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What people don't think about when they want you to vote: a thread on voter suppression
Please retweet when you're done reading! This is very important information for eligible voters in the United States
tw// racism, threats, shooting, death
Please retweet when you're done reading! This is very important information for eligible voters in the United States
tw// racism, threats, shooting, death
Before I start, please watch All In: The Fight for Democracy. If you can't watch it, please read this article. I will also be summarizing it in this thread, and I will try to summarize the thread itself, but I might not be able to because it's a LOT of information to unpack.
The movie explains the history of voter suppression in the USA and how it still exists today. More specifically, it talks about how it was and still is used to discriminate against BIPOC and immigrants, and now, college students.
It explains how despite the large voter turnouts, many voters are being turned away at the polls, and also how different laws regarding voting regulations (voter ID requirements, felony policies) are unconstitutional.
Now, back to our main topic: voter suppression today.
In 2018, Stacey Abrams ran against Brian Kemp for governor in Georgia, and if she had won, she would have been the first African-American woman to have been governor in the USA. However, she lost by a very thin margin, just about 1,000 votes.
A VERY important fact about Brian Kemp was that he was the Secretary of State at the time. This means that he had a LOT of power over the election. As in, purging 1.4 MILLION people from Georgia's voting rolls.This means that 1.4 MILLION people were turned away at the polls.
Georgia had almost 7 million people registered to vote for the election. 1.4 million people who were turned away is a huge dent in that, and it really could've changed the election, considering how Brian Kemp won the race by only 1,000 votes
Stacey Abrams herself was almost turned away at the polls. However, she persisted and asked the poll manager why she couldn't and they fixed the problem and she voted. Towards the end of the documentary she says, "Don't leave until you have voted"
(sorry for ending so quickly it's 1am and i'm tired) My point is, go by Stacey Abrams' advice. Don't leave until you've voted! If you can't vote because you're a minor or you have a felony or you aren't a legal citizen, encourage the people around you to vote!
