ATLANTA — With two months until the general election for key races in states across the country, Southern Poverty Law Center announced an investment of millions of dollars to expand outreach to communities of color in the Deep South.
SPLC and Community Foundation of Greater Atlanta on Monday announced more than $4.6 million in additional Vote Your Voice grants to 39 voter outreach organizations to five states across the Deep South, including Alabama and Georgia. A year ago, SPLC announced the award of $11 million to 55 civic and voter outreach organizations in these states.
“With the recent wave of unprecedented attacks on civil rights and liberties that disproportionately target communities of color, women and people with disabilities, it is more important than ever to defend our right to vote and make our voices heard,” said Lecia Brooks, chief of staff and culture for SPLC. “These grants will empower communities to get out to the polls, exercise their freedom to vote and stand up for their right to an equal voice in government.”
The grants are purposed to support voting education, registration and mobilization, especially among communities of color. The resources represent an addition to an earlier investment of more than $11 million in two-year grants made last year.
SPLC states the need is urgent in the wake of record-high turnout among people of color in the 2020 election, and as lawmakers in several states have enacted new laws since that some groups say limit voting access and particularly targets minority voters.
This year, Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey signed a bill (HB 194) that prohibits state and local election officials from accepting private donations to fund election-related expenses.
A press release from Ivey’s office indicates the bill is the result of Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg reportedly directing $350 million in donations to more than 2,500 election officials throughout the country “with the vast majority of these dollars finding their way to battleground counties won by (Democrat President) Joe Biden.”
Communities of color, especially Black voters, typically vote Democrat.
“Alabama Forward is excited to use these Vote Your Voice grants to empower communities, especially young Alabamians, to make their voice heard through their vote,” said Evan Milligan executive director of Alabama Forward, a policy advocacy nonprofit and recipient of the grant. “Through community organizing, we hope to one day create a system where everyone can have an equal voice in government to bring forward the needs and concerns of their communities, and to have those needs met.”
An analysis by the Brennan Center found that, with the exception of 2020, white turnout exceeded Black turnout by a wider margin in Georgia’s primary election this year than any year in at least 10 years. While 28% of Georgia’s white voting-aged citizens cast a ballot, just 22% of Black Georgians voted. In previous years, that gap never exceeded 3.5 percentage points, according to the Brennan Center.
It is unclear whether Georgia’s new voting laws that were approved in 2021 (SB 202) are a factor in the larger gap. As a key battleground state, Georgia’s new laws, in part, now require an ID to request and submit an absentee ballot; limits absentee ballot drop boxes; and like the Alabama law, prohibits donations to elections offices which many used for voter outreach efforts.
“It is by educating each other on the tenets of democracy, engaging in civic discourse and ultimately electing officials to represent and advocate for the things that we deem most important that citizens catalyze progress and change in our communities,” said Frank Fernandez, chief executive officer of the Community Foundation for Greater Atlanta.
Asian Americans Advancing Justice-Atlanta, and groups in Florida, Louisiana and Mississippi will also receive the grant.
