Voter suppression in the state of Georgia
by Felicia Madrigal
The Encyclopedia Britannica defines voter suppression as: “in U.S. history and politics, any legal or extralegal measure or strategy whose purpose or practical effect is to reduce voting, or registering to vote, by members of a targeted racial group, political party, or religious community. The overwhelming majority of victims of voter suppression in the United States have been African Americans.”
In Georgia, about 200,000 registered voters were removed from the Georgia voter rolls in 2019, before the 2020 elections. A 2019 report on Georgia’s voter registration purge by the Palast Investigative Fund, and published by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Georgia, indicates that voter suppression continues to be a serious problem in Georgia. The Palast Investigative Fund hired experts in address verification to scrutinize Georgia’s voter purge list, using the industry standard for residential address verification. The report found that Georgia had removed 198,351 voters from the voter rolls on the grounds they had moved from the address on their voter registration. However, they had not moved at all, and therefore were wrongly purged. The voter purges were concentrated among younger citizens, voters of lower income and citizens of color.
In response to this voter purge, voting rights advocates are suing Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, for the wrongful purging of these almost 200,000 Georgia residents from voter registrations. The lawsuit, filed on December 2, 2020, asserts that these Georgia residents’ votes were hindered for the presidential election. The voting rights groups want the voters’ names to be reinstated on voter polls for the upcoming Senate runoff election on January 5, 2021. The Georgia runoff elections for U.S. Senate are being held on January 5, 2021, because no candidate received a majority of votes in either November 3, 2020 election. Georgia was the only state to hold two U.S. Senate elections in 2020—one regularly scheduled election between David Perdue (Republican) and Jon Ossoff (Democrat), and one special election to fill the rest of retired Sen. Johnny Isakson’s (Republican) term. (Incumbent Kelly Loeffler(R) was appointed to fill his seat by Gov. Brian Kemp (R) and she was sworn in on Jan. 6, 2020.)
Voter suppression is a big deal because elections can be close. For example, in Georgia, Joe Biden won the presidential election by 11,779 votes. Importantly, the upcoming Georgia runoff election on January 5, 2021, will determine whether Republicans retain a majority in the U.S. Senate that will enable them to block changes that President-elect Joe Biden and the new administration may wish to enact.
It is more important than ever that Georgians double-check the status of their voter registrations, to ensure that they can vote in the January 5, 2021 runoff election, which will have long-lasting impact not only in Georgia but on the entire country. Georgians can check to see if they are on the purge list at: SaveMyVote2020.org.
