Contact: Gabrielle Abbott, Gabrielle@AllVotingisLocal.org, 773.369.5358
Lack of funding and preparedness leads to delays and safety concerns
ATLANTA — All Voting is Local Georgia and more than 10 civil rights organizations, including The Lawyer’s Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, Campaign Legal Center, the Coalition for the People’s Agenda, and Black Voters Matter, called on Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger and State Election Board members to establish uniform standards and provide funding to counties to fix widespread ballot processing problems, voting delays, and unsafe conditions at polling places for the June 9 primary.
Georgia voters are being denied the right to vote privately, securely, and safely. Voters are not receiving the mailed ballots they requested, are not being informed of election changes in a timely or inclusive manner, and have reported a lack of sanitation procedures at polling places.
In their letter, groups said: “Despite the challenges of these times, Georgia voters demand fair, equitable and efficient elections. Providing all active voters with absentee ballot applications and allowing counties to install ballot drop boxes have been a helpful start, but without the additional actions outlined in this letter, the integrity of the June 9th primary election is still at risk. Boards of elections and voters need the additional support of time, better information, and enforcement of uniform protocols to reduce the impediments to their absentee ballots being counted and to have safe in-person voting if that is what they choose to or must do.”
The groups are demanding state officials make these changes immediately:
- Extend the deadline for receipt of mailed-in absentee ballots.
- Implement an enhanced communications strategy to adequately inform voters of the addition of absentee drop box locations and changes to in-person polling locations.
- Enforce uniform protocols related to the provision to and use of personal protective equipment by poll workers and voters throughout the state.
The letter is available here.
The following groups signed the letter: ProGeorgia State Table, All Voting is Local Georgia, Asian Americans Advancing Justice – Atlanta, Black Voters Matter, Coalition for the People’s Agenda, Common Cause, Georgia Association for Latino Elected Officials, Georgia Stand Up, The Lawyer’s Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, The League of Women Voters Georgia, NAACP-GA, The New Georgia Project, Southern Poverty Law Center Action Fund, Campaign Legal Center.
All Voting is Local has created a visual tracking tool on the number of absentee ballot applications, by day and county, which can be found here.
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All Voting is Local fights to eliminate needless and discriminatory barriers to voting before they happen, to build a democracy that works for us all. It is a collaborative campaign housed at the Leadership Conference Education Fund, in conjunction with the American Civil Liberties Union Foundation; the American Constitution Society; the Campaign Legal Center; and the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law. For more information about All Voting is Local, visit https://
