Iowa LULAC director to testify at national voters' rights event

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For immediate release

April 17, 2014

 

KANSAS CITY, MO. - The state director of the League of United Latin American Citizens of Iowa will testify about the advocacy group’s efforts to protect voter rights at a national voters’ rights event on Monday, April 21.

 

The National Commission on Voting Rights will hold a hearing from 1 to 7 p.m. at the University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Law in Kansas City, Mo. The Commission will hear from voters, community leaders, advocates and elections officials regarding challenges, successes and opportunities for voter reform in Iowa, Kansas, Missouri and Nebraska.

 

The event is part of a series of nationwide hearings to collect testimony about voting and elections in the United States. Testimony will be given about a range of topics that include: voting changes, voter registration, election administration, voting discrimination, and ballot accessibility for individuals with disabilities, non-English speakers and minorities.

 

Iowa LULAC State Director Joe Enriquez Henry will give testimony about LULAC and the American Civil Liberties Union of Iowa’s efforts to stop voter intimidation and new voter rules that Secretary of State Matt Schultz attempted to implement in Iowa.

 

“I am looking forward to voicing our concern about the danger of those who attempt to play politics with our right to vote,” Enriquez Henry said. “What the Secretary of State attempted to do in Iowa was not only a political maneuver to purge thousands of eligible voters, but to also intimidate Latinos and create a chilling effect that would have led to eligible voters not voting on Election Day in 2012.”

 

The guest commissioners who will hear testimony include Marsha Ternus, the former chief justice of the Iowa Supreme Court.

 

Other Iowa organizations that are supporting the effort include the ACLU of Iowa, Disability Rights Iowa, Iowa Citizen Action Network, Latinos Unidos of Iowa and the League of Women Voters of Iowa.


 

Founded in 1929, the League of United Latin American Citizens is the oldest Latino civil rights organization in the United States. There are more than 880 local LULAC councils, which hold voter registration drives, provide awareness to residents about language and immigration issues, sponsor programs and advocate for Latinos.

 

 

 

For more information, contact Joe Enriquez Henry at 515.208.7312 or lulac307iowa@aol.com; or Melissa Walker at 515.681.7731 or media@iowalatinos.org, or visit www.lulaciowa.org.

 

 

 

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