John,

In the last several months, the Georgia State Election Board has introduced dozens of new rules – several of which have passed and are poised to affect this year’s elections.

Not only are these rules last-minute, but they are nearly impossible to implement and likely illegal – and that’s according to Georgia’s Republican secretary of state and attorney general. One of the most egregious gives county election officials conduct vague investigations before certifying election results, and another requires poll workers to hand-count ballots.

These changes will delay the counting of votes in November and could threaten the right of people of color in Georgia to have their votes counted.

CREW has vigorously opposed these efforts to alter the election rules and certification process and will continue to do so. Will you support our work to defend election certification by making a donation to CREW today?

These attempted rule changes could upend the election in Georgia – and delay national election certification.

As I wrote in a new op-ed in Slate with my colleague Katherine Culliton-Gonzalez, in 2013, it would have been harder, if not impossible, to implement these rules in the coming election.

Why? Well, if the Supreme Court had not eviscerated the Voting Rights Act of 1965 in its 2013 Shelby County ruling, or if Congress had passed the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act, the Department of Justice or a federal court would have had to first review data about the reasoning for the Georgia board’s rule changes, the potential impact on voters of color and any racialized rhetoric.

Until 2013 (when the Voting Rights Act was gutted by the Supreme Court) Georgia was one of nine states whose ongoing history of racial discrimination in voting placed them under the federal preclearance provisions of the Voting Rights Act. That means that if the provisions were still in place, Georgia would have had to submit any changes it sought to make related to its voting and election practices or procedures for federal review prior to their implementation in elections.

If these new rules had faced that kind of scrutiny, it is highly unlikely that they would have been implemented.

As the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg warned in her dissent back in 2013, throwing out preclearance “is like throwing away your umbrella in a rainstorm because you are not getting wet.”

See John, the efforts to delay or prevent the certification of election results are often based on lies that target Black and brown voters. That’s exactly what we’re seeing in Georgia.

The new rules allow for more leeway in the tabulation of votes, freezing voter lists and limiting advance voting. Unsurprisingly, their attacks have focused on Fulton County, with its plurality of Black voters.

We are focused on doing all we can to protect election certification this year. Can you help us in this important fight for our democracy by making a donation to CREW right now?

Thank you,

Donald Sherman
Executive Director
CREW