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Former Attorney General Eric Holder Endorses Sally Harrell for GA State Senate District 40

I’m pleased to share with you that Eric Holder, former attorney general of the United States and chairman of the National Democratic Redistricting Committee, has endorsed my candidacy for Georgia State Senate District 40. Here’s what he said:

“I’m proud to support Sally Harrell for Georgia Senate District 40. She will be a champion for fair maps and will help ensure the citizens of Georgia are able to vote in fair elections for the next decade. If we are going to fix the Republican gerrymandering that has plagued our democracy, we need to ensure Democrats have a seat at the table when new maps are drawn in 2021. Sally will work on behalf of all Georgians to make sure their voice and their vote counts.”

–Eric H. Holder, Jr.
Chairman of the National Democratic Redistricting Committee
https://democraticredistricting.com/state/georgia/

If elected, I will work to undo years of voter suppression practices installed by Republicans like Fran Millar, not just related to gerrymandering: I will support voting on Sundays, extending voting hours, and make sure we provide enough resources to secure our voting systems.

These efforts are needed now, more than ever, as we have experts telling us our democracy in Georgia is at serious risk.

A federal lawsuit filed earlier this month against Georgia suggests that there are multiple issues with the electoral process in our state, from 16-year-old machines breaking down, to no paper trail, to people being directed to the wrong polling places, to potential voter fraud.

And who is in charge of making sure these issues are addressed — Secretary of State Brian Kemp, the Trump-endorsed Republican candidate for Governor. Kemp and his staff insist there is nothing to be concerned about. In fact, he put off changing the voting systems until 2020, well after the election he hopes to win.

These assaults on our democracy have to end. As we have seen, the Republican Party doesn’t care if Russia is hacking our state and national electoral systems. They don’t care if voters of color are denied their rights to vote. They aren’t concerned whether they actually represent you where you live – they only want to win and to stay in power.

It’s time we took back our democracy.

Georgia State Senate District 40 can be a force for fair elections in our state. We need your support. We need your investment in change, and it starts in the Georgia Senate. Give $100 and help me get to the table when redistricting begins.

—Sally

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Fran Millar Doesn’t Want YOU to Vote

Have you heard about the effort to purge more than half a million registered voters from voting lists? The reason? The voters haven’t voted in three years.

Let’s call this what it is: partisan and racist voter suppression, and a violation of every Georgia citizen’s rights.

But purging the voter rolls is only a small part of the GOP effort to limit voting. Just this year Senate Bill 363 tried to reduce poll hours, end Sunday voting, and limit Saturday voting. All designed to reduce the voice of minority voters in DeKalb and Atlanta.

These antics aren’t new. Only a couple of years ago, Fran Millar was quoted in national media saying how he didn’t want black voters to show up at the polls.

I’m not exaggerating when I say that almost every day I have to explain to my children what politics and government used to be like, and why the behavior of our politicians and would-be leaders is unacceptable.

We must resist and reject the GOP’s efforts to normalize prejudice and oppression in Georgia. We must enshrine the values of equality, integrity, justice, and economic dignity that had started to take hold in our state. We must go back to the days when we expanded Medicaid, lowered class sizes, reduced college costs, and removed a racist state flag. We were never perfect, but we certainly were better than this.

We can increase early voting hours and locations, including weekend voting. We can get rid of racially motivated voter ID laws and registration purges. We can fix our districts so all voters have an equal voice in choosing our representatives.

We can do this together. We must take back our state from extremists. We must protect our democracy.

Will you join us? Give today. Volunteer. Vote Tuesday and vote in November!

—Sally

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