Black Georgia Residents Report Having a Good Experience Voting in Midterms Amid Concerns Over Election Laws
A poll found Black Georgia residents reported having a good experience when it came to voting in the 2022 midterm elections. The poll was conducted by the University of Georgia School of Public and International Affairs…
A poll found Black Georgia residents reported having a good experience when it came to voting in the 2022 midterm elections.
The poll was conducted by the University of Georgia School of Public and International Affairs from November 13 to December 6 and surveyed 1,253 registered Georgia voters.
One of the questions the poll asked respondents, “At a personal level, how would you rate your overall experience voting in this election?”
Roughly 73% of Black Georgia voters called their experience “excellent” while approximately 24% said it was “good.”
Only 3% called it “fair” and 0% reported that it was “poor.”
When asked how confident they were that their votes were counted as they intended, almost 69% of Black voters responded they were “very confident.”
Close to 26% shared they were “somewhat confident” while less than 5% declared they were “not too confident.”
The New York Times noted last week Republicans and Democrats are fighting to pass new voting laws before the 2024 presidential election.
States including Florida, Texas and Georgia have already passed sweeping voting restrictions.
Republican Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger previously issued a statement acknowledging the criticism Georgia’s voting system has received.
“Georgia’s election system has been challenged and scrutinized and criticized and passed every test,” Raffensperger said, pointing to high turnout in the election.
Sen. Raphael Warnock (D-Ga.) did not share the same feeling about the way the election went.
“Now there will be those both in our state, and across the country, who will point to our victory tonight and try to use it to argue there is no voter suppression in Georgia,” he said after the election.
Warnock added, “The fact that millions of Georgians endured hours in lines — and were willing to spend hours in line, lines that wrapped around buildings and went on for blocks, lines in the cold, lines in the rain — is most certainly not a sign voter suppression does not exist.”
Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp passed a 98-page election measure in 2021 following former President Donald Trump’s loss to President Joe Biden.
The law included a provision to grant power to the State Election Board to intervene in county election offices and make changes when it comes to local election officials.
Additionally, the law made it a misdemeanor to give “any money or gifts, including, but not limited to, food and drink” to voters standing in line for the polls.