Patton Boggs Joins Vote Protection Efforts

Up to 30 lawyers at Patton Boggs’ Washington office are fielding nationwide voter inquiries today on everything from long lines to registration problems to polling place locations.

The firm is one of 40 private law firms around the country offering pro bono legal advice on a hotline administered by the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights.

The firm has already answered around 2,000 questions since it started taking calls early Saturday morning. A "swat team" of staff set up the call center within 24 hours after a last-minute request from the Lawyers’ Committee on Thursday afternoon. “Late in the game, they said, look, we’ve got more need than we have capacity," says public policy and lobbying partner, Rodney Slater. "Can you do this … and can you do it by yesterday?”

Second year associate, Caitlin McCormick, who herself waited one hour to vote at the Martin Luther King library in D.C. this morning, says that while long lines are the most common complaint, it doesn't seem to be keeping people away. “I think after the last couple of elections people seem to be much more passionate about voting,” she says. “They’re much more willing than they might have been in previous years to say, ‘I’m sticking it out because my vote needs to count.’”

A spokesperson for the Lawyers' Committee says the nationwide Election Protection Coalition has already fielded 60,000 calls in the lead-up to Nov. 4.