It’s getting harder to vote in Georgia.
Weeks ago, in the middle of campaign season, my voter registration was marked inactive, and I had to spend valuable time proving I live here — in the community where I was born.
Credit: Handout
Credit: Handout
This wasn’t even the first time I’ve had to defend my status as a voter. Despite growing up in Warner Robins and returning home more than five years ago. Despite being a public figure and running for office.
I’ve had this happen multiple times. I’ve had to fight for my right to vote.
On the campaign trail, I’ve found that I’m not the only Georgian caught up by this nonsense. Laws passed by our Republican-controlled statehouse and signed by the governor have encouraged and enabled a small group of conservative activist groups tied to the Trump campaign to challenge the voter registrations of any Georgian leading up to this November’s election.
Since then, about 100,000 Georgians have had their registration challenged or put on notice or have been removed from the voter rolls entirely this year.
The majority of those challenges were sent in by only six right-wing activists. That’s six extremists who believe they have the right to decide Georgia’s future.
Facts are facts: There isn’t widespread voter fraud here in Georgia — or anywhere in the United States. The biggest threat to democracy is the systemic removal of the right to vote.
That reality has been proved time and time again, including in the results of these voter challenges. Of the 100,000 challenges activists sent in, only 2.3% of voters were removed from the voter rolls, largely for clerical issues.
The truth is that our election officials have this handled. They don’t want or need these activists’ “help” cleaning up our voter rolls. In fact, these challenges have overwhelmed their offices and made it much harder for them to do their jobs.
So though these challenges haven’t had much of an effect on our election security, they have unfairly punished our most vulnerable voters and tried to take the last thing many of them still have: their voice.
Voters who were unable to prove their registration before Oct. 7 are now either barred from voting or will be forced to use a provisional ballot on Election Day and hope their county election board changes their mind about their voting status.
Instead, many voters who find themselves turned away at the polls will skip the hassle and head home — their vote effectively taken from them.
Let me be very clear: This is voter suppression.
Combined with other measures such as the recent hand-counting law and outlawing giving food or water to those standing in line to vote, there is a clear desire to lower voter turnout statewide.
Republicans are terrified by Georgians who want to stand up for their communities and are putting their thumb on the scale to force a return to low-turnout, easy-to-win Republican elections. It’s partisan, it’s ugly, and it’s based on a politics of fear and distrust.
The people fighting to deny their fellow Georgians the right to vote are not protecting democracy, they are undermining it for their own benefit. My opponent, Rep. Austin Scott, is perfectly fine with these challenges and is more focused on scapegoating immigrants and spreading hate than voter suppression or the election stealing his own party is pushing forward.
But it’s not undocumented immigrants trying to steal our elections; it’s former President Donald Trump and career politicians like Scott.
Scott wants your voice either silenced completely or replaced by Trump’s. I believe Georgia deserves better and would amplify, not silence, Georgian voters and make it easier, not harder, for people to vote.
There will always be people like Scott who hope you don’t show up on Election Day. They think kicking people off the rolls and making it harder to vote is the way to power.
They don’t care about what you believe or what you need. But I believe in the sacred right to vote and I know firsthand that our rights are only worth something when we use them.
So to any Georgian like me who’s had his or her rights questioned: Don’t let yourself be silenced — and don’t trust the people who only win when your voice isn’t in the room.
This is a use-it-or-lose-it election for tens of thousands of us. Our right to vote, our right to choice and our right to a representative government are on the ballot. Let’s vote like it.
The Rev. Darrius Butler is the Democratic nominee for Georgia’s 8th Congressional District.
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