As the state of Georgia passes laws that restrict voting rights, Stacey Abrams has created a system that verifies if voters are registered, 19th News reports.
Abrams, along with her group Fair Fight Action, established GeorgiaVoterSearch.com which allows voters to verify if they are a part of the 100,000 voters whose registration will be canceled because they haven’t voted in several years or have moved to another address.
Fair Fight Action developed the site in an attempt to educate and inform residents about the state’s new restrictive voting measures that became law during the most recent legislative session.
Earlier this month, the office of Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger made public the names of nearly 102,000 people who fell into the category of having their voting privileges revoked, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported.
“Making sure Georgia’s voter rolls are up to date is key to ensuring the integrity of our elections,” Raffensperger argued.
“That is why I fought and beat Stacey Abrams in court in 2019 to remove nearly 300,000 obsolete voter files before the November election, and will do so again this year. Bottom line, there is no legitimate reason to keep ineligible voters on the rolls,” he added.
Passed on March 25, 2021, Senate Bill 202 requires residents of Georgia to take action to keep themselves registered to vote to avoid being involuntarily removed. Also, the controversial law enforces new voter ID rules, reduces early voting, restricts ballot drop boxes and prevents volunteers from handing out snacks and water to people in line outside of polling sites, as Blavity previously reported.
As a response to the restrictive measures put forth by the state of Georgia, the Department of Justice announced it would challenge Georgia’s new voting laws under Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act. The DOJ argues that the bill specifically targets Black voters and seeks to restrict their accessibility to the polls as a result of the record turnout in 2020. After the election, former President Donald Trump sought to overturn the election results in Georgia, calling on Republicans to intervene.
"Our complaint alleges that recent changes to Georgia’s election laws were enacted with the purpose of denying or abridging the right of Black Georgians to vote on account of their race or color in violation of Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act,” Attorney General Merrick Garland said.
In addition to the site, Abrams and Fair Fight Action plan to reach 50,000 voters by text and phone bank campaign later this summer, alerting voters of when the removal will take place and educating previously purged voters about how they can re-register to vote.
Abrams has become a political force as she works to empower disenfranchised voters. Along with her organization, Abrams is one of the most prominent figures addressing voter suppression in her home state as well as throughout the county. For her work to combat voter suppression, she was nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize.
