WATCH: Georgia Voters and State Leaders Sound Alarm About Kemp Administration’s Ongoing Voter Suppression on Day Anti-Voter SB189 Goes Into Effect

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Today, state leaders and voting rights advocates held a virtual press conference to sound the alarm on Governor Brian Kemp’s continuing voter suppression efforts — on the same day that Kemp’s most recent anti-voter law, SB189, goes into effect.

As the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported in May, “Conservative activists are preparing to question the validity of thousands of Georgia voter registrations this summer, an election-year effort under the state’s new voter challenge law.” This new law compounds the damage done by SB202 — the 2021 legislation passed in the wake of Republicans’ 2020 electoral losses  — which limited access to mail-in ballots, cut drop boxes, shortened voter registration periods, shortened voting in runoffs, and made it illegal to give water to Georgians waiting in line to vote. 

“You’ve got stories of over 100,000 voters who were challenged in Georgia under SB 202 by maybe just six right-wing activists,” said Senator Josh McLaurin, who represents Senate District 14. “Well, SB 189 makes that worse by adding new bases — an expanding list of reasons — why someone can launch a voter challenge. … These are not policy proposals that come from a place of real policy need.”

“Today is indeed a dark day for democracy in Georgia with SB189 taking effect. But, for anyone who has watched Brian Kemp’s career — going all the way back to his days as Secretary of State — it should be no surprise to anyone that we find ourselves here today. When he was Secretary of State, we saw Brian Kemp attempt to deny and delay the voter registrations of tens of thousands of eligible Georgians over trumped-up allegations of voter fraud and improper registration processes,” said Senator Jason Esteves, who represents Senate District 6. “In 2021, the Republican Party — Brian Kemp’s party — had been defeated at the federal level. They retaliated with harsh, restrictive, and concerning voter suppression tactics that were encompassed by SB 202 — which limited access to mail in ballots, cut drop boxes, shortened voter registration periods, shortened voting in runoffs, and made it illegal to give out water to Georgians waiting in line to vote because of Brian Kemp’s efforts to undermine voter access.”

Esteves continued: “This law is going to work exactly as intended. It’s supposed to make it harder for Georgians to vote. It’s supposed to make it harder for election administrators to do their jobs correctly. And it’s supposed to make it easier to strip eligible voters from the voting rolls. … We have to remain vigilant, because this is only going to get worse.”

“I’m an attorney and a near-native Atlantan. I’ve been voting in Georgia since I was 18 years old. … This is why I was pretty surprised when on primary Election Day in May, I went to sign into my voter page in order to take a look and make sure my vote had been counted, because I voted early. And I saw a notification that my voter registration had been challenged. No reason for the challenge was provided, and I was directed to contact my local elections office for more information. As someone who has been a Georgia voter for decades, this message was pretty confusing, upsetting, and shocking. But more importantly, it was absolutely baseless,” said Candace Smith, an Atlanta attorney and Georgia voter who had her registration challenged. “My story has a good ending: my vote counted, I took a look and made sure my registration, as of today, is absolutely fine. But I had to go through the time and hassle of resolving things.

Smith continued: “A voter who doesn’t have the time or the resources to resolve a challenge to their registration might simply give up and go home. … And here’s the thing: it is exactly what Republicans’ voter challenge laws are designed to do. It’s meant to scare. It’s meant to deter. It’s meant to keep people from voting.”

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