PROTECT THE RIGHT OF UTAHNS TO VOTE: ACT NOW!

Sen. Peter Knudson's SB 53
will strengthen confidence in
the right to vote!

SB 53, "Voter Challenge Revisions," passed out of committee yesterday with a unanimous vote and is headed for debate on the Senate floor.

Please contact your senator to let him or her know how important it is to support SB 53!

Find your legislator HERE: http://le.utah.gov/GIS/findDistrict.jsp

TALKING POINTS:

• SB 53 is an important step forward in preserving and upholding the Constitutional right of Utahns to vote and will help inspire greater confidence in the voting process by the electorate.
• SB 53 modifies the way in which voter eligibility may be challenged so that the procedure by which voters are challenged is not manipulated and used as a tool to illegitimately disenfranchise lawful voters.
• The ACLU of Utah witnessed first hand how Utah’s current voter challenge law was misused to wrongfully accuse a large number of Ogden voters of being ineligible to vote during the 2007 election. Additionally, this tactic has been used in other parts of the state, and against other groups of voters to dissuade eligible and lawful voters from exercising the right to vote.
• This much needed legislation will ensure that all eligible voters are able to vote, while retaining the ability for appropriate voter eligibility challenges to be made. It will however, assure that the challenge process cannot be manipulated to exclude voters for political or other reasons. Finally, and importantly, it will streamline the challenge process and free up election official time on Election Day to deal with real election issues.

The Constitution grants the government its power and the Bill of Rights restricts that power and guarantees individual rights and liberties. The ACLU of Utah works to ensure that our government respects these limits.

This Action Alert was sent by the ACLU of Utah Union, 355 North 300 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84103