GOP lawmaker loses job for sponsoring controversial Georgia 'voter suppression' bill

[DonViejo]

Source: RawStory/GPB


Stephen Fowler, Gpb News
March 12, 2021

The Hancock County Board of Commissioners voted 4-0 Wednesday to ask Rep. Barry Fleming (R-Harlem) to resign as county attorney after pressure from citizens opposed to his work on proposed voting law changes.

Fleming is currently the House Special Committee on Election Integrity Chairman and primary sponsor of HB 531, a 66-page voting omnibus that would make sweeping changes to voting in Georgia, including limiting access to drop boxes and curbing larger counties' ability to offer a full slate of weekend voting.

Hancock has one of the highest proportions of Black voters in the country and has been the center of several voting controversies in recent years, including an episode in 2015 when a fifth of the voters in Sparta — all Black — had their voter registrations challenged.

One of those was Johnny Thornton, a retired DEA agent who lives and works on a catfish farm. Thornton was among several people protesting in Sparta before the commission's vote, and said that the pushback came after years of Fleming, who represents a multi-county stretch of east Georgia that includes Hancock County, being a "suppressor" instead of an advocate.

Read more: https://www.rawstory.com/barry-fleming/

[CurtEastPoint]

1. Too bad for whiny pube boy

[BobTheSubgenius]

2. "after years"???

What finally got them to wake up. It's business-as-usual for regressive bastards like Fleming. I'm sure he thought he'd get away with abrogating people's rights forever.

[Martin68]

3. Better late than never. Perhaps there's a change that's gonna come.