The ACLU of Georgia's 2024 LEADers at last year's Annual Membership Meeting.
Amid a series of attacks on democracy, including an attempt to erode the Voting Rights Act, we are seeking volunteers to ensure the state’s elections are fair, secure, and accessible through our successful program — the Local Election Advocates and Defenders (LEAD).
ACLU of Georgia LEADers are embedded in their counties to closely monitor and advocate for voter access. Their responsibilities include attending local Board of Elections meetings, reporting on potential issues, and advocating for voter-minded policies and practices.
This summer, the ACLU of Georgia planned meetings where volunteers heard directly from elections officials to learn more about how to defend against a tide of harmful voting-related bills. Volunteers in the current program also received additional training to speak during meetings across the state where Georgia House representatives are evaluating election policies and gathering recommendations for the 2026 Legislative Session.
We expect to see more voter suppression bills in the upcoming session and need more volunteers to keep them from passing. The program offers many opportunities to get involved. Want to lend a hand? Apply to be a LEADer here.
In 2025, our voting experts and the LEADers influenced voting rights legislation down at the capitol and built valuable relationships with lawmakers. This summer, the team held two virtual panels featuring election leaders.
The officials discussed the impact of recent legislative changes, such as SB 202 and SB 189, on election administration, including increased costs and administrative burdens. They also spoke about challenges like voter turnout and misinformation.
Travis Doss, Executive Director for the Richmond County Board of Elections and President of the Georgia Association of Voter Registration and Election Officials (GAVREO), told our LEADers, “Those bills prompted big changes and kind of created a trend for omnibus bills to emerge every session. We’ll be looking for the two omnibus bills introduced this session (HB 397 and SB 175) to come up again in 2026, each having some good things and some bad … It’s the ebb and flow of being an elections administrator. We know there are things we’ll have to change and get done, and that’s the way it works.”
A second meeting featured a panel discussion with election board members from various counties — Athens-Clarke, Gwinnett, Cobb, and Forsyth. The speakers highlighted setting local policies and the headaches caused by mass voter challenges.
“The state has made it very, very easy for citizens to bring mass challenges to their boards. Sometimes we’ll get thousands of voter challenges at one time. That took up a lot of our time last year,” said Stacy Efrat, secretary for the Cobb County Board of Elections and Registration.
Our volunteers said they learned a lot from the meetings. Katherine Gauntt, who works out of DeKalb County, noted her biggest takeaway was that “each county is making a herculean effort to adhere to the ever-changing legislative mandates while ensuring the voter's experience is accessible, organized, auditable, and legal.”
