Why We Fight

Like the poll taxes and literacy tests of the Jim Crow era, modern voter suppression efforts are relentless and effective.

Why We Fight

Efforts to discourage and disenfranchise voters—in voter registration, ballot access, or counting of votes—have a catastrophic effect on our democracy and our communities. The facts and faces of voters from the 2018 election in Georgia convey the insidious design and pervasive impact of voter suppression.

Click here to view The Abrams Playbook.

Voter Registration

1.6 million voters

were purged from the voter rolls from 2010-2018, leaving them ineligible to vote.

We Fight For

Jacqueline from DeKalb County

[READ STORY]
My daughter has lived in the same house, at the same address, since she was three years old...sure enough, her registration had been purged in 2018 due to being registered in multiple states. [I am] confused and anxious about the accuracy and integrity of Georgia’s elections systems.

53,000+ voter registrations

were held hostage in “pending” status. 80 percent of these registrations were from voters of color.

We Fight For

Jamie from Fulton County

[READ STORY]
I have lived at the same address since April 1991…On Election Day, I went to my designated polling location at Peachtree Presbyterian Church. The elections officials told me that they could not find me on the registered voter rolls…A supervisor informed me that if I had not voted in the last 10 years I was likely “scrubbed” from the voter registration rolls. It was troubling that the staff did not have any record that I had ever voted…

Ballot Access

Nearly 30,000 voters

were forced to vote on a provisional ballot, most of which did not count.

We Fight For

Melanie from Gwinnett County

[READ STORY]
Voters waited in line for more than an hour before being told that they needed to go elsewhere to vote...I noticed many cars pull into the parking lot and leave—presumably because of the length of the line. I also noticed people who walked toward the line and left without voting when they saw how long the line was....The length of the line affected the number of people voting.

Tens of thousands of voters

waited in hours-long lines, missing work and other obligations, or leaving without voting because they could not afford the wait.

We Fight For

Rasheicka from Chatham County

[READ STORY]
I went to vote where I always vote. The poll worker told me that I was in the wrong place and sent me to an old school. When I got there, they scanned my ID and told me that my voting place was Oglethorpe Academy. I left and went to work. When I got off from work, I tried to find the other location. By the time I figured out that Oglethorpe Academy didn’t exist and that I was supposed to go to Oglethorpe Charter School, it was 6:48pm and I wouldn’t be able to get there in time. I never got to vote.

Voter Counting

Thousands of absentee ballot

applications were lost or rejected, disenfranchising voters, particularly voters of color.

We Fight For

Ora from Dougherty County

[READ STORY]
I am 90 years old and have been sick since January. ...I requested an absentee ballot on September 12, 2018. I did not receive my ballot until approximately one month later. I completed it and mailed it in. I understand that my absentee ballot was received on October 29, 2018 and was rejected because of ‘insufficient oath information’. I do not recall being made aware that it was rejected and would not count.

100,000+ votes missing

from the 2018 Lieutenant Governor’s race. Because of faulty voting machines, voters–especially in communities of color –had their votes go unrecorded.

We Fight For

Chris from Fulton County

[READ STORY]
I was told that I had already voted by absentee ballot using my old eight-year old address, which was not true. On Election Day, I voted using a provisional ballot but never received a piece of paper explaining my rights, including how to correct a deficiency or how to check whether my ballot was counted. I am uncertain whether my vote was ever counted.