About 40 Black senior citizens were ordered to get off a bus taking them to vote. When county administrator Adam Brett heard about the bus ride, he stopped the trip.
The county operates the senior center in Louisville and officials considered Monday’s event a “political activity” that’s not allowed during county-sponsored events, according to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
It was the first day of in-person early voting in Georgia. The group Black Voters Matter, which ran the bus, was preparing to leave from the senior center when the director asked the residents to get off.
“Public transit brings them (to the senior center, so) we feel somewhat responsible for their safety while they’re there,” Brett, the county administrator, told 11Alive on Wednesday.
“We didn’t know this group. This group was not vetted. We felt a liability on our end to just open to a group we didn’t know about.”
Brett said “he was also suspicious that one of the Jefferson’s County’s leading Democrats was on the bus with them,” according to the news channel.
But he added, “It would be no different had the Republican Party president wanted to host an event. We would not have allowed that either.”
LaTosha Brown, a co-founder of Black Voters Matter, said it was unnecessary.
“We knew it was an intimidation tactic,” Brown told the Atlanta-Journal Constitution. “It was really unnecessary. These are grown people.”
The director of the senior center, Tammie Bennett, said all of the voters who have asked to be taken to vote early have done so since they were told to get off the bus on Monday.
Democrat Stacey Abrams and Republican Brian Kemp are in a tight gubernatorial race. Kemp also happens to be the Secretary of State, and Abrams is calling for him to resign for abusing his power to prevent Blacks from voting.
Related Story: Brian Kemp is Strangling the Black Vote in Georgia
Kemp is accused of putting more than 53,000 voter registration applications on hold to boost his campaign. According to an Associated Press report, the voter registrations are predominantly from Black people.
These senior citizens just got on the @BlackVotersMtr bus to go vote, but someone in Jefferson County called the commissioner and said the bus didn’t have the proper license to drive people to the polls. The seniors, who were fired up to vote, won’t be casting ballots today. pic.twitter.com/vI93pU85Ln
Kira Lerner (@kira_lerner) October 15, 2018
92-year-old Martha Harmon of Louisville, Georgia says she she often feels like black voters don’t matter, but Stacey Abrams makes her feel differently. I love her,” she said. I think she’ll be a wonderful governor.” pic.twitter.com/x9fihnOdTX
Kira Lerner (@kira_lerner) October 15, 2018
