CUTHBERT, Ga. (AP) — Election officials in a majority black Georgia county voted Friday to scrap a widely condemned proposal to eliminate most of their polling places.
The elections board in Randolph County said concern about the proposal to close seven of nine voting locations in the rural county was “overwhelming,” and is “an encouraging reminder that protecting the right to vote remains a fundamental American principle.”
Black voters said they’d be disenfranchised by the plan to shutter the voting locations, which were just used in this year’s primaries.
An independent consultant recommended their closure because they don’t comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act. The county fired that consultant on Thursday.
Opponents questioned why a county would make it harder to vote during the hotly contested race for governor. Georgia’s top elections official, Republican Brian Kemp, is running against Democrat Stacey Abrams, who would become Georgia’s first black governor. Both said they oppose the plan.
The polling places in question had all been used for the primary election in May and the primary runoff election in July, and officials should have been aware of ADA compliance issues. Randolph County and the Department of Justice entered a settlement agreement in 2012 promising to fix the violations in three years. The settlement specifically included a section on polling place compliance. Aside from a grant used to fix issues in the courthouse, the updates didn’t happen, county attorney Tommy Coleman said.
Civil rights groups had protested the plan. The circumstances surrounding the proposal leave “a reasonable observer to wonder whether the real motive behind these closures is indeed to make it harder for African Americans to cast a ballot,” American Civil Liberties Union of Georgia attorney Sean Young said in a letter sent to county officials Aug. 14.
The NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund and the ACLU of Georgia sent a joint letter Wednesday to election officials in all 159 Georgia counties, urging them to avoid polling place changes that could disenfranchise voters.
So start organizing buses to take the dis-enfranchised to the remaining polling places.
Don’t let the GOP bastards get away with this…
Gotta fight these Republican fuckers every single day just to maintain and enforce basic Constitutional rights. Kudos to all of those who stood up to the Randolph County vote suppressors.
Well now those black folks are just gonna go vote and they’ll ruin EVERYTHING.
I hope.
I can just imagine how this would have gone down in court:
Judge: “So you’re closing something like 90% of the polling places in your county because you say they don’t comply with the ADA?”
County Asswipe: “Yep…teehee!”
Judge: “And you were responsible for designating these polling places int he first place, correct?”
County Assipe: “Yep…teehee!”
Judge: “Are you opening new polling centers to replace the ones you are closing?”
County Asswipe: “Nope…teehee!”
Judge: “But you are empowered to open additional polling places, aren’t you?”
County Assipe: “Oh, well, hem haw hem haw dunno about that something something funding blah blah empty budget!!!”
Judge: “Isn’t the real answer…now that you’ve identified a problem with existing polling centers…to fix it by simple leaving these polling places open and then open additional polling places that would assure accessible voting for the disabled, and then make every effort to publicize where they should go?”
County Asswipe: “Uh…uh…ummmmmm…aaaahhh…ummmm…no?”
Judge: “Preliminary injunction granted. In fact, I’m also going to allow the plaintiff’s motion for the mandatory injunction ordering you to open additional polling places that ARE compliant with the ADA and to publish their availability and locations in the local newspapers no less than 3 times per week until the election. Moreover, you will post signs at all noncompliant polling places providing the same information every day they are open.”
Apparently they realized this too. Frankly, I think the ACLU should STILL go to court and seek the order I just proposed. These racist fucktards actually identified a legitimate issue that they should be forced to address.
Decent.
Now, keep the Nazis in the pointed white hats away from “policing” them on Election Day.