HRC applauded the California Secretary of State Alex Padilla’s announcement of a new historic training for poll workers to ease voter access for transgender and gender non-conforming voters.

"Across the country, transgender and gender non-conforming people deal with unique ballot access issues, especially in states with voter ID laws, that are often overlooked,” said HRC President Alphonso David. “That's why HRC announced a six-figure partnership with Stacey Abrams and Fair Fight to help fight against voter suppression and ensure that every LGBTQ person is able to vote. “Trainings like California's are critically important to ensure that the LGBTQ community has fair and equal access to cast ballots. Other states and municipalities must follow suit. Thank you to Secretary Padilla and Equality California for their leadership.”

Earlier this year, HRC announced a six-figure investment in Fair Fight’s crucial work and plans to leverage the existing resources and staff power HRC brings to bear. Voter suppression is a scourge our country faces in states across the nation. Georgia’s 2018 elections shined a bright light on mismanagement, malfeasance, irregularities and more, and this partnership between the Human Rights Campaign and Fair Fight will work to expose both recent and decades-long actions and inactions by the state to thwart the right to vote.

Voter suppression also impacts LGBTQ people, who far too often face disproportionate barriers in accessing their right to vote. For example, a transgender woman may be turned away from voting because she is unable to get her name changed legally in the state where she lives. These types of challenges are often compounded for LGBTQ people of color who face additional barriers that the Human Rights Campaign and Fair Fight are dedicated to exposing and changing.

In the 2018 elections, HRC helped register more than 32,000 voters and recruited more than 4,200 volunteers, who worked over 8,500 shifts and clocked more than 30,000 volunteer hours. In the critical final four days of the campaign, HRC staff and volunteers in get-out-the-vote efforts alone knocked on more than 80,000 doors, and held 36,400 conversations with voters at their doors and by phone on behalf of our endorsed candidates.