Republican extremists are targeting Georgians with a slew of attempts at voter suppression — including mass voter challenges. Take a look at this ProPublica headline:

This wave isn’t coming out of nowhere. Georgia Republicans passed a 2021 law that made it easier for private citizens to challenge the eligibility and qualifications of an unlimited number of voters within their county. Now we’re seeing six right-wing activists embrace that harmful law with their mass challenge efforts. 

Here’s how it works: Someone can claim that a voter in their county isn’t properly registered, submitting what’s referred to as a “challenge” to their county board of elections. When that challenge process is set in motion, the person whose eligibility and qualifications are challenged must jump through hoops to stay on the list of registered voters. The overwhelming majority of challenges have been dismissed due to faulty evidence, but they’ve still created unnecessary burdens for eligible voters and county officials.

From that ProPublica article, here are the stories of two people impacted by mass voter challenges:

Chris was six months into cancer treatment when he received a letter from his local elections office asking him to appear before the board and defend his voter registration. Despite his exhaustion and his doctor’s orders to stay at home as much as possible, he made the long journey to the hearing and was able to correct the clerical error in his address. He later found out that his registration had been one of the nearly 10,000 challenged by a single conservative private citizen.

Joseph became unhoused several years ago and started using a P.O box to receive his mail in 2018. He cast his ballot in the 2020 presidential election and was determined to vote in the 2022 Georgia U.S. Senate election. But he received a letter from his local elections office informing him that his registration had been challenged because he used a P.O. box. The letter asked him to appear at a board hearing or send paperwork justifying his registration. He worried that attending the hearing would cost him an expensive rideshare and prevent him from making it to work; as such, he didn’t contest his removal from the rolls. That meant he wasn’t able to vote in the 2022 elections. “I was really angry,” he said. “When you’re homeless, your vote is the only voice you’ve got.”

We’re working to ensure that in the face of these right-wing attempts to silence voters, voters have the resources needed to maintain their registrations, cast their ballots, and have those ballots counted.

To help gather more information about how this issue impacts the lives of eligible voters and inform our work going forward, we want to hear from you: Do you have a similar story about your registration being challenged? Submit it here >>

Thank you for your support! 

The Fair Fight Team