Judge Orders Continued Voting in Gary, Hammond and East Chicago;
All Early Votes Will Be Counted

Hammond, IN -- After weeks of court battles, Lake Superior Court Judge Diane Kavadias Schneider concluded that early voting in Gary, Hammond, and East Chicago will go on without interference - a complete victory for the thousands of residents facing challenges getting to the polls on Election Day.

This is another great victory for the hard-working families of Indiana and it's encouraging news for the nation as a whole," said Andy Stern, President of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU). "Our country is at a critical point in history this election. The stakes could not be higher. When the economy is collapsing, Hoosiers are losing their healthcare, losing their jobs and even losing their homes, everyone needs a fair chance to make their voices heard."

Early voting locations opened in Gary, Hammond and East Chicago last week as SEIU stepped up its get-out-the-vote efforts -- making phone calls, knocking on doors, providing transportation, and airing educational radio spots about where and how to vote early. Since then, hundreds of voters began casting ballots at the new polling sites and SEIU Indiana has received more than 300 requests for transportation from elderly and low-income voters.

"Each day working families throughout northwest Indiana are being asked to shoulder the weight of this failing economy. This election will make it or break it for working families in Indiana and all over the country," Stern said. "Any move that attempts to disenfranchise select residents in Gary, Hammond, East Chicago or any American city is a disgrace to our democratic system."

The SEIU legal team plans to keep working with community allies and partners to make sure that the voting rights of all Indiana citizens are protected before Election Day. "We're very pleased to be a part of efforts to protect early voting," continued Stern. "We will not let this election turn into Ohio in 2004 and Florida in 2000."

SEIU's continues to protect voters' rights and get-out-the-vote in Indiana as well as other battleground states:

In Ohio, SEIU and the AFL-CIO, along with SEIU 1199 and the Ohio State Federation filed a "friend of the court" brief in the U.S. Supreme Court supporting the rights of approximately 200,000 of 666,000 registered Ohio voters to use voter registration cards that might not match their driver's license data, Social Security records, or other government data because of clerical errors.

Across Florida, SEIU representatives helped provide transportation for residents voting early in Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm-Beach counties.

On-going efforts in Indiana include:

-Staffing an Early Vote Hotline (219-980-8262) to answer voter questions and schedule rides to and from polling site;

-Registering new voters (14,000 new voters to date; 9,300 since the primary);

-Mobilizing nearly 1,000 members to register voters in Northwest Indiana alone;

-Door-knocking six days a week with the goal of securing 1,400 weekend canvassing warriors;

-Distributing early vote and GOTV literature to approximately 70,000 households between now and Election Day; and

-Running broadcast and print ads to promote SEIU's early voting program in African American and community media.

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