Georgia voters are slated to not be allowed to vote early on a Saturday earlier than the upcoming U.S. Senate runoff because of voter suppression efforts by the GOP and the prevalence of Thanksgiving and a Accomplice vacation in late November.
The runoff between Sen. Raphael Warnock (D) and Republican Herschel Walker will happen on December 6. Although the early voting window for the election might probably embody two weekends, Republican Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger’s workplace said that state regulation is not going to enable early voting on Saturday, November 26, regardless of saying last week that voters will doubtless have the chance to vote that day.
Raffensperger’s workplace despatched out a memo on Saturday citing a Georgia law passed in 2016, claiming that it prohibits early voting on the second Saturday earlier than the runoff as a result of there’s a state vacation instantly previous it. The vacations, on this case, are Thanksgiving and a vacation commemorating Confederate general Robert E. Lee that Friday. Early voting on the weekend instantly earlier than the election just isn’t allowed within the state.
The timing wasn’t a difficulty in earlier runoff elections as a result of runoffs used to happen 9 weeks after Election Day. However after Republicans misplaced each Senate seats within the runoff election final 12 months, the GOP-controlled legislature handed an enormous voter suppression invoice that shortened the timeline to a mere 4 weeks after Election Day, maybe realizing that the vacations will usually coincide with not less than a part of the early voting window.
Voting rights advocates have stated that Raffensperger’s workplace’s interpretation of the regulation is wrong, nonetheless, and that the try and restrict early voting is one other GOP transfer to suppress the vote, especially since Democrats usually push early voting greater than Republicans.
Marc E. Elias, founding father of voting rights group Democracy Docket, pledged that the group would discover authorized choices to fight the Republican determination.
“The GOP is determined to suppress the vote within the Georgia runoff. Final evening, they tried to sneak out incorrect info concerning Saturday voting on Nov. 26,” Elias wrote on Twitter on Sunday. “This interpretation of the regulation is unsuitable. If Georgia insists on it, we’ll contemplate all authorized choices.”
Elias additionally pointed out that the timing of the memo disallowing Saturday voting was suspicious, as it came just as retailers started projecting that Democrats would keep management of the Senate after the social gathering was projected to maintain its seat in Nevada.
Different voting rights and justice advocates identified that the truth that voting can be restricted partly because of a vacation celebrating a Accomplice normal was particularly symbolic of Republicans’ voter suppression efforts, which seem to have specifically targeted Black Georgians’ capability to vote.
“A Accomplice vacation shouldn’t stop the safety of democracy,” wrote Georgia Nationwide Affiliation for the Development of Coloured Folks (NAACP) President Gerald Griggs. “That vacation must be eradicated.”
The NAACP can be contemplating authorized choices over the GOP determination, as Griggs told The Atlanta Voice. The Georgia NAACP has sued the state several times over what they stated have been gerrymandered maps and over the state’s landmark voter suppression regulation final 12 months.
Georgia State Rep. Jasmine Clark, a Democrat, stated that the shortening of the voting window for the runoff solely serves to additional the GOP’s voter suppression efforts.
“There isn’t any logical rationale to banning early voting on the Saturday after a Thursday or Friday vacation aside from to restrict the variety of weekend days out there for early voting within the runoff,” Clark stated. The brief window “makes Election administration extraordinarily troublesome, leaves zero room for issues like recounts and different potential delays, and disenfranchises voters who would wish to vote by mail.”
“And the icing on the cake is by some means the remnants of the confederacy at all times discover a method to make an look,” Clark continued. “The truth that Robert E. Lee is the explanation why the regulation bans Saturday voting this 12 months is par for the course in Georgia’s ugly historical past of racism and voter disenfranchisement.”
