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UPDATE: Heated Voting Rights Debate Comes To Georgia
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The small city of Sparta, Georgia made headlines this week. A lawsuit claims Hancock County and its Board of Elections systematically questioned the registrations of nearly 200 Sparta voters - most of whom are black. A quarter of the voters were removed from voter rolls. This electoral move would have required the pre-clearance from the federal government three years ago. But the Supreme Court struck down that provision, saying the mandate was outdated and unconstitutional.
We speak with legal expert Bryan Sells about the Voting Rights Act and the efforts of some activists to reinstate the provision.
UPDATE: On Friday, National Action Network hosted a press conference demanding Secretary Bryant Kemp "address the practices and assure the election boards across Georgia are operating under the law." Touted as a press conference centered around "Jim Crow practices in Sparta," Georgia state Rep. LaDawn Blackett-Jones, NAACP Vice President Gerald Griggs, SOS' Joe Beasley and Marcus Coleman, and Greater Destiny Baptist Church Pastor Cortez Harris all took part in the press conference.
Kemp's office replied in a statement, "The Secretary of State's Investigations Division has a number of investigations ongoing in Hancock County involving elections and voter registration, and we are actively monitoring this situation. All complaints are promptly reviewed by the office's P.O.S.T.-certified law enforcement officers."
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