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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.
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