Coalition for the Peoples’ Agenda
Helen Butler, Executive Director
404-314-8982
Asian Americans Advancing Justice – Atlanta
Stephanie Cho, Executive Director
404-585-8446
October 18, 2018 (Norcross, GA) – On October 15th, the first day of early voting, tens of thousands of eligible metro-Atlanta voters couldn’t cast their ballots, because their registration had not yet been processed. Spikes in voter registration near the deadline are predictable, yet these counties have not prepared sufficiently to process the registrations prior to early voting. Several counties, including Gwinnett, Fulton, Cobb, and Dekalb have or had tens of thousands of unprocessed voter registration forms.
For those who filled out voter registration forms and turned them in on time, this type of slow administration creates confusion and can mean that voters who properly filled out registration forms were turned away. The general public has not been given any information as to why there is such a massive delay.
Helen Butler, Executive Director of Coalition for the Peoples’ Agenda stated, “This unnecessary backlog in processing forms during such a critical and crucial election only serves to frustrate people as they attempt to vote. County registration departments need to be given the resources to process registrations in a timely manner.”
The consequences of having an unprocessed voter registration form and potentially turned away at the polls are especially severe for limited English proficiency voters. In Gwinnett County alone, at least 78% of Asian Americans speak a language other than English at home. For the Latinx community, that number is 84%.1 Limited English proficiency voters who are turned away from the polls once are more likely to be turned away for good.
Community, civic and grassroots organizations have called the counties but have not received any information on why this predictable surge in voter registration was not handled properly.
Jerry Gonzalez, Executive Director of the Georgia Association for Latino Elected Officials, is concerned about the impact this will have on voters in the community. “In 2016, more than 25% of voters had cast their ballot by the end of the first week of early vote. If even 10% of these people try to vote during the first week, it’s likely that thousands of eligible Georgia voters are being turned away.”
All registered voters should check their registration status at
https://www.mvp.sos.ga.gov/MVP/mvp.do. Any voters with any questions should call the Election Protection Hotline at 866-OUR-VOTE. For Spanish assistance, please call 1-888-54GALEO (1-888-544-2536).
The following is a breakdown of unprocessed voter registration forms by county, according to representatives of the county offices:
|
County
|
# of Forms as of 10/15
|
# of forms as of 10/16
|
# of Forms as of 10/17
|
|
Fulton
|
32,000
|
28,000
|
24,023
|
|
Gwinnett
|
14,000
|
5,000
|
2,000
|
|
Dekalb
|
Unable to get response
|
Unable to get response
|
Approximately 2,500
|
|
Cobb
|
14,000
|
11,000
|
10,000
|
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