Voter Suppression in the Georgia Governor’s Race

Thus far the Georgia gubernatorial elections have been associated with many instances of voter suppression whereby there have been some allegations that the state officials are trying to do away with the black vote. Brian Kemp and Stacey Abrams are among the candidates who are campaigning for this post. Kemp, who is presently the secretary of the state and a candidate in the elections has refused to step down claiming that he wants to ensure integrity during the elections by diminishing voter’s suppression. This is so ironic because according to the new reports he is one of the officials who is killing the black voter’s power. There has also been leaked audio of Kemp complaining of an increase in the voter turnout. It is also this period when there have been many allegations of voter suppression, for instance, holding identity cards and oppression of the black community’s right to vote.

The Withholding of Identity Cards

Fifty thousand identity cards did not match with the state records because they contained some errors of like, signature mismatches. The cards were put on hold, and the owners were not allowed to vote until they fixed the problem within twenty-six days, failure to do so would mean the cards could be canceled. To worsen the matter, around seventy percent of the identity cards belonged to African Americans. In Gwinnett County, the county with the largest population was reported to have rejected a large number of ballots which were sent via mail. The ACLU also filed a lawsuit against Brian Kemp regarding this issue.

The Oppression of the African American Community

On their way to the polling station, forty black seniors were removed from a bus on which they were traveling in to on the basis that the bus was not authorized to carry them.  Here is a look at what happened.

During the August election, 214 polling stations especially from the rural areas where there were largely African American communities were closed down. The entire electioneering situation leads to serious debates. The ACLU filed two separate lawsuits against Brain Kemp claiming that everyone has a right to vote and the discrepancies cannot deny anyone a right to express their voting right. The judge then released an order to the officials which stated that rejection of ballots should be stopped and the citizens whose identity card had some errors be allowed to vote but the votes to be marked as provisional. The order further stated that the citizens be given a chance to correct the errors.