Press

WASHINGTON – The Leadership Conference Education Fund held a telebriefing today to discuss the staggering number of polling place closures in Arizona, a state with a long history of racial discrimination in its election system. The Education Fund’s recently released report, “Democracy Diverted: Polling Place Closures and the Right to Vote,” found that 13 states shuttered 1,688 polling places since the 2012 general election cycle.

WASHINGTON – The Leadership Conference Education Fund held a telebriefing today to discuss the staggering number of polling place closures in states with histories of racial discrimination in just the past six years. The Education Fund’s recently released report, “Democracy Diverted: Polling Place Closures and the Right to Vote,” found that 13 states shuttered 1,688 polling places since the 2012 general election cycle.

WASHINGTON – Thirteen U.S. states closed a staggering 1,688 polling locations in just six years, according to a new report from The Leadership Conference Education Fund. The report, “Democracy Diverted: Polling Place Closures and the Right to Vote,” notes that 1,173 of the closures occurred between the 2014 and 2018 midterm elections – underscoring the scale of this assault on U.S. democracy. Texas, Georgia, and Arizona top the list of highest closure rates between 2012 to 2018.

PHOENIX — The Leadership Conference Education Fund will hold a press call on Wednesday, September 11, at 3 p.m. ET/12 p.m. MT to discuss its newly released report, “Democracy Diverted: Polling Place Closures and the Right to Vote.” A second iteration of original research first released in 2016, the report analyzes 757 of 861 counties and county-level equivalents previously covered by Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act (VRA), which the U.S. Supreme Court gutted in its Shelby County v. Holder decision. The report explains how and why polling place closures have an increasingly detrimental impact on communities in states with histories of voter discrimination.

WASHINGTON – The Leadership Conference Education Fund will hold a national press call on Tuesday, September 10, at 3 p.m. ET to discuss its newly released report, “Democracy Diverted: Polling Place Closures and the Right to Vote.” A second iteration of original research first released in 2016, the report analyzes 757 of 861 counties and county-level equivalents previously covered by Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act (VRA), which the U.S. Supreme Court gutted in its Shelby County v. Holder decision. The report explains how and why polling place closures are having an increasingly detrimental impact on communities in states with histories of voter discrimination.

WASHINGTON – The Leadership Conference Education Fund released “Civil Rights Principles for Safe, Healthy, and Inclusive School Climates” today to urge policymakers and other stakeholders to ensure that all students can learn in safe, healthy, and inclusive environments. Fifty-seven civil rights and education organizations signed onto the principles, asking members of Congress to fulfill their role in helping educators and communities create and maintain safe schools that afford all students equal educational opportunities by incorporating these principles into all relevant legislation.

WASHINGTON – The Leadership Conference Education Fund will hold an ethnic media briefing on Friday, August 30, at 1:00 p.m. ET / 10:00 a.m. PT to discuss our recently released policy recommendations for incorporating the Higher Education Civil Rights Coalition’s 10 civil rights principles into higher education legislation. The recommendations were drafted to engage and educate diverse stakeholders and policymakers seeking reform in higher education to offer meaningful equal opportunity and success for all students, especially students of color who have been historically marginalized.

CHICAGO – On August 1, at 12:15 p.m. CT, The Census Counts Campaign, The Leadership Conference Education Fund, and State Voices will host a lunch with state and local elected officials during the Get Out the Count (GOTC) regional summit in Chicago, IL. Both groups bring together the States Count Action Network (S-CAN), a coalition of local census advocates, to discuss and plan 2020 Census GOTC efforts to reach hard-to-count communities.

WASHINGTON – Leading civil rights organizations held a telephone press briefing today to discuss Trump’s remarks regarding the citizenship question on the 2020 Census.

WASHINGTON – Vanita Gupta, president and CEO of The Leadership Conference Education Fund, issued the following statement on Trump’s announcement to drop the citizenship question from the 2020 Census: