RELEASE
THE VOTE
Building Power
Barred Business believes that to build real power, we must be able to choose who governs us. Government officials are constantly creating and supporting systemic racist laws and policies that impact our lives as justice-impacted Black people. We have to vote to have any chance of making our lives better.
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We are committed to registering 5,000 criminal justice-impacted people to vote—and to mobilizing and activating our community. But we need to find our people! Justice-impacted people are not easily located in traditional voter data bases. So we’re getting out into the community to identify them and get them registered to vote.
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For the 2022 senatorial run-off election in Georgia between Senator Raphael Warnock and Herschel Walker, Black Voters Matter, Solidaire, and Movement for Black Lives grants supported our GOTV (Get Out The Vote) initiative in South and West Metro Atlanta—neighborhoods with the highest concentration of unemployed and economically struggling Black people. While other progressive canvassing programs might have been reluctant to canvas there, we were not. These are our communities, where our friends and families live, including those who—like us—are formerly incarcerated. For the run-off, we coordinated people from other Metro Atlanta organizations for canvassing by justice-impacted people, phone and text banking, literature drops, and rides to the polls.We powered two canvassing teams, with 80 canvassers available on any day to go out into the community.
Can I Vote?
We are here to educate you on your rights as a formerly incarcerated people.
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You are eligible to vote if you are not currently serving a term for a criminal conviction.
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Voting rights are unaffected by offenses at all.
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You can register to vote and exercise your right to vote after serving your sentence for a crime.
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As long as your conditional discharge or first offender status hasn't been revoked, you are eligible to vote while serving a sentence for a crime.
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You may vote as soon as you finish probation. According to the Georgia Secretary of State, all penalties for people who are on probation are immediately annulled when you finish probation. You can still vote after your term is finished, regardless of whether you still owe restitution or other penalties.
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If you have questions about your eligibility to vote, contact us at free@barredbusiness.org