by Julia Oscar

Stacey Abrams has been an activist for years. She has worked to register hundreds of thousands of voters of color and helped to create jobs in Georgia. In her political career she worked to put more democrats in office and prevent a republican supermajority in the Georgia House, stop legislation to raise taxes on the poor and roll back reproductive healthcare, her political work has also led to progress in education, transportation, and infrastructure. 

In her home state of Georgia and much of the south there is a long history of voter suppression. Though the 15th amendment guaranteed black americans the right to vote states found ways to continue to silence their voices. Tactics such as the “grandfather clause” where one could only register to vote if their grandfather had been able to, poll taxes which low income americans could not pay, nearly impossible literacy tests were implemented in many states with the intention of keeping black and other minority americans out of power. These rules were kept in place throughout the Jim Crow era until the Voting Rights Act of 1965 was passed and later amended further to make voting even more accessible. One would think that this was the end of voter suppression but states have continued to limit access to the polls. In 2013 a supreme court decision stopped the federal oversight of distracts that was based on their histories of voter suppression which allowed these districts more freedom to change their voting laws. These districts have employed many new tactics. Some require proof of citizenship to vote and purge the voting rolls. Some shorten early voting periods, put less poll locations in areas with a greater percentage of minorities, and have limited access to absentee or mail in ballots; increasing lines and making it hard for those who work or have other commitments to find time to vote. When states do give access to mail in ballots some require “exact match” signatures on registration, an especially problematic practice when 80% of the disqualified registrations belong to people of color which was the case in Georgia. 

Much of Stacey Abrams’ activism has been focused on combating this issue. Abrams narrowing losing the race for governor in 2018 caused her to realize that for democrats to win in Georgia they needed to expand the voting pool to include disenfranchised minorities rather than trying to appeal to moderate voters. She founded two organizations: Fair Fight and New Georgia Project. Together they were able to register about 800,000 voters before the 2020 election, in addition to the 200,000 they had registered before 2018. Having a million new voters is what flipped Georgia, allowing Joe Biden to win the state in the general election by about 10,000 votes. Not only was this crucial to the presidential election last year, but this strategy can help activists all over the country secure more democratic wins. 

Now, Georgia officials are targeting groups that Stacey Abrams was involved with. As a tactic of intimidations, the organizations that were able to mobilize incredible amounts of minority voters are under investigation for voter fraud. They are accusing the New Georgia Project of submitting over a thousand registration forms after the legal deadline and about 35 other violations. This is not the first time these organizations have been targeted like this, previously republicans have accused them of forging forms and soliciting voters from outside of the state. These organizations are now being forced to use funds which could otherwise be used to continue their work on lawyers to defend themselves.