Atlanta organization helps formerly-incarcerated Georgians have a voice on election day

Bridgette Simpson says life was difficult and lonely when she got out of prison in 2018. Fast forward to today, and she is surrounded by her team of voting rights advocates at her organization, Barred Business.

Based in Atlanta's Mechanicsville neighborhood, the organization helps people who have been incarcerated or otherwise impacted by the criminal justice system get to the polls.

"We've served our time, and we want to leave that time behind and move forward," Simpson said.

According to the Georgia Justice Project, about 40% of the 11 million people who live in Georgia have a criminal history. The team at Barred Business says that group, people who have finished their sentences (including parole and felony probation) and have met the state's voting requirements, has major voting power.

Simpson says her organization has knocked on more than 100,000 doors across 16 Georgia counties since May. It hopes to reach even more people by the midterm election.

She says some of the most passionate voters are seniors barred from public accommodations because of their criminal histories.  

"So we have our folks that are really fired up, or their grandkid has gone through an episode, or they're new parents because their child is in jail or prison," Simpson said.  

Roslynn Calhoun, the re-entry and partnership coordinator for Barred Business, is finishing probation for a robbery charge and hopes she can vote in the upcoming election.

"I've always encouraged others while I haven't been able to vote, like, 'Can you vote in my honor?'" Calhoun said.

Corry Thompson says he didn't know he could vote in Georgia after he finished his sentence until he learned more about his voting rights. Now he is the lead community organizer for Barred Business.

"Just living in this rat race, too, also. People feel like, 'Oh man, I got to pay the bills, I got to do this.' But they don't understand that the people that you put into office, the people that you put into office is the people that gone make it where you can't afford to pay the bills and afford to stay where you stay," Thompson said.

Simpson says in addition to voter outreach, her team is pushing for protected class protections in Clayton County for people with criminal records. The organization successfully advocated for that in the city of Atlanta in 2022, when an ordinance was updated to add those protections. They say many justice-impacted people getting priced out of Atlanta are moving to Clayton County.

Simpson says the community she found in prison, and while temporarily living under a bridge after she first finished her sentence, is what keeps driving her to help voters with shared struggles almost a decade later.

"Ultimately, community is what you make it. It's where you are," Simpson said. "It's who supports you. It's who you support. It's who feeds you and who you feed. That ultimately becomes your community."