When Sheepshead Bay native Larry David was arrested in the latest season of HBO’s “Curb Your Enthusiasm” for handing a bottle of water to a voter waiting in a line outside a poll site in Georgia, he might as well have been back home in Brooklyn.
The same kind of law that the cringe comedian was poking fun at in Georgia — which prohibits people from offering food or water to people waiting in line to vote — also exists in New York, and is the subject of a trial starting in federal court on Monday.
The Brooklyn NAACP sued the city and state Boards of Elections in 2021 challenging what is commonly referred to as a “line-warming ban,” which bans giving any person waiting to vote a provision such as food or beverages.
The organization has long worked to remove barriers to voting, particularly in communities of color where there has been a history of voter suppression.
“If people believe that they’re going to wait in a long line, that can also prohibit people from engaging in the process,” said L. Joy Williams, president of the group’s Brooklyn chapter and a legislative coordinator for the New York State NAACP.
She said the group is always seeking ways to foster more civic engagement and even promote a supportive, celebratory atmosphere at poll sites, particularly during presidential election years, when voter turnout peaks.
The civil rights organization is being represented by the Elias Group, a left-leaning “mission-driven” law firm founded by voting rights attorney Marc Elias, who has represented Democrats and nonprofits in other voting rights cases.
“The primary claim in the case is about the First Amendment rights to free speech, to engage in this sort of political work,” said Lali Madduri, a partner at the firm representing the NAACP in this case. “To provide water and food, which is expressive conduct that is conveying that the NAACP, the people who do this work, they value the right to vote.”
Williams said that if the lawsuit is successful,…
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