On June 6, 2024, Queen’s Bench Bar Association partnered with Women Lawyers of Alameda County to host “Fight for Democracy: Protect the Election,” a 90-minute program about what actions lawyers and non-lawyers can do to protect voting rights and fair elections. The program was a hybrid live/virtual event held at ADR Services in Oakland, the first in a series of two-to-three installments. Its speakers were:
Marcia Johnson, a co-director of the Lawyers' Committee's Voting Rights Project. She oversees the Project’s programmatic and advocacy portfolios, which includes convening Election Protection, the nation's largest nonpartisan voter protection coalition and advocating for the restoration of the full protections of the Voting Rights Act and national electoral reform.
Helen Hutchison, a member of the League of Women Voters since 1969. She served on the Boards of the Claremont, Clackamas County and Oakland Leagues, was the president of the LWV Oakland from 2003 to 2007, and served on the LWV California board from 2008 to 2013, including as President of the LWV California from 2014 to 2019.
Dena Belinkoff, a member of the VoPro Pros Leadership Team. She was the Volunteer Voter Protection Director in 2022 and worked on the Josh Harder for Congress Re-election Campaign (CA-9).
Anna Chu, Executive Director of We The Action. A long-time advocate and champion of civil rights, she channels her prior experience leading civil rights coalitions, fighting for gender justice, and advocating for economic security to mobilize the broader legal community to support social progress.
Marcia Johnson led off by discussing the current dangers facing this election. While the 2020 election created opportunities for voters through increased vote by mail and early voting—resulting in the most secure election in history—there has since been a legislative backlash. Federal and state legislation has sought to place limitations on access to the ballot; end private funding of elections (“Zuckerbucks”); and enact criminalization provisions. The United States Supreme Court has issued rulings that have harmed voting rights, including in the recent racial gerrymandering case, Alexander v. S.C. NAACP. At the same time, there has been competing Congressional legislation to expand voting rights and opportunities, such as the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act, the Freedom to Vote Act, American Confidence in Elections Act, and Safeguard American Votes and Elections Act.
Helen Hutchison, Dena Belinkoff, and Anna Chu then offered ways lawyers and non-lawyers could assist with voter protection. This includes working through their organizations to:
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Activate inactive voters
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Help thousands of formerly incarcerated citizens reclaim and secure their voting rights
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Identify and address election administration problems
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Combat voter purges
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Educate voters about their rights, and
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Protect the vote at polling places and call centers across the country.
Lawyers and non-lawyers interested in election protection have the option of working on those projects in person or virtually.
League of Women Voters is a nonpartisan, grassroots organization working to protect and expand voting rights through advocacy, education, and litigation.
VoPro Pros is an all-volunteer organization formed during the 2020 general election and 2021 Senate runoff election in Georgia, which performs numerous election-driven activities around the country, from contacting voters to cure their ballots to working with voters to register or correct registration issues.
We The Action is a source for lawyers to volunteer their time for election protection projects. To date, We The Action has had 4,585 lawyer volunteers, 264 projects, and $12,332,000 donated in volunteer services. They are recruiting lawyers to collectively donate 150,000 hours of legal services to protect democracy through their Voter Vanguard campaign. Activities include voter registration and poll watching, as well as assisting organizations with becoming 501(c)(3)s.
If you would like to be part of their efforts to protect voting this upcoming election, please visit their websites to volunteer or donate:
The second part of the “Fight for Democracy” series will take place on September 26, 2024.
