Description:
The November election is less than 4 months away, and this year promises to be unlike any other.  Texas has been the site of legal conflicts about the right to vote, as well as community-based efforts to organize voters.  Voter registration rates for new voters are down dramatically compared to 2016 as a result of COVID-19 and the cancellation of events, and questions of administration on election day remain unresolved. These issues have a significant impact on young and Latinx voters.  This 1-hour program focuses on the legal background and organizing efforts in Texas in the lead-up to November, with special emphasis on laws and policies with the greatest impact on young and Latinx voters.

Speakers

Elizabeth Bille is the Texas State Director at NALEO Educational Fund. She leads the coordination of civic engagement activities in the area of citizenship, voter engagement and Census for the State of Texas. Elizabeth is a graduate of the University of Houston holding a Bachelor of Arts degree with a double major in Political Science and History.  Elizabeth has led very successful advocacy, public policy, civic engagement and naturalization initiatives throughout Southern California In 2016; Elizabeth was selected to be a Latino Vote Fellow by the UnidosUS (formerly known as the National Council of La Raza). Elizabeth earned her Lean Six Sigma Green Belt Certification and participated in the HOPE (Hispanas Organized for Political Equality) Leadership Institute in 2017.
Laura W. Brill is the founder and director of The Civics Center, a nonpartisan nonprofit organization dedicated to improving high school voter registration rates. Recognized as among the top appellate and intellectual property litigators in California, Ms. Brill is a partner at the litigation boutique Kendall Brill & Kelly LLP in Los Angeles and served as a law clerk to U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.  She has been a law school guest lecturer at Georgetown, Stanford, UC Irvine, UCLA, USC and Yale and publishes and speaks widely on legal issues, including the First Amendment, copyright law, appellate practice, and the legal profession.
 

Stephanie Gómez is the High School Voter Campaign Coordinator at TCRP, where she helps lead high school voter registration efforts. Stephanie has been involved in the social justice movement for years as a reproductive justice activist, We Testify storyteller and voting rights advocate. She currently serves on the Board of Directors for Fund Texas Choice and has previously worked at BakerRipley, Kids in Need of Defense, the University of Houston’s Women’s, Gender & Sexuality Studies Department, the US House of Representatives and as a diner waitress. Stephanie holds a Master of Social Work and a Master of Public Policy from the University of Houston's Graduate College of Social Work and Hobby School of Public Affairs.

James Slattery serves as a Senior Staff Attorney in the Voting Rights Program at the Texas Civil Rights Project, leading the organization's election protection efforts in the 2020 election. After graduating from Pepperdine University School of Law, James served as a law clerk for the U.S. District Court for the District of New Mexico and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit, and then went on to practice employment and bankruptcy law at Wiley Rein LLP in Washington, DC. He then worked to protect the right to vote on a series of political campaigns, including President Obama's 2012 re-election campaign, Terry McAuliffe's race for Governor of Virginia in 2013, and Wendy Davis's campaign for Governor of Texas in 2014. Before joining TCRP, James served as the Director of the Office of the Executive Secretariat at the Department of Commerce in the Obama Administration.

Pricing:
This event is free of charge.