2025 Policy Priorities for Georgia

Strengthening Democracy and Voting Rights

Quick Facts:

• SB 202 and SB 189 suppress voters and undermine our democracy by targeting young voters, voters of color, individuals with disabilities and unhoused voters while overburdening election administration with unfunded mandates and inadequate infrastructure. This systemic attack on voting rights is a crisis and demands urgent action.

The fight for voting rights is also the fight to preserve democracy itself. Therefore, it is crucial that every level of election infrastructure be fully funded and fully trained. Additionally, every level of government must actively protect the fundamental right to vote. Without decisive action and sustained effort, the right to vote remains under assault — especially in communities of color — and the future of our democracy hangs in the balance.

Extremist forces in Georgia are putting our democracy at risk by enacting laws that reflect conspiracy theories, not facts. Two recent examples are weaponizing policies like the infamous SB 202 (passed in 2021), which prevented people from supporting voters by giving them water bottles, and the recently adopted SB 189, which allows bad actors to use inaccurate information to challenge the eligibility of voters. These policies suppress voters and undermine our democracy by targeting young voters, voters of color, individuals with disabilities and unhoused voters while overburdening election administration with unfunded mandates and inadequate infrastructure. This systemic attack on voting rights is a crisis and demands urgent action.

In 2025, we will release a critical research study with Emory University’s Imagining Democracy Lab and the Georgia Coalition for the People’s Agenda, exposing how restrictive voting laws and unfunded mandates undermine election administration and voter access. We will use this research and the lessons from the last three elections to mobilize communities and drive legislative action.

Recommendations

• Create a joint study committee on election funding at the General Assembly.
• Increase funding and training for election administration.
• Pass a Georgia Voting Rights Act to counter attacks on voter access.
• Authorize automatic and same-day voter registration.
• Allow for permanent vote-by-mail requests with prepaid postage for ballot returns.

Strengthening Democracy and Voting Rights

Quick Facts

200kGeorgians are disenfranchised as a result of felony convictions.

• 5.2% of Georgia’s Black voting-age population, or more than 100,000 people are denied the right to vote.

Every Georgian deserves the right to vote, regardless of their involvement with the criminal legal system. Yet, Georgia’s policies that block the right to vote are more restrictive than 24 other states. Since the 1980s, Georgia’s constitution has weaponized the vague and discriminatory standard of “moral turpitude” to strip voting rights from people with felony convictions who are in prison, on probation, or on parole. As a result, Georgia disenfranchises its residents at a rate of 3.1% of the voting-age population, or more than 200,000 Georgians, which is higher than the national average of 2.0%. Black Georgians are disproportionately affected. Over 5.2% of Georgia’s Black voting-age population, or more than 100,000 people, are denied the right to vote, a stark indicator of the systemic racism embedded in these policies.

The SPLC leads the fight for enfranchisement through its partnership with the Rights Restoration Coalition of Georgia and the No Taxation Without Representation Campaign. We are working to raise awareness of felony disenfranchisement, repeal the “moral turpitude” standard within our constitution that is used arbitrarily to disenfranchise those with felony convictions, and expand civic engagement for returning citizens. In 2025, we will deepen our efforts by reaching broader audiences through virtual town halls and grassroots partnerships with faith leaders and communities to foster intersectional advocacy and empowerment.

Georgia thrives when every voice is heard and every citizen can fully participate in democracy. Mass disenfranchisement has been used to silence thousands of voices, deny representation and perpetuate inequality. We must end this injustice to strengthen democracy. The SPLC will advocate for the passage of a comprehensive state voting rights act to make voting more accessible to more people.

Recommendations

• Enact legislation to revise the Georgia Constitution, and adopt any necessary companion legislation, to enable the restoration of voting rights to individuals with past criminal convictions upon release from prison, regardless of their outstanding fines, fees, restitution, probation or parole status.
• Implement universal voter registration for those returning to their community after incarceration.

Dismantling White Supremacy

Quick Facts

• Across the metro Atlanta area, political intimidation, bomb threats and swatting incidents disrupted the democratic process by endangering voters, officials, poll workers and volunteers.

Since 2020, Georgia has been at the epicenter of a national political crisis driven by conspiracy theories, propaganda, and disinformation; this culminated in escalated threats of violence during the 2024 election. Across the metro Atlanta area, political intimidation, bomb threats and swatting incidents disrupted the democratic process by endangering voters, officials, poll workers and volunteers.

The SPLC leads the Georgia Anti-Political Violence Coalition to counter these threats and empower communities to embody democratic ideals. In 2025, we will host community events focused on violence prevention and resilience-building, targeting metro Atlanta and Georgia’s Black Belt. We will also convene civic engagement and voting rights advocates for scenario preparation which includes training for how to mitigate and respond to political violence in the lead-up to municipal elections.

We oppose any policies that directly or indirectly increase the risk of political threats or harm. We will continue to support survivors of political violence through the Community Advisory, Resource & Education (CARE) Centers launched by the SPLC and the Polarization & Extremism Research & Innovation Lab at American University. Using an approach centered on public health, CARE Centers provide on-site trainings, support and resources to those impacted by hate, discrimination and supremacist ideologies, as well as target groups susceptible to radicalization.

Recommendations

• Implement the SPLC’s policy recommendations on preventing political violence at the state and local levels.
• Create legal protections for election workers, officials, volunteers and voters to ensure Georgia’s electoral process remains safe and accessible.
• Invest in strengthening community resiliency, promote and provide training on de-escalation practices, and combat extremism.

Ending Unjust Imprisonment

Quick Facts

19University of Georgia students’ tuition could be paid for with the money taxpayers spend to incarcerate a single child—$217,517 annually.

• Black children in Georgia’s schools make up 37.5% of students, they also make up well over half of all out-of-school suspensions, expulsions, and assignments to alternative schools.

Georgia’s youth incarceration policies prioritize punishment over rehabilitation and are rooted in decades of biased political decisions and white supremacy. Our system is engineered to be one of the toughest in the country; this has created stark racial disparities, pushed children out of schools and caused well-documented harms to youth in detention. The unacceptable and egregious nature of these harms has required federal intervention and costs Georgia taxpayers $217,517 annually to incarcerate a child — the equivalent of 19 students’ tuition at the University of Georgia.

SPLC’s Only Young Once report offers a clear, evidence-based roadmap to transforming Georgia’s broken system into one that prioritizes fairness, effectiveness, and rehabilitation. While Black children in Georgia’s schools make up 37.5% of students, they also make up well over half of all out-of-school suspensions, expulsions, and assignments to alternative schools. Our state’s zero-tolerance policies often lead to the suspension of students for minor infractions like vaping, which produced over 22,000 disciplinary actions in the 2022-23 school year. Further, in Georgia, Black youth comprise over 60% of all youth court referrals, delinquent adjudications, youth that are incarcerated, and youth sentenced in adult court.

Georgia should redirect resources toward transformative policy reforms to empower young people to thrive and lead productive lives. Additionally, Georgia’s economy and residents would be best served by an investment in pathways that foster opportunity, growth, and equity for all children instead of isolation and criminalization. The first step must be to address the overemphasis on punishment that results in dual harms — pushing Black children out of traditional schools at a disproportionate rate and promoting the prosecution of children as young as 13 as adults for certain offenses.

Recommendations

• Raise the minimum age of youth adjudication and incarceration in the state from 10 years to at least 14 years.
• Make nonviolent offenses and low-level drug offenses non-jailable for youth. Make technical violations and status offenses non-jailable and nonarrestable for youth.
• Fund diversion programs for youths as an alternative to incarceration. Examples include community-based alternatives, school-based policies and programs that prioritize rehabilitation, counseling, tutoring, and drug use treatment services.
• Amend all public education laws to ensure they are compliant with the federal Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA).
• Prioritize compliance with IDEA and ensure students receive the special education services they are entitled to under the law.

Eliminating Poverty and Economic Inequality

The lack of affordable housing options devastates Black and low-income Georgians, amplifying the state’s urgent housing crisis. Local, state, and federal officials in Georgia have an opportunity — and an obligation — to expand access to secure, affordable, and stable housing in order to prevent the ongoing displacement of unhoused adults and children from their communities.

In 2023, the Georgia State Senate released a Study Committee Report on Unsheltered Homelessness, offering recommendations to address this crisis. In 2024, the SPLC’s Sheltering Injustice report exposed the devastating impact of criminalizing homelessness, which disproportionately harms people with disabilities, LGBTQ+ individuals, and Black Georgians. These punitive and costly practices perpetuate fear and trap vulnerable populations in cycles of incarceration and instability.

To start, Georgia must foster collaboration across agencies and support evidence-based programs like cash assistance, anti-discrimination policies, and tenants’ rights protections. Any policy change considered must center the voices of unhoused Georgians, particularly students and teachers, and invest in solutions that have been shown to benefit the vulnerable populations by building a bridge out of poverty.

Recommendations

• Create an Inter-Agency Council on Homelessness, ensuring directly impacted Georgians have a seat at the table to drive solutions.
• Reinforce the dignity of its residents by allocating U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) funds to ensure quality, affordable housing for Georgians — regardless of their economic, physical, or mental health status.
• Address the needs of local unhoused populations and the drivers of homelessness by investing in alternative strategies, such as affordable and secure housing, which has proven successful nationwide.
• Reject criminal penalties for people experiencing homelessness who establish encampment areas or solicit assistance.
• Clearly define the rights of unhoused individuals and families to minimize interactions with law enforcement and unnecessary and harmful jail time.