Regional and national experts will gather for a forum and panel discussion on voting rights tonight at the Martin Luther King Jr. Recreation Center in Denton.
State Sen. Royce West, D-Dallas, and Alejandro Reyes, an attorney with the Washington, D.C.-based Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, are scheduled to speak on the right to vote and why it’s important to exercise the right.
In addition to presentations, an expert panel will be on hand to answer questions about the state’s new voter identification law and its impact on voting rights.
Co-hosted by St. James A.M.E. Church and the Martin Luther King Jr. Advisory Board, the event, “Get Smart. Go Vote!,” begins at 7 p.m.
The panel will include representatives from the American Civil Liberties Union, Denton League of United Latin Amecican Citizens Council 4366, NAACP, Texas Department of Public Safety, League of Women Voters and Denton County Elections Administration.
Deputy voter registrars will be available to help register voters and update names and addresses on registration cards. The forum will also include a presentation on how to apply for the photo identification needed to vote.
In passing the law requiring photo identification to vote, the Texas Legislature cited the need to curb voter fraud. But in a recent essay for Politico, U.S. Sens. Bernie Sanders, I-Vermont, and Tom Udall, D-New Mexico, called voter identification laws “the new poll taxes.”
In Denton for 140 years, St. James A.M.E. Church was designated as a historical landmark in 1985.
The nonprofit Martin Luther King Jr. Advisory Board supports and conducts educational activities at the city-operated Martin Luther King Jr. Recreation Center, 1300 Wilson St.
Mary Taylor, director of the church’s social action commission, said the program came together to encourage voter turnout.
“Throughout history, voting wasn’t available to everybody; it was only available to a small group of property owners,” Taylor said. “But we’re still not voting.”
Voter turnout in Texas is among the lowest in the nation. In city and school elections, typically about 6 percent to 7 percent of registered voters cast ballots.
Some problems with voter turnout seem to come from the political leaders themselves, Taylor said.
“In Texas, they seem to run on a national platform,” she said.
She expected some of the forum’s speakers, including West, to address that alienation and tell people why it’s important to vote.
The event will not only prepare people for the November election but every election after that.
“Every election counts,” Taylor said.
PEGGY HEINKEL-WOLFE can be reached at 940-566-6881 and via Twitter at @phwolfeDRC.
IF YOU GO
What: Voter education forum
When: 7 to 8:30 p.m. today
Where: Martin Luther King Jr. Recreation Center, 1300 Wilson St.
