The prosecutor of a largely black community in Georgia, Barry Fleming, pushed for restrictions on voting rights in the state. Residents there protested – and now he’s gone

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State Representative Barry Fleming, R-Harlem, is co-sponsoring a bill consisting of more than 250 proposals pending in 43 states to limit access to votes. Until last week, Fleming was also a prosecutor in Hancock County, where 7 out of 10 residents are black and where residents will vote until the end of the year under the supervision of a court-appointed examiner after the county electoral commission was accused in a federal lawsuit of unfairly removing voters – most of them black – from the reels.

While Fleming was not a lead attorney for the district defenders in the federal lawsuit, his recent efforts to limit voting rights in the state angered some residents of Hancock County, who are still reeling from the battle for the voting rolls.

“So many people in the county didn’t know he was the attorney. Now some blacks in the community who … know things about things, are outraged,” said Johnny Thornton, who helped start the federal lawsuit after the council’s counsel. Elections and Registration Board cleared him from the voting lists in 2015.

“We are one of the poorest counties in the country and we pay this attorney and he is in Atlanta making laws to further restrict our voting rights,” he said.

The issue in Central Georgia’s sprawling 8,500-people province came when former government candidate Stacey Abrams and other voter activists denounced GOP-led efforts to limit access to the polls nationwide, saying the bills came down attacks on democracy and black voters.
President Joe Biden used his executive power last week to launch a counter-offensive and expand access to votes, and a sweeping bill coming through Congress would counteract the state’s efforts to restrict voting rights.
Fleming chairs the special election integrity committee of the state legislature. Despite the Republican Secretary of State for Georgia repeatedly saying there is no evidence of widespread fraud in the November elections, Fleming has sought to tighten up voting rights, comparing absenteeism votes to “the dark part of town near the harbor “.
His House Bill 531 contains several restrictions on access to votes, limiting ballot boxes, absenteeism and early Sunday voting – the latter being a popular method of getting out of the ballot among black churches, which provide transportation to ‘souls’ to to take the ballot box. . “
Ninety-seven House Republicans approved the bill, while 72 Democrats voted against it. The bill is pending in the senate’s ethics committee after a hearing on Tuesday.

Protesters demand action and get it

Last week, some 40 protesters, many wearing “Black Voters Matter” t-shirts, walked up the steps of the Hancock County Courthouse in Sparta. Their boards left no mystery about their expectations of the Supervisory Board at its regular meeting:

‘Fleming doesn’t care about Hancock’

“A vote for him is a vote against us”

“Fire Fleming! Protect our voice!”

“Barry must be suppressed”

Charles Jackson, left, and Barbara Reynolds protested at the county courthouse in Sparta last week.

The commissioners chose to ask Fleming to resign, although their reasoning is unclear: the minutes show that his future with the county was decided in a one-hour board meeting closed to the public.

“I don’t think there is any need for discussion,” Commissioner Ted Reid, who was present at the session, told CNN. “Mr. Fleming was unanimously requested to resign.”

When asked why, Reid said the committee had issued a statement, but he was referring to the minutes of the committee meeting, which are unofficial and have no substantiation.

They just say, “Unanimous Commissioners’ permission to request Mr. Fleming’s resignation,” adding that “while the search for district attorney services is underway” all legal matters will be handled by a partner from Fleming outside of Augusta.

CNN contacted all the commissioners named in the minutes. BOC Chairman Sistie Hudson, BOC Clerk Borderick Foster, and Commissioners Gloria Cooper, Steve Hill and Randolph Clayton did not return emails or phone calls from CNN asking for comment.

Reid didn’t know if Fleming had agreed to the BOC’s request, he said Monday, but local media reports indicate that Fleming stepped down last week. Fleming, who also serves as a prosecutor in Burke, Glascock and Putnam counties and has represented several small towns in Georgia, has not responded to CNN’s requests for comment.

Rep. Barry Fleming speaks about HB531 in the Chamber of the House this month.
“Hancock County is a great place,” the old lawmaker told CNN affiliate WXIA. “There is a great board there. I think I enjoyed working with them for nine years, and I wish them only the best.”

Speaking to lawmakers after a closed-door session on election bills, WXIA reported that Fleming said he felt no animosity towards the county.

‘None at all. They are good people, and if I could ever do anything in the future to help them, I would be happy to, ”he said.

People protesting his proposed voting law “misunderstand” many of its components, he said, according to the station, which was ineffective.

Abrams says legislation targets black voters

Fleming’s resignation came days before Abrams, the 2018 governmental candidate and voting activist, hit state votes across the country, claiming their goal was to suppress black votes following a November election that saw a record turnout in state and national level. She compared Georgia’s efforts to “a redux by Jim Crow, in a suit and tie.”

“The only connection we can find is that more people of color voted, and it changed the election results in a direction Republicans don’t like,” Abrams told CNN.

Despite assurances from Georgian Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, a Republican, that there was no evidence of widespread fraud in the recent election – with Biden and two Democratic senators winning Georgia – former President Donald Trump and other Republicans have repeatedly made false claims. that the 2020 elections were faked.
Raffensperger said in January that Trump was operating on “ bad data, ” and The Washington Post reported last month that the district attorney in Fulton County, including parts of Atlanta, is investigating a phone call between Trump loyalist Senator Lindsey Graham, R-South Carolina. , and Raffensperger to determine if Trump’s team has violated any laws by trying to reverse his election loss. Raffensperger’s office is also investigating the ex-president. Graham has refuted Raffensperger’s account of the call.
In an op-ed for The Augusta Chronicle days after the November election, Fleming referred to “the always-suspicious absentee ballot process” in Georgia and other states, telling readers to expect the Republican-led General Assembly to do so. years.

“If elections were like coastal cities,” Fleming wrote, “the absentee vote would be the shady part of town, near the harbor you don’t want to walk in.”

He concluded, urging readers to elect Kelly Loeffler and David Perdue to the United States Senate. The Republicans lost their seats in January, transferring control of the Senate to the Democrats. The dependable Democratic Hancock County ticked the boxes for Biden and Sens. Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock with 71.7%, 72.3% and 72.4% respectively.

Voters are still feeling the sting of burning

The county voted in the 2020 general and second elections overseen by an examiner appointed by the US District Court for the Middle District of Georgia. Thornton and other voters filed a lawsuit in 2015 after the County Board of Elections and Registration attempted to remove voters from the lists and sent delegates to their homes to summon them to prove their eligibility.
“The FARMER often accepted rumors, speculation and baseless rumors from unnamed witnesses and anonymous persons as sufficient evidence to remove registered black voters,” the lawsuit said.

Almost all of the voters targeted by the purge were African Americans. When resident Larry Webb, who is black, went to the BOER to challenge white voters he knew had died or had moved out of the county, emails revealed during the trial showed that voters were facing Webb’s challenges. did not take it seriously. They also refused to send delegates to white voters ‘homes unless Webb paid $ 50 a pop, where the BOER had sent delegates to black voters’ homes as a courtesy, Webb told CNN.

In response to the lawsuit, the Election Commission “firmly” denied violating laws, including attacking black voters.

The federal court reinstated many of the sanitized voters on the lists and enacted a decree of assent, appointing an examiner “who will assess the BOER’s actions on list maintenance and voter challenges based on residency” and make recommendations on how to comply to state law, a court order said.

Examiner Gary Spencer, an Atlanta attorney, told CNN in December that the county has been “ a little unconcerned ” since his appointment. However, it is difficult for many residents to forget recent history.

“What they did went beyond suppressing voters. If there is something wrong with your voter registration, they should call you and tell you what’s wrong. What they were doing is taking you off the reels, and you wouldn’t find out until the election, “Webb told CNN.” They made black votes disappear. “

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