A civil rights nonprofit is calling for the state of Georgia to extend voter registration after election officials decided to postpone the presidential primary amid growing concerns about the coronavirus pandemic. Kristen Clarke, president of the National Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, said in a news release that the organization’s primary concern is ensuring “no voter is disenfranchised and that there are no administrative errors” resulting from what she called a “highly unusual decision.”
"GEORGIA: We fully expect the state to reopen voter registration for the #GeorgiaPrimary after postponing the election,” Clarke later tweeted Monday. “Under the (National Voter Registration Act), no state can impose a reg'n deadline in any federal election that is more than 30 days before an election. We've sued GA over this issue before.”
The suit Clarke referenced was settled in a 2017 complaint and forced the state to reopen voter registration for a federal runoff. “More than 8000 voters reg'd as a result,” Clarke tweeted. The nonprofit has not announced plans to again launch a suit. Georgia’s primary was pushed back Saturday from March 24 to May 19 in a decision Sen. Nikema Williams, chairwoman of the Georgia Democratic Party, said she supports. "Our priority is to protect the health and safety of all Georgians and to ensure that as many Georgians as possible have an opportunity to vote," she said in a secretary of state news release. "Continued in-person voting could compromise both goals.”
Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger has maintained that "all votes already cast in person and all absentee ballots will be counted." Georgians who have already voted also have the option of voting again May 19 to update their selection. “Events are moving rapidly and my highest priority is protecting the health of our poll workers, their families, and the community at large," Raffensperger said.
A litany of voter rights issues in Georgia, however, complicates the move. “This decision comes on the heels of extensive litigation against the state of Georgia over purging of the voter rolls, failure to process voter registration forms, the mass disqualification of absentee ballots and more,” Clarke said. “New, upgraded voting machines are also being used for the first time this election cycle. The state will need to take extraordinary steps to publicize this new election date, provide adequate notice to voters about the process, and ensure that no voter who has already cast a ballot for the presidential primary is disenfranchised.”
Georgia isn’t the only state to push back its primary. Louisiana made the same decision Friday to move the state’s primary from April 4 to June 20. “Today, I have certified that a state of emergency exists, and requested that the Governor issue an executive order postponing the spring elections” Secretary of State Kyle Ardoin said Friday in a news release. Voting is scheduled to continue as planned Tuesday in Arizona, Florida, Illinois, and Ohio, according to election officials.
Sen. Bernie Sanders seemed to have reservations about continuing to hold primaries, according to The New York Times. “I would hope governors listen to the public health experts and what they are saying is, you just indicated, we don’t want gatherings of more than 50 people,” he said following Sunday’s debate. “I’m thinking about some of the elderly people sitting behind the desks, registering people, all that stuff. It does not make a lot of sense. I’m not sure that it does.”
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