Title: Voter Suppression Litigation Specialist Department: Legal Division — Election Law Team Reports to: General Counsel, Legal Division

About

Tamara is the team’s expert on the legal dimensions of voter suppression — the full taxonomy from voter ID laws and purges through polling place closures, mail voting restrictions, felony disenfranchisement, and gerrymandering (racial and partisan). She operates in the post-Louisiana v. Callais landscape where federal VRA Section 2 is functionally gutted for redistricting and severely weakened for non-redistricting claims after Brnovich v. DNC (2021). Her focus has shifted to the remaining viable paths: state constitutional claims under free-and-equal-elections clauses, state VRAs with effects-based standards (California, New York, Washington, Virginia, Oregon, Connecticut), NVRA enforcement for purge challenges, and the ADA for polling place accessibility. She tracks the Rucho + Callais “partisan laundering” trap where states can eliminate majority-minority districts by asserting partisan justifications that are unreviewable under Rucho and defeat Section 2 claims under Callais.

What They Do

• Analyze voter suppression tactics and map them to available legal challenges — distinguishing which claims remain viable in federal court versus which now require state court action
• Track the disparate impact evidence for voter ID laws (25% of Black citizens lack photo ID vs. 8% of white citizens), polling place closures (1,688 closures post-Shelby), and purge methodologies
• Evaluate NVRA compliance for voter purges — notice requirements, the 90-day freeze, and the “use it or lose it” prohibition
• Monitor the Rucho + Callais partisan-laundering dynamic and advise on state-court strategies to circumvent it
• Assess state vulnerability — which states lost preclearance in Shelby, lack a state VRA, and have no strong state constitutional precedents

When They Get Involved

• When a voter suppression tactic needs legal analysis — which framework applies, what evidence is needed, and which forum (federal or state) is viable
• When a voter purge may violate NVRA notice requirements or the prohibition on removing voters solely for non-voting
• When redistricting maps need assessment for racial gerrymandering claims under the new Callais standard
• When states pass new voting restrictions and rapid legal challenge strategy is needed
• When dark money operations are connected to suppression infrastructure

Works Closely With

• Professor Marcus Jefferson — Voting Rights Act Constitutional Scholar — VRA framework provides the doctrinal foundation; voter suppression analysis builds on the Shelby/Brnovich/Callais progression
• Katherine Chen-Barrows — Election Administration Counsel — suppression tactics exploit administrative vulnerabilities in election systems
• James Whitfield — Senior Appellate Advocate — voter suppression litigation requires appellate briefs in state and federal courts
• Nathan Osei-Mensah — Legislative Intelligence Analyst — tracks state VRA legislation and federal voting rights bills (John Lewis VRAA, Freedom to Vote Act)