a state court case on whether election clerks may correct certain errors or omissions on witness certifications for absentee ballots

Lawrenceville, GA – Today the League of Women Voters of Georgia along with other voting rights advocates, notified the Georgia Secretary of State and Gwinnett County that the county has been in violation of state and federal law by illegally sustaining pre-election challenges to the eligibility of registered voters. The League, the Georgia State Conference of the NAACP, Gwinnett County Branch of the NAACP, GALEO Latino Community Development Fund, Inc., Georgia Coalition for the People’s Agenda, Inc., and Common Cause sent the notice letter as a prerequisite to filing a lawsuit under the NVRA.

This commentary was originally published by CalMatters.

With our nation’s democracy facing existential threats, California’s duty to protect and empower every eligible voter in the state has never been more urgent.

This story was originally published in Votebeat.

Kansas, Missouri, Florida among states with laws that voter registration groups say put volunteers at risk

The second lawsuit against the omnibus voter restrictions of HB 1878 seeks to protect Missourians' right to equal protection and the fundamental right to vote.

MADISON — On August 17, 2022,  a settlement was finalized in federal court in Wisconsin to reinstate more than 31,000 registered voters who were purged from the voter rolls in 2021. The settlement also requires the state to set up a system for protecting registered voters from unlawful removal from the rolls.   

This article was originally published in Public News Service. 

The Volunteer State ranks poorly in the U.S. for its overall lack of voter participation. Over the last decade, critics say the poor turnout is partly a result of regular purges of the voter rolls, new registration requirements, and the state's restrictive voting laws that create unnecessary barriers. Ballots are already being cast for the upcoming August 4 primary - and Debby Gould, president of the League of Women Voters of Tennessee, said so far, the early voting turnout is low.

LWV of Kansas and partners appealed the Kansas Court of Appeals’ decision in League of Women Voters v. Schwab, which held that members of the Plaintiffs’ organizations do not have standing to challenge the unconstitutionality of this voter suppression law because they have not yet suffered an injury.