Oct. 7 is the last day that potential voters in the 2024 elections can register to vote in both Texas and Georgia, amidst concerns that both states have been engaging in voter suppression ahead of the hotly contested presidential and local elections in November.
According to Fox 5 Atlanta, Georgia residents can register to vote online or by mail, phone, or in-person at a registration office as long as they are U.S. citizens, are legal residents of the county in which they are attempting to register, are at least 17.5 years of age, are not currently serving time for a felony conviction, and have not been declared mentally incompetent by a judge.
According to Fox 4 KDFW, Texans may not register to vote online, but must fill out a paper application and submit it to their county registrar’s office by Oct. 7.
In addition, Texans also have the ability to choose to register to vote when renewing, replacing or amending contact information for an existing Texas driver’s license or identification card.
BLACK ENTERPRISE listed upcoming voter registration deadlines for several other states on its Instagram page as a reminder to those needing the information.
According to the Texas Tribune, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s removal of approximately one million voters from the state rolls triggered concerns from voting rights watchdogs that the governor’s framing of this as a routine process to combat election fraud could potentially undermine election integrity in the State of Texas.
According to Alex Clapman, senior counsel at the Brennan Center Voting Rights Program, Texas has wrongly flagged people as noncitizens as recently as 2019.
Clapman also indicated that the idea that a person would risk deportation to cast a vote doesn’t pass the smell test.
“The very idea is so illogical,” Clapman told the Texas Tribune. “It’s irresponsible for politicians and others to be fanning the flames of misinformation out there and undermining trust in elections.”
Gov. Abbott is not the only one pushing election security as a reason to remove voters from the rolls, back in May 2024, Gov. Kemp signed legislation that allowed a change of address as probable cause to remove voters from the state rolls.
According to NBC News, similar to Gov. Abbott’s move, signing this legislation sparked concerns that it could lead to voters being disenfranchised.
Fair Fight Action, a voting rights group founded by Kemp’s former opponent, Stacey Abrams, a Democrat, said that SB 189 was a “voter suppression bill that emboldens right-wing activists in their efforts to kick Black and brown voters off the rolls.”
The group continued, “By signing SB 189 to become law, Brian Kemp delivered a gift to MAGA election deniers.”
According to the Economic Policy Institute, the tactics employed by both Abbott and Kemp fall within the bounds of voter suppression tactics that have been increasingly employed against Black and other voters of color.
“Some of the most common tactics employed by states include eliminating same-day voter registration, reducing early voting periods, removing polling places, creating mechanisms for overruling local election officials, “purging” voters from registration lists, and creating harsh and expansive penalties for seemingly mundane administrative errors,” they wrote in an Oct. 1 report.
The EPI continued, “Although done under the guise of preserving “election integrity” or responding to budget constraints, the effect (and intent) of these tactics is clearly to make it harder for Black and brown citizens to vote. A 2022 study showed that voters from Black neighborhoods waited 29% longer and were 74% more likely to spend more than 30 minutes at their polling place compared with voters from white neighborhoods.”
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