Republicans want to close seven of nine polling places in Randolph County, a rural, majority African American slice of the state with 7,000 residents. The county covers 431 square miles; there’s no public transportation system. All nine polls were just fine in May, during the primaries, and last month, for statewide runoffs.
The architect of this proposal, consultant and accomplished vote suppressor Mike Malone, has cited sudden and timely concerns about accessibility under the Americans with Disabilities Act. These concerns popped up, of course, as the gubernatorial election approaches. Democrat Stacey Abrams is relying on voter registration and mobilization, particularly among voters of color.
Randolph County is only the latest battle against voter suppression. Albeit, thankfully, one we can still win.
Georgia Secretary of State Brian Kemp has spent nearly 10 years in that office installing voter suppression measures. He’s targeted voter registration organizations that registered nearly 200,000 voters of color. Using a data crosscheck program, he disenfranchised almost 35,000, two-thirds of whom were African American. Latinx and Asian-American voters were more than six times more likely to be blocked than white voters.
The net effect? Georgia’s population has increased since 2012, but the number of registered voters has decreased. None of this comes as a surprise: Kemp’s been caught on tape warning Republicans that Democrats are “registering all these minority voters that are out there and others that are sitting on the sidelines.”
At the same time, Kemp’s refused to take cybersecurity seriously; he didn’t even accept federal funds for updates until an organization proved Georgia’s vulnerabilities by reconfiguring its voting machines from a hacking convention in Las Vegas in 2016.
Malone cited Kemp’s “consolidation” policies in a presentation to the Randolph County elections board.
Consolidation has come highly recommended by the Secretary of State and is already being adopted by several counties and is being seriously considered and being worked on by many more.
“The trend in Georgia and other states is to reduce polling places to reduce election costs and this is being accomplished by consolidating polling places into more combined vote centers.”
Consolidation policies were meant for areas where most voters vote by mail, not for a county where consolidation will deny most voters an opportunity to vote at all. Kemp’s claimed he’s against the plan, but it’s a page straight out of his playbook. A wink-nudge “don’t do it,” if you will.
What’s next: The now two-member elections board will vote on the proposal to close the seven polling places on Friday. After that, the county commission will have an opportunity to overturn the election board’s decision.
If you think voter suppression in Georgia is outrageous, support Stacey Abrams by contributing to her campaign today.