Stacey Abrams: Here Are 3 Ways To Know If Your Vote Is Being Suppressed

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Former Georgia gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams criticized America’s dysfunctional voting systems and shared some ways voters can avoid having their vote suppressed in the November presidential election, during an interview with VICE TV’s “Stick to Sports With Cari and Jemele,” which airs Wednesday at 10 p.m.

“Democracy should belong to every eligible American citizen, and right now it doesn’t,” Abrams said.

During her 2018 run for governor of Georgia, Abrams faced then-Georgia Secretary of State Brian Kemp, the state’s top elections official. An investigation revealed that Kemp had improperly purged more than 340,000 Georgia voters from the rolls, and in the run-up to the election, Kemp placed a hold on 53,000 new voter registrations, more than 70% of whom were filed by Black. Kemp went on to narrowly defeat Abrams by fewer than 55,000 votes.

Since then, Abrams has dedicated her efforts to voting rights, founding the group Fair Fight Action in 2018. Abrams also recently released a documentary about the issue, “All In: The Fight for Democracy,” on Amazon Prime.

“One of the most insidious parts of voter suppression is that it looks like voter error,” Abrams said “And that’s just not true. By and large, it’s a systemic attempt to limit who has access to the polls.”

Abrams, whose name was often mentioned as a potential running mate for Democratic nominee Joe Biden, told Hill and Champion that there are three ways to make sure your vote is counted in November.

“It has three pieces to it, and it doesn’t matter where you live,” Abrams said. “Is it hard for you to register and stay on the rolls, is it hard for you to cast a ballot, and is it hard for you to make certain that ballot gets counted?”

Abrams said the obstacles to voting are intentional.

“Let’s remember, when this country was created, the founding documents said that basically white men who owned property could vote,” she said. “Voter suppression is a part of the system because this is a struggle for power…it is who has the power to make decisions, who makes the money, and to decide who’s valued and who counts in our country.”

Abrams brushed off questions about her own political future and the prospect that she might run for president someday.

“Absolutely, one day,” Abrams said. “But my mission now is to save our democracy.”

“I’m going to run for office again one day,” she added. “But what I am committed to at this moment is building infrastructure to fight voter suppression, and to encourage people to engage in the Census.”

Cover: Stacey Abrams speaks at the University of New England, Wednesday, Jan. 22, 2020 in Portland, Maine. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty)