It’s not even surprising that the deep-red state of Kentucky is set to disenfranchise tens or hundreds of thousands of predominantly black voters. There are fewer than 200 polling places that will be open for voters for the state’s primary Tuesday, and that’s down from 3,700 in a typical election year, according to the Washington Post. A federal judge has ruled that Kentucky’s most populous counties will only have one polling location during the upcoming primary elections, WFPL reports.
This is intentional.
Kentucky cutting number of polling places for Tuesday’s primary from 3700 to 200
There will be one polling place for 616,000 registered voters in Louisville’s Jefferson County, where half state’s black voters live
This is going to be a disaster https://t.co/Xn61pDqleN
— Ari Berman (@AriBerman) June 19, 2020
Oh, hi Mitch:
Mitch McConnell is blocking legislation passed by House Dems to:
-restore Voting Rights Act
-implement nationwide automatic voter registration, early voting & end to voter purging
-expand vote by mail & give $3.6 billion in much needed election aid to states
— Ari Berman (@AriBerman) June 20, 2020
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With the recent movement for racial justice, this last move is appalling. Amy McGrath, previously considered a safe bet in the Democratic primary, will face off against her African-American rival, Charles Booker, in the race to defeat Mitch McConnell.
And it’s not just Tuesday’s primary that’s at stake. The presidential election in November is just months away, and black voters are already being disenfranchised. We all saw the long lines of residents waiting to vote in Georgia.
Here’s an example of that:
Once again, this is at the Sandtown precinct in South Fulton County. Folks are not being allowed to vote. Period. What is going on here? But we will persist and make sure our votes get cast. They appear to be deliberately slowing down the number of folks who will vote today. pic.twitter.com/gqFSVqrUEn
— Kasim Reed (@KasimReed) June 9, 2020
November is going to be wild. Trump has already set the tone of how he will handle it if he loses; Trump has lashed out at mail-in voting, even though the president himself votes by mail. Trump is going to call it a rigged election, and it is — against black people, a large voting bloc that he has failed to secure.
This is a reminder that Breonna Taylor’s murderers are still walking free in Kentucky.
Featured image via Political Tribune gallery
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