Randolph County, in southwest Georgia near Albany, wants to close and consolidate seven of its nine voting precincts into two. Democrats and the ACLU have seized upon this story to claim Republicans want to steal the governor’s election from Democrat Stacey Abrams. The facts do not bear that out.
It is unfortunate we are living in such hyper partisan times that a nothing-burger of a story can be pushed into the space of viral internet cat videos and outrage memes about President Donald Trump. The media, however, is determined to tie every story possible to the idea that Republicans are racist, closet Nazis intent on denying black people the right to vote. Democrats likewise are forced to start laying the groundwork now to explain Abrams’ November loss as something other than she ran too far left and did not actually have the ground presence she claimed.
The majority Democrat, majority black county is one of the poorest in Georgia. Twenty-eight percent of the population is below the poverty line and 53 percent of people under the age of 18 live in poverty. The county has no tax base from which to raise more money and struggles to pay its bills.
One of the ways the county has sought to save money is by consolidating its nine voting precincts into two. Each voting precinct requires money for voting machines, workers and buildings. Compounding the problem, none of the precincts are compliant with federal disabilities law. Upgrading those precincts to be compliant would cost more money that the county does not have.
The outside consultant for Randolph County looking at these issues proposed merging precincts. Local opposition to the plan grew for two major reasons. First, the county wanted to make the changes during the election cycle after votes had already been cast at those precincts and, second, it would put a lot of voters further from their voting precincts. Both are fair points and even Georgia Secretary of State Brian Kemp, Abrams’ Republican challenger, has said rather forcefully that Randolph County should wait to do anything until after the election.
But few these days let facts get in the way of a good story. Democrats decided immediately that the consultant was a Kemp plant. The man had made a campaign donation to Kemp in the past and was using the secretary of state’s own guidance in his consolidation plan. Kemp’s office had told counties that one cost savings measure they could make would be to review and consolidate voting precincts. Kemp’s office, of course, never said to get rid of them all or even to begin the process during an election.
The other fact is Randolph is a reliably Democrat county, having gone for Jason Carter against Nathan Deal in the last governor’s election and Hillary Clinton against Trump. The county leaders pushing this are not Kemp-supporting Republicans, but rather longtime Democrats. In fact, the precincts that would be abolished are the Republican precincts. Of the nine precincts, Clinton won the majority of the vote in the county overall and won in four of the nine precincts. The five precincts Trump won as well as two of Clinton’s precincts would disappear, folded into the two other precincts Clinton won. The people who would be placed furthest from their voting precincts are the Republicans in Randolph County.
This is not a scheme to stop Democrats. It is a Democrat backed plan to save money in a very poor county. But they should wait till after November to consider it.
Erick Erickson is host of Atlanta’s Evening News on WSB Radio.