CARLTON FLETCHER: House 151 snafu impacts voters

It’s the same old song, with just a different meaning …

— The Four Tops

As much as many would like to refute his claim, history shows that Maurice King has a point.

The Albany attorney, who is representing former Albany police officer James Williams in Williams’ attempt to remain on the ballot for a run at the House District 151 seat Gerald Greene has held for the past 33 years, offered a simple assessment on the controversy that hinges on Greene’s challenge of Williams’ eligibility based on residency.

Williams lives on Shady Glen Lane in west-central Albany, on the cusp between House Districts 151 and 154. He said at a candidates’ forum Thursday night that he’s voted in HD 151 in each of the past three election cycles since redistricting based on the 2010 census was completed, which he said contradicts Greene’s contention that new district lines pushed him into HD 154. That district is represented by Winfred Dukes.

“I voted in (district) 151 in 2010, 2012 and 2014,” Williams told a large gathering at the Albany Civil Rights Institute. “Now, out of the blue, they’re saying I don’t live in 151, that I live in 154. All of a sudden — after I qualified to run against the Republican incumbent in 151 — they’re saying things have changed on one street in the city.”

King acknowledged that the challenge and subsequent eligibility hearing scheduled Wednesday before the Office of State Administrative Hearings smacks of partisan politics, of a Republican secretary of state (Brian Kemp) and attorney general (Sam Olens) protecting the interests of Republican Rep. Greene.

But the attorney said there is an underlying issue in play as well.

“It’s about race,” he said. “Anytime something like this comes up, it never seems to be about race. Everyone finds a thousand different reasons other than race. But this is about race. … It’s always about race. This is Southwest Georgia.”

For his part, Greene said he challenged Williams’ residency after a routine check of his opponent left doubt as to whether Williams actually lived in District 151.

“I think it’s one of those areas that changed with redistricting,” Greene said. “It has nothing to do with (Williams’) race. My service has never been about the race of the people in this district. It’s about the issues that impact the district.”

While King declared that race was the underlying culprit in what is becoming an increasingly contentious situation and Williams declared at the candidates’ forum that “new evidence” would surface soon in the matter, many influential state leaders are pointing angry fingers at Kemp’s office.

In response to a story about the HD 151 snafu that first appeared on the albanyherald.com website Thursday afternoon, Georgia NAACP President Francys Johnson said the secretary of state’s office relied on “faulty data” in dealing with the issue.

“Georgia’s conservative supermajority has gerrymandered districts so badly, even they can’t keep up,” Johnson said. “And now, because of the voter data that Secretary of State Brian Kemp is responsible for maintaining, James Williams, a qualified candidate who has voted in his district for the last 18 years, is being blocked from the ballot.

“It took a candidate running for office to bring this issue to light — four years late — so how many other Georgians are voting in the wrong district? Kemp refused to take responsibility for leaking 6 million Georgia voters’ social security numbers and illegally purging hundreds of thousands of registered voters from the rolls. And now he’s refusing to take responsibility for blocking a candidate from the ballot and further disenfranchising Georgia voters.

“I am utterly disgusted with the partisan manipulation and chicanery. We expect Secretary Kemp to explain to Georgia voters how he plans to correct his latest massive failure.”

House Minority Whip Carolyn Hugley, a Columbus Democrat, said of the situation, “James Williams qualified in good faith for office in the district where he votes and lives, based on information provided to him by the secretary of state. He is a retired law enforcement officer with deep ties in several of the counties that comprise this district. Now he may be deprived of the right to run to represent his community, and the voters in House District 151 may be deprived of the right to select a candidate of their choice.

“The secretary of state is responsible for maintaining the voter files — blaming anyone else is just an admission he is not doing his job. This is an issue of basic fairness — he broke it and now he needs to fix it.”

The real victims in all of this are the voters in HD 151. Instead of researching where candidates who might represent them in Atlanta stand on key issues, they’re left to wonder if politicians miles away with agendas that have little to do with them are using their rights as pawns in a chess game that has no winners, only losers.