Voting rights advocates with the Election Protection coalition on Tuesday night said voters engaged in “heroic” efforts to overcome restrictions and difficulties at polling places across the country.
“The 2012 election cycle is like no other in generations,” Election Protection leaders Eric Marshall and Marcia Johnson-Blanco said in a joint statement. “The number one difference was the nefarious efforts to suppress the vote through restrictive legislation making it more difficult for eligible voters to cast their ballots. While the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law and many of our Coalition partners have helped to successfully challenge these new laws in the courts preceding Election Day, the results of these unsuccessful attempts to restrict voting led to much chaos and confusion at the polls.”
Organizers said the thousands of calls to their voter hotline found widespread issues related to Pennsylvania’s voter ID law as well as long lines and problems with ballots in states across the country. The group also said the challenges caused by Superstorm Sandy could have been minimized if the states allowed early voting.
