Understanding Voter Suppression with Sophia Lin Lakin of the ACLU

Join us for a dinner talk and Q&A with Sophia Lakin of the American Civil Liberties Union!

Sophia Lin Lakin is the Director of the ACLU’s Voting Rights Project, and a leading voting rights attorney who has dedicated her career to protecting and expanding voting rights across the United States, successfully challenging discriminatory voting laws and redistricting plans across the country. In her leadership role, she directs the Project’s strategic litigation efforts that have helped secure voting access and fair representation for millions.

The Voting Rights Project mission is to build and defend an accessible, inclusive, and equitable democracy free from racial discrimination. Established in 1965, the VRP has worked to protect the gains in political participation won by voters of color, litigating hundreds of voting rights cases and successfully challenging efforts to suppress voting or to dilute minority voting strength.

Amel Ahmed, Professor of Political Science at UMass Amherst, will lead a moderated discussion following the talk. Professor Ahmed's main area of specialization is democratic studies, with a special interest in elections, voting systems, legislative politics, party development, and voting rights. She examines these issues in historical and comparative perspective and her work combines a regional focus on Europe and the United States.  She is author of “Democracy and the Politics of Electoral System Choice: Engineering Electoral Dominance” (Cambridge University Press, 2013). Her new book, "The Regime Question: Foundations of Democratic Governance in Europe and The United States" (Princeton University Press, 2025) examines the history of regime contention in western democracies with a view to understanding the enduring dynamics and long-term impact of fights over the "rules of the game”.

The event will be followed by a reception.