Students Unable to Cast Ballot Due to Election Irregularities Speak About their Experiences

Three undergraduate and graduate students spoke about the difficulty they faced in casting their ballots. On a press call hosted by Abrams for Governor Campaign, the students spoke about the extreme obstacles placed in their way when they attempted to exercise their constitutional right to cast their vote in the Georgia election. Several of the students still have not received confirmation about whether their vote has been counted. 
  
“When I went to cast my ballot, excited to voice my support for Stacey Abrams, I was told I was not a U.S. Citizen. This was confusing as I was born in New York City. […] I showed them my social security number, my passport card, my Massachusetts license and my Emory ID, but I was still only allowed to vote provisionally…” said Phoebe Einzig-Roth, current freshman at Emory University and voter in DeKalb County. “In the following days, I went into the elections office to confirm my provisional ballot would be cast. There, I was told I could not be helped  because I was not provided with a receipt explaining why I was told to vote provisionally in the first place. […] Today, my vote is still not listed as it was counted. As a student and as a millennial, I know that my voice counts. I know that if I faced these problems, thousands of other Georgians across the state were facing them as well. We must work together to ensure these issues don’t affect elections in the future.”
 
“As a regular voter who has voted in previous elections, I am outraged I was not given a chance to cast my ballot,” said Mounika Pogula, graduate student at Notre Dame and regular absentee voter in Gwinnett County. “I am the daughter of immigrants, so voting and practicing my rights as a citizen are very important to me and my family. I think that the very obvious voter suppression that was prevalent this year with Brian Kemp as Secretary of State was extremely outrageous. He is unfit to be the Governor of our state.”
 
“I requested my absentee on Oct 22 when I mailed it in and I never received it. According to the Secretary of State’s website, my application for an absentee ballot was received and my ballot was issued on October 25th, but it never made it to me. At first, I assumed it was a mistake, but since election day I have heard from several friends who also didn’t receive ballots,” said Emily Johnson, senior at Harvard University and voter in Chatham County. “Stacey Abrams campaign has given me a lot of hope that my fate could change, but it seems like the Secretary of State’s office did all they could to rig the election and obstruct voting. I really hope the election results don’t leave people like me and my peers and other voters disillusioned because I know we as citizens as a state as a country can do better. This is a problem that must be fixed before another election.”

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