Today, more than 1553 African-American congregations in Georgia are asking their members to stand if they are registered to vote in recognition of how important voting is to the community. Special attention will be paid to those who just registered this year.
But after the recognition work is complete, they will ask their congregations if any of them had witnessed voter intimidation or actions designed to deny them their right to vote (eg, not being told they could use a provisional ballot if there was an issue with the poll books or something that could be rectified later). Those who stand for this will be provided with an incident report to record any information they can remember. Their elections committee or contact person will then be recognized and for those counties that have them, the official voter FAQ will be distributed.
Black churches are the cornerstones of African-American communities in Georgia and the south. Even under the stress of Covid and an economic downturn, they bring strength and stability to their members. And these churches have taken it upon themselves to make sure they are voters, especially in this runoff election.
After services, their elections committee will follow up with anyone who stood up as witnesses to election issues. It is anticipated that some won't feel comfortable about their writing skills to fill out an incident report -- or may not understand the paperwork.
Swing states have long used incident reports to build a database about election issues. These reports form the basis for poll watchers, litigation and keeping polls open. It is actually amazing how receptive judges are to historical data about specific polling locations. The data built up beginning 20 odds years ago about Missouri -- when Missouri was considered a possible swing state, like Georgia (and Texas) has become -- was still used for keeping polls open in the last cycle.
But Georgia has not been a swing state. This doesn't mean that no data exists. Incidents of voter intimidation and lack of legal access has been built up over the years through reports to the Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights and its counterpart for Spanish speakers at NALEO.
Hope Springs from Field PAC, a new political committee begun by Obama Alums, will attempt to match the incident reports collected today and the next few weeks with those databases to form the basis for an election protection plan to be enacted on election day. We created it because field was essential to the Obama victories and the lack of field and in-person voter contact (in contrast to the Trump campaign's adoption of Obama field plan) is the reason we didn't do as well down ballot as we expected.
This lesson was one that was learned by the Democratic candidates in their coordinated campaign.
Hope Springs PAC is focused on the ground, face to face conversations that have proven effective in turning out voters year in and year out. By engaging the Black Church, HBCUs, and knocking on their doors, not just in the Atlanta metro region, but also Georgia’s Black Belt, we want to increase that turnout significantly.
Obviously, we need your help. To send field organizers to Georgia costs around $12k per organizer (salary, taxes, benefits & expenses).
https://secure.actblue.com/donate/hopefield
Black churches are the cornerstones of African-American communities in Georgia and the south. Even under the stress of Covid and an economic downturn, they bring strength and stability to their members. And these churches have taken it upon themselves to make sure not only that their congregants vote but do so safely, especially in this pandemic.
As the picture above indicates, there is an active effort by the KKK to suppress the vote across the Black Belt and Southern Georgia. People have had these flyers mailed to them in the last few days, as well as left on their cars at African-American salons. Canvassers were shown the flyer by voters and have taken them to church services today.
Starting voter protection efforts was already scheduled to begin this weekend, after voter registration was completed. That was the plan. But it wasn't predicted that voter intimidation efforts would begin so soon. Bringing swing state best practices to, well, an emergent swing state compliments existing efforts in the state. There are dozens and dozens of local civil rights and political organizations (just as there were in Alabama) but they all agree that Georgia voters have the right to vote safely and in a timely manner.
Prior election incident reports are used to point out concerns to local District and US Attorneys offices before election day. It makes law enforcement aware of past practices, and reminds them of their duties to protect all Georgians. It marries local, state and national efforts to protect the vote.
Today begins the second phase of engaging the Black Church in Georgia for the runoff. It starts not only by building up a knowledgebase of voter intimidation and denial but also on getting members to Vote Early. The AME Church has a goal of getting 80% of their members to vote by Christmas Eve, and Hope Springs PAC is encouraging the other churches who have joined this effort to do the same. We will be using our access to Early Voter records to help churches maximize their efforts to reach their members who have yet to vote and turn them out.
I want to thank everyone for their support of Hope Springs PAC as we build out the ground game in Georgia. Thank you for your support. Field drives victory.
https://secure.actblue.com/donate/hopefield