Voter Suppression Still Hiding Out in Rural Areas

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" While the new administration continues to focus on unsubstantiated claims of vote fraud, across the country, communities continue to wrestle with the real and significant impact of voter suppression and voting discrimination. Some of the most egregious forms of voter suppression often play out in rural and isolated communities that are not under the national spotlight.

Take, for example, an issue from last Fall out of rural and majority-African-American Hancock County, one of the most economically disadvantaged counties in Georgia. The county’s majority-White Board of Elections decided to strip African-Americans of the right to vote on the eve of a hotly contested local election in which White candidates were challenging African-American incumbents for the Mayor and City Council of Sparta.

In 12 hearings held over the course of several weeks, the Board of Elections and its allies challenged the eligibility of nearly 20 percent of Sparta’s registered voters. Nearly all of those who were challenged are African-American, and the individuals initiating the challenges acknowledged targeting a politically active African-American neighborhood in Sparta called, “The Gut.”

Disturbingly, the local Sheriff’s office was involved in the scheme. The sheriff’s office was deployed to the homes of targeted voters who were issued summonses requiring that they come down to the local office to provide proof of their right to vote. The county’s former Supervisor of Elections acknowledged in a deposition that she believed the challenges were racially motivated. The Board’s actions would have been barred if the Voting Rights Act had not been decimated by a decision issued by the Supreme Court in 2013, Shelby County, Alabama v. Holder. But, instead it proceeded unfettered.

Most of the challenged voters were not notified of their challenge hearings, which were conducted at inconvenient times during work hours. The Board of Elections ultimately purged dozens of voters who did not appear at their hearings based on hearsay and unsubstantiated speculation.

One white member of the Board challenged African-American voters in her personal capacity as a Hancock County resident, then voted in her official capacity as a Board member to approve her own challenges."

 
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