Our Time Is Now: Power, Purpose, and the Fight for a Fair America

by Stacey Abrams

I met Diamond in 2014, after I converted the New Georgia Project from an Affordable Care Act sign-up program to one of the largest voter registration efforts in Georgia since the civil rights movement. At the time, she was a freshman at Columbus State University, a college a few hours west of Fayetteville, Georgia, where she’d been born and raised. She celebrated her eighteenth birthday while in high school, and she registered to vote at a high school registration drive. Once she got to college, she realized that getting home for her first election presented a logistical challenge. Diamond, like so many young people, didn’t have a car at school, so getting back to Fayetteville to vote would be nearly impossible. Worse, she’d have to miss class to try to make it work. Instead, she opted to change her address from Fayetteville to her new college domicile. Like a conscientious citizen, she updated her registration with a New Georgia Project canvasser in late August, her neat handwriting clear and easy to read. Months later, though, NGP reached out to her because, as of October 2, she had not appeared on the voter file. When we spoke to her, she still hadn’t heard from Muscogee County confirming her registration or noting a deficiency in her application. NGP kept a copy of her application—as we did for nearly every applicant—and we confirmed that her application was complete and legible. We also looked her up using the state’s online system. She wasn’t on the list and she wasn...