John,

While I am very happy to be your nominee for Congress in GA-04, I am embarrassed by the mismanagement of Tuesday’s election.

Even though 90% of Georgia’s polling places were open, locations were rife with technical malfunctions and inefficiencies. Instead of straight-forward pen on paper ballots -- the most secure way to vote and conduct a recount -- the state spent $110 million on machines that experts repeatedly warned were “at risk of intrusions and malfunctions.” 

Year after year, Georgia seems to provide the nation with endless examples of how not to run elections. And I wish I could say it was all accidental or mere incompetence.

Since the Reconstruction era, politicians have been working to suppress the Black vote and make it harder for Black Americans to cast their ballot. We saw it with poll taxes up until the 1960’s, the Republicans’ National Ballot Security Task Force that “patrolled” polling places in the 1980’s, voter ID laws in the 2000’s up to present day, and of course, we saw it in 2018 when Brian Kemp used voter suppression to steal the gubernatorial election from Stacey Abrams.

This long history of disenfranchisement has got to stop, John. Across the nation, people are rising up against the pandemic of police brutality against Black Americans. But policing is not the only institution letting people of color down. Our election systems are rigged against Black and Brown Americans who just want to step up and have their voice heard. 

The change can start right here, with campaigns like mine for Congress. If the state of Georgia won’t do their job, my campaign will. We are going to work around the clock to register people of color to vote and get-out-the-vote. But to do this work at full throttle, we need your help to kick off our campaign strong. Will you consider making a $15 or $20 contribution to our General Election Kickoff Fund? It will really make a difference.

Thank you all. Together we will get through this, and create a nation that truly offers liberty and justice for all.

In solidarity,

Hank