Civil and Human Rights Coalition Condemns Proposed Early Voting Site Changes in Montgomery County, Md.

WASHINGTON–Wade Henderson, president and CEO of The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, issued the following statement in response to the Montgomery County Board of Elections’ partisan vote to remove two popular, diverse, and transit-accessible early voting sites and replace them with sites that are harder to access and serve dramatically fewer voters of color.  The Maryland State Board of Elections—which has the power to overturn these proposed changes—will discuss this issue at its October 15 meeting:

“Even in one of the most progressive jurisdictions in the country, the effort to suppress low-income voters and voters of color is alive and well. Closing diverse and transit-accessible polling places and re-opening in them in harder-to-reach places is the same type of voter suppression tactic used in the former Confederate states to deny voters of color the chance to have their voices heard.

Ensuring access to the ballot is a civil rights issue, and as the nation’s oldest and largest civil and human rights coalition, we do not take voter suppression or disenfranchisement lightly—no matter where it happens. We are extremely concerned about this voter suppression effort in Montgomery County, and urge the Maryland State Board of Elections to rise above voting discrimination and to keep both the Praisner and Lawton centers as early voting sites.”

Wade Henderson is president and CEO of The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, a coalition charged by its diverse membership of more than 200 national organizations to promote and protect the rights of all persons in the United States. The Leadership Conference works toward an America as good as its ideals. For more information on The Leadership Conference, visit www.civilrights.org.

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