Georgia Republicans Are Purging Black Democrats From Election Boards

In county after county in Georgia, white Republicans are purging black Democrats from their election boards. This is thanks to the voter suppression bill passed in the state earlier this year that gives the ruling party the authority to "restructure" any local election board that they believe is "under performing." And the results are as clear as day, with white people taking over areas in order to restrict access to the ballot box for black voters. Ring of Fire's Farron Cousins explains what's happening.

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*This transcript was generated by a third-party transcription software company, so please excuse any typos.

Something terrifying is happening in the state of Georgia right now. And it's that white Republicans across the state are purging black Democrats from election boards. They're allowed to do this by the way. Thanks to a provision in the earlier this year, past Georgia, a voter suppression bill that allows counties to look at individual little election boards and precincts. And if the county, whichever party controls the county, which again, in most areas is Republican deems that any particular area is quote underperforming. They can come in and purge anyone they want off those election boards. Now you would think in an ideal situation, if they were to determine that a group was underperforming, they would come in and replace everybody. But in the areas, and so far, there's at least six different counties where they've said, things are underperforming. They're not removing the white Republicans from these election boards. They're almost exclusively removing black Democrats.

They're, they're not even trying to hide what it is they're trying to do here. These election boards are incredibly powerful. They get to determine the number of polling places. They get to determine where we're gonna put the polling places. They get to determine voting hours. They get to determine voting days. Great example of that is voting on Sunday. So even in the early voting period, you have a lot of areas that won't do voting on Sunday. Well, Georgia last time did, and that drove a lot of African American turnout in the state of Georgia. So guess what's one of the first things these newly white election boards have decided to get rid of. Yeah. Voting on Sundays.

It's very clear. It's very obvious and it's very overtly racist at this point. Republicans in the state of Georgia do not want black people to vote because they know that black people in the state of Georgia are typically not gonna be voting for Republicans. My guess is that they'll be voting for Stacy Abrams because she is given so much to that com community in that state. And of course in the surrounding states, she has been their advocate. She has been a leader. She has been a friend and a member of the community and Republicans are trying to stop it. And they have put all the tools in place that let them legally stop it. And the only way to put a stop to this is for the Democrats in Congress to pass the John Lewis voting rights act. But we're no closer to that than we were a year ago. If we don't get rid of the filibuster, that piece of legislation will never see the light of day. And that will give a pass to these Southern states like Georgia to enact these racist policies without anyone to stop them.