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ATLANTA 鈥� Today, voting rights organizations filed an emergency preliminary injunction motion to lift part of the restriction in Georgia鈥檚 anti-voter law, , that blocks Georgians from providing food and water to voters waiting in long lines at polls. The preliminary injunction motion was filed as part of ongoing litigation AME vs. Kemp, which challenges S.B. 202 for unconstitutionally creating barriers to voting that diminish the voices of communities of color, women and people with disabilities. If granted, the preliminary injunction would allow volunteers to provide voters with food and water within 150 feet of a polling place.

The 澳彩开奖 (澳彩开奖), the , , the , and the law firms and filed the preliminary injunction motion. Plaintiffs are the , , , and the, represented by LDF, ACLU Ga, ACLU and Wilmer Hale, as well as the , , and , represented by 澳彩开奖 and DWT.

The preliminary injunction motion can be found HERE.

鈥淭he cruel barriers to voting enacted in S.B. 202 target both the basic needs and basic rights of Georgians. There can be no reason for denying food or water to people in long polling lines, other than trying to prevent them from exercising their freedom to vote,鈥� said Poy Winichakul, senior staff attorney for voting rights with 澳彩开奖. 鈥淭hese barriers to voting must be removed so all Georgians can have a voice to advocate for their communities in the crucial 2024 elections.鈥�

鈥淥ur clients used to be able to offer a bottle of water or a snack to voters waiting in long lines at the polls,鈥� said Rahul Garabadu, senior voting rights staff attorney at the ACLU of Georgia. 鈥淪B202 largely banned these activities, adding to the burdens that many voters, including voters of color and voters with disabilities, face when casting a ballot. Last year, the Court found that there were serious constitutional concerns with portions of the ban on line relief. We鈥檙e now asking the Court to strike down the unlawful provisions of the ban so that our clients can provide crucial support to voters across our state.鈥�

鈥淭his restriction on providing food and water to voters waiting in long lines is a brazen attempt to make voting more difficult in Georgia. It stifles our clients鈥� First Amendment right to express, through action, the important message that voting is vital, and that Georgians, particularly Black Georgians and Georgians of color, should persist through obstacles laid in their path as they have throughout the state鈥檚 history,鈥� said Davin Rosborough, senior staff attorney with the ACLU鈥檚 Voting Rights Project.

鈥淪.B. 202鈥檚 provisions restricting line relief activities are cruel and discriminatory,鈥� said Rhonda Briggins, Chair, Strategic Partnerships Taskforce for Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc. 鈥淭hese restrictions prevent Deltas from providing necessities like food and water to voters experiencing long lines, which impact significant numbers of Black Georgia voters. We are hopeful the Court will block the unlawful restrictions it has already recognized may be unlawful so that we can resume some of our line relief efforts for upcoming elections.鈥�

鈥淕eorgia鈥檚 cruel line-relief ban makes it harder for Black voters to fully participate in elections,鈥� said John Cusick, assistant counsel at LDF. 鈥淭he Court has already found constitutional concerns with certain aspects of the line-relief ban. We鈥檙e asking the Court to block those provisions in upcoming elections so that the organizations we represent and other groups throughout Georgia can resume modest line-relief efforts like passing out food and water to Georgia voters who continue to stand in unacceptably long lines.鈥�

鈥淪.B. 202鈥檚 line relief ban imposes unjustifiable and unconstitutional burdens on voters at the polls,鈥� said George P. Varghese, a partner at WilmerHale. 鈥淲e are filing this motion to ensure that our clients鈥� fundamental right to vote, and their right to support fellow Georgians who vote, are not compromised鈥攊ncluding in the upcoming 2024 elections.鈥�

鈥淚nstead of making it easier for folks to cast a ballot in sweltering heat or blistering cold, S.B. 202 makes it a crime for a neighbor to offer these voters a bottle of water or warm cup of coffee,鈥� said Adam S. Sieff, counsel at Davis Wright Tremaine. 鈥淭hat鈥檚 not only inhumane, it鈥檚 also a clear violation of the First Amendment and these citizens鈥� rights as voters. The Court has already found that aspects of S.B. 202鈥檚 line relief ban raises serious constitutional problems, and we鈥檙e filing this motion to ensure that these fundamental rights are respected in future elections, including in 2024.鈥�

Background:

After Georgia voters turned out in record numbers for the 2020 presidential election and U.S. Senate elections in early 2021, state legislators passed S.B. 202, a sweeping unconstitutional and racially discriminatory voting law that threatened to massively disenfranchise voters, particularly voters of color.

In response, voting rights organizations filed AME vs. Kemp, challenging multiple provisions of S.B. 202 including:

• A ban on 鈥渓ine relief,鈥� where volunteers provide water and snacks to people waiting in long lines to vote, a common occurrence at precincts with a large population of voters of color.
• A severe restriction on the use of mobile voting units, which have been used to address a shortage of accessible and secure polling locations that previously resulted in long lines of voters at existing and traditional polling locations.
• Additional and onerous identification requirements for requesting and casting an absentee ballot. A compressed period for requesting absentee ballots. Restrictions on the use of secure ballot drop boxes.
• Disqualification of provisional ballots cast in a voter鈥檚 county of residence but outside the voter鈥檚 precinct before 5 p.m. Previously, votes for all the races to which the person was eligible to vote on that precinct鈥檚 provisional ballot were counted.
• A drastic reduction of early voting in runoff elections.

The lawsuit describes how S.B. 202 violates voter protections under the 14th and 15th Amendments as well as Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act, the Americans with Disabilities Act, the Rehabilitation Act, and the Civil Rights Act of 1964. It also outlines how the 鈥渓ine relief鈥� ban violates the First Amendment right to freedom of expression.

The voting rights organizations had filed a preliminary injunction before the 2022 election to lift restrictions on line relief, including handing out free food, water, and other provisions to voters in line. On August 18th 2022, a federal judge denied that motion due to a perception that changing the rules that close to the 2022 may confuse election officials. However, in a favorable signal to the plaintiffs, the judge did express that the ban on line relief negatively impacts the right to free speech and that prohibiting line relief within 25 feet of any voter waiting in line beyond 150 feet of the polling place is likely unconstitutional. The judge also specified that this denial of the preliminary injunction only applies to the 2022 elections and that Georgians may gain relief from Georgia鈥檚 anti-voter law for future elections.

In addition to seeking this preliminary relief, these Georgia organizations will continue to move forward on all of their claims and seek complete relief for the various harms S.B. 202 creates for future elections.