The League of Women Voters of Saratoga County is sponsoring a community forum on voter suppression Thursday, Jan. 19 at Skidmore College.
Tim O’Brien, from the national League of Women Voters headquarters in Washington, D.C., will be the featured speaker at the event, which will cover legislation being passed across the nation that restricts voting rights by requiring voter IDs and limiting access to the voting process, according to information from the League.
O’Brien is the project manager for public advocacy and voter protection for the League, and prior to that was the state affairs director for the Human Rights Campaign.
The League’s public advocacy and voter protection program focuses on six areas: opposing photo ID and documentary proof-of-citizenship in voting and registration; guarding against undue restrictions on voter registration; improving administration of statewide voter registration database systems and guarding against wrongful or incorrect purging; improving polling place management; improving poll worker training and recruitment; and fighting against last minute barriers to voting.
Panelists are to include Alice Green from the Albany-based Center for Law and Justice; Benita L. Law-Diao and Willie White from AVillage Inc, and Stan Yake from the Capital Region NYCLU. The event will be moderated by League president, Patricia Nugent
More than half the states in the US have passed stricter voting guidelines in the name of preventing voter fraud, according to a release from the League.
The forum will be held at 7 p.m. at the Gennett Auditorium.
The event is free and open to the community. For more information, call the Saratoga County League at 728-0237 or visit its website at www.lwvsaratoga.org.
