Georgia County Orders Elderly Black Voters Off Bus Taking Them To The Polls
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
Dozens of black senior citizens in rural Georgia were ordered off a bus bound for the polls after county officials said the event constituted prohibited “political activity.”
A Jefferson County clerk reportedly told staff members from the Leisure Center in Louisville on Monday ― the first day of in-person early voting in Georgia ― that roughly 40 black people couldn’t take part in the trip after receiving a complaint from an unnamed caller.
The trip had been organized by the nonpartisan Black Voters Matter, which is embarking on a bus tour across several southern states with the goal of urging black people to vote. The caller said the bus, which was painted with the words “The South is Rising Tour,” should not be allowed to bring people to the polls, reported The Atlanta Journal-Constitution .
Jefferson County Administrator Adam Brett said the trip, set to depart from a county-run senior center, was political and therefore violated guidelines imposed on county-sponsored events, the AJC reported. Although Black Voters Matter is a nonpartisan organization, Jefferson County Democratic Party Chairwoman Diane Evans helped organize the event.
Officials “felt uncomfortable with allowing senior center patrons to leave the facility in a bus with an unknown third party,” Brett told the AJC. “No seniors at the Jefferson County senior center were denied their right to vote.”
A representative for the Jefferson County Board of Commissioners did not immediately respond to HuffPost’s request for comment.
But Black Voters Matter co-founder LaTosha Brown pushed back on Brett’s reasoning for ending the trip.
“We knew it was an intimidation tactic,” Brown told the AJC. “It was really unnecessary. These are grown people.”
The hopeful voters were initially told by the senior center’s staffers that they could ride in a county van to cast their ballots but were then instructed to go inside for lunch and vote another day, according to Brown.
A video posted to Black Voters Matter’s Twitter page shows the senior citizens dancing and cheering before boarding the bus.
“What happened was a real issue,” Brown says in the video. “But it ain’t going to stop us. Can’t stop, won’t stop.”
Georgia is home to one of the most contentious gubernatorial races in the country. Accusations of voter suppression have swirled as Democrat Stacey Abrams, Georgia’s first black female nominee for governor, faces off against the state’s Republican secretary of state, Brian Kemp.
The Associated Press reported last week that over 53,000 voter applications ― nearly 70 percent of which were from black applicants ― were on hold with Kemp’s office.
This article originally appeared on HuffPost .Tags
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Georgia, at it again.
So how people get to the polls to vote is against rules?
Then they were told they could vote another day.
Clear suppression.
I'm assuming since the senior center is a county run facility, somebody didn't like the fact that non-profit buses picked them up to take them voting.
I don't understand why the non-profit buses can't pick up seniors and take them to the polling place. So what if they were picked up at the senior center? I bet nobody would have heartburn if these same buses were taking them to a religious event
They don't care if church buses go to polling places.
No, they certainly don't. And they also don't care if I have to vote in a church. Thank goodness I get to vote in the public library this year
What the hell is it to anybody how somebody gets the the damn polls? It is clearly an attempt to suppress those votes and intimidate! If churches can tell their flock who to vote for and bus them to the polls, what's the freaking difference? I see one myself, but want to hear it from you.
Georgia IS trying to suppress the vote for BLACKS more than any other group. You don't want to see or acknowledge it, I understand. (Seem to have no problem 'seeing' that voter fraud that doesn't exist, but whatever). Early voting is exceeding the last election exponentially, but tens of thousands have been disenfranchised by Kemp. If this were reversed republicans would be having shitfits.
That is ridiculous. Those stupid signature laws are a joke. This is yet another way people are having their votes nullified. Another way to disenfranchise people.
This was a bush league , petty, attempt at voter intimidation.
I have a funny feeling that Adam Brett, who voiced such "concern" about the safety of these senior citizens , is a Republican party hack. Any takers?
The only way, and I mean the ONLY way, anyone had a right to stop that bus, would be if the senior center was a secure facility, which it is not. Here is what the center advertises regarding off-site trips :
Jefferson Transit is a public transportation system, owned and operated by the Jefferson County Board of Commissioners and has served Jefferson County since 1987. Transit’s mission is to provide efficient, effective, safe and affordable transportation that will allow riders to access jobs, medical/dental offices, education, social service agencies, government offices, and for shopping/personal purposes.
Public transportation supports our Communities by helping people that cannot drive, seniors and persons with disabilities to fully participate in and contribute to our Communities.
Regardless of what Adam Brett stated, this was not a county sponsored event. It was a private outing, and private transportation was used. And speaking of county sponsored events, I couldn't find a single policy that forbids politically-themed outings.
Them folks should've taped the Stars and Bars to the bus and they'd get a police escort to their destination.
The article lost me when it referred to the far left terrorist group BLM as "non partisan". Then I saw it was from Huff Post. That explains everything.