Current Events > Republicans in GA doing everything they to stop minorities from voting.

(+) Yeah! (+)

On Thursday evening, the election board of Randolph County, Georgia, met to discuss a startling proposal to eliminate three-fourths of the countys polling places months before the November election. A rural, impoverished, and predominantly black county, Randolph has just nine polling locations, all of which were open during the May primaries and July runoffs. The election board may soon shut down seven of them, including one in a precinct where about 97 percent of voters are black. Its plan would compel residents, many of whom have no car or access to public transit, to travel as much as 30 miles round trip to reach the nearest polling place.


o understand the brazen attack on black suffrage now occurring in Randolph County, its important to remember that Georgia is in the midst of a seismic demographic shift. As whites cease to be the majority in more and more counties, Republicans have clung to power by disenfranchising minority voters. Kemps opposition to the Randolph County plan marks the first time that he has adopted an affirmatively pro-suffrage stance. During his nearly eight years as secretary of state, Kemp engaged in mass voter purges, removing hundreds of thousands of voters from the rolls. State officials appear to have singled out black voters in targeted purges.

Perhaps most egregiously, Kemp launched an investigation into Abrams efforts to register more minority voters despite no evidence of fraud. He used the probe to harass and intimidate voting rights advocates. Later, he refused to register 40,000 would-be voters who had signed up through the drive. Speaking to Republicans behind closed doors, Kemp explained the stakes: Registering all these minority voters that are out there if they can do that, they can win these elections. During Kemps tenure, Georgias population has increased substantiallyyet the number of registered voters has actually gone down.

It should come as no surprise, then, that Kemp seems to have played a major role in the Randolph County poll closures. At the meeting on Thursday night, the election board revealed that the move had been encouraged by Mike Malone, an associate of Kemps. Malone, who attended the meeting, explained that Kempwho now claims that the poll closures are a bad ideahad asked him to go around the state and recommend polling place closures to various counties. Ten Georgia counties have already taken Malones suggestions and closed polling places. All of those counties have large black populations.

https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2018/08/georgia-voter-suppression-brian-kemps-bid-for-governor-depends-on-erasing-the-black-vote-its-working.html
--
The South never will change.
---

And we let them get away with it time after time after time, be it outright suppression or decades of gerrymandering
---

yeah this was a pretty bad issue, but please don't be so ignorant as to say "the south never will change". I'm sure you don't like us to sterotype you west-coast people as avacado, starbucks drinking liberal arts students
---

Sounds like they know they will lose.
---

It's crazy to the think people dont vote by mail. You fill out a ballot and mail it back.
---

Le__seul_dieu__ posted...

yeah this was a pretty bad issue, but please don't be so ignorant as to say "the south never will change". I'm sure you don't like us to sterotype you west-coast people as avacado, starbucks drinking liberal arts students

Better than being labeled racist because the South refuses to leave the past.
---

creativerealms posted...

Sounds like they know they will lose.

That's racist to think every black person is a Democrat
---

Le__seul_dieu__ posted...

yeah this was a pretty bad issue, but please don't be so ignorant as to say "the south never will change". I'm sure you don't like us to sterotype you west-coast people as avacado, starbucks drinking liberal arts students

You forgot antifa.
---

muchdran posted...

It's crazy to the think people dont vote by mail. You fill out a ballot and mail it back.

Disenfranchisement...how does it work??
---

Alabama did the same thing. They enact voter ID laws then proceed to close down DMVs in black neighborhoods

https://www.al.com/opinion/index.ssf/2017/01/as_it_turns_out_bentleys_drive.html
---

muchdran posted...

creativerealms posted...

Sounds like they know they will lose.

That's racist to think every black person is a Democrat

Well if they are registered republicans I'm sure they will be allowed to vote.
---

Increasingly, the fact that the Republican platform is at odds with the will of the public is being laid bare.
---

A happy ending for now

Dated August 24th

Cuthbert, GA (CNN)

In a meeting that lasted less than 60 seconds, a Georgia elections board voted down a plan Friday to close seven of a majority-black county's nine polling places ahead of November's midterm elections.

Critics had said the plan to consolidate polling places in Randolph County, Georgia, was a brazen attempt to suppress the black vote in Georgia's governor race, which pits former Georgia House minority leader Stacey Abrams, who is black, against Georgia Secretary of State Brian Kemp, who is white.

The vote came amid widespread national criticism and days after the county terminated its contract with Mike Malone, the consultant who made the recommendation. Malone had argued that closing the polling stations would save the county money, and that some of the sites suggested for closure did not comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act.

It's unclear whether the termination of Malone's contract impacted the vote.
Dozens of people lined up outside the county government building Friday morning before they packed a courtroom and faced the two-person Randolph County Board of Elections. The crowd was made up of folks from all walks of life -- black and white, young and old. Some attendees had to stand as the meeting was called to order.

Board of Elections member Michele Graham quickly offered a motion that the board make no changes to the county's voting precincts.

"There is a motion, and I second it," said J. Scott Peavy, rocking back and forth in his chair. "And the vote shall be -- all in favor, say 'aye.'"

"Aye," Graham said.

"Aye," Peavy said. "This meeting is adjourned."

Cheers, laughter and applause immediately broke out, and a jovial mood dominated the crowd as they filtered outside onto the front steps.

"We are excited about this moment, but we're watchful," said Edward Dubose, a member of the NAACP's National Board of Directors.

"This is a victory, but by no means should anyone relax. All of this happened under the leadership of Brian Kemp," Dubose said. "We need to follow the trail all the way back and search out all of these attempts to set us back in voting rights."

"This is a small example," he added, "of what's happening across Georgia to disenfranchise African Americans and minority voters."
---

never go full maga
---

This is old news. The county elections board already nixed it
---

ChainedRedone posted...

muchdran posted...

It's crazy to the think people dont vote by mail. You fill out a ballot and mail it back.

Disenfranchisement...how does it work??

Three states do this, what's stopping the rest?
---