Voting Rights

Still fighting for voting rights

Nothing is more fundamental to our democracy than the right to vote. The ACLU of Pennsylvania is committed to ensuring that all citizens are able to cast their votes and have them accurately counted.

The ACLU has routinely represented voters and candidates in order to protect the right to vote and the right to participate in a fair election process.

The nonpartisan voter protection Election Protection Coalition works to ensure that every eligible voter in Pennsylvania is able to cast a ballot that gets counted. The PA Election Protection Coalition is coordinated by the ACLU of Pennsylvania, Common Cause Pennsylvania, the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, All Voting Is Local, and Pennsylvania Voice.

Click here for information about the upcoming election and your rights as a PA voter.

Click Here for Information on Our Let People Vote Campaign in Berks and Lancaster County

Voters can call the following nonpartisan voter hotlines for basic information, such as the location of their polling place or how to obtain an absentee ballot, as well as report problems on Election Day:

  • 866-OUR-VOTE hotline (866-687-8683) for English
  • 888-VE-Y-VOTA (888-839-8682) for Spanish
  • 888-API-VOTE (888-274-8683) for a variety of Asian languages (The APIA vote hotline lists them here http://www.apiavote.org/hotline: English, Mandarin, Cantonese, Korean, Vietnamese, Tagalog, Urdu, Hindi, and Bengali)

The Election Protection Coalition is prepared to assist voters with:

  • Questions about polling locations, dropbox locations and registration status
  • Instructions on absentee or mail-in voting
  • Improper challenges at the polls
  • Voter intimidation
  • Polling places that are not open or that have very long lines
  • Poll workers improperly asking for photo ID from voters
  • Voters denied the opportunity to vote or not permitted to vote a provisional ballot

The Election Protection Coalition has recruited hundreds of trained legal and grassroots volunteers across the commonwealth to monitor key polling precincts and to respond to voter complaints to the hotlines on Election Day. The coalition will also have attorneys on call in every county who are prepared to go into court if needed.

If you are interested in volunteering to help the effort to make our elections equitable for everyone, please visit here.

Questions? Contact us at info@aclupa.org.

The Latest

Press Release
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Voters, Civil Rights Groups Seek to Halt DOJ Attempts to Seize Pennsylvania Voter Data

League of Women Voters of Pennsylvania, Common Cause, and individual PA voters move to intervene in DOJ lawsuit
Issue Areas: Voting Rights, Fighting Back Against Threats to Democracy
Press Release
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Victory for Democracy as State Supreme Court Rules Washington County Must Alert Voters Whose Mail Ballots Contain Errors

On Friday, the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania affirmed the lower court’s decision that the Washington County Board of Elections must inform voters if they have made a disqualifying error on their mail ballot packets.
Issue Areas: Voting Rights, Due Process, Fighting Back Against Threats to Democracy
Court Cases: Center for Coalfield Justice et al. v. Washington County Board of Elections, Genser and Matis v. Butler County Board of Elections, Republican National Committee v. Schmidt
Press Release
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ACLU-PA Responds to DOJ’s Lawsuit Pressuring States to Turn Over Unredacted Voter Rolls

The ACLU-PA will stand with voters to protect their constitutional right to privacy against the federal government’s illegal fishing expedition for highly personal information.
Issue Areas: Voting Rights, Privacy & Security
News & Commentary
Signs that spell out vote on the grass in front of a large brown brick building that is surrounded by red and blue balloons.

Why do some Pennsylvania counties refuse to enact "Notice and Cure?"

Every election cycle, thousands of voters across Pennsylvania make minor mistakes when completing their mail-in ballot packet, such as forgetting to include the secrecy envelope or forgetting to sign the outer envelope declaration. These mistakes, if left uncorrected, lead to voters’ ballots not being counted. 
Court Case
Oct 09, 2025

United States v. Pennsylvania, et al.

The ACLU of Pennsylvania, the Public Interest Law Center, and ACLU’s Voting Rights Project have filed a motion to intervene in a federal lawsuit over the federal government’s demand that Pennsylvania turn over its entire voter registration rolls, including with voters’ sensitive personal data such as drivers’ license numbers and partial social security numbers. The motion to intervene was filed on behalf of seven Pennsylvania voters, many of whom were the target of baseless mass challenges to their mail ballots during the 2024 election cycle that resulted from faulty data-matching techniques. The voters’ experiences have heightened their concerns about the privacy of their voting data. Other plaintiffs are two non-partisan, good government organizations dedicated to voter engagement: the League of Women Voters of Pennsylvania and Common Cause. If intervention is granted, the civil rights groups will seek to prevent the federal government from forcing Pennsylvania to turn over the entirety of its voter registration database and to protect sensitive data within the voter rolls.
Court Case
Oct 07, 2024

Baxter and Kinniry v. Philadelphia Board of Elections

ACLU-PA sued the Philadelphia Board of Elections on behalf of two registered voters whose timely mail ballots submitted in the September 17 special election for state representative were rejected because they failed to handwrite a date on the outer return envelope.
Court Case
Oct 01, 2024

In This Together NEPA, et al. v. Crocamo

The ACLU of Pennsylvania has filed a lawsuit on behalf of Luzerne County voters and an advocacy organization, In This Together NEPA, over the county’s removal of mail ballot drop boxes just weeks ahead of the 2024 general election.
Court Case
Sep 25, 2024

New PA Project Education Fund et al. v. Schmidt and 67 County Boards of Elections

On September 25, 2024, 10 organizations filed a suit in the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, asking the court to stop enforcement of the commonwealth’s requirement that voters include a handwritten date on the return envelope of their mail ballot packets.