Georgia welcomes 2021 with
further voter suppression
The Peach State resorts to Jim Crow tactics to discourage voters
By Byron Toben
No investigative reporter has researched voter suppression more than Greg Palast. His latest “on the spot” report tells of the Republican state government’s last-ditch attempt to “rig” the crucial January 5 run-off election for its two federal senators.
For years, in the post slavery days, poll taxes or difficult literacy tests were used to bar or suppress black voters. When these ”Jim Crow” laws were finally declared illegal, they were replaced by a variety of other sneaky methods:
- Redrawing congressional districts (resulting in odd shaped “gerrymandered” borders.)
. - Exchanging lists of ineligible convicted felons in one state to other states who matched common names on their lists to deny similarly named persons.
. - Blatantly claiming registered voters had died or moved even though they had not.
. - Dramatically reducing U.S. postal service.
. - Dramatically reducing voting venues.

Georgia State Capitol Building with statue of Miss Freedom on dome – Image: DXR, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Note that in pending Georgia run-off elections, the voting sites in the heavily Democratic Atlanta area were recently reduced from 11 down to 5 even though Georgia law forbids such reductions after November 5!
For years, in the post slavery days, poll taxes or difficult literacy tests were used to bar or suppress black voters. When these ”Jim Crow” laws were finally declared illegal, they were replaced by a variety of other sneaky methods…
I cannot help but wonder, in Shakespearean phraseology, “Oh brave New Year, what art thou about to impose upon the rest of this decade yet to come?“
Feature image: “Of Course He Wants To Vote The Democratic Ticket” (October 1876), Harper’s Weekly, Frost, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
More articles from Byron Toben
Byron Toben, a past president of The Montreal Press Club, has been WestmountMag.ca’s theatre reviewer since July 2015. Previously, he wrote for since terminated web sites Rover Arts and Charlebois Post, print weekly The Downtowner and print monthly The Senior Times. He also is an expert consultant on U.S. work permits for Canadians.
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