On Wednesday, February 21st, the Southern Poverty Law Center's Alabama office will host a voting summit in Mobile.

The summit, dubbed the 2024 Beyond The Vote Summit, will be conducted in partnership with the League of Women Voters and the Mobile County NAACP. The event location is the Bishop State Community College auditorium.

The purpose of this event is to increase voter education, especially among young voters, and attempt to mobilize voters.

Tafeni English-Lev, SPLC's Alabama state office director, spoke about hearing and listening to the concerns of young people.

“Young people's dissatisfaction with the political process is not new,” English Leff said. “These same grievances inspired the civil rights movement and forced a national dialogue that gave Black people the right to vote in 1965. The Beyond the Vote Summit is dedicated to honestly answering young people’s questions, addressing their concerns, and contributing to We respond to the current situation of young people by encouraging them to act against the systems that define or undermine their futures.”

Since this is an election year, there will continue to be many discussions with communities across Alabama. Currently, a bill is already moving through Congress that would criminalize aspects of absentee voting, a measure that critics and voting rights groups consider voter suppression.