Georgia County Orders Elderly Black Voters off Bus Taking them to the Polls

[avebury]

http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/georgia-county-orders-elderly-black-voters-off-bus-taking-them-to-the-polls/ar-BBOwGdl?ocid=ientp

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.”

[avebury]

1. Continued:

Black Voters Matter had received permission in advance for the event at the senior center, Brown said. The event was originally intended to encourage seniors to vote, and when some of the seniors asked whether they could ride the bus to an early-voting location, Black Voters Matter agreed to take them.

But someone apparently saw the bus, painted with the words “The South is Rising Tour,” and called county government offices, Brown said. That led to the phone call from the county clerk to the senior center. When they were asked, the senior citizens agreed to leave the bus.


“It was discouraging that they weren’t able to vote,” said Evans, who was on the bus. “When they’re suppressing votes, they’re going to come up with any kind of excuse about what your problem is.”