Hannah Klain

The Project

Hannah worked to stop discriminatory polling place closures and denials of electoral resources to minority communities in states formerly covered by §5 of the Voting Rights Act, through model litigation and advocacy.

States formerly monitored under the Voting Rights Act are using their now-unchecked discretion to shut down polling places and restrict electoral resources in minority neighborhoods, engaging in widespread voting access discrimination. The central goal of Hannah’s project was to eliminate discriminatory denials of voting access in minority communities in targeted states.

Fellowship Highlights

Hannah published a report – ‘Waiting to Vote,’ which documented disparate voter wait times and inequitable distributions of electoral resources in the 2018 Election and was cited in the New York Times and the New Yorker. Hannah also worked closely with a team of public health experts from the Infectious Disease Society of America to develop and put forward a resource on how to vote safely in person during the Covid-19 pandemic. The guidance document helped to preserve and protect in-person voting options across the country for individuals who were unable to vote by mail in the 2020 General Election.

Next Steps

Hannah will be clerking for Judge Stephen A. Higginson on the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans, Louisiana.

Media