Ill-fated plan to close polling places in Georgia county recalled lingering prejudice

CUTHBERT, Ga. —Some residents of this town are old enough to remember when government officials would intimidate and punish black residents for trying to exercise the right to vote. Others, having come of age when an African American man was president of the United States, thought the days of such brazen discrimination were long past.

But nearly everyone saw a recent proposal to close more than two-thirds of the polling places in Randolph County, a predominantly black community in southwestern Georgia, as a reminder of the lingering traces of the state’s history of voter suppression.

After a week of ferocious pushback — including two packed town-hall meetings in which residents berated local elections officials, as well as warning letters, threats of lawsuits by civil rights groups and national media coverage — county officials fired the consultant who came up with the plan and signaled that they would vote it down at a meeting Friday.

The Randolph County Board of Elections voted down the proposal to close seven of its nine polling locations, saying no changes would be made. The meeting Friday of the two-member board lasted no more than five minutes.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/ill-fated-plan-to-close-polling-places-in-georgia-county-recalled-lingering-prejudice/ar-BBMnzVp?li=BBnb7Kz