Tuesday, October 16, 2018

High numbers of AAPI voters are being rejected in Georgia



ASAM NEWS

THE MAIL-IN BALLOTS of Asian Americans and other people of color are disproportionately being rejected at a higher rate than White voters in Georgia, reports WhoWhatWhy

The ballots of Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders are being rejected at four times the rate of White voters. Blacks are seeing a rejection rate of three times that of Whites.

In all the ballots of 102 out of 404 ballots cast by Asian Americans have been rejected-a rejection rate of just over 20 percent. The rejection rate of Black ballots is more than 14 percent, 174 out of 1062.

In-person early voting began statewide Monday and continues until Nov. 2.


The ballot verification is being lead by Secretary of State Brian Kemp, a Republican who is in a tight race for governor against Democrat Stacey Abrams who’s vying to be the fist African American women governor in the country.

Civil rights groups have sued Kemp from enforcing his voter purge which the plaintiffs said is designed to disenfranchise minority voters, reports CNN.

According to CNN, the votes of 50,000 people are in jeopardy.

Forty percent of the ballots rejected, according to WhoWhatWhy, are from diverse Gwinnett County, despite only making up only 12 percent of the state’s mail-in ballots.


Reasons for the rejections range from listing today’s date instead of the birth date, to the signatures are determined to not match the signature on the voter registration card.

Problems with rejected ballots are a “red flag” for racial minorities in Gwinnett, where more than 60 percent of residents are Latino, black or Asian, said Jerry Gonzalez, executive director for the Georgia Association of Latino Elected Officials.

Potential voters whose registrations are pending can still cast ballots if they verify their information with a state driver’s license or other form of photo ID. Election officials will accept verifications when citizens go to vote or beforehand.

“It seems like discrimination,” said 
Roula AbiSamra of the National Asian Pacific American Women’s Forum. “We’re worried that people who already go through so many hoops to get their documentation in line are going to suffer again, even though they’re doing everything they can to follow the system.”

Views From the Edge contributed to this report.
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