Today, LDF, the Lee County NAACP, the NAACP Florida State Conference, Common Cause Florida, All Voting is Local Florida, the League of Women Voters of Florida, and the League of Women Voters of Lee County sent a letter to Lee County, Florida Supervisor of Elections Tommy Doyle expressing concern over the lack of voting access in communities of color. Lee County recently decided to close 99 traditional polling places and instead use Lee County’s 12 early voting sites as election day polling places. All twelve locations that will be open for early voting and election day in Lee County are located in predominantly white communities.
The letter urges Secretary Doyle to take immediate steps to improve voting access for communities of color. The groups ask to add just two additional locations that can operate as early voting sites, election day polling places, and drop box locations to ensure that communities of color, which have been especially hard-hit by Hurricane Ian, have equitable access to vote.
Read the full letter here.
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Founded in 1940, the Legal Defense Fund (LDF) is the nation’s first civil rights law organization. LDF’s Thurgood Marshall Institute is a multi-disciplinary and collaborative hub within LDF that launches targeted campaigns and undertakes innovative research to shape the civil rights narrative. In media attributions, please refer to us as the Legal Defense Fund or LDF. Please note that LDF has been completely separate from the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) since 1957—although LDF was originally founded by the NAACP and shares its commitment to equal rights.
