Dear Civil Rights and Social Justice Section Members:
Thank you for your service during the 2020 General Election season. The roll of an attorney and the benefits of your non-partisan volunteer service can bring cannot be understated. Your contributions to our CRSJ Multi-Component Voting Rights Initiative and your many other sacrifices made all the difference.
Some of you chose to participate in the ABA’s Pollworker Esquire Initiative by serving as an official poll worker through your local board of elections. This act was substantial as it relieved and protected our nation’s poll workers, who are often older Americans who find themselves in a vulnerable class of people during this COVID-19 pandemic.
Many of you contributed to and/or distributed our Civil Rights and Social Justice Voting Rights Toolkit, which was designed for non-lawyers local leaders and small community-based organizations to assist them with informing voters, answer questions and provide accurate information about voting during the election.
Many of you took advantage of our revamped partnership with the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under the Law by serving as Election Protection volunteers, both in person and virtually volunteering shifts on the 1-866-OUR-VOTE hotline.
Others of you have taken your talents, in various ways, outside of the ABA to educate the public on the unique challenges this country currently faces in navigating. We see you serving on program panels, speaking on cable news channels, radio shows and podcasts. And we know you are battling in the courtrooms on behalf of voters everywhere.
Thank you for going above and beyond the basic civil duty that we all have as Americans to vote. Thank you for using your education, your law license, and your unique talents to protect the rights of others.
Our work is never done but collectively a little bit goes a long way.
Thank you.
Angela J. Scott, 2020-21 Section Chair, ABA Section of Civil Rights and Social Justice