Symposium 2012

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The Voting Rights Act of 1965: Where Do We Go From Here?

Friday, April 13, 2012 | 9:15 am – 5:00 pm
The State House Annex,
Trenton, New Jersey

Topics include:

Protecting the Right to Vote: The Voting Rights Act a Half Century Later,
Where are We and What Challenges Remain

Protecting Access to the Polls While Protecting Against Voter Fraud:
Is Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act Working?

Protecting Minority Representation Through Redistricting under Section 2

Remembering The People and Practices Leading
to the Passage of the Voting Rights Act

The Voting Rights Act Half a Century Later: Where Do We Go From Here?

Speakers Include:

Mark C. Alexander – Professor of Law, Seton Hall University School of Law. Professor Alexander served as a Senior Advisor to President Barack Obama during the 2008 campaign.

Mark Braden – Of Counsel, Baker Hostetler. Served for ten years as Chief Counsel to the Republican National Committee and has been special counsel to the House Administration Committee.

Ronald K. Chen – Vice Dean, Rutgers School of Law–Newark. Served as Counsel to the Chairman of the 2011 New Jersey Redistricting Commission and as New Jersey Public Advocate.

Kareem Crayton – Associate Professor of Law at University of North Carolina School of Law. Teaches Election Law, Law and Social Science, and Legislative Process.

John J. Farmer, Jr. – Dean, Rutgers School of Law–Newark. Served as Chairman of the 2011 New Jersey Redistricting Commission and as Counsel to the Independent Member of the 2011 New Jersey Reapportionment Commission.

Angelo Genova – Partner, Genova, Burns & Giantomasi, Has successfully litigated many high-profile and precedent-setting cases, having served as counsel to the campaigns of numerous gubernatorial, and federal, state, and local office holders and candidates.

David Goodman – President of The Andrew Goodman Foundation for Social Justice, Human Dignity and Civil Rights.

Ryan Haygood – Director of the Political Participation Group at NAACP Legal Defense Fund. Was a member of the litigation team that successfully defended a constitutional challenge of the Voting Rights Act before the Supreme Court in 2009 (Northwest Austin Municipal Utility District No. One v. Holder).

J. Gerald Hebert – Solo practitioner with extensive election law and redistricting experience, including former Acting Chief, Deputy Chief, and Special Litigation Counsel in the Voting Rights Section of the Civil Rights Division of the Department of Justice.

Lorraine Minnite – Professor of Political Science and Public Policy, Rutgers University. Author and co-author of two books on electoral rules and racial and class politics, including The Myth of Voter Fraud.

Myrna Pérez – Senior Counsel, Democracy Program at the Brennan Center for Justice. Works on a variety of voting rights related issues, including redistricting, voter registration list maintenance, and access to the ballot box.

Thomas Perez – Assistant Attorney General, U.S. Department of Justice, Civil Rights Division.

Honorable Gary Stein – Retired Supreme Court of New Jersey Justice and Professor of Law of Democracy and Health Care Law at Rutgers School of Law–Newark.

Brenda Wright – Director, Democracy Program at Dēmos. Has argued both campaign finance reform (Randall v. Sorrell) and voting rights (Young v. Fordice) cases before the Supreme Court of the United States.

LBJ Library photo by Yoichi Okamoto
LBJ Library photo by Yoichi Okamoto

Volume 64, Summer 2012, Issue 4

Speeches

PROTECTING THE RIGHT TO VOTE: THE VOTING RIGHTS ACT A HALF CENTURY LATER, WHERE ARE WE AND WHAT CHALLENGES REMAIN
The Honorable Gary Stein

U.S. DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE’S ENFORCEMENT OF THE VOTING RIGHTS ACT
Thomas Perez

Articles

THE FUTURE OF THE VOTING RIGHTS ACT
J. Gerald Hebert & Renata E. B. Strause

SWORD, SHIELD, AND COMPASS: THE USES AND MISUSES OF RACIALLY POLARIZED VOTING STUDIES IN VOTING RIGHTS ENFORCEMENT
Kareem U. Crayton

THE PAST AS PROLOGUE: DEFENDING DEMOCRACY AGAINST VOTER SUPPRESSION TACTICS ON THE EVE OF THE 2012 ELECTIONS
Ryan P. Haygood

For Discussions on Current Issues in Election Law see Professor Rick Hasen’s Election Law Blog

ACLU has Published a Comprehensive Collection of Voter Information for Each state: Know Your Voting Rights

Supreme Court will Hear Challenge to Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act

Op-Ed: Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act – Have the Past Three Years Strengthened the Case for its Constitutionality?By Brenda Wright, Vice President for Legal Strategies at Demos

Recent Activity on Voting Rights Challenges Across the Nation

Voting Rights on Election Day:

• Election Problems Included Confusion, Intimidation, Untrained Poll Workers
• Poll Problems Across the Country
• Voter ID Laws – Why We Should Care
• How Florida’s 2012 Election Was Bungled: Absentee Ballots, Provisional Votes, and the Legislature
• Pennsylvania Election Day Plagued By Confusion Over Blocked Voter ID Law
• Justice Department to Monitor Polls in 23 States on Election Day

Voter ID Laws:

• Voting Rights Advocates: It’s not as Bad as We Thought
• Tennessee– Voter-ID Law Stymies Nashville Woman’s Right
• State Supreme Court to Hear Voter-ID Case
• Alabama, Texas– Voting Rights Cases Keep Political Storms Churning
• Tennessee– State Appeals Court Upholds Voter-ID Law
• Voter-ID Map
• Pennsylvania- ACLU asks Judge to Order Pa. to Stop Misleading Information About Voter-ID
• Tennessee- Appeals Court Hears Arguments on Voter-ID Law
• Arizona- Supreme Court to Hear Voter Law
• South Carolina- Federal Court Blocks Voter ID Law Implementation for 2012 Election
• Pennsylvania- Judge stops Voter-ID law for 2012 Election

Redistricting:

• California– California Redistricting Fuels Competitive Races That Lure Outside Funds
• Maryland– Getting Rid of Redistricting’s Snakes, Earmuffs and Pterodactyls
• Brennan Center Report– Redistricting and Congressional Control : A First Look
• Maryland– Court Upholds Redistricting Petition
• Mississippi – Lawmakers Oppose NAACP Suit
• The Polarizing Effects of Redistricting
• North Carolina – NAACP Challenges North Carolina Redistricting Plan
• Texas- Redistricting Plan Rejected
• West Virginia- Redistricting Plan Upheld by the Supreme Court

Access to Polls:

• Florida- Democrats Sue to Extend Early Voting Period
• New Jersey– Voters Displaced by Storm May Vote by E-Mail or Fax
• Ohio– Election Lawyers to Monitor Polls
• Montana– Judge rejects Native Americans’ lawsuit over access to polling places
• Florida– Division of Elections Decides All Provisional Ballots Will Be Counted Absent Proof of Fraud or Ineligibility
• Virginia– Man Charged With Destroying Voter Registrations
• Who Created the Voter Fraud Myth?
• Election Errors Mounting
• Attempts To Discourage Voting
• Counting Voters, Counting Votes
• Potential Voting Power of US Felons
• Felon Disenfranchisement
• CalTech-MIT Study: Millions Lose Access to Polls. View the Full Report Here.
• Providing Ballots in Languages Other Than English
• Voter Intimidation
• Ohio- Supreme Court will Not Block Early Voting in Ohio
• California & Connecticut- Increasing Access to the Polls with Election Day Registration
• Florida– Voter Roll Purge Allowed
• Ohio– Barred from Rejecting Provisional Ballots Cast in Wrong Districts
• Access To Polls for Disabled Americans

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