Members from Northwest and First Existentialist came together on Monday, March 9 as the “Unitarian Universalist” team to lobby Georgia House representatives not to reduce the number of days of in person early voting from 21 to 12 days as specified in HB 194.
As part of the legislative actions organized by Moral Monday, UUs were joined by other voting advocacy groups including Georgia Women’s Action for New Directions (WAND). The Executive Director of WAND, Becky Rafter, provided training to the group on how to approach legislators and advocate to retain the current 21 days of advance voting.
Ms. Rafter motived the assembled citizen advocates with a chant of “Woman Say”, “Hands Off Early Voting.”
Advocates to Retain Current
Advance Voting Days
The UU team spoke with three legislators (one simply refused to meet with us Georgia voters). All stated the reduction in voting opportunities, even in the face of upcoming presidential elections, was “to save money.” When pressed to provide even a general accounting of the financial impact of maintaining the current 21 days, none of the representatives could provide any information on the cost savings that the bill would allegedly achieve.
There is concern that on the 50th anniversary of the historic Voting Rights Act, rather than bravely moving Georgia forward our state appears to be secretly retreating backwards on providing citizens access to vote.
It is important to note, that in 2011 Georgia legislators reduced early voting from 45 to 21 days. House Bill 194 is yet an additional attempt to erode voting opportunities for Georgia citizens.
As Unitarian Universalists we affirm our 5th principle the right of conscience and the use of the democratic process within our congregations and in society at large.
Voting is important, and advocating to retain our current voting opportunities is part of our wider social justice mission in our community.
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