Victory!

Written Eric Marshall, National Campaign for Fair Elections. Originally posted at www.nationalcampaignforfairelections.org

Victory! Georgia Election Protection leader Charles Lester was notified by Bulloch County officials moments ago about the withdrawal of all challenges against student voters in Statesboro, Georgia. This victory is due in large part to the work of Georgia Election Protection, the National Campaign for Fair Elections, and our partner the ACLU Voting Rights Project.

While this is an important victory for student voting and our democracy as a whole, there is still plenty of work to be done. First and foremost, the Caging Prohibition Act, that would make these blanket challenges for the purposes of intimidation illegal, has been introduced in the U.S. Senate. Click here to tell Congress to support the Caging Prohibition Act, and demand that voter registration challengers be held accountable.

Even though the challenges were withdrawn the election exposed several issues in Statesboro, such as the challengers themselves. Statesboro Citizens for Good Government, a group of four Statesboro residents, were able to effectively suppress student turnout by filing 909 identical challenges of student voters based on personal information that the challengers could not have ascertained. According to the Associated Press more than 60% of the registered voters who were challenged did not show up at the polls.

Another exposed issue was the harassment at the polls. During the early voting period students were harassed by uniformed police officers inside and around the polling place. One police officer told a student he’d face police action if he did not update his ID to reflect his residency in Bulloch County. Another police officer intimidated a female student by demanding she show where she lived on a map of the voting district and attempted to prevent her from voting even through she grew up in the area and attended Statesboro public schools.

The National Campaign for Fair Elections, Georgia Election Protection, and the ACLU Voting Rights Project will continue to work on the behalf of the students of Georgia Southern University as well as voters across the state of Georgia. As we turn to 2008, the National Campaign and the Election Protection Coalition will build the largest non-partisan voter protection program in the history of our nation to ensure that Statesboro’s and other issues do not impede eligible voters’ ability to cast a meaningful ballot. However, we need your support please consider donating or volunteering today!

Don’t forget to sign our petition and support the Caging Prohibition Act TODAY!

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