Voting rights activists in Georgia say they’re creating a petition to collect enough signatures from registered voters to block a proposal that would close more than two-thirds of polling places in predominantly black #RandolphCounty before this fall’s general election, the @washingtonpost reports.
The local election board, which only consists of two members, will vote Friday on the proposal to shut down seven of the nine precincts ahead of the upcoming election. Critics of the proposal say this is obvious voter suppression in a county where more than 55 percent of residents are black. The county, which covers 431 square miles, also has no public transportation system.
All nine polling places were actually used for the May primaries and less than a month ago for the statewide runoffs. County officials say the closures are necessary because the sites were not compliant with the Americans With Disabilities Act and there’s not enough time to fix them before the November 6th general election, suggesting affected residents could vote by absentee ballot.
The #AmericanCivilLibertiesUnion filed a formal protest with the county’s board of elections saying officials are not solving problems of accessibility for people with disabilities by reducing access for people without disabilities. The letter from the ACLU also states that this is a clear violation of the #VotingRightsAct because it would have a negative effect on African American voters.
We’ll keep you up to date on this story, #Roommates.
TSR STAFF: Christina C! @cdelafresh
