voter suppression – Elect Sally Harrell

Resistance: the refusal to accept or comply.

For the past 20 months, we have seen time and time again the Republican Party put forth an agenda and push for policies that harm people, exclude those different from themselves, and make our society less physically safe and less financially secure for the majority of people.

Where does that leave those of us who want to fight the corruption, the racism, and the injustice of these actions?

We must resist, or else we enable this oppression to continue.

In Georgia, we had many examples of how low conservatives will go to suppress votes and push their extreme agenda.

Citing non-compliance with ADA policies, seven polling places in rural, mostly African American, Randolph County were slated for closure prior to November 2018’s election, requiring people to travel up to ten miles to vote.
This past legislative session the Georgia Senate voted to reduce voting on Sundays, specifically to suppress African American votes.
The Senate also supported English-only laws that oppress legal Georgia residents who are still learning to speak the English language.

In each of these cases crowds of people rose up in resistance and stopped bad policy before it could be made law.

But there is more work to be done:

The Republicans in the Georgia General Assembly are against expanding Medicaid, while rural hospitals are closing and people are dying from lack of healthcare,
And they’ve sent millions of dollars to private and for-profit charter schools, while at the same time cutting our kids’ public schools by billions.

Either we resist or we enable.

We resist so we can expand Medicaid so no one has to go without healthcare. We resist so we can protect the voting rights of minorities. We resist so we can adequately fund public schools to provide a safe and quality education to every Georgia child. We resist so we can develop a world-class and clean energy public transportation system so our children can have a future.

We resist because we refuse to be enablers. All over the United States, in communities large and small, people are resisting, registering voters, and helping new leaders get elected. Do your part.

Donate, Volunteer, and Vote.

—Sally

There’s something awesome about the collective feeling of everyone going to vote on the same day. We see old friends, we visit, and we feel a sense of community.

The problem with this experience is that it leaves people out. I recognize that not everyone has the freedom to be able to vote within that single day. People work long hours. Children get sick and must be cared for. Traffic gets in the way of voting before or after work, and workplaces are too far from voting precincts to vote during lunch.

Early voting makes voting accessible for more people. Since voting is fundamental to democracy, why would anyone be against this?

You might be against it if you know you’re becoming outnumbered by the majority and want to retain your power.

Enter Georgia Republicans. There’s a Senate bill making its way through the legislature that seeks to remove Sunday voting in the city of Atlanta and shorten the number of hours polls are open. This disproportionately suppresses minority vote, which typically favors Democrats.

This issue hits home in Senate District 40, as our current senator, Fran Millar, has a long history of speaking out against making voting more accessible. In 2014, when DeKalb county added Sunday voting hours in a predominately African American neighborhood, Sen. Millar stated, “I would prefer more educated voters than a greater increase in the number of voters.”

Senator Millar was among the majority of Republican senators who supported this year’s bill when it came up for a vote on the Senate floor.

So, let’s call it like it is. The Republicans don’t want your vote — they don’t want you to vote at all unless you look like them, think like them, or donate money to them.

We can fight this way of thinking and win back our power and voice. There’s an election coming up on May 22. Go vote and encourage others to vote. We live in a democracy, but only so long as we protect our right to vote by exercising that right.

—Sally

Posts

We Must Resist Or We Enable Injustice

Fighting Republican Voter Suppression