Georgia
After Series of Democratic Victories, Rights Advocates Blast Georgia GOP for ‘Brazenly Trying to Silence Voters’
"Georgia Republican lawmakers are brazenly trying to silence voters through House Bill 531, which includes deliberate restrictions on early voting, absentee voting, and ballot drop boxes," declared Aklima Khondoker, Georgia state director of All Voting Is Local Action, a campaign of the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights. "This is a desperate attempt to solidify their own power by silencing others," Khondoker said in a statement Friday. "Despite a global pandemic and repressive legislative attempts to block access to the ballot, record numbers of Georgians voted in 2020 using every method available, and now that accessibility is under attack." "This bill targets all Georgians, and particularly punishes low-income voters, people in rural communities, the elderly, and religious communities of color," she added. "It's critical that lawmakers reject this alarming legislation that aggressively limits voting in communities that have long suffered diminished access to the ballot.
All Voting is Local State Leaders Urge Voter-Focused Election Reforms During 2021 Legislative Period
WASHINGTON – In op-eds for Talking Points Memo, the Arizona Republic, Cleveland.com, Nevada Independent, Tampa Bay Times - and an accompanying Spanish version in the Orlando Sentinel - All Voting is Local Pennsylvania, Arizona, Ohio, Nevada, and Florida state directors share lessons learned from the 2020 general election—with firsthand accounts of how changes spurred by the pandemic affected voters—and urge officials to fix outdated voting systems and expand access to the ballot.
Truthout: Raffensperger Stood Up to Trump, But He Also Attacked Voting Rights Groups
For Aklima Khondoker, Georgia state director for All Voting is Local, Raffensperger’s actions have been continuously trending toward focusing on his own political survival instead of prioritizing voters and a fair process. “These two versions are at odds,” said Khondoker. “In one version, Raffensperger is committed to rejecting political fodder, while in the other, he signals a call to his base.” Khondoker challenged the inconsistencies within Raffensperger’s approach to the current election cycle even after he unequivocally condemned the worst of allegations. “We hear that our elections were conducted fairly, honestly and free from fraud,” Khondoker told Truthout. “Raffensperger is fueling suspicions about our elections by opening baseless investigations that serve to weaken the integrity of our elections for political gain.”
Atlanta Journal Constitution: Georgia voter signature audit will validate ballots — or find fraud
“The hope I have is that it will show that our election workers have worked diligently and hard through this entire election, that they have been checking signatures as ballots are received and they’ve been matched,” said Aklima Khondoker, Georgia director for All Voting is Local, an organization that advocates for greater voting access.
Time Magazine: After Georgia Flips Blue, Voting Rights Advocates Brace for New Voting Restrictions
Aklima Khondoker, Georgia state director for All Voting is Local, agrees that making voting harder is not the answer to easing election workers’ burden. “The solution must be to support the workers that are doing this work so they can continue to do it (and) voters can continue to enjoy access to the ballot,” she says, adding that means hiring more poll workers and instituting more robust training.
Ga. Senate Runoff Shows Philanthropy’s Power to Mobilize Voters
Aklima Khondoker, Georgia state director of All Voting Is Local, worked with other nonprofits including the Coalition for the People’s Agenda and Black Voters Matter to organize brigades of volunteers to hang voting literature on the doorknobs of state residents in areas where high-speed internet is scarce.