News Release

Visual/sound opportunity: For photo availability, see end of story.

Voter hotline to field questions,
complaints during Election Day

CHAPEL HILL - Law students and faculty at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, with other community volunteers, will staff a toll-free, nonpartisan hotline to answer voter questions on Election Day, Tuesday (Nov. 7), as part of Election Protection, a national voter advocacy effort.

Voters can call 1-866-OUR-VOTE (866-687-8683) between 6:30 a.m. and 7:30 p.m., the hours polls are open in North Carolina, with questions about their rights and the voting process. Assistance will be available in English and Spanish.

During the 2000 elections, an estimated 4 million to 6 million Americans were denied the right to vote, and 1 million votes were not counted, according to the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights, a national organization that sponsors Election Protection. In 2004, more than 200,000 people called the hotline for assistance, resulting in legal action in Florida, Louisiana and Ohio.

The UNC Center for Civil Rights, based in UNC's School of Law, participated in 2004 and is hosting this year's efforts. Anita Earls, director of advocacy for the center, said "having North Carolina attorneys and law student volunteers available to answer questions from North Carolina voters is the best way to help ensure that every qualified voter gets to cast a ballot on election day."

Through the volunteer program, students and attorneys will provide voters with information to help them understand their voting rights. About four to six students at a time will work in three-hour shifts, manning the hotline from eight phones at the law school. Calls from North Carolina to the hotline will be routed to Chapel Hill through the national Election Protection system.

In preparation for Election Day, the student volunteers will attend a one-hour training program at noon on Monday (Nov. 6). They will learn about election-day rules and how to answer North Carolina voters' questions.

Election Protection, Earls said, is the nation's most ambitious nonpartisan program for preventing election-day disenfranchisement. The coalition of state and national allies seeks to ensure that every eligible voter casts a ballot that counts on Election Day. It targets historically disenfranchised communities including Hispanic, black and low-income areas by providing voters with information and advice.

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Election Protection Web site: http://www.nationalcampaignforfairelections.org/

Photos: Media may shoot b-roll and photographs or get sound of Earls and the students on Monday (Nov. 6), from noon to 1 p.m. in room 4806 Van Heche-Wettach Hall, 100 Ridge Road on the UNC campus. For a map, visit: http://www.maps.unc.edu/mapbook/index.asp?path=detail.asp/q/page=978850

Note: Earls can be reached at (919) 843-7896 or earls@email.unc.edu.

UNC School of Law contact: Matt Marvin, (919) 962-4125, mmarvin@email.unc.edu