Huffington Post has published a piece today on voter suppression taking place in Randolph County, a majority Black county in rural Southwest Georgia. Officials there plan to close seven of the county’s nine polling places supposedly because they do not provide sufficient accessibility to disabled people. If a building is not ADA compliant, according to election officials in Randolph County, the location must close.
Mind you, Georgia is voting for governor this November, and Stacey Abrams, who could be the first Black female governor in the United States, is on the ballot against an extreme, gun-toting, right-wing, voter suppressing Republican, Brian Kemp, who is also Secretary of State.
In a letter to the county board of elections, Sean Young, the ACLU of Georgia’s legal director, wrote:
“This is a Black Belt county that has twice the rate of African-American population as the rest of the state. With the ugly history of voting discrimination that Georgia’s a part of, you need to think twice before you eliminate 75 percent of the polling places in a majority black county,” Young said.
How can this happen? Remember how the Supreme Court gutted the Voting Rights Act of 1965, declaring, in 2013, that Southern states no longer had to get preapproval from the federal government to make changes to election practices because so much progress was made in reducing racial discrimination? Well, that decision appears to be the fodder to prevent Black people in Randolph County, Georgia from getting to the polls in November.
It appears Republicans are scared, since Randolph county is more than 60 percent Black, and has historically leaned Democratic.
In an interesting twist, Stacey Abrams’ opponent, Brian Kemp, stated:
“As soon as we learned about this proposal, we immediately contacted Randolph County to gather more information. Although state law gives localities broad authority in setting precinct boundaries and polling locations, we strongly urged local officials to abandon this effort and focus on preparing for a secure, accessible, and fair election for voters this November,” he said.
Thankfully, the elections board is facing great pressure to abandon this proposal. An elections board meeting held yesterday brought significant protest to the planned closings, and residents, along with the ACLU, are readying for legal challenges to the proposal, according to an article in “Politically Georgia.”
The plan will be voted on August 24th.