NPC Newsmaker Program: Status and Impact of New State Voter ID Laws

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Feb 16, 2012, 02:57 ET

WASHINGTON, Feb. 16, 2012 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Laura Murphy, director of the Washington legislative office of the American Civil Liberties Union, and Hans von Spakovsky, senior legal fellow and manager of the Civil Justice Reform Initiative in the Center for Legal and Judicial Studies at the Heritage Foundation, will speak at a National Press Club Newsmaker at 10 a.m. Thursday, Feb. 23, in the Zenger Room of the club in the National Press Building, 529 14th St., NW, Washington, D.C.

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They will discuss the actual and potential impact of various U.S. state voter identification laws, many of which have only recently been passed and which require a photo ID for voters to be able to cast their ballots.

Murphy has worked to advance the ACLU's public policy priorities on military tribunals, the Paycheck Fairness Act, ratification of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women, and reproductive rights and civil rights, among other issues. Spakovsky, former commissioner with the Federal Election Commission and counsel to the assistant attorney general for Civil Rights at the U.S. Justice Department prior to joining the Heritage Foundation, will argue against dire predictions of a diminished voter turnout as a result of the state voter ID laws.

SOURCE National Press Club