This is our last chance to make our voices heard

NEWS AROUND THE SOUTH

Alabama
An unknown number of absentee voters in Alabama’s most populous county are at risk of having their ballots thrown out because elections officials mailed special instructions that became invalid after a recent court ruling. Voting rights groups have asked officials in Jefferson County to give voters who received now-defunct information a way to make sure their ballots aren’t rejected. [Buzzfeed News]

Arkansas
The state saw over 412,000 early votes cast in week one for the 2020 election. With eight days before Election Day, more people already have cast ballots in this year’s presidential election than voted early or absentee in the 2016 race as the start of in-person early voting in big states led to a surge in turnout in recent days. [THV11]

Florida
With the first week of early voting wrapped up, there was a steady flow of voters Sunday who showed up once the polling location opened in Brevard County. So far almost 75,000 people voted in the county; more than half of the total number for 2016 general election with 118,389. [Spectrum News News 13]

Georgia
Voter enthusiasm among all races is at an all-time high in one of the most consequential battleground states in the country. So is voter anxiety. Voters said anger over perceived voter suppression tactics is fueling their eagerness to cast early ballots. And indeed, Georgians are voting in numbers never seen before in the state’s history. Since Oct. 12, the first day of early voting, a staggering 2.7 million voters have cast a ballot — a nearly 110 percent increase from 2016. [POLITICO]

Kentucky
Secretary of State Michael Adams has announced guidance to protect voters from intimidation at the polls. “Voting is your sacred right. Don’t let anyone take it away — know your rights,” Adams said. [North Kentucky Tribune]

Louisiana
Statewide, 761,215 people have cast their ballots so far. That’s compared to 503,620 early ballots cast during the entire week of early voting for the November 2019 election, according to Secretary of State data. [KATC3 ABC]

Mississippi
The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) has launched a $25,000 digital advertising campaign that urges Mississippians to vote yes on a ballot measure, which would ensure that statewide candidates who receive the most votes win elections. The existing law created a two-tiered process for electing someone to statewide office, requiring statewide candidates to win the popular vote and a majority of House districts. If no candidate accomplishes both, Mississippi’s highly gerrymandered House of Representatives determines the winner. A relic of the Jim Crow era, this law has made it nearly impossible for a Black person to win a statewide election since it was enacted. [Southern Poverty Law Center]

North Carolina
As of Oct. 25, more than 3.1 million voters cast their ballot either by voting by submitting an absentee ballot by mail, hand-delivering it to an appropriate site, or voting at early voting polling locations. This compares to the over 3.14 million voters voted early in North Carolina in 2016. [Citizen Times]

South Carolina
As of last weekend, a record 463,000 people had voted in-person and 309,000 mail-in ballots had been returned in South Carolina. By comparison, the previous mark was the 2016 presidential election when 370,000 voted early in person and 133,000 voted by mail.[The Post and Courier]

Tennessee
During the first 10 days of early voting through Saturday, 1.65 million Tennesseans had cast in-person or absentee mail-in ballots. That’s a 39.84% increase, or 471,097 more voters, than the 1.18 million people who cast early ballots in 2016. [Chattanooga Times Free Press]

Texas
One week before the election and Texans have already cast as many early votes as they did in 2016 and are nearly 80% of the way toward hitting the total — both early and on Election Day. Early voters have cast more than 7 million votes, which is more than anywhere in the U.S. [KVUE]

Virginia
Just short of 2 million votes have already been cast in the 2020 election in Virginia, either through early voting or mail-in ballots that have been received at voting offices across the Commonwealth. The total number of votes cast, as of the start of business on Monday, represents 33.1 percent of 5,896,141 million Virginians who are registered to vote. For another frame of reference: there were 3,984,631 votes cast in Virginia in the 2016 presidential election. [Augusta Free Press]

West Virginia
More than 200,000 votes have been cast in West Virginia already leading up to the Nov. 3 election. Of the 205,572 votes cast so far, 109,292 have been by absentee, and a little more than 75% of all absentee ballots that were requested have been returned so far. Early in-person voting has drawn 96,305 votes so far through Saturday. [Eyewitness News Fox 11]