During the America's recent historic election -- featuring one of the largest voter turnout in US history --White & Case partnered with Latino Justice, Puerto Rican Legal Defense & Education Fund, the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials and the Hispanic National Bar Association to join the Lawyer's Committee for Civil Rights Under Law 2008 Election Protection Campaign to operate a Spanish-language Voter Protection hotline call center in the New York office.

Jose Perez Associate General Counsel for Latino Justice, PRLDEF
Julissa Guitierrez, NALEO and Yvette Valdez

Fielding approximately 1,500 calls from voters across the eastern seaboard were White & Case lawyers and staff -- Yvette Valdez, Jeannine Acevedo, Jennifer Drue, Bibiana Jaimes, Joanne Jackson, Miliette Marcos, Manuel Martinez-Herrera, Gladys Morales, Edna Padilla, Claudia Rodriguez and Ruth Silfa -- who provided live assistance to Spanish-speaking voters on Election Day and the day before.  The team helped voters with questions ranging from simply helping them locate their polling site to assisting voters who had been erroneously turned away at the polls, as well as addressing inquiries of broken polling machines and dispatching mobile legal volunteers where necessary to monitor polling places in response to incidents reported through the hotline.

Yvette Valdez, who serves as New York Region President of the Hispanic National Bar Association and who heads White & Case’s Hispanic Affinity Group, coordinated the Firm’s participation in the program.  Commenting on her motivation and interest in organizing the effort, she said, "With the turnout of Latino voters expected to reach historic highs, we wanted to make sure the Hispanic community was protected from voter suppression tactics and that they received the proper assistance to cast their votes."
 
Media crews from NY 1, Univision and the Hispanic Information and Telecommunications Network covered the event in the Firm’s office.

White & Case’s New York office was one of the 25 call centers set up across the country.  After the election, information was gathered from the hotline to address recurring problems and to identify patterns. Each caller’s question was added to a database so that future volunteers have access to accurate information about the kinds of problems that voters encounter.