The attorney general for a largely black community in Georgia, Barry Fleming, has insisted on access to suffrage in the state. Residents protest – and now he’s out

The attorney general for a largely black community in Georgia, Barry Fleming, has insisted on access to suffrage in the state. Residents protest – and now he’s out

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State Representative Barry Fleming, R-Harlem, is proposing a bill among more than 250 proposals, pending in 43 states, to restrict access to the vote. Until last week, Fleming also served as provincial attorney in Hancock County, where 7 out of 10 residents are black and where residents will vote by the end of the year under the supervision of an examiner appointed by the court after the Electoral Council in the country is accused. a federal lawsuit to remove voters – mostly blacks – unfairly from the roles.

While Fleming was not a main councilor for the provincial defendants in the federal lawsuit, his recent attempts to restrict access to the vote in the state angered some Hancock County residents, who are still embroiled in controversy over the constituencies.

“So many people in the county did not know he was the lawyer. Now, some black people in the community who … understand things are outraged,” said Johnny Thornton, who helped bring the federal lawsuit to the fore. Council of Elections and Registration deleted him from the voter list in 2015.

“We’re one of the poorest provinces in the country, and we’re paying this lawyer and he’s in Atlanta drafting laws to further restrict our voting rights,” he said.

The case in the sprawling province of Georgia, of 8,500 people, came when former government candidate Stacey Abrams and other suffrage activists rejected the GOP’s efforts to restrict nationwide access to the polls, saying the bills amounted to attacks on democracy and black voters.
President Joe Biden last week exercised his executive power to launch a counter-offensive, expanded voting access, and a comprehensive bill moving through Congress would counter the state’s efforts to restrict voting access.
Fleming is chairman of the Special Committee for the Integrity of the Election of the State Legislature. Despite the Republican secretary of state of Georgia repeatedly saying there was no evidence of widespread fraud in the November election, Fleming tried to tighten access to the vote and compared the absence of votes to ‘the shady part of the city ​​near the docks’.
His House Bill 531 contains several restrictions on access to the ballot, the restriction of the ballot papers, the absence of votes and the early voting on Sunday – the latter being a popular vote-out-of-the-vote method among black churches, which provides transportation around the to take souls to the ballot box. . “
Ninety-seven House Republics approved the bill, while 72 Democrats voted against it. The bill is pending in the Senate Ethics Committee after a Tuesday hearing.

Protesters demand action, and get it

Last week, about 40 protesters, many of whom wore T-shirts with ‘Black Voters Matter’, braved the steps of the Hancock County Courthouse in Sparta. Their posters left no mystery about their expectations of the Board of Commissioners during its regular meeting:

“Fleming does not care about Hancock”

“A vote for him is a vote against us”

“Fire Fleming! Protect our voice!”

“Barry must be suppressed”

Charles Jackson, left, and Barbara Reynolds protested last week in court in Sparta.

The commissioners chose to abandon Fleming, although their reasoning is not clear: the minutes indicate that his future with the province has been closed to the public in an hour-long executive session.

“I do not think it should be discussed,” Commissioner Ted Reid, who was in the session, told CNN. ‘Mr. Fleming was asked to resign with unanimous consent. ‘

Asked why, Reid said the commission had issued a statement, but he was referring to the minutes of the commission meeting, which are unofficial and provide no reasoning.

They simply say “unanimous consent of commissioners to ask Mr Fleming to resign”, adding that “while the search for provincial legal services is ongoing,” any lawsuit will be addressed by a partner of Fleming’s law firm outside Augusta word.

CNN contacted all the commissioners mentioned in the minutes. BOC chairman Sistie Hudson, BOC clerk Borderick Foster and commissioners Gloria Cooper, Steve Hill and Randolph Clayton did not return CNN’s emails or phone calls to comment.

Reid does not know if Fleming granted the BOC’s request, he said Monday, but local media reports indicate Fleming retired last week. Fleming, who also serves as provincial attorney in Burke, Glascock and Putnam and has represented several small towns in Georgia, did not return CNN’s requests for comment.

Rep. Barry Fleming talks about HB531 in the living room this month.
“Hancock County is a wonderful place,” the legislature told CNN WXIA. ‘There’s a wonderful board of commissioners. I worked with them for nine years, and I wish them all the best. ‘

WXIA spoke with the legislature after a closed session on election bills and said Fleming said he had no feeling for the province.

“No one at all. They are good people, and if I could ever do anything to help them in the future, I would love to do it,” he said.

According to the station, people protesting against its proposed voting law misunderstood many of the components, according to the station, which had no effect.

Abrams says legislation targets black voters

Fleming’s resignation comes days before Abrams, the 2018 government candidate, a cum-voting activist, slammed state bills across the country, claiming their goal is to suppress black votes after an election in November, which a had record recording at state and national level. She likens Georgia’s efforts to ‘a Jim Crow redux, in a suit and tie’.

“The only connection we can find is that more coloreds voted, and that changed the outcome of the election in a direction that Republicans do not like,” Abrams told CNN.

Despite assurances from Georgia’s Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, a Republican, there was no evidence of widespread fraud in the recent election – which led to Biden and two Democratic senators in Georgia winning – former President Donald Trump and other Republicans has repeatedly made false allegations. that the 2020 election has been completed.
Raffensperger said in January that Trump was working on ‘bad data’, and The Washington Post reported last month that the district attorney in Fulton County, which includes parts of Atlanta, is investigating a call between Trump loyalist senator Lindsey Graham, R-South Carolina. , and Raffensperger to determine if Trump’s team violated any laws to stop its election loss. Raffensperger’s office is also investigating the former president. Graham refuted Raffensperger’s version of the call.
In an open to The Augusta Chronicle days after the November election, Fleming referred to “the always-suspicious voting process for absentees” in Georgia and other states, and told readers to expect the Republican General Assembly to address it this year.

“If elections were like coastal cities,” Fleming wrote, “the absentee ballots would be the shady part of the city, close to the docks you do not want to wander around.”

He joins readers in electing Kelly Loeffler and David Perdue to the U.S. Senate. Republicans lost their seats in late January, handing Senate control over to Democrats. The trusted Democratic Hancock County ticked 71.7%, 72.3% and 72.4% for Biden and Sens, Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock, respectively.

Voters still feel the sting of burning

The province voted in the general election and by-elections in 2020 under the supervision of an examiner appointed by the U.S. District Court for the Central District of Georgia. Thornton and other voters filed a lawsuit in 2015 after the provincial council for elections and registration tried to remove voters from the rolls and sent delegates to their homes, suing them to prove their suitability.
“The BOER has regularly accepted hearsay, speculation and unfounded rumors by unnamed witnesses and anonymous individuals as sufficient evidence to remove registered black voters,” the lawsuit reads.

Almost all of the voters envisioned in the purge were African-Americans. When resident Larry Webb, who is black, went to the BOER to challenge White voters he knew were dead or had moved out of the country, emails revealed in the lawsuit showed that voting officials Webb’s challenges are not taken seriously. They also refused to send delegates to the White voters ‘houses unless Webb paid $ 50 per doll, to which the BOER sent delegates to black voters’ houses, Webb told CNN.

In response to the lawsuit, the Electoral Council ‘strictly’ denied violating any laws, including targeting black voters.

The federal court reinstated many of the purified voters on the rolls and applied a consent decision, appointing an examiner “who will review the BOER’s actions regarding the maintenance of the list and the challenges of the voters on the basis of right of abode. review “and make recommendations on how to comply with state law, a court order said.

Examiner Gary Spencer, a lawyer from Atlanta, told CNN in December that the country has been ‘kind of event’ since his appointment. However, for many residents, it is difficult to forget the recent history.

“What they did was beyond the oppression of the electorate. If there is something wrong with your voter registration, they should call you and tell you what is wrong. What they did was take you off the roll, and you would only find out before the election. “Webb told CNN. ‘They made black voices disappear.’

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