The Power of Women in U.S. Elections (On-Demand Course Access) [CC]

This panel addresses voter suppression, election protection, and voting rights reform strategies ahead of the November 2020 election. Strategies to reform the right to vote have historically been intended to protect and advance the voting rights of underrepresented communities. Some recent reforms, however, have sparked controversy. Same-day voter registration and restoration of the right to vote to formerly incarcerated citizens, for example, tend to increase the population of citizens who exercise their civic duty to cast a ballot. Other policies, such as highly partisan redistricting, voter purges, and voter identification policies, have the effect of suppressing or devaluing the votes of underserved and underrepresented citizens. The impact of these reforms falls heaviest on women, communities of color, low-income communities, voters with disabilities, and young voters. On this 100th Anniversary of the 19th amendment, panel members explore the effects of efforts to curtail voting, focusing on the role of women, especially African American women, in seeking to exercise the right to vote and the influence of their votes on elections.

Moderator:

Angela J. Scott , J.D., LL.M., Chair-Elect, ABA Section of Civil Rights and Social Justice; Civil Rights Attorney-Advisor, U.S. Department of Health & Human Services, Office of the General Counsel; Former Member of the Maryland Democratic State Central Committee, 10th District

Speakers:

Barbara Arnwine , President & Founder, Transformative Justice Coalition; President Emeritus, Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law

Congressman James E. Clyburn , Majority Whip, third-ranking Democrat in the United States House of Representatives, South Carolina

Gilda Daniels , Associate Professor, University of Baltimore School of Law, Baltimore, MD

Harmeet Dhillon , Co-Chair, Republican National Lawyers Association; Republican National Committeewoman for California, and founder, Dhillon Law Group, San Francisco, CA

Thomas A. Saenz , President and General Counsel, Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Los Angeles, CA