U.S. District Judge W. Louis Sands had to redraw voting districts in Sumter County, Georgia. Why?
For a reason that sounds like a story out of your history book. Black people make up a majority of people in the county, but that wasn’t being reflected in many important ways - for corrupt reasons.
Despite being more than 60% of the voting population, Black people there only controlled two seats on the school board of seven members. The underrepresentation revealed an age old problem called “disenfranchisement” that we still experience across the nation.
Sands found that “school districts had disempowered [B]lack voters and violated the Voting Rights Act,” which is meant to protect against racial discrimination in elections. In recent years, it was also found that Black voters were redistributed in Georgia to maintain Republican power.
Of course, there are plans to appeal Sands’ ruling. For now, though redrawing doesn’t even guarantee that Black people there will see more influence in elections, it’s a fix to try and address the issue.
There are multiple fights taking place around the country like this. There’s a strong push to get our people to wield our powerful vote.
Yet, even when we vote, sometimes that’s not enough! Sabotaging our voting power through redistricting and disenfranchising Black voters makes us have to take things a step further.