Getting Out the Vote in Georgia
The government of Georgia announced that local elections, originally expected for November, would be held on October 5. Two Eurasia Foundation grantees are quickly responding to assist in making the election as smoothly as possible.
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| Posters urge citizens to “Check Yourself on the List” and meet eligibility deadlines in order to vote in the October 5 local elections |
New Generation - New Initiative (NGNI) was awarded a grant in July focusing on increasing public confidence in the electoral process by streamlining and improving the General Voters List. NGNI has quickly shifted its activities to educate people about the upcoming elections and to urge them to get out and vote. In the coming weeks, they will be distributing fliers and posters as widely as possible with the slogan “Check Yourself on the List”. Under new local election legislation, voters have until September 12 to verify their information on the general voters list so that they will be eligible to vote on Election Day. In addition, NGNI will be conducting a door-to-door campaign from September 6-10 to conduct random checks on the accuracy of the general voters list. Errors will be forwarded to the Central Election Commission so that hey can be corrected in time.
Another Eurasia grantee, the International Society for Fair Elections and Democracy (ISFED) was awarded a grant to increase the participation of the youth and first-time voters in the election. Their project encompasses the implementation of a country-wide training program for 1200 first-time voters, including 600 from ethnic minority groups, on the new election code and election monitoring skills. The trainees will act as volunteer observers during the upcoming elections. In addition to training first-time voters, ISFED decided to conduct a broad voter education campaign, explaining the major principles of the new local election law and helping to ensure an informed choice. Their concise brochures explain how the local councils are structured and how they are elected. This project is co-financed by the National Endowment for Democracy. Both organizations have USAID sub-grants for election day monitoring and parallel vote tabulation.
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