Penelope
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- Jul 15, 2014
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Officials Defend Plan To Close Almost All Polling Places In Majority Black Georgia County
Local officials say they need to close seven polling places because they aren’t accessible to people with disabilities. The ACLU says that doesn’t make sense.
Election officials in a rural southwest Georgia county are defending a plan to suddenly close seven of the county’s nine polling places against allegations of racial discrimination, saying the ones it wants to close are not sufficiently accessible to people with disabilities.
Randolph
County, the site of the proposed changes, is more than 60 percent
black, with a little over
30 percent of residents in poverty ― more than double the national level. The
Georgia chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union sent a letter to the
election board earlier this week warning of a lawsuit because the proposed
closures discriminated against black voters. Those voters, the group said, were
less likely to own a car and would be required to walk over three hours to one
of the two remaining polling locations because there is no public
transportation to get them there. The ACLU also noted the voter makeup of one
of the polling places officials wanted to close was 96.7 percent black.
Officials Defend Plan To Close Almost All Polling Places In Majority Black Georgia County | HuffPost
Fix them so they are all ADA compliant.
Local officials say they need to close seven polling places because they aren’t accessible to people with disabilities. The ACLU says that doesn’t make sense.
Election officials in a rural southwest Georgia county are defending a plan to suddenly close seven of the county’s nine polling places against allegations of racial discrimination, saying the ones it wants to close are not sufficiently accessible to people with disabilities.
Randolph
County, the site of the proposed changes, is more than 60 percent
black, with a little over
30 percent of residents in poverty ― more than double the national level. The
Georgia chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union sent a letter to the
election board earlier this week warning of a lawsuit because the proposed
closures discriminated against black voters. Those voters, the group said, were
less likely to own a car and would be required to walk over three hours to one
of the two remaining polling locations because there is no public
transportation to get them there. The ACLU also noted the voter makeup of one
of the polling places officials wanted to close was 96.7 percent black.
Officials Defend Plan To Close Almost All Polling Places In Majority Black Georgia County | HuffPost
Fix them so they are all ADA compliant.