ATLANTA (AP) — Rhonda Briggins spent much of Election Day in 2020 at an Atlanta polling place handing out water and snacks to encourage voters to stay in an hourslong line to cast their ballots, something her historic Black sorority has done for decades in Georgia.
This election, Briggins and some of her thousands of sorority sisters are trading that role for a potentially more contentious one: ensuring voters aren't disenfranchised by a slew of new voting restrictions passed by the Republican-led Legislature. They include a ban on giving food and drinks to waiting voters.
The law, which a federal judge allowed to go forward this election cycle, was too confusing for the sorority to take a chance doing its traditional ”line relief,” said Briggins, chair of the Delta Sigma Theta Strategic Partnerships Task Force and a member of the sorority's Decatur alumnae chapter.
“The line between criminalization and being helpful is too close,” she said. “We don’t want to get to that point.”
Georgia is one of several states where voters will face new hurdles to casting a ballot during the November election under laws passed by Republican-led legislatures following former President Donald Trump’s false claims that voter fraud cost him reelection in 2020. The restrictions have prompted groups that assist voters to reorient themselves so they can avoid running afoul of new barriers.
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