✍🏾: @lexisryann
Black female elections officials and workers say they have faced harassment, threats, and criminal charges that forced some from their jobs. Across the country, elections officials and workers of all races and political stripes have similarly reported being targeted by election deniers and conspiracy theorists.
Helen Butler, who served on a Georgia county elections board, said she was forced from her seat by local Republicans after the 2020 presidential election. She says Monday’s indictments against former president Donald Trump and 18 others for alleged election interference were encouraging.
In Morgan County, where Butler served on the elections board since 2010, Elections Director Jennifer Doran said Butler’s removal was unrelated to her race or party affiliation.
Black female organizers like Butler and Stacey Abrams helped turn Georgia blue for Biden in 2020, a state Democrats had not won in nearly three decades.
Black women were Biden’s strongest supporters; 92 percent voted for him, boosting his margin against Trump. Black voters were also instrumental in flipping Georgia Senate seats for Democrats, giving them control of the U.S. Senate.
Since then, they have faced backlash from conservatives, especially supporters of the former president, who falsely claimed massive voter fraud in Georgia — Atlanta specifically — and demanded state officials reject the results.
Many of those removed from Georgia’s county election boards under the new laws have been Black Democrats, stoking concerns of disenfranchisement. Of about 15 counties that changed election boards under the state laws, at least a half-dozen have removed Black female board members. #BWLM💕
