Sorensen Center Expands Voting Rights Initiative Ahead of Critical Elections
Date: November 3, 2022
In the lead-up to the first major election since 2020, the Sorensen Center’s Voting Rights Initiative (VRI) is providing exciting opportunities for students to get involved in democracy protection. The VRI enables students to gain practical workplace experience and participate in important legal battles through connections with voting rights institutions.
The VRI facilitates student work with voting rights attorneys at Common Cause and LatinoJustice PRLDEF on several legal observer and research projects. Each project offers different ways to gain experience and interact with voting rights law from deep investigative research to in-person lawyering practice. With so much at stake in the realm of voting rights and democracy this year, the work students are doing feels especially impactful.
Cesar Z. Ruiz, Esq. ’21, a 2020 Sorensen Center Fellow and voting rights attorney at PRLDEF who is collaborating with the VRI, said, “The laws are being weaponized against community members and their vote. Our work is about expanding the right to vote, which across the country is being attacked.” Among these attacks are efforts to restrict the right to vote for people in the carceral system and throttle language access for non-English speaking voters. On both of these fronts, the VRI is working with PRLDEF on solutions through legal research and direct action.
From every angle and with every weapon available, voting rights and the protections of democracy are being assailed, and trust in the process slips. While much of the attention is drawn by national and state-level voting rights, the local democratic process is also under assault. As Susan Lerner, Executive Director of Common Cause, pointed out: “People often overlook what happens at the county level, but counties have a tremendous amount of control over…issues that are essential to the people.” As such, VRI’s collaboration with Common Cause focuses on how local political bodies have conducted their redistricting process. Redistricting is often an expression of how power is distributed, and transparency on how this is being done is of paramount importance to the democratic process.
Through these collaborations and others, the VRI hopes to engender a robust voting rights network for students and organizations, with CUNY Law as a thriving central hub of activity. It is with the support of CUNY’s fabulous alumni network that these opportunities are made possible. The depth and breadth of expertise and connections across CUNY’s alumni network has made possible what the VRI is doing so far, and also makes possible what the VRI plans to do next.
At this critical juncture in the history of American democracy, your support has become more important than ever. As the VRI continues to expand its outreach and goals, we welcome your participation in our efforts to push forward our agenda to support students, and to take effective steps in the fight for voting rights. Please contact 2019 Sorensen Center Fellow Adam Edwards Rivera ‘22 for inquiries and information at adam.edwards@live.law.cuny.edu.