While Donald Trump rants and raves from his golf club in Florida about election fraud, Republicans in Georgia are working to suppress the vote in blue counties, which are mostly counties with urban areas and high populations of black Americans. In court, however, their efforts to suppress the vote haven’t been received well.
🚨BREAKING: In a blow to GOP voter suppression, Federal court ENJOINS Georgia counties from removing 4000 voters from registration lists and making them vote provisional ballots in upcoming run-off elections.
Victory for @MajorityFwd and Georgia voters!https://t.co/mYcrVw7qLS
— Marc E. Elias (@marceelias) December 29, 2020
Marc Elias, an American attorney who specializes in protecting voting rights, tweeted on Monday that a federal court had “enjoined,” or prevented, Georgia officials who wish to remove more than 4,000 people from voter rolls. In court, civil rights attorneys argued that requirements for voters who had filled out a change of address form at the post office vote provisionally until the could offer additional proof of address than other voters are required to. In Judge Leslie Gardner’s decision, she wrote that:
‘At this time, there is no evidence of any compelling or legitimate interests the state may have to justify the burden being imposed on the thousands of Targeted voters. Thus, there is a substantial likelihood of success on the merits of Plaintiffs’ right to vote claim.’
The judge determined that the GOP representatives in court had not proven that they would be substantial proof that they would be harmed if the rule was not implemented, but that voters would be. Preventing voter suppression was in the public interest, she said, and that’s exactly what she did.
Twitter thanked Elias for his work in protecting the rights of voters, but also expressed their frustration with the long process of blocking the GOP from thwarting the democratic process. Read some of their comments below:
