"Georgia Elections Board To Close 75% Of Black County's Polling Places"

[JHan]

To the Members of the Randolph County Board of Elections and Registration,

The ACLU of Georgia writes to express grave concern about your discriminatory proposal to eliminate over 75% of polling places (7 out of 9) on the eve of the November elections. These polling place closures will virtually guarantee lower voter turnout in a Black Belt county that is predominantly African-American (60%), and will completely prevent rural voters without transportation (again, disproportionately African-American) from voting in person on Election Day.

The timing of your proposal is also suspicious and calls to question your true motives behind this proposal. These are the exact same polling places used in the primary and primary run-off earlier this year. It makes no sense to suddenly reduce the number of polling places for this November’s election, which will see far higher voter turnout than in the primaries or the primary run-off. Your proposal has also been plagued by procedural irregularities that cast further doubt about the real motivation behind these proposals.

Making it disproportionately harder for African American voters to cast a ballot—especially when done so deliberately—is a violation of Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act, 52 U.S.C. § 10301, and the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution.

We demand that you reject this proposal or you will face potential legal liability

https://crooksandliars.com/2018/08/georgia-elections-board-close-75-black

[tblue37]

1. K&R for visibility. nt

[Quixote1818]

2. Fuck this shit! Time to overwhelm the Georgia capital!!!! NOW! nt

[JHan]

3. These people only know how to cheat. It's disgusting.

[dchill]

6. When you know how to cheat...

You don't even have to know how to govern! You just keep cheating!

[global1]

4. And So It Starts - Disgusting......nt

[Johnny2X2X]

28. Starts?

This stuff has been going on for near 20 years now. Minorities nationwide face much longer lines to vote than whites. It's voter suppression and it's got to stop. There are so many distractions, but stories like this should be the ones that garner the headlines and outrage. People used to march because of stuff like this.

Anecdotally, I know people that stood in line for hours in the inner city here in Michigan in 2016 and finally gave up and went home.

[Granny M]

5. K&R nt

[Awsi Dooger]

7. Get it on every cable program

Hour after hour. Put them on the defensive. Everyone can see the clear intent of this.

Like we need another full night of nothing but the latest Trump stuff. Suppression should be the focus otherwise nobody knows and nobody cares.

[DemocracyMouse]

9. Agree!

[DemocracyMouse]

8. What next Georgia? Work without pay? You want to make the South great again?

[KY_EnviroGuy]

14. MSGA - Make slavery great again.

Overall, we're heading in that direction anyway - socially and economically.

Unregulated capitalism at its very best........ .........

[Demovictory9]

10. sick

[JohnnyRingo]

11. The ACLU is the only non-profit I regularly donate to.

This is why.

Often they are the only bulwark against such blatantly dirty tricks.
No wonder conservatives hate the ACLU. My money is well spent

[Cha]

12. DAMN the FASCISTS.

[JI7]

13. THIS is the type of stuff that hurts democrats the most

we spend too much time on type of candidates and other strategy. but just having a system allows for fairness in voting would help a lot.

[KY_EnviroGuy]

15. Republicans are attacking democracy from 100 fronts.

Their hubris and malfeasance never ceases to shock and amaze.

[SleeplessinSoCal]

16. Dems get the mail in ballots to those folks pronto.

[sakabatou]

17. If you can't win, cheat! It's the Republican waay!

[TexasBushwhacker]

18. 14th amendment their ass n/t

[betsuni]

19. K&R

[guss]

20. kneeling

This is why people take a Knee
injustice.

[DeminPennswoods]

21. The R candidate, Kemp, is the current GA Sec of State

So, this is just a blatant try to suppress the vote and shows he must be very worried about losing to Abrams.

[Roland99]

22. The county met Friday but I haven't heard any updates

[BumRushDaShow]

23. There was someone on Joe Madison's show this past Friday

who is from there and who lives there (and has family there), who happened to be on vacation in Martha's Vineyard when he had his broadcast there last week and he gave her the mic. She was livid as she said she had not heard that this was being considered. She said as soon as she got back there (this week), she was going to raise holy hell.

The county being impacted only has a population of about 7000 people and during the show, it was brought up that in some cases, if the closures happened (and it was noted that there is no public transit there), it would be a 3 hour walk to the nearest polling place.

[JHan]

24. Yup, will check if there's any new info out today.

[oasis]

25. Make America Great Again by rolling back the clock to the 1950s.

[Vinca]

26. Fire up the free rides and then fire the members of the Georgia Elections Board. Shameful.

[DeminPennswoods]

34. Send in the carpenters and construction pros

to update the polling places.

[sellitman]

27. This is horrific

Bastards!!!!!

[Ilsa]

29. We might need to get drivers from surrounding counties out

and organize it with the state and local D party. Make sure drivers have a special designation so no one is afraid to ride with a stranger.

Also, get early voting underway there with volunteer drivers.

But more than anything, stop Kemp from closing the precincts, and fire him from every govt job!

[Gothmog]

30. Georgia: Voting rights activists move to block a plan to close two-thirds of polling places in a maj

There will be litigation https://thevotingnews.com/voting-rights-activists-move-to-block-a-plan-to-close-two-thirds-of-polling-places-in-a-majority-black-county-the-washington-post/

Voting rights activists in Georgia say they will launch a petition drive in an effort to collect enough signatures of registered voters to block a proposal to close more than two-thirds of polling precincts in a predominantly black county ahead of this fall’s general election. The plan to shutter the voting sites in Randolph County, a rural community about 2½ hours south of Atlanta, has drawn dozens of local residents and progressive groups to two public hearings in recent days. The American Civil Liberties Union filed a formal protest with the county’s board of elections. Brian Kemp, Georgia’s secretary of state, which oversees elections operations throughout the state, has issued a statement urging Randolph County officials to “abandon this effort.” Kemp also is the Republican nominee in one of the country’s most-watched gubernatorial contests. The Democratic nominee, Stacey Abrams, a former state legislator, is seeking to become the nation’s first black female governor.

The two-member county election board – a third member stepped down recently – has scheduled a vote for Friday on the proposal to shutter seven of the county’s nine polling places, citing problems including facilities in disrepair or inaccessible to people with disabilities. But some activists are suspicious of the board’s motives, noting that Randolph County is more than 55 percent black and many residents have low incomes. The county, which covers 431 square miles, has no public transportation system.

All nine of the polling places were used for the May primaries and less than a month ago for statewide runoffs, in which Kemp, helped by an endorsement from President Trump, beat Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle for the GOP nomination.

[CrispyQ]

31. Kick.

Republicans, rat bastards everyone.

[Blue_true]

32. Isn't the republican gubernatorial candidate also head of elections?

To the people that say there is no difference. There is a difference, a very big difference. Democrats try to lift people up, republicans work to tear people down and divide them into warring factions.

[DeminPennswoods]

33. Yep

nt