Georgia Governor Nathan Deal issued an executive order on Tuesday, Jan. 10th, suspending three Brooks County school board members in response to an indictment by Joe Mulholland in late November. Additionally, a trial is tentatively scheduled for Superior Court in April 2012.
It has been nearly two years, but the targeting of local African-American officials by local Dixiecrats is more about voter disenfranchisement and flagrant violations of the Voting Rights Act along with prosecutorial misconduct rather than flimsy charges of absentee ballot fraud in which Mulholland is still attempting to find more evidence to strengthen his case against the Quitman 12.
Georgia is becoming more and more of a diverse state (according to the 2010 Census the state has a minority population of 45 percent), but appears the last vestiges of Jim Crow is trying to rear its ugly head via the local judicial system here in South Georgia along with receiving validation from Governor Nathan Deal
Deal , as a former U.S. congressman, had voted against re-authorizing parts of the Voting Rights Act back in 2006 and had proudly and openly questioned President Barack Obama's citizenship status and birth certificate via a letter in 2009.
Georgia is in reality more blue than red, but the actions of conservative district attorneys in rural parts of the state who often run unopposed and rural election supervisors who are in some cases old enough to remember integration being implemented, continue to have a negative impact on the voting process in the Deep South.
Alabama's George Wallace and South Carolina's Strom Thurmond personified defiance and used the justice system as a way to suppress the civil and voting rights of African-Americans during the Jim Crow years. Even though it has been nearly five decades since the Voting and Civil Rights Acts, attacks on voting rights and civil rights are very much still prevalent in 2012.
The Brooks County case began essentially on July 23, 2010 and the Valdosta Daily Times reported the following:
“....All I can tell you is that we have an investigation open in Brooks County, but I can’t discuss the nature of the investigation, what it involves, or any details related to it,” said Matt Carrothers, spokesman for the Georgia secretary of state’s press office.
After numerous attempts, the Times finally made contact with Melba Lovett, county registrar, late Friday afternoon. Lovett said she had no comment and that the case has been turned over to the Georgia Bureau of Investigation.
When the Times contacted Jo Ann Collins, Brooks County Probate Court judge, she said she had no comment on the issue right now...."
Many of the details have been withheld, but the local media which includes WALB-TV, WCTV-TV , The Albany Herald and Valdosta Daily Times have mostly allowed Jim Crow antics to go basically unanswered or under-reported, but local television isn't hesitant to put the mugshots of the Quitman 12 without doing their own investigation and asking questions.
Who is Jo Ann Collins?
Collins has been the Probate Judge in Brooks County for several years. However, she had served a dual role as the Election Superintendent who oversaw elections.
Collins' conduct and handling of the elections along with the county registrar Melba Lovett has faced virtually no questions and little scrutiny and they have been allowed by the local media in Valdosta and Albany to go about their business without any type of formal and public review of their actions.
Collins was not an appointed official, but an elected official. Incidentally, Collins is up for re-election in 2012.
Collins, who had been a judge herself, had worked in the same office of the Southern Judicial District as J. David Miller and assistant District Attorney Brad Shealy when the Quitman 12 controversy began.
Shealy is likely to be the main beneficiary of Governor Deal suspending three African-American school board members and is poised to reclaim control of the Brooks County Board of Education.
So there appears to be a conflict of interest in regard to officials using their authority as officers of the court to undermine the Voting Rights Act and disenfranchising the minority community in the city of Quitman that has a African-American population of approximately 70 percent and Brooks County having a minority population of approximately 40 percent.
In 2004, Collins had run unopposed, but in 2008 she had faced opposition from two other challengers in a non-partisan race--Bill Rogers and Donna Swann.
On November 4, 2008, Collins did not reach the 50.1 percent threshold. The incumbent Probate Judge of Brooks County and the election superintendent had received 46 percent or 2,622 votes overall. Swann had received 42 percent of the vote and had 2,346 votes.
Bill Rogers came in a distant third with 12 percent of the vote and had 663 votes.
Collins won voting precincts that tended to vote for conservative candidates and Swann appeared to have done well in more progressive precincts, including the county's largest and most progressive , Quitman.
A December 2, 2008 runoff election commenced and Collins won narrowly and the margin of victory was decided by absentee votes.
Overall, Collins had won with 52 percent and had 1,646 votes and Swann had 1,491 votes which turned out to be 47 percent.
However, the difference was the number of absentee ballots cast.
Collins had 500 to Swann's 305, a difference of 195. The overall vote difference in the runoff election was 155 votes.
Going by the logic of the district attorney and some in the local media, wouldn't this race be the subject to some type of inquiry due to absentee ballots having an impact?
Collins was allowed to assume office without incident and the vote was certified.
Absentee ballots are legal, but some believe that certain groups shouldn't be allowed to vote that way.
In 2010, a long-time Dixiecrat incumbent who is white--Claude Butler-- had represented a majority black district on the Brooks County Board of Commissioners for years without virtually no opposition.
Butler lost to Willie Cody, a black Democrat, in July 2010 by the tally of 514-267.
The loss prompted Butler to say the following to the Valdosta Daily Times back in 2010:
"The issue is the absentee ballots," said Claude Butler, the County Commissioner for District Three."They have gone rampant here in our county. And it's unethical and it's unconstitutional."
The fight in rural south Georgia and the Deep South to restrict minority voting participation is strong and for citizens such as Butler who is in his early 70's remember a time when it was much easier during the Jim Crow era to deny those minority voters when the threat of violence or threat of legal repercussions were openly available.
When local media in Valdosta and Albany turn their heads and allow Dixiecrats to undermine the Voting Right Act , it is disheartening and problematic.
Congress enacted the National Voter Registration Act of 1993, 42 U.S.C. 1973gg-5(a), (b), to enhance voting opportunities for every American and to remove the vestiges of discrimination which have historically resulted in lower voter registration rates of minorities and persons with disabilities. The NVRA has brought new voices to the political process by making it easier for all Americans to exercise their fundamental right to vote.
However, it appears, that local law enforcement officials are very selective in who they prosecute which gives validity that Jim Crow justice is being applied in this south Georgia rural county when results don't go a particular way.
In the Valdosta Daily Times, Calvary Christian Center Pastor Ronnie Avery believes that the indictment is a political move and little else.
“It’s been a travesty of justice. I believe these people who lost the election are angry; they didn’t expect to be beat,” said Avery. “It’s a matter of sour grapes. They have not been convicted of anything yet they have been disenfranchised from their position. (Gov. Deal) made things worse and he did not have the right to remove them because they had not been convicted of anything."
In each election cycle, turnout is different. People are persuaded by the issues and want to voice their opinion at the polls because they feel they aren't being represented.
In a majority African-American town such as Quitman and county that has a minority population of 40 percent, they got tired of being disenfranchised and this spurred voting in 2010.
Was Collins part of the problem and was she defending Jim Crow tactics while as Elections Superintendent and Probate Judge?
What correspondence did Collins and J. David Miller along with Brad Shealy have in regard to the July 2010 primaries and in regard to the Brooks County Board of Education?
J. David Miller has excused himself from the voter fraud/absentee ballot case because of his professional relationship with Brad Shealy which hasn't been adequately reviewed or even reported by local media in Valdosta or Albany.
Recently, Collins has been dealing with health problems according to the Quitman Free Press and her duties had been transferred to Beth Hurst.
So the two main characters in the Quitman 12 case--Miller, the district attorney and Collins, the former elections superintendent-- have attempted to absolve or free themselves from this matter despite many questions needed to be answered in regard to their own conduct.
Miller and Collins were the genesis of this investigation and both are trying to quietly find a way to step aside.
“I felt that since Brad (Shealy) is my Chief Assistant and was removed as Chairman of the Board of Education on Jan. 1, it was prudent to recuse our office so as to avoid any allegation of a ‘political prosecution’ by our office,” said Miller in an e-mail to the Valdosta Daily Times back in late November
It's too late to avoid the allegation of political prosecution.
Now Joe Mulholland from Bainbridge has taken the case, but his home base of Bainbridge is almost identical to Quitman in which the county seat is majority African-American, but minorities are under-represented politically and the same type of voter disenfranchisement is rampant.
Bainbridge has a black population of 55 percent and minority population of 60 percent, but out of six Bainbridge City Council members, only two are African-American and the mayor is a Dixiecrat. Out of six Decatur County Commissioners, only one is African-American.
Decatur County has an African-American population of 42 percent and minorities make up approximately 50 percent of the county.
In 2011, there had been efforts by local Brooks County oficials to re-organize the way they conduct elections despite the lingering questions of the previous way elelctons had been held.
State Rep. Ellis Black, based out of rural Lowndes County, had put forth legislation through the Georgia General Assembly in an effort to create an Elections Board in Brooks County.
It was introduced in late March 2011 and was passed easily through the majority Republican Georgia House and Senate with ease and Governor Deal had signed the legislation on April 20, 2011.
It was House Bill 573 and it looks like this:
A BILL to be entitled an Act to create a board of elections and registration for Brooks County and provide for its powers and duties; to define certain terms; to provide for the composition of the board and the selection, qualification, and terms of its members; to provide for resignation, succession, and removal of members and for filling vacancies; to provide for oaths and privileges; to relieve certain boards and officers of certain powers and duties and provide for the transfer of certain items to the newly created board; to abolish a certain board and officers; to provide for meetings and procedures; to provide for the elections supervisor and the powers and duties of such elections supervisor; to provide for effective dates; to repeal conflicting laws; and for other purposes.
Rep. Ellis Black had switched parties and became a Republican shortly after the 2010 elections.
Despite the creation of Elections Board, J. David Miller and Jo Ann Collins have a lot to answer for in regard to the voting disenfranchisement of Brooks County's minority citizens.
