Georgia’s Legacy on the Ballot: Over 249,000 Voters Locked Out of Primary Election

[Washington, DC]- Over 249,000 citizens in Georgia will not be able to vote in the May 19th primary elections due to a felony conviction. The Sentencing Project found Georgia’s felony voting ban falls heavily on people of color –Voting eligible Black Georgians are over two times as likely as non-Black Georgians to lose their right to vote due to having a felony conviction.

“Thousands of Georgians are being left out of a critical decision that will impact their political representation and governance echoing the state’s history of silencing Black voters and undermining the critical role Georgia played in the Civil Rights Movement,” said Nicole D. Porter, Senior Director of Advocacy at The Sentencing Project. “Felony voting bans do nothing to improve public safety nor strengthen democracy–it only weakens it. The state’s disenfranchisement laws date back to 1877 and frequently stir confusion among lawmakers due to a lack of clearly defined standards and interpretations of the law. These conditions undermine democracy and create a voting environment wrought with uncertainty for impacted Georgians.”

Since 1997, 26 states and the District of Columbia have expanded the right to vote to over 2 million Americans with felony convictions. Georgia has the opportunity to reinforce its role in ‘moving the moral arc toward justice’, as one of its most illustrious sons once proclaimed. Voting is not a privilege, but a right for everyone. It’s time for Georgia lawmakers to dismantle discriminatory voting laws and protect democracy for every voter, by allowing all citizens to participate in the democratic process regardless of incarceration status.