Control of the U.S. Senate still hangs in the balance as two seats in Georgia are subject to a runoff election next month, and with both parties now focused on the state and a governor who has been sued numerous times over attempts to remove voters from the registration rolls, there is bound to be a lot of confusion and misinformation. To that end, Josie and the Pussycats star Rosario Dawson and Guardians of the Galaxy star Zoe Saldana have joined forces with Black Voters Matter and the Palast Investigative Fund to produce public service announcements urging voters in Georgia to check the status of their registration.
Videos by ComicBook.com
Ahead of the general election in November, almost 200,000 registered voters were removed from the rolls using methods that investigative journalist Greg Palast says were likely illegal. Black Voters Matter and the ACLU of Georgia has filed lawsuits aimed at mitigating the damage caused by what they say is a racially-motivated purge of legal voters by governor Brian Kemp, whose policies as secretary of state first got Palast’s attention before he was a governor.
You can see the PSAs below. Using the same data, Dawson provides her announcement in English, while Saldana adapts it for Spanish speaking audiences.
The state, traditionally conservative but getting more moderate in recent elections, voted for Democrat Joe Biden for President, kicking off millions of dollars in advertising spending for the runoff, along with widespread allegations of unproven fraud and a sense of dread among voter-rights groups that runoff voters will be harassed and intimidated.
Ahead of the general election, Palast released a short called The Purged, hoping to help voters get out ahead of the issues before a runoff was officially needed.
“It’s very easy for me to be non-partisan because I don’t take a position. Everyone should be allowed to vote and that’s it,” Palast told ComicBook.com ahead of the general election.
“To me, it’s not partisan,” Palast added. “It is racial and it’s also ageist in this election, but we’re dealing with a serious racial issue. And as a matter of fairness, equity, the constitution of the United States and as what’s right.”
Palast has been investigating voter suppression for decades; his book, The Best Democracy Money Can Buy, included a look at the purge lists used by state authorities in Florida during the contested 2000 Presidential election there. What Palast’s investigation learned is that the list, which supposedly named felons who were ineligible to vote under Florida law, was littered with inaccuracies, and that it disproportionately targeted voters of color for removal from the rolls.
