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Black Voters Matter Bus Prevented From Taking Senior Citizens to Vote

Black Voters Matter: “This is voter suppression, Southern style.”

A bus full of 40 African American seniors were prevented from casting their ballots on the first day of early voting in rural Georgia. The seniors had boarded a tour bus belonging to Black Voters Matter inscribed with “The South is Rising,” but a county official ordered the seniors off the bus and did not allow it to proceed to the voting station, though it’s unclear who exactly reported the bus.

In Georgia, there are no laws prohibiting groups from transporting voters to polls, Black Voters Matter LaTosha Brown told Think Progress.

“This is voter suppression, Southern style,” said Brown. “I’m very upset. I’m angry. I’m frustrated. I’ve got a lot of emotions right now.”

Black Voters Matter was at the Leisure Center in Jefferson County, Georgia speaking to seniors about the importance of voting when the seniors requested to ride with the group to their local polling station. The seniors then boarded the bus, but Black Voters Matter co-founder Cliff Albright said he received a call from county officials and told the seniors they would have to get off the bus.

According to the Leisure Center, someone called county officials and complained that the bus should not be taking seniors to the polls.

 

County Officials First Deny Role in Black Voters Matter Bus

On Monday, Bonnie Wells, clerk for the Jefferson County Commission, had denied to Think Progress any involvement with the bus. She claimed the office had not received any calls about the bus and had not placed any calls.

But on Tuesday the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported that a Jefferson County clerk had called the Leisure Center because officials considered the bus tour “political activity.” The senior center is a county-run facility and political activity is prohibited at county-sponsored events.

Black Voters Matter says it’s a non-partisan group and their activities were legal and permitted. LaTosha Brown told Think Progress the organization does not support any particular party or candidate but only encourages and helps African-Americans to vote.

“Even in the absence of law, they will use tactics like intimidation and voter suppression,” Brown said. “Somebody called the county commission, but there was nothing illegal or inappropriate.”

Black Voters Matter, ‘The South is Rising’

Black Voters Matter is traveling across seven southern states in a tour they call, “The South is Rising,” and helping encourage voter engagement, as well as participating in Hurricane Michael relief efforts in Georgia.

Black Voters Matter was crucial in helping Alabama Senator Doug Jones win the Alabama Senate race in 2017. Black voter turnout for Jones compared to turnout for Obama.

The NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund has taken up the Black Voters Matter case in Jefferson County. The organization sent a letter to the county on behalf of Black Voters Matter demanding officials open an “immediate investigation” into the incident and condemned it as “an unacceptable act of voter intimidation” which “potentially violates several laws.”

“During this electoral season, we all should be committed to ensuring that more, not fewer, eligible voters can participate and exercise their fundamental right to vote,” read the letter signed by Leah Aden, the organization’s deputy director of litigation.

Black Voters Matters has said the incident has merely fired up the group and that all the elderly citizens that left the tour bus would organize up to ten other voters to vote with each of them. The Leisure Center has its own bus which can be used to transport elderly voters to voting centers.

 

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34 Comments

  1. Linda Myrick October 17, 2018

    Terrible

    Reply
  2. Dorothy McKown October 17, 2018

    Terrible!!! The GOP AT WORK…TRYING TO STEAL THE ELECTION… AGAIN!!!!!

    Reply
  3. Eugene Stepney III October 17, 2018

    Stopped while being black going to vote! SMDH

    Reply
  4. Betty Major October 17, 2018

    G O P=dishonesty

    Reply
  5. Linda Bednarz October 17, 2018

    This country is moving backwards! Please vote all these people elected in the last election out. We are under orders from trumputin! Restore our free country!

    Reply
  6. Gloria Morales Mata October 17, 2018

    GOP repression.

    Reply
  7. Larry L. Cunningham October 17, 2018

    21st century America?

    Reply
  8. Carreen Randy Guglielmino October 17, 2018

    Just awful… The Republicans should be ashamed of themselves.

    Reply
  9. Kathy Holley October 17, 2018

    What country are we living in?

    Reply
  10. Mary Sue Driver October 17, 2018

    WHAT IS WRONG WITH THIS COUNTRY!!!!!?

    Reply
  11. Edyth Davis Boller October 17, 2018

    This is so wrong!!!!!!

    Reply
  12. Skada River Geloi October 17, 2018

    This is outrageous!
    Those who are trying their prevent them from voting are cowards to say the least.
    How can this be permitted. This is completely unlawful- and unconstitutional.

    Reply
  13. Tiki Ti October 17, 2018

    burn down the buses night before

    Reply
  14. Roger Jasso October 17, 2018

    Sick of the racism!! They all needed to be deported out of the USA!

    Reply
  15. Dawna Roberts October 17, 2018

    Do these assholes really want a civil war. Did the idiot that called ever stop to think maybe some may have voted republican. Thus shit has to stop.

    Reply
  16. Vic Joe October 17, 2018

    Folks if this is true,we will see it on the news.

    Reply
  17. Klari K. Crabtree October 17, 2018

    Where the hell is the ACLU?

    Reply
  18. Charles Freedom October 17, 2018

    For you good old black folks that still support this administration…..what do you all think of this?

    Reply
  19. Penny Linton October 17, 2018

    Vote red

    Reply
    1. Debra Polk October 17, 2018

      Penny Linton you’re a troll/bot. That’s an obvious fake account! Report and move on…..

  20. Debra Polk October 17, 2018

    Elections have consequences!!!

    Reply
  21. Guy Blackwell October 17, 2018

    Vote red

    Reply
  22. Chari Hayes October 18, 2018

    I saw this on the news. So fucked up
    The republikkkans are making it really hard for us to get rid of them.
    And I’d you are running for office you shouldn’t be in charge of the election process.
    He has the perfect recipe for cheating.

    Reply
  23. John Labanow October 18, 2018

    THE GOP WILL GO TO NO EXTREMES TO MAKE VOTING AS DIFFICULT AS THEY CAN TO PREVENT YOUR RIGHT TO VOTE, ESPECIALLY MINORITIES. KEEP UP THE GOOD WORK AND LET THEM KNOW IT IS NOT GOING TO WORK. VOTE EARLY TO SAVE A LOT OF HEADACHES AND REMBER TO VOTE BLUE FOR A GOVERNMENT FOR THE PEOPLE, BY THE PEOPLE AND OF THE PEOPLE!!!!

    Reply
  24. Jeanne Macdonald October 23, 2018

    Why? Who?

    Reply
  25. Roger Jasso October 23, 2018

    Disgusting what a freedom killer!!

    Reply
  26. Donna Rae Mathre October 23, 2018

    that is ileagle . FIGHT IT don’t let those pig republicans steal another election

    Reply
  27. Chandra Ramphal October 23, 2018

    Old news they did vote last I heard.

    Reply
  28. Dorothy McKown October 23, 2018

    This is disgusting!! But it’s the way the répugnents win!!

    Reply
  29. Linda Crawford October 23, 2018

    ???

    Reply
  30. Louise Dodson October 23, 2018

    There should be a law, oh silly me there is the current administration choose not to use it

    Reply
  31. Jerome Herzing October 23, 2018

    Just like in Hitlers time My how soon we forget

    Reply
  32. Lawrence Charles October 23, 2018

    You can’t tell me they haven’t got around that yet?

    Reply

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