Dear Friend,

Georgia's primary election on Tuesday was an absolute disaster.

Four-hour-long lines. Malfunctioning voting machines. Tens of thousands of
absentee ballots “lost” in the mail.^1,2 It was so bad that there have
been calls for United Nations elections monitors to step in.^3

And as usual, these problems were worse in majority Black precincts.^4

Georgia's voting disaster is being called a “giant warning siren” for what
could happen in November.^5 If Congress doesn't act now, millions of
voters could be disenfranchised or forced to choose between their health
and their civic duty.

[ [link removed] ]Congress must pass national vote-by-mail IMMEDIATELY. Will you donate
$5 to help Demand Progress rally grassroots pressure to pass
a national vote-by-mail law?

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Once the coronavirus pandemic began, Georgia’s election officials asked
voters repeatedly to request absentee ballots in order to alleviate
pressure on understaffed polling places. The voters complied with more
than 1.5 million requests for mail-in ballots.^6

But the state didn't hold up its end of the bargain. More than 60,000
people hadn't received their ballots by the last days before the day of
the primary, and those who did were told to return the ballots in
envelopes that didn't exist, along with other confusing instructions.^7,8

On the day of the election, the state implemented new voting machines in
some districts—machines that experts said were not ready to be
deployed—which immediately malfunctioned.^9 Polling places in the Atlanta
metro area—a section of Georgia that is predominantly people of color—were
understaffed and unprepared for the people needing to vote in person,
while polling places in whiter, richer areas had fewer problems.^10 Social
media was flooded with pictures of hours-long lines in the Atlanta area,
while other places had no lines at all.^11

As former gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams said, “It is a disaster
that was very preventable, emblematic of the deeply systemic issues”
Georgia has.^12 But it's clear that Georgia's leadership has no interest
in preventing these failures.

It's not just Georgia whose election suffered during the primary. In
Pennsylvania, thousands of voters were sent the wrong ballot. Maryland had
outdated registration lists. Washington, DC, wasn’t able to fulfill many
absentee ballot requests and had fewer than 15% of its polling places open
due to the coronavirus.^13

Experts are predicting a second wave of the coronavirus in the fall, right
around the general election.^14 If we want every state to have the mandate
and the resources for a successful vote-by-mail program and give everyone
a chance to have their voices heard in November, Congress must pass a
nationwide vote-by-mail law with the next coronavirus bill. More than
100,000 Demand Progress members have emailed Congress asking for a
vote-by-mail law, and now we’re going to step up our campaign.

[ [link removed] ]Will you donate to help pass vote-by-mail legislation and protect our
civic rights in November?

Thanks for standing with us.

Robert Cruickshank,
Demand Progress

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Sources:
1. CNN, "'A giant warning siren': Concerns about November's election grow
after Georgia's disastrous primary," [ [link removed] ]June 11, 2020
2. 11 Alive, "What if you never got your absentee ballot? You've got
options," [ [link removed] ]June 8, 2020 
3. Esquire, "Georgia Is Screaming Out for U.N. Election Monitors,"
[ [link removed] ]June 9, 2020
4. NBC News, "Georgia election 'catastrophe' in largely minority areas
sparks investigation," [ [link removed] ]June 9, 2020
5. CNN, "'A giant warning siren': Concerns about November's election grow
after Georgia's disastrous primary," [ [link removed] ]June 11, 2020
6. The New York Times, "Beyond Georgia: A Warning for November as States
Scramble to Expand Vote-by-Mail" [ [link removed] ]June 11, 2020
7. Ibid.
8. Atlanta Journal Constitution, "Georgia absentee voting instructions to
be corrected," [ [link removed] ]April 28, 2020
9. The New York Times, "‘I Refuse Not to Be Heard’: Georgia in Uproar Over
Voting Meltdown," [ [link removed] ]June 11, 2020
10. Ibid.
11. Tweet by Brent Peabody, [ [link removed] ]June 9, 2020
12. The New York Times, "‘I Refuse Not to Be Heard’: Georgia in Uproar
Over Voting Meltdown," [ [link removed] ]June 11, 2020
13. The New York Times, "Beyond Georgia: A Warning for November as States
Scramble to Expand Vote-by-Mail" [ [link removed] ]June 11, 2020
14. CNN, "Another wave of coronavirus will likely hit the US in the fall.
Here's why and what we can do to stop it," [ [link removed] ]May 2, 2020
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