Voter suppression is alive and well across the country. Since the Supreme Court decided to gut key provisions of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 (VRA) because “racism is a thing of the past,” voters around the country have found it harder to cast a ballot, in part due to restrictive new voter ID laws and the closing of polling locations.
Let America Vote has examined the impact of the Supreme Court’s decision across Georgia. They found that the recent closing of polling places disproportionately impacted voters of color, and is based in a long history of voter discrimination in the state.
Since Shelby County [the court case which allowed for changes in policies and election law to be made at will], elections officials across the country — and specifically in Georgia — have closed and consolidated hundreds of polling places.
One study found that nationwide, since Shelby County, voters in counties once covered by the VRA had at least 868 fewer places to cast ballots in the 2016 presidential election than they did in past elections, a 16 percent reduction. [...]
Georgia was one of the nine states wholly-covered by the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Since the VRA’s passage in 1965, federal authorities have rejected 177 proposed changes to Georgia election law because the changes were discriminatory.[viii] Without the full protection of the VRA, Georgia voters are subject to the actions of public officials who now have complete power to determine the time, place, and manner of Georgia elections, without federal oversight.
Across the state, poll closures mean that voters who are assigned to new locations are less likely to vote on Election Day. It also has an impact on those voters who live in urban areas and are less likely to have reliable transportation. And, in what should come as no surprise at all, “a study found that “Democrats were more likely to be affected by polling location changes than Republicans.”
In 2015 in Hancock County, about 100 miles southeast of Atlanta, the Board of Elections planned to close 9 of its 10 voting precincts. Their plan would have left one remaining polling place in downtown Sparta, Hancock County’s county seat and a city with a deep racial divide.This would have caused some precincts to be up to 17 miles from the one remaining precinct, creating an unfair travel burden to the county’s majority-black precincts.
Georgia Republicans are the chief architects of voter disenfranchisement. Secretary of State Brian Kemp, who is also currently running for governor, has agreed to share voter information with Trump’s commission on voter fraud—which every study out there has already proved is almost non-existent. Kemp has also purged almost 600,000 voters from the state’s rolls in the last few months alone. Add to that number the 732,800 voters who were removed between 2014 and 2016 and it’s no wonder that Republicans keep getting elected.
Democrat Stacey Abrams, also running for governor, has been a fierce advocate for voting rights her entire career. She was the founder of the New Georgia Project, a group dedicated to registering 800,000 new voters focusing on people of color, young people ages 18 to 29, and unmarried women. These populations represent the rising majority in the state and are the exact demographic Republicans are trying to keep from voting. Now, more than ever, we need to fight to ensure that elections are fair in the state of Georgia and that all people have access to ballot box. Please donate $3 today to help elect Stacey Abrams as Georgia’s next governor and turn the state blue.