Service members and their families bravely make many sacrifices to serve our country. Their freedom to vote should not be threatened by anti-voter laws like Georgia’s new law, S.B. 189.
S.B. 189 makes it more difficult for counties to dismiss unsubstantiated and incorrect challenges to an American’s voter registration or their eligibility to vote. These challenges can make it impossible for Americans living and serving overseas to make their voice heard in Georgia’s elections.
Campaign Legal Center is stepping in to help protect service members and their families’ freedom to vote. CLC filed a lawsuit on behalf of Secure Families Initiative, a nonprofit that advocates on behalf of military members and their families, to block parts of S.B. 189 from going into effect.
Many states, including Georgia, allow a registered voter to challenge a fellow American’s voter registration or eligibility to vote. In recent years, these laws have been abused by bad actors who bring hundreds of thousands of unproven challenges.
These mass challenges are often filled with errors and are largely dismissed. S.B. 189 makes matters worse by forcing counties to sustain wrongful challenges.
These challenges have a history of targeting often-marginalized voters including naturalized citizens, voters of color, student voters, and voters with disabilities.
S.B. 189 puts voters who have temporarily moved or are temporarily without permanent residential addresses — such as military members — at risk of being wrongly challenged.
Military members and their families often move frequently because of their deployments or domestic stations. While they retain their freedom to vote when they move, laws like S.B 189 put military families at risk of having their freedom to vote challenged while serving or living away from their home state.
Military and overseas voters already face more barriers than the average American in exercising their freedom to vote. They have to request an absentee ballot because they can’t vote in-person, they don’t have the benefit of drop boxes, and living abroad could also mean mail times are less reliable.
Military voters and Americans living abroad have the same freedom to vote as any other American. Not only do mass challenges put Americans’ right to vote in jeopardy, but they also overwhelm election officials during an already busy election season.
Our democracy works best when every voter can participate, and S.B. 189 runs contrary to that goal. We hope the court will step in to ensure that every American has an equal opportunity to make their voice heard this November.