Browse > Home / Local Coverage / ACLU Student Club of UNR helps Washoe wage a clean fight

ACLU Student Club of UNR helps Washoe wage a clean fight

November 4, 2008

Members of the American Civil Liberties Union of Northern Nevada and UNR’s ACLU Student Club were stationed Tuesday at polling places throughout Reno and Sparks to ensure that votes were counted fairly and accurately.

“We will ensure that the voting process is legitimately carried out,” Maritza Perez, president of the student club, said. “We strongly believe that voting rights are equivalent to people’s civil rights.”

Rebecca Gasca, public advocate of the ACLU of Northern Nevada, said the group visited more than 50 locations by 4 p.m. The group focused on the downtown to ensure inner-city residents weren’t given any misinformation.

“We are primarily in urban areas of Reno,” Gasca said. “We have moving teams — most of them have one lawyer with them to keep an eye out for misinformation or things like people being required to show IDs when IDs are not required.”

Gasca said there were no major problems to report.

“We’ve had some really good luck,” Gasca said. “In general, things have gone really smoothly in Washoe County. The only problem we’ve had has been with long lines but that was because of the high voter turnout.”

The ACLU Student Club and the ACLU are non-partisan groups. Their goal is to protect the rights of the voter regardless of political affiliation.

“When I’m wearing my ACLU hat, I’m non-partisan,” Perez said. “I care just as much about a Republican group as I do a Democratic one. Civil-rights violations are civil-rights violations regardless of who’s being violated.”

Gasca said that she, and ACLU volunteers nationwide, would continue to monitor polling places until every vote was counted.

“We’re going to be out here until the polls close,” Gasca said.

Any voter fraud or suppression of votes can be reported at 1-866-OUR-VOTE. All reports of fraud, suppression and general complaints can be viewed at www.866ourvote.org. Reports from polling places in every county of every state in the nation are recorded and updated in real time.

Story by Robert Mills

Written by admin · Filed Under Local Coverage 

Comments

Got something to say?