Hot Line Set Up to Stem Minority Voter Threats

Aiming to prevent efforts to intimidate minority voters from casting ballots in next week’s midterm elections, a coalition of civil rights organizations Tuesday announced a new information hot line to field questions and complaints about poll issues.

“Over the past 13 years, harassment and intimidation have followed minority voters to the polls, especially when close races are predicted,” said Wade Henderson, Washington director of the National Assn. for the Advancement of Colored People, which is supervising the hot line. “We are concerned once again that these issues will have to be addressed in 1994 for this expected close election.”

The hot line--1-800-775-VOTE--opened for calls late Tuesday and will remain active until Election Day. It is an attempt by voting rights activists and civil rights organizations to combat “dirty tricks,” which they claim have been used by the GOP to inhibit minorities from voting. The GOP vigorously denied the charges.

In recent years, Democrats have charged GOP activists with sending minority voters bogus warnings about voter credentials immediately before close elections. Some civil libertarians charged that such targeted warnings were designed to scare off minority voters, who tend to vote for Democratic candidates.

Members representing the coalition--including the Rev. Jesse Jackson’s Rainbow Coalition, National Council of La Raza, Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund, National Political Congress of Black Women, Coalition of Black Trade Unionists and other organizations--have agreed to encourage their supporters to watch for pre-election and vote-day activities that might prevent minorities from voting.

In response to the creation of the hot line, the Justice Department announced that it would send more than 200 federal observers to monitor polling places in 11 states covered by the Voting Rights Act of 1965. The specific sites will be announced next week. The department has had such monitors for many years.