ACLU-WV Launches Election Protection Campaign

CHARLESTON, W.Va. – As part of its commitment to being at the forefront of protecting every eligible voter’s ballot, the American Civil Liberties Union of West Virginia (ACLU-WV) has launched a statewide awareness campaign about its Election Protection Hotline.

“Our elections are secure – despite the big lie we’ve been told by President Trump – and the ACLU of West Virginia is here to make sure they stay that way,” ACLU-WV Executive Eli Baumwell said.

For the past decade, the hotline has helped West Virginians answer questions before, during, and after an election, and make sure their vote is counted. The hotline is staffed by attorneys and law students trained in election laws.

“The hotline itself is not new but we’re making an extra investment this year to ensure everyone is aware of this resource, should they need it,” Baumwell said.

Billboards are going up across the state from Martinsburg to Huntington and from Wheeling to Beckley. In addition, commercials will be airing on local television stations and social media will be saturated with ads as well. The commercial can viewed here.

The campaign is part of a historic $25.8 million investment by the national ACLU to protect the power to vote, the resilience of our democratic institutions, and public confidence in every stage of the electoral process; and to guarantee that every vote is counted according to the law.

Baumwell said anyone with questions about the voting process is encouraged to contact the hotline. Voters may also use the hotline to report concerns like electioneering at a polling place or voter intimidation tactics.

"We encourage voters to make sure they verify their information and polling place ahead of the election. But if something goes wrong the day of, we're ready to help with that too." Baumwell said.

The hotline also saw an uptick in calls during the 2020 election, which was held at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. The protocols created all new challenges for some voters that required some out-of-the-box thinking and cooperation with state elections officials, he said.

“We had a few people who had requested absentee ballots, and then got sick and were hospitalized in an isolation ward before they could fill them out and send them back in,” he said. “In those cases, we were able to work with the Secretary of State’s Office to hand off a ballot to a medical professional, who then handed the ballot off to the voter, and then returned the ballot to the official outside of the quarantine area,” he said.

The hotline can be reached at 304-355-5123.

About ACLU-WV:

For more than 100 years, the American Civil Liberties Union has been the nation’s premier defender of the individual rights enshrined in the Constitution. The ACLU first brought its work to West Virginia during the Mine Wars era when its co-founder, Roger Baldwin, traveled here by train to advocate on behalf of coal miners who were trying to unionize. At the height of nationalism in the 1940s, the ACLU scored a landmark victory for freedom of religion at the U.S. Supreme Court in Barnette v. West Virginia Board of Education, which held that public schools cannot compel children to salute the flag or recite the Pledge of Allegiance. The state affiliate was founded in 1978, and saw significant growth during the 2010s. Today, ACLU-WV fights daily in the courts, in the Legislature, and in our communities to extend the promise of the Bill of Rights to everyone, especially those who have traditionally been denied those rights like Black and brown people, women, the LGBTQ+ community, immigrants, the poor, and disabled people.