Demonstrators turn back out in Georgia for No Kings, this time with their attention turned to voting

Felicia Murray Jackson’s sister, Linda Davis, died in February on her way to the Savannah school where she worked after a man fleeing immigration agents crashed into her vehicle. 

But that’s not why Jackson says she’s angry today. 

“Our government has packed us full of lies,” Jackson said to a crowd of hundreds gathered Saturday at Atlanta’s Piedmont Park. “The lies are that we are better divided than we are together, and I’m here to say that’s a lie. We are better together than we are divided. 

“My enemy is not my neighbor. My neighbor is my friend,” she added. 

According to the Current, the Guatemalan national that federal immigration agents said was in the county illegally did not have a criminal record in the country before the traffic wreck. 

“I just want you to know my sister did not die in a senseless, illegal, never-ending war. She died on her way to work, just like your mothers, your fathers, your kids, your grandkids,” Jackson said. “So I don’t want to hear you tell me how sorry you are for my loss. I want to hear you say, ‘I took your loss straight to the ballot box.’”

Jackson helped lead the assembled group on about a one-mile march through midtown Atlanta, ending at Saint Mark United Methodist Church where voting rights groups were on hand to train participants on how to help protect Georgia’s election. 

The event was one many held Saturday across the state as part of the latest round of No Kings demonstrations. This time, though, the nationwide mass mobilization event known for sign waving and marches focused just as much on urging people to vote early and to do their part to make sure others are able to exercise their right to vote. 

Early voting in Georgia started Monday, and as of Saturday, about 800,000 people had already cast a ballot. 

Tyler Groch, a trombonist and member of the Atlanta Coalition Ensemble, which is a mainstay of Atlanta’s protest scene, said he welcomed the educational focus of this wave of No King’s events.

“These marches are pointless if they don’t have a stated goal at the end, and this election is clearly under fire from the administration and all the people who support him,” Groch said. “To help educate people on how to stay safe and do what we can as individuals to protect the integrity of this election, I think that’s a very important thing for us to do.”

Several marchers filed into the church Saturday to hear what Andres Parra, a senior organizer with the nonpartisan Common Cause Georgia, had to say about being a poll monitor. 

Parra said Common Cause is still looking for people to serve as monitors at polling places across the state but particularly in metro Atlanta. 

Poll monitors are trained volunteers in the community that can help assist voters who may need help, but Parra said another important role is for them to document any issues that may stop people from voting, like a polling place opening late or a machine being down 

He says having poll monitors there to track these incidents help combat misinformation and ensure Georgians are able to cast their ballot. 

“The role of trained, prepared poll monitors at polling locations is going to be a really great need this cycle in particular for sure,” he said.