01.11.2018 Views

11.01.18

Create successful ePaper yourself

Turn your PDF publications into a flip-book with our unique Google optimized e-Paper software.

Voting Block<br />

STATES DEVISE DEVIOUS WAYS TO PREVENT MINORITIES FROM VOTING<br />

BY ALEX HENDERSON<br />

If Stacey Abrams had been around in the 1960s and entered Lester Maddox’s restaurant<br />

in Atlanta, she probably wouldn’t have been served.<br />

Maddox, who served as governor of Georgia from 1967-1971, was a segregationist<br />

Democrat who proudly supported Jim Crow laws and defied the Civil Rights Act<br />

of 1964 by refusing to serve black customers in his Atlanta restaurant.<br />

But much has changed in Georgia since then, and the 44-year-old Abrams stands<br />

a very good chance of becoming Georgia’s first female African-American governor<br />

— that is, if GOP gubernatorial candidate Brian Kemp doesn’t succeed in disenfranchising<br />

black voters in his state. Channeling the ghost of Maddox, Kemp, Georgia’s<br />

secretary of state, has suspended the voter registration of 53,000 Georgia residents<br />

— about 70 percent of whom happen to be African American.<br />

Kemp’s office has canceled more than 1.4 million voter registrations through voter<br />

roll purges since 2012, The Associated Press has reported. That includes 670,000<br />

canceled registrations last year alone, according to splinternews.com.<br />

Last month, Kemp was sued by a coalition of civil rights groups over the state’s<br />

“exact match” voting law of 2017, the primary tool that Kemp and state lawmakers<br />

have used to keep people of color off voter rolls by targeting minor discrepancies<br />

of personal information in existing registries, according to splinternews. Abrams,<br />

who could become the country’s first female black governor, has called on Kemp to<br />

resign.<br />

The New York Times reported that the 53,000 suspended voters would be able to<br />

cast ballots is they can show a proper photo ID that matches their registration.<br />

Abrams feared uncertainty would keep new voters away from the polls.<br />

“They get a confusing letter saying there’s something wrong with their registration,”<br />

she told The Times. “And more than likely they will sit out this election. The<br />

miasma of fear that is created through voter suppression is as much about terrifying<br />

people about trying to vote as it is about actually blocking their ability to do so.”<br />

Kemp’s effort to defeat Abrams by keeping her likely supporters away from the<br />

polls is so egregious and underhanded that the Rev. Al Sharpton has asserted that<br />

“Jim Crow would blush” over his actions.<br />

CONTINUED ON PAGE 11<br />

<strong>11.01.18</strong> | PASADENA WEEKLY 9

Hooray! Your file is uploaded and ready to be published.

Saved successfully!

Ooh no, something went wrong!