Our Democracy 2022

Increasing fare accessibility to the ballot box

Recent efforts to make voting more difficult and narrow how eligible voters can cast their votes are undemocratic, but they disproportionately disenfranchise voters of color, voters who lack access to adequate transportation, and other groups who have historically experienced voter suppression.

Minimizing access to the ballot box further enhances barriers to voting, prohibiting voter options when exercising the fundamental right to vote. Restrictive voting laws, passed within the last year, significantly minimize access to voting, limiting the number of ballot boxes available and when and where voter absentee ballot drop off is permitted. Such limitations significantly impact high populated areas like metro Atlanta, where allotted ballot boxes have drastically decreased. Current ballot box limitations also present challenges for rural counties, where voters are more likely to drive longer distances and have less access to public transportation.

It is therefore imperative to have representatives in office who are committed to proactively working with boards of elections to increase access to voting, including vote by mail, mobile voting, and provisional balloting option.

Endorse ranked-choice voting

Ranked Choice Voting removes barriers, leveling the playing field for candidates. Ranked-choice voting removes such barriers by:

1. Eliminating Split Votes and Spoilers: Numerous candidates with similar ideologies and backgrounds are running for the same seat, which is a regular plurality election that allows an individual candidate who has the most votes as the result of splitting the vote to win the election
2. Fuels Civil Campaigns: Ranked-choice voting often requires candidates to seek support amongst opponent’s supporters, which creates an incentive to campaign in a more civilized manner. It is not necessary to be someone’s first choice to benefit from ranked-choice voting
3. Campaigns are Issue Focused: Ranked-choice Voting encourages issue-focused campaigns, which encourages more people to become involved in politics
4. Cost-Effective: Depending on circumstances, ranked-choice voting can cost less. This is often the result of positive campaigning usually costs less than negative. Furthermore, it saves money on costly runoffs.
5. Majority Winner: Ranked-choice voting ensures there is a winner who has a valid mandate to govern.

End “Pay to Play” practices

It has become common for professional business entities to make substantial political contributions to campaigns of local elected officials and candidates who are or could be responsible for awarding professional services contracts. This type of behavior can easily be construed as “Pay-to-Play” and should be prohibited. Voters should be able to trust that elected officials are acting in their constituents’ interests and are not being influenced by campaign contributions, gifts, or other payments. In the interest of the good government, the establishment of a policy or ordinance that will avoid the appearance of improper influence in local elections to the extent that it is not inconsistent with state or federal law.

Such an ordinance would ensure that purchasing agents, departments, or instrumentalities of the municipality shall not enter into any agreement or contract to procure services from any professional business entity if that professional business has solicited or made any contributions of money or in-kind contribution to a candidate, a campaign, or a re-election campaign to any public officer having the responsibility of awarding a contract within a calendar year preceding the date of the elected officer taking office. It would also ensure that any such agreement or contract would be terminated for cause if the vendor made any payments to the public officials while the contract was in force.

Promote alternatives to eminent domain

Blight is the concept often used to implement urban renewal projects throughout Georgia. Promoting the revitalization of urban centers, these “blighted areas” are often used to rationalize eminent domain. This action often leads to the transferring of property from underserved minority communities to developers whose projects target and benefit the wealthy. This practice is responsible for wiping out entire neighborhoods as many communities lack the necessary resources to fight back. Common Cause Georgia focuses on transparency in the procurement process and eminent domain as we advocate for communities directly impacted by such practices.

Eliminating conflicts of interest among county employees running for office

Throughout the state of Georgia, there have been local municipal employees not recusing themselves while running for local office. This advantage is a crucial ethics and transparency concern as individuals employed by the county seeking office have access to information that a candidate who is a member of the general public is not privy to. Such information can give other candidates a more significant advantage than their opponents, which is an apparent conflict of interest.

Implement implicit bias training for Sheriff’s Offices

Community members and advocacy groups emphasize the history of racial profiling in policing and further argue that the system targets the most vulnerable citizens, who are primarily people of color and living under the poverty line and that such harsh means of punishment for minor offenses are racially motivated as the punishment does not adequately fit the crime. When approached with such concerns, law enforcement and local officials often cite a lack of evidence supporting the racial profiling claims. This wedge causes a further gap between law enforcement and the communities they serve.

An essential element to creating a successful collaborative initiative for enhancing community and police relations is generating a path to increase communication among these groups and break down stereotypes. It is not uncommon for communities, advocacy groups, and members of law enforcement to disagree. Therefore, getting such groups to see the humanity within one another and realize that while they may view the community from a different lens, they should focus on their shared commitment to serving the community. Additionally, emphasizing the Intersectionality between their roles within the community encourages an open-minded approach to discussing possible avenues for change.

Therefore, implementing implicit bias training for Sheriff’s Offices and establishing Community Advisory Liaisons to ensure that communities are at the center of safety and policing procedures will help to achieve such a goal.

Increase broadband accessibility

Reliable and affordable access to the internet is essential for everyday aspects of life. The unfortunate reality is that people in the United States pay some of the highest prices in the world to access the internet. Lack of internet access has long been a problem across the country. The COVID-19 pandemic further exacerbated the issue as access to the internet became even less obtainable for Georgians. The pandemic proved that accessing the internet at home is an essential resource. Yet, our nation’s most marginalized communities are hit hardest by the digital divide.

As the Emergency Broadband Benefit (EBB) program ended earlier this year, Georgia state officials announced almost $408 million in preliminary awards, which will provide communities, households, and businesses in 70 Georgia counties access to faster and more reliable broadband.

Such efforts are just the first step to mitigating the digital divide throughout the state, as there are still Georgians who lack adequate access to the internet.

Eliminating misinformation and disinformation

As the result of the 2020 election, Georgia became a crucial focus of the disinformation campaign pushed throughout the country. These narratives resulted in Georgia election officials, workers, and volunteers experiencing a high volume of intimidation, threats, and unwarranted scrutiny. Yet, they remained vigilant in their commitment to ensuring the accuracy of the General Election results. We, therefore, believe that elected officials play an essential role in helping to combat misinformation and disinformation, in addition to assisting with efforts to maintain constituent confidence in the election process.

Promote and practice transparency in disclosing campaign finances

SB 221 that went into effect last summer effectively allows the governor or lieutenant governor, or “the nominee of a political party for Governor selected in a primary election in the year in which he or she is nominated, or the nominee of a political party for Lieutenant Governor selected in a primary election in the year in which he or she is nominated” to create a “leadership committee.” This new law has provided loopholes in campaign financing that allows donation limits to exceed the previous cap(s) and has resulted in Georgia having some of the highest campaign contribution limits. Such changes to campaign finance laws put candidates who serve in leadership roles within the party in power at a more tremendous advantage than their opponents. Common Cause Georgia strongly advocates for fairness in every aspect of the election process, including campaigning and donations.