Letter: Consolidation of polling places in Lincoln County is voter suppression
For the third time, Lincoln County Board of Elections has announced a plan to consolidate polling places, where about 7,700 citizens call home. Merging the seven polling places into two would form a major barrier to accessing the ballots for more than 6,500 working class and older Lincoln County voters. Georgia's voter rolls have grown by nearly 2 million people, but polling locations have been cut statewide by nearly 10% since the elimination of key federal oversight in the 2013 U.S. Supreme Court's Shelby v. Holder decision.
Our way of countering this push for voter suppression is rallying local voters, supporting our voter advocate allies and amplifying voices through petition drives. If 20% of registered voters in a precinct sign petitions opposing a proposed polling location change prior to its adoption at a noticed meeting of the superintendent of elections, the proposed change cannot go into effect. We’re currently about 75% to goal.
Unfortunately, we know all too well that our advocacy has not always kept polls from closing in Georgia’s Black communities. Nearly half of the state's 159 counties have closed at least one polling place since 2012. Now, we have one day to get the signatures needed to thwart the board of elections plan slated for a vote on Wednesday.
This effort matters to residents like Harvey Elam, 77, who has lived in the county his whole life. The former Lincolnton business owner spends his days collecting signatures to support keeping polling locations 1B and 3B open. If we don’t acquire enough petitions objecting to the proposed changes, Lincoln County officials will close the Lincoln Center, Faith Temple, Lincoln Clubhouse and Bethany polling sites at the Walker T. Norman Gymnasium.
The fight to get these signatures is a fight for Lincoln’s elderly voters, who would be challenged by long drives across the county, which has limited public transportation. Those limitations plus the consolidated, sparse locations could mean longer wait times and a major increase at the remaining sites. It’s also a fight for the working class Black voters, many of whom work an hour away in Augusta. An inconvenient trip to polling locations out of their neighborhoods may mean missing the chance to vote.
Lincoln County residents kept polling sites open last year when a similar proposal was announced by petitioning and garnering the support of ProGeorgia, The Georgia Coalition for the People’s Agenda and other agencies. At the time, the all-white, all-male county commission appointed three out of five election board members. The board said its reasoning for closing locations had to do with the expenses of voting, the persistence of COVID-19 and the aging polling sites.
This time, they cite vague “unforeseen circumstances” as the reason. We’ve got some ideas on what those circumstances are. The pivotal elections of 2024 are upon us. The board of elections has also made subtle efforts to silence Black voters, who have become more vocal and present at its meetings. One such example is the board now requiring those interested in speaking at meetings to make a written request to do so three days prior, but, subsequently, failing to give public notice of board meetings. Elam and those of us fighting to stop this voter suppression can see these circumstances and rules as ongoing attempts to keep the ‘good ole boy code’ intact.
We won’t stand by as the once standard code for Georgia seeks to seep its way into the modern day. The injustice that starts in Lincoln County can grow into a storm that spreads in every corner of Georgia, blowing down vital polling locations, removing Sunday voting days and taking other duplicitous measures to silence the Black Vote. Let’s demand that the process of casting votes remain easy, accessible, and user friendly.
Adam Sweat is the Election Reform Director at ProGeorgia. ProGeorgia is a nonprofit dedicated to strengthening democracy in the state. To learn more, visit www.govotega.org.
This article originally appeared on Augusta Chronicle: Consolidation of polling locations in Lincoln County hurts Black voters
