Last Sunday, over 75 people came to Workbar on a rainy afternoon to learn about voter suppression in Georgia, and how it changed the elections in 2018. Much of the film was shot in Gwinnett County, a suburb of Atlanta, where GSU professor Carolyn Bourdeaux ran against Republican Rob Woodall – in what became the closest race in the country.
After the film, Bourdeaux’s sister Margaret described the many challenges faced by naturalized citizens, LGBTQ voters, young people and people of color faced as they tried to exercise their right to vote. After thousands were thwarted from voting, Bourdeaux lost the election by 433 votes.
The second guest speaker, Quentin Palfrey, emphasized the need to take action now in order to mitigate voter suppression in November 2020. Palfrey’s organization, the Voter Protection Corps, is fighting back by creating a state-by-state anti-voter suppression playbook and assembling a nationwide roster of poll watchers for next November.
Carolyn Bourdeaux is running again in 2020 and her supporters in the Phoenix Club would love to keep you posted on when she will be in Boston for house parties and on what’s happening in her 2020 campaign. Swing Left Greater Boston is offering postcard writers opportunity to write to voters in Texas who have been deregistered from the rolls. The next postcard writing event is the evening of December 6th at Joe Sent Me in Cambridge. Email SwingLeftGreaterBoston@gmail.com for details.