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Sunday, November 11,2018
Spotlight on Latino voter turnout
Nonprofit civil rights group criticizes Hall election officials over exact match’ implementation
BY JOSHUA SILAVENT
jsilavent@gainesvilletimes.com
A nonprofit civil rights group
has accused Hall County elections
officials of non-compliance with a
recent federal court order involv
ing the state’s “exact match” voter
identification law.
“In Hall County, Georgia, offi
cials failed to comply with the
order issued in litigation regard
ing the state’s discriminatory
exact match scheme,” Kristen
Clarke, president and executive
director of the Lawyers’ Commit
tee for Civil Rights Under Law,
said in a press release on Nov.
8. Lawyers’ Committee for Civil
Rights Under Law was formed
in 1963 at the request of Presi
dent John F. Kennedy to involve
the private bar in providing
legal services to address racial
discrimination,
That order required all eligi
ble voters in Georgia, including
recently naturalized citizens, who
provide appropriate identification
to be given the right to vote a regu
lar ballot, Clarke added.
“Instead of allowing eligible
voters the right to vote, officials
subjected certain voters to the
burden of going to the county elec
tions office to provide proof of cit
izenship instead of accepting this
documentation at the polling site
as explicitly required under the
court’s order,” she said. “More
over, some voters who are limited
English proficient were denied
their right to receive assistance
from a person of their choice. The
actions of Hall County officials
imposed barriers and restric
tions that impaired the rights of
minority voters seeking to vote on
Tuesday.”
Hall County spokeswoman
Katie Crumley, in an email to The
Times, said county officials were
unaware of any voters burdened
by the alleged incidents.
Crumley said an incident at
one voting precinct occurred on
Tuesday and “revolved around a
voter’s proof of identity.”
■ Please see VOTERS, 3C
SCOTT ROGERS I Times file photo
A voter makes his way into the Lakewood Baptist Church Gainesville V
voting precinct Tuesday, July 24, to cast a ballot in the primary runoff.
‘If you get too confident with
it, that’s when mistakes happen’
Photos by AUSTIN STEELE I The Times
Sgt. Doug Whiddon, range master, left, instructs Deangela Chastain on how to shoot a gun during a firearms safety course organized by
the Gainesville Police Department on Saturday, Nov. 10.
Locals brush up on firearms safety at safety course hosted by Police
Scot McEwen, left, and his wife, Debra, examine his target during
the firearms safety course.
BY LAYNE SALIBA
lsaliba@gainesvilletimes.com
Shots rang out on Saturday
afternoon, but they weren’t
fired in anger. It was from
citizens wanting to learn more
about gun safety and gun laws.
About 25 enrolled in the free
Citizen Firearms Safety Course
hosted by the Gainesville Police
Department. After meeting
at the police department for a
morning lecture, the class went
out to the department’s fire
arms facility to put into action
what they already knew and
everything they had learned.
“For us, it’s just an opportu
nity to interact with the com
munity, to give back to the
community a little bit,” said
Sgt. Doug Whiddon, range mas
ter. “It’s a great opportunity for
us to promote safety, safe gun
handling, and it really just gives
us a chance to fellowship with
the citizens we take care of day
in and day out. It’s a chance for
them to see us face-to-face and
get to know us.”
Each participant got one-
on-one assistance from law
enforcement at the range as
they loaded and unloaded their
guns and took shots at a target.
Jose Nunez was there by him
self after getting a gun about a
year ago. Before he owned one,
he said he went to the shooting
range to try out different kinds
to help him choose what he is
most comfortable with.
“Safety is a big portion of
this whole thing,” said Nunez,
a Gainesville resident. “And
then I can actually transfer
some of this information to my
daughter.”
He said he learned quite a
bit throughout the course. He
learned the proper way to stand
and hold his weapon as well as
how to handle it in general. One
of the most important things
he was reminded of was keep
ing any weapon always aimed
down range.
“It’s all things that we know,
but sometimes we take for
granted as a gun owner,” Nunez
said. “So it’s good to come to
these classes and freshen up ...
It keeps you on your toes. If you
get too confident with it, that’s
when mistakes happen.”
Whiddon said the course is
usually taught twice each year
— once in the spring and once
in the fall — and classes fill up
“the minute it’s announced.”
“We encourage them to bring
their weapons and we can teach
them all about their weapon,”
■ Please see SAFETY, 3C
Couple found dead in East Hall home identified
BY LAYNE SALIBA
lsaliba@gainesvilletimes.com
A man and his girlfriend were found dead
at a mobile home in East Hall County early
Saturday morning.
Authorities were called to the 3500 block of
Gaines Mill Road where they found the bod
ies of Norman Reece, 43, and Audrey Dhal,
35, with “no obvious signs of trauma or foul
play,” said Sgt. Stephen Wilbanks of the Hall
County Sheriff’s Office in a release.
Reece’s 18-year-old son, who lives in the
home, found them both in a bedroom around
6 a.m. “after last having contact with them
the previous evening,” Wilbanks said.
“He discovered the deceased when he
woke up ... after noticing the house had
become very cold,” Wilbanks said in an email.
He added there were space heaters in the
home, which was without electricity, so Hall
County Fire Services tested the air quality
but did not find toxic carbon monoxide levels.
The bodies were taken to the DeKalb Med
ical Examiner’s Office for autopsies.
The case remains under investigation.
AUSTIN STEELE I The Times
A couple was found dead in a home along
Gaines Mill Road Saturday, Nov. 10.
Kemp calls
for Abrams
to concede
BY JAY REEVES
Associated Press
ATLANTA — Ahead by more than
60,000 votes days after Georgia’s guber
natorial election, Republican Brian
Kemp pushed for Democrat Stacey
Abrams to concede Saturday as civil
rights groups urged her to stay in the
fight.
Kemp’s campaign issued a statement
that said it was mathematically impos
sible for Abrams to even force a run
off, much less win outright. It called
Abrams’ refusals to
concede “a disgrace
to democracy” that
“completely ignore
the will of the people.”
But members of
civil rights groups
including the Atlanta-
based Southern
Christian Leadership
Conference and the
National Association
for the Advancement
of Colored People held
a small rally urging
Abrams to keep fight
ing until every vote is
counted.
“That is a promise
she made,” said Ben
Williams, president
of the Cobb County
branch of the SCLC,
founded by the late
Rev. Martin Luther
King Jr.
Erick Allen, a black
Democrat newly
elected to the Georgia
House, said allega
tions of voter suppression and questions
about Election Day problems could dog
Kemp as governor if he eventually
prevails.
“The erosion in trust is done,” said
Allen.
Abrams is trying to become the first
black woman elected governor in the
United States, while Kemp is attempt
ing to continue GOP dominance in
a diversifying state that could be a
battleground in the 2020 presidential
election.
Unofficial returns show Kemp with
50.3 percent of almost 4 million total
votes, a roughly 63,000-vote lead over
Abrams. The margin is enough for an
outright Kemp victory if totals remain
the same, but it’s a tight race consid
ering the large turnout. Abrams has
argued that tens of thousands of provi
sional and military ballots could need
to be counted before the race is over.
The Kemp campaign said a maxi
mum of 17,495 provisional and mili
tary ballots remain to be counted. The
Abrams campaign contends at least
30,823 votes remain, including nearly
27,000 provisional ballots; that could be
enough to prompt a recount.
The Associated Press has not
declared a winner. AP will reassess the
race Tuesday, the deadline for counties
to certify election results to the state.
Abrams’ supporters and volunteers
made a push to get people who cast pro
visional ballots on Tuesday to provide
information required to count their bal
lots by a Friday deadline, but it wasn’t
clear how many did so.
The Kemp campaign said it didn’t
matter because there were far too few
outstanding ballots for Abrams to erase
his lead.
The Abrams campaign attempted to
reserve television advertising time in
case she can make it into a runoff with
Kemp that would be held Dec. 4, but
Atlanta TV station WSB said it wouldn’t
accept any commercials until votes are
certified.
After each of Georgia’s 159 counties
certifies final returns by Tuesday, the
state must certify a statewide result by
Nov. 20.
Kemp
Inside
Tight race
casts light
on voting
restrictions,
2C
