The call to vote in the upcoming election has been at an all-time high. However, Georgia officials came for that right when they ordered 40 black senior citizens to get off a bus taking them to vote on Monday. According to a report from Politically Georgia, a bus run by Black Voters Matter was heading to the polls from a senior center when the center’s director said they needed to get off.
According to LaTosha Brown, a co-founder of Black Voters Matter, a county clerk called the senior center with concerns about allowing the bus to take residents from the center in the city of Louisville to vote.
“We knew it was an intimidation tactic,” Brown said of the incident. “It was really unnecessary. These are grown people.”
Monday marked the initiation of in-person early voting in the state election for governor between Democrat Stacey Abrams and Republican Brian Kemp.
According to Jefferson County’s administrator, the county government considered the event “political activity,” which is prohibited during county-sponsored events.
“Jefferson County administration felt uncomfortable with allowing senior center patrons to leave the facility in a bus with an unknown third party,” County Administrator Adam Brett said in a statement. “No seniors at the Jefferson County senior center were denied their right to vote.”
Despite this claim, Brown assures that Black Voters Matter had received permission in advance for the event at the senior center which served the purpose of encouraging seniors to vote. However, many of the seniors asked for a ride to an early-voting location, which Black Voters Matter agreed to set up.
The seniors obliged and got off the bus being told they could catch a ride in a county van provided by the senior center, instead. However, the seniors then also had to get off the van because the senior center’s leaders decided it was close to lunchtime, and the seniors could vote another day.
Brown says no matter what, they will find a way for the seniors to vote.
“The seniors were so resolved. They said: ‘We’re going to vote. Nobody’s going to stop us,’ ” Brown said. “It wasn’t the first time someone has denied them or tried to prevent them from voting.”
And once again, they shall overcome.
Now, check these out:
Michelle Obama's Memoir Will Be Out This Year And We Can't Wait To Get The Tea
