By Elliott Brack
Editor and Publisher, GwinnettForum
APRIL 21, 2020 | Voting by mail is getting a lot of talk these days, as we have noted before. Millions of Georgia voters got applications to mail back to their county Elections Division if they wanted to vote by absentee during this pandemic period.
We suspect that many will.
Kristi Royston of the Gwinnett Elections office tells us that voters in the county can expect to get their absentee ballots mailed to their home on May 20. Most Gwinnettians will never have seen such an extensive list of candidates on the ballot. You will be voting for 19 candidates running for the three commission seats; seven candidates seeking three School Board posts; 13 candidates running for the 7th District Congressional seat (Woodall now the position holder); four candidates for the 4th District Congress post; and three for the 10th District seat.
There’s more. In the primary alone, there are 57 candidates running for 27 state legislative positions; seven Democrats are running for Senator David Perdue’s slot; and three people are vying for two posts on the Public Service Commission. That’s a lot of candidates! Runoffs coming!
You may have questions of these candidates. We urge our readers to review the positions of candidates and compare their answers to our online questions to them, available on May 19. GwinnettForum is now planning to list its endorsed list of candidates also on May 19, three weeks before the June 9 primary.
The most unreasonable aspect concerning voting by absentee ballot in Georgia we have seen so far has been the position taken by the Georgia division of the American Civil Liberties Union on mailing back in the absentee ballot.
The ACLU is bringing suit against election officials in Georgia for requiring voters to use their own 55 cents postage to mail in their ballots. “While the cost is small, any financial barrier to voting is barred by the Constitution,” the ACLU said in a complaint filed in federal court in Atlanta. The ACLU said requiring a voter to use his own money for postage is comparable to the poll tax, outlawed for decades.
We greatly respect the ACLU. It has often come to the defense of many in worthwhile causes. We respect what it stands for. Its web site says: “The ACLU’s mission remains realizing the promise of the Bill of Rights for all and expanding the reach of its guarantees. Beyond one person, party, or side — the ACLU dares to create a more perfect union. “ It has 54 offices throughout our nation.
However, we don’t think its stand on individuals having to pay postage on returning ballots is justified or reasonable. After all, unless a person lived within reasonable walking distance to the Gwinnett Elections Office on Grayson Highway, most people would have to drive to the office to deliver their absentee ballot, if not mailed. Should they live farther away, if not voting by absentee, they would have to get themselves to their voting precinct on Election Day to vote.
Driving to the polls costs gasoline to power their auto to the polls. Would the ACLU maintain that the county should pay for everyone’s fuel to get voters to the polls?
The ACLU should also recognize that in these extraordinary pandemic times, measures are being taken to safeguard maximum voting. The very act that the State of Georgia mailed everyone an absentee application goes way beyond normal limits in order to maximize the balloting.
Continue to guard our rights, ACLU. But this move concerning a 55 cent stamp is unreasonable in these times.
- Have a comment? Send to: elliott@brack.net
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