TIM WESSELMAN: Local precinct closings considered

Some members of the Dougherty County Elections Board appear to be considering a “use-it-or-lose-it” approach to closing voting precinct locations in a move that could impact nearly one out of every five voters in upcoming elections.

The board can easily close these precincts due to court decisions that have gutted the 1965 Voting Rights Act.

A group that has watched American elections for half a century recently warned that Georgia ranks high nationally in terms of states using relaxed rules to close precincts, and citizens must now rely on themselves to ensure polling place changes are fair to all voters, regardless of race.

As early as Monday, the Albany/Dougherty County Board of Elections and Voter Registration could consider closing 10 of the county’s 28 election precincts to address board members’ concern about low voter turnout in those precincts.

These precincts contained nearly 20 percent of the county’s registered voters, but turned out a fraction of this total on the general election day last November, according to Georgia Secretary of State elections records. Many Americans chose to vote prior to Election Day due to pandemic concerns, according to media reports.

At last month’s meeting, two board members suggested the remedy for low turnout is to consolidate those precincts with neighboring precincts. Board Chairman Frederick Williams, appointed by the Dougherty County Commission, pointed to an eastside precinct at Turner Elementary, in which only 120 of the precinct’s more than 1,000 registered voters cast a ballot on election day last November.

“Just looking at the resources we put in … the personnel, that’s a lot for such a low turnout,” Williams said at the May 15 Elections Board meeting.

Board member Annabelle Stubbs, a Republican party appointee, named an additional nine precincts with similarly low turnouts that could be consolidated with other voting stations.

However, board member Benny Hand, a Democratic party appointee, warned that while the board has “fiduciary” responsibilities in how it budgets its money, members should also consider that most of the targeted precincts contain more than 1,000 registered voters.

“Voting right now is a hot topic,” Hand said.

Board member Pam Middleton, an Election Board appointee, agreed that closing precincts should be considered carefully.

“Maybe it’s not the year to do it,” she said.

Consideration of precinct closings follows a 2020 election season in which Republicans made unproven claims that election fraud caused their candidates for president and two U.S. Senate seats in Georgia to lose. Democrats took control of the White House and U.S. Senate amid record national turnout.

So the 2022 elections are critical for the Republican party, which has already responded with Georgia’s Senate Bill 202, passed along partisan lines by the GOP-led state legislature and criticized by Democrats as “Jim Crow 2.0,” referring to an era of race-based laws in the South that were outlawed by 1964 and 1965 civil rights and voting laws. The new law gives a partisan Legislature increased control over independent election boards serving 159 counties.

In discussing his suggestions to close precincts, chairman Williams said the board could invite public comment at public meetings before acting.

The board can consider a streamlined closing of these precincts thanks to a 2013 Supreme Court decision, Shelby v. Holder. This case removed requirements from the Voting Rights Act’s Section 5, which mandated counties with a history of voter disenfranchisement complete a Justice Department review designed to ensure the precinct closings did not disproportionately impact voters of color.

The 10 precincts Stubbs said the board could consider closing received 60 percent of the Dougherty County votes cast for then-Democratic presidential challenger Joe Biden (who later thanked African Americans for their strong support) in 2020, according to elections records. There are 12 precincts that had more than 500 election-day voters that should not be consolidated, Stubbs said. Records show these 12 stations received more than 75 percent of the county’s votes for then incumbent Republican President Trump in 2020.

Georgia, along with Texas and Arizona, ranks high for closing elections precincts in the years following the Shelby decision, according to the report “Democracy Diverted” published in 2019 by the Leadership Conference Education Fund, founded in 1969. Georgia had the third-highest number and the highest percentage of precincts closed of any state studied by the group.

“While there are justifiable reasons for closing polling places, the sheer scale of closures we’ve identified since Shelby, coupled with other, more nakedly racially discriminatory actions to deny voting rights to people of color, demand a response,” report authors wrote. Their report provided county-level information to support research into 1,688 precincts closed nationally in the last eight years.

“Our hope is that journalists, advocates, and voters will use this county-level polling place data to scrutinize the impact of poll closures in their communities,” the report authors said.

For Albany voters, that scrutiny could begin at the next county elections open board meeting set for 4 p.m. Monday at the County Government Center, Room 100.