Brown Chapel AME Church was full of people Saturday who all shared one thing in common: a concern for voting rights.

NAACP Legal Defense And Educational Fund, Inc hosted a forum to give information on voting. Topics like what kind of identification is needed, voter registration, elections and run off dates were all shared.

President and Director Council of the NAACP LDF Sherrilyn Ifill said she wanted the forum to answer questions she hears often about voting rights.

She says the organization is currently litigating a case challenging Alabama Voters ID Law.

People were able to hear from panelists who shared their take of the state of voting equality in America.

Mae Harley is from Louisiana and said some of the things that were discussed are issues back at home.

“We have to go back into our neighborhoods and get busy because this really is a crisis. It’s serious and we all have to become foot soldiers to help us get through this,” Harley said.

Deuel Ross, Jerome Gray, Francis Johnson and Natasha Korgaonkar were forum panelists who made themselves available to audience members for one-on-one conversations after the forum was over.

Natasha Korgaonkar, assistant council at the NAACP LDF, said she believes people who attended left more educated on voting issues.

“People need to get behind their senators and representatives to support the Voting Rights Authorization Act. There is a huge threat to voting rights right now, and we are seeing stricter restrictions to try to curtail our voting power,” Korgaonkar said.

She said she also believes that answer to the problem starts with holding officials accountable and making the process of voting as simple as possible for all.

“Voting is preservative of all other rights that we have. Everything comes from our democracy, which comes from the people right to vote. Without this, we don’t have our full citizenship or power to change the country or the community around us,” Korgaonkar said.

More information on this organization can be found at www.naacpldf.org.