Making every Georgia vote count means removing every barrier to participation
Voting is the foundation of our democracy. It is the single most powerful act that allows us to directly shape the future of our community and country.
Yet in 2025, too many Americans still face obstacles when they try to exercise this most fundamental right. We ask people to stand in long lines, travel farther than ever before or give up a day’s pay.
We make voting harder when it should be as natural as breathing in a democracy. It is not a coincidence that this disenfranchisement targets Black and brown voters, who have historically been excluded from exercising their voice through their vote.
With an election in November, we must commit not just to defending the right to vote, but to reimagining how we guarantee that every voice is heard. That calls for bold action — making voting a national holiday and tearing down every barrier that stands in the way of participation.
We already have the foundation to do just that. In July, Sens. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., and Raphael Warnock, D-Ga., reintroduced the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act in Congress, which seeks to restore Voting Rights Act protections stripped away by the Supreme Court and to guard against discrimination at the ballot box.
Barriers to voting and low turnout harm Peach State citizens
Nowhere are the challenges clearer than in Georgia. Over the past decade, the consolidation of polling places has quietly devastated communities. When one neighborhood loses its voting site, everyone in that neighborhood faces a longer trip.
When multiple polling places close, lines grow longer and the burden heavier. For workers paid by the hour, missing time on the job to vote means losing wages they can’t afford to give up. These are not minor inconveniences. They are deliberate obstacles that add up to denied voices and diminished democracy.
The cost of low participation shows up everywhere, especially in local races that most voters barely hear about but that shape the everyday lives of Georgians.
Take the Georgia Public Service Commission, a little-known but immensely powerful body. The commission regulates utilities — determining how much families pay each month for electricity and gas. Since 2022, Georgia Power rates, with the approval of the PSC, have climbed a staggering 14%. All of the current commissioners are Republicans, each paid a six-figure salary. By law, regulators are supposed to face voters regularly. Terms were designed to last just two years. And yet, there have been no elections for the commission since 2020.
That means for five years, one of the most influential bodies in the state has operated without public accountability while repeatedly raising costs for ordinary Georgians.
With low public awareness and little media attention, it is all but impossible for challengers to raise resources, galvanize turnout, or compete on a level playing field.
This fall, the PSC race is the only statewide election in Georgia. There are two Democratic primary winners who will face off against incumbent Republicans in November. But without access, visibility, or investment, many voters will never even know it is happening.
These solutions would help increase citizen participation
The solutions are within our reach if we summon the will to act boldly. We should make Election Day a national holiday so that no one has to choose between a paycheck and participation.
Our national voter turnout hovers at less than 50%, while countries like Australia that observe voting day have a turnout of 90%. We should also strengthen the infrastructure of access — expand online voter registration, open satellite offices and invest in outreach that brings the ballot closer to where people actually live and work.
And we should look courageously to the future. Lowering the voting age may sound radical, but our democracy benefits when young people, whose futures hang in the balance of our policy choices, have the opportunity to shape those choices directly. Reimagining participation also means strengthening local democracy tables: coalitions of community organizations that work together to expand voting access and defend against suppression.
At every turn in history, progress came because people refused to settle for a democracy that served only the powerful. Georgia has always been at the heart of this struggle. What we do here echoes far beyond our borders. If we commit ourselves to removing every barrier — from polling place closures to economic hardship, from obscure election rules to deliberate voter suppression — we can build a democracy that finally reflects all of us. That is what it means to make every vote count. And that is the fight we cannot afford to lose.
Tamieka Atkins is CEO of ProGeorgia, an affiliate of the State Voices Network and part of a coalition of more than 60 civic engagement and advocacy organizations.
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