How voters with ethnic names can be disenfranchised

Georgia residents participating in Moral Monday March for voting rights and civil rights. Photo credit: Stephen Melkisethian / Flickr (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)

How does your name affect your right to vote? Many US citizens have already lost — or could still lose — their right to vote as a result of schemes put in place by Republican lawmakers in states they control. But following a lawsuit filed by the NAACP, Georgia recently agreed to correct its voter registration verification system, restoring the registration of over 42,000 purged voters in the process. It is a major victory for voter access. However, the case also illustrates that states that put in place voter suppression laws are not reversing them without a fight. Read about the intersection of names, IDs, and voting records, and how it’s more important than ever to protect voting rights.