ICYMI--Last night I found reasons to be skeptical of narrative around Randolph County, Georgia's plan to close polling locations. 1st, the two largest precincts--the ones they want to keep--are Democratic and have most of the D voters. Most of the ones set to close are more R. 
You might well argue closing a polling location hurts D voters more than R voters, even within an R precinct--but we're talking like, a few hundred D voters in these precincts, total, and even fewer outside Cuthbert Middle School which is right by a precinct set to stay open...
2nd, Randolph County, Georgia does not seem to be one of those nationally-Democratic-but-GOP-run counties. The county commissioners are 3-2 Democratic and have been since at least 2013, so the elections commissioners were appointed by a D board. The GA GOP pointed this out even.
Now maybe the Randolph County, GA government is Dixiecrats and DINOs and they want to throw the election to Brian Kemp by...closing mostly Trump/Perdue precincts...which MAYBE nets the GOP like 400 voters if literally 100% of D voters in them give up and literally zero Rs do?
Or you know, maybe everyone got a little ahead of themselves here? Closing the precincts might be a bad idea and might even have a racially disparate impact but I think the assumptions are flying a little fast here.
(I believe GA GOP is right that the remaining Randolph County GA election commissioners are one D and one R--IDK how to verify Michele Graham's voter history but it makes sense a D county commission wouldn't appoint a majority-R elections board. And I think she herself is Black?)
It's hard to find TOO much info because this is, again, a county of like 7000 people that's probably a little bewildered to be the focus of international reporting about their devious plan to decide state elections or whatever.
Here's the new and old precincts (from an ACLU letter!) and the Black population of Randolph County, Georgia by Census Block. As you might have guessed from the precinct results, it seems like the Black population lives closer to the remaining polling locations than the White?
(I have to go to the Census Block level because...there's only two Census Tracts! It's a tiny county!)
@PoliticsWolf I'd be interested in your thoughts here.
Now again IDK the whole story here. But at a minimum, a Republican county government (as opposed to a Democratic or evenly-split one) closing more D polling locations than R polling locations would be...a clearer-cut example of the kind of thing people seem to be talking about?
I don't want to say there's NO racialized motive/impact. But I myself assumed, just from the headlines and discourse, that it was a GOP county government closing Black polling locations more than White ones. And again I don't know anything I didn't Google last night, but...is it?
Speaking of the ACLU letter--it's a little disingenuous to only mention Cuthbert Middle School, which is both the most-Democratic of the proposed closures and the closest to a remaining polling place.
That map may have gotten screwed up--I'm really hitting the Census Factfinder map to try to draw this tiny county--maybe use this instead? You get the idea.
OK to be more direct: Even if there is partisan or racialized intent here--and I don't think that's at all proven, but there may be! It is an election--frankly I think every one of the many many articles about this should have included all of the above info as a matter of course.
And to be further frank, I think every one of the many many articles about this WOULD have included all of the above info--if it pointed the other way.
And even if you think it's a bad idea, and even if you think there's racialized intent and/or likely racialized effect, seems relevant to mention that the precinct closures seem to be very largely in the White and Republican part of the county, etc.
(To put all the maps in one place.)
Wow this blew up check out my Soundcloud. It's just a recording of my voice saying "they're not doing this anymore but try to include all the context in the future".
