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Ahead of the early voting start in the Georgian Senate second round this week, civil rights and voting rights advocates warned that changes and cuts to polling stations in some counties could reduce turnout, especially to the detriment of black and Latino voters.
Now, several days later, these advocates say these fears have come true.
More than a dozen groups launched a public appeal to election officials in Cobb and Hall counties this week, while The New Georgia Project, a non-partisan organization dedicated to voter registration efforts and promoting the civic engagement, filed a lawsuit over early voting issues in four other counties.
“In the first two days of early voting, data showed that the prejudice to voters remains serious, Cobb County has had extremely long lines – in some cases up to two hours. At the same time, the overall participation rate at Cobb has declined, ”said Michael Pernick, an attorney with the NAACP Legal Defense & Educational Fund (LDF) Thursday. He added that some counties without large cuts to early voting, including Fulton County, had seen an increase in early voting compared to the same time period in the general election.
In the letter to Cobb County officials, several civil rights groups joined with Georgia’s DFL and ACLU in saying that the cuts at early voting locations resulted in two-hour queues and depressing participation.
Cobb County, the backbone of President-elect Joe Biden’s statewide victory, announced earlier this month that it would operate less than half of the early voting sites before the Jan.5 run-off compared to in the general elections in November. It is the third most populous county in the state, with 760,000 residents.
Hall County, the tenth most populous county with just over 200,000 residents, announced this month that it would have four early voting sites, compared to eight for the general election.
After supporters protested, Cobb County announced plans to move one site and add two more sites for the final week of the state’s three-week advance polling period.
Staffing issues limited the county’s ability to open more early voting sites, the county said at the time. Officials rejected supporters’ argument that fewer localities would suppress votes because historically turnout in second-round races is lower than in presidential elections.
In an email to NBC News, Cobb County Communications Director Ross Cavitt said wait times were “under an hour” at the county’s five early voting sites and that they had added additional registration posts on each side to speed up the voting process. .
“We were pleased to see the wait times at our five advance polling facilities well below what we experienced for the November general election,” Cavitt said.
In the letter to Hall County officials, groups such as Latino Justice, the Hispanic Federation and LDF alleged that the cuts reduced voter turnout and would disproportionately remove black and Latino voters in Hall County.
“The reduction in the number of advance polls for the second round of elections, when the turnout is expected to be high and COVID-19 is raging, has already had a predictable detrimental impact on Hall County’s ability to ensure smooth electoral operations and the ability of voters to vote safely. and safe, ”the groups said in a letter sent Wednesday night, citing participation trends similar to Cobb County.
Hall County defended its early voting plans in an email.
Typically, Hall County Public Information Officer Katie Crumley said there was only one location for the three weeks of early voting. For a Saturday voting day during this time, the county opens three additional locations.
Crumley said Hall has expanded to eight locations for the November general election, but four are enough to accommodate voters in the second round. Staffing polling stations during a pandemic during the holiday season is difficult, she added.
The two letters sent to Cobb and Hall County officials alleged a drop in the number of voters voting in the first two days of early voting in the second round compared to the November election.
Advocates said data released by the Georgia Secretary of State’s office showed early votes fell by nearly 5% in Cobb County in the first two days of early voting. Fulton, Gwinnett and DeKalb counties have not made “significant reductions” in early voting, they said, and have seen early voting increase in the first two days by 25%, 40% and 12%, respectively.
On Tuesday, the New Georgia Project, aided by leading Democratic voting rights lawyer Marc Elias, filed four lawsuits against four other counties: Clarke, Houston, Paulding and Bibb County. The group alleged that those counties were illegally cutting off access to early voting under the law.
Clarke County officials have since announced they will add an early vote on Saturday, December 19.
Cobb and Hall were two of Georgia’s Big Four counties to cut the number of early voting sites. Cobb, which includes suburban Atlanta, is key territory for Democrats with Senate party control at stake. Biden beat President Donald Trump by 14 points in Cobb, according to county election results.
The two Democratic state Senate candidates, Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock, lead Republican Senators David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler in County by 10 points and 12 points respectively in November.
Trump won Hall County Trump won Hall by 43 percentage points, with Republican Senate candidates also dominating Senate races.
The stakes for the races on January 5 are high. If both Democratic candidates are victorious, Democrats will control the chamber with Vice President-elect Kamala Harris serving as the deciding vote. But if either Republican wins, the Senate remains in GOP hands, an outcome with implications for Biden’s first-term agenda.
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