Sherrilyn Ifill, the President and Director-Counsel of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc., issued the following statement regarding the widespread voting delays and irregularities during today’s Georgia primary election.
“Today’s primary election in Georgia was a disturbing demonstration of what happens when state officials fail to carry out their responsibilities to ensure free and fair elections. Once again, voters across Georgia faced unacceptable barriers to voting, especially in Fulton, DeKalb, Cobb, and Gwinnett counties, which include the Atlanta metropolitan area. Voters were forced to wait in line for hours and faced polling places with insufficient resources, including malfunctioning machines and lack of ballots.
“While it was right to extend voting hours past 7 p.m., it was a travesty that voters in Georgia were faced with such barriers. Georgia has repeatedly failed to adequately prepare to run elections free from obstacles to the ballot that disproportionately harm Black communities. Safe, reliable, and accessible voting procedures for all Georgia voters are essential to the protection and preservation of our democracy. Today, Georgia fell far short of that standard.”
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Founded in 1940, the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc. (LDF) is the nation’s first civil and human rights law organization. LDF has been completely separate from the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) since 1957—although LDF was originally founded by the NAACP and shares its commitment to equal rights. LDF’s Thurgood Marshall Institute is a multi-disciplinary and collaborative hub within LDF that launches targeted campaigns and undertakes innovative research to shape the civil rights narrative. In media attributions, please refer to us as the NAACP Legal Defense Fund or LDF.
