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Thousands of black voters in Alabama’s congressional district were redrawn to increase their voting power. They receive mail with incorrect district information

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Thousands of Black Voters In Alabama Congressional District Redrawn to Increase Their Voting Power Receive Mail with Incorrect District Info

Thousands of voters in Alabama who were reassigned to a congressional district redrawn by a federal court to boost black voting power received mail misidentifying which district they belonged to.

Ahead of the Super Tuesday primary, 6,593 voters currently in the newly reformed 2nd Congressional District received postcards saying they were still in the seventh Congressional District, the Associated Press reports.

The Southern Poverty Law Center previously reported that 5,604 voters received postcards and 4,513 of them were black.

Thousands of black voters in Alabama's congressional district were redrawn to increase their voting power.  They receive mail with incorrect district information
: A voter leaves a polling place after casting a ballot in the state’s primary election on March 5, 2024, in Mountain Brook, Alabama. Fifteen states and one U.S. territory hold primaries on Super Tuesday, awarding more delegates than another day on the presidential nominating calendar. (Photo: Elijah Nouvelage/Getty Images)

One black voter told the Montgomery Advertiser that she received one of these postcards though she knew she belonged to the 2nd District. She said she even received anonymous phone calls incorrectly telling her which day to vote.

“A lot of people probably fell for that bait, but I didn’t” – Adigale Brooks he said.

James Snipes, chairman of the Montgomery County Board of Recorders, told the AP that the error was attributable to a “glitch” in the county’s election software but didn’t affect voters’ ability to vote for the right candidates.

“Everyone who came into their precinct could vote for the right candidates,” Snipes said. “It was a good faith effort.”

Even though the postcards were sent by the Montgomery County Board of Recorders, the SPLC blamed the Secretary of State’s Office for the error. Officials with the Secretary of State’s office told multiple outlets they were not responsible.

“The information contained in statewide voter files is entered at the county level. The Secretary of State simply maintains the database” – Laney Rawls he said AL.com. “If the information on file was incorrect, it would have been entered incorrectly by the county, not the Secretary of State’s office.”

The county sent updated notices to all voters who received mail containing incorrect information.

“This is more than just a mistake. Providing misinformation to thousands of voters on the eve of a hotly contested primary could very well impact turnout and election results for both Republicans and Democrats,” said Bradley Heard, SPLC deputy legal director for democracy and voting rights, the Montgomery Advertiser. “An immediate audit and public accountability of Secretary Wes Allen’s office on the scope of the problem is necessary.”

Montgomery County is currently part of the 2nd Congressional District, Alabama’s newest majority-black district. The county has nearly 160,000 voters.

Last yr, the Supreme Court ruled that Alabama lawmakers had to create a second majority-Black district after concluding that their old congressional map diluted the ability of the Black vote. Only one of Alabama’s seven congressional districts in a state where the black population is 28% was majority black.

State lawmakers twice ignored the court’s ruling, so in November a panel of federal judges appointed a special master to redraw state district boundaries. Currently, nearly 49 percent of voters in the newly reformed 2nd District are black, giving them the chance to elect one other black representative to Congress.

“For many black voters in this district, this is the first election in which they have the opportunity to elect a representative who looks like them,” Camille Wimbish, national director of campaigns and field programs for the Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, told the AP. “This could have resulted in many Black Alabamians staying home and not voting at all.”

The same error was discovered in January when one other batch of postcards was sent. Election officials then thought they’d fixed a bug in their software.

“It is disappointing that voters in Montgomery County are facing classic disenfranchisement,” said state Rep. Napoleon Bracy Jr.

This article was originally published on : atlantablackstar.com
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Politics and Current

Watch NABJ-WHYY’s Conversation with Vice President Kamala Harris

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WHAT:The National Association of Black Journalists and Philadelphia’s WHYY will host a one-on-one Q&A Tuesday with Vice President Kamala Harris on the WHYY studios. The studio audience will include NABJ members and journalism and communications students from local HBCUs.

The panel discussion moderators can be:

“We look forward to hearing from Vice President Harris as she speaks to our members and student journalists as our panel asks the tough questions that matter most to the communities NABJ members serve,” NABJ President Ken Lemon said in an announcement.

“The interview with Vice President Harris is intended to inform the public and give our members access to help them report on their stories. We hope this event will also help provide real-time training for our aspiring storytellers,” Lemon said.

This article was originally published on : thegrio.com
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Woman flashes breasts and kicks sheriff’s deputy in face after calling police to report her son was kidnapped

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Body-worn camera footage that recently surfaced online shows a girl behaving erratically during an encounter with three officers after she called 911 to report a kidnapping.

The video shows two male and one female officers responding to a call at a house in Indian River County, Florida, on June 15, 2022, where they encounter a girl who appears to be upset.

Body camera footage shows a girl kicking a sheriff’s deputy in the face after he called 911 to report an alleged kidnapping. (Photo: YouTube/Blue Mast)

The woman begins by saying she called 911 earlier this week and spoke with a sheriff’s deputy, Tea De Leon, and her “eyelashes,” but De Leon claims she never spoke to the girl.

When officers attempt to query the girl in regards to the nature of her report, a lot of her answers are inconsistent and difficult to understand.

“I can’t handle this! You’re not invited!” the girl screams before trailing off incomprehensibly.

When the police ask her if she had been drinking alcohol or taking any medications that day, she says no and begins making accusations that her ex-husband had kidnapped her son.

“I’m taking care of my son. I haven’t seen my son in a month. I’m taking care of my fucking job, I’m taking care of my fucking son, my son’s father won’t give him his phone,” the girl said after telling officers she was working to resolve the custody dispute.

The conflict escalates when officers try to query the girl, but she begins to argue.

At one point she shows De Leon her chest, saying she just had “surgery,” and begins accusing the officers of touching her.

After refusing to obey the officers and continuing to get in De Leon’s face, all of the officers restrain her and handcuff her. She continues to speak incoherently after being detained.

“I always talk to someone, I don’t f***ing lie about shit,” the girl says. “Can you let her go, because this is a f***ing lot for her?”

A moment later, she begins to scream loudly and cry, then dramatically falls to the bottom.

As the officers help her off the bottom and lead her to the patrol automotive, they’ve trouble getting her to sit in the back seat. Things escalate again when she loudly demands that they stop touching her, then kicks De Leon.

The police try to force her into the automotive and she kicks De Leon again, this time in the face.

The men eventually help her into the automotive, then check on their friend as he leans down and massages her nose.

“I’m fine,” De Leon assures his partners. “I’m not bleeding, am I?”

The recording ends with one in every of the officers telling the girl she shall be charged with against the law.

“Why?” the girl asks.

“For kicking her in the face,” the deputy replies.

“I never kicked her in the face,” the girl shouts.

“Yes. I saw you do it. It’s all on video,” the deputy says.

As reported, the girl was charged with serious assault on an officer.

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This article was originally published on : atlantablackstar.com
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During the NABJ-WHYY panel, Harris showed us once again that she won’t let Trump define the conversation.

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Kamala Harris, NABJ-WHYY conversation, theGrio.com

“Sometimes your adversaries will try to turn your strength into weakness,” she said. “Don’t let them. Don’t let them.”

In that moment, she’s portrayed her joy and laughter as strengths, and Trump as someone who would attempt to idiot her and all of us into pondering they weren’t strengths. She’s portraying Trump as a thief of joy — almost a cartoonish Grinch-like villain — but without actually or overtly saying anything provocative. The Trump campaign is filled with attempts to attract Harris into ridiculous conversations, corresponding to whether immigrants eat pets in Springfield, Ohio. Harris has been steadfast throughout her campaign in refusing to let Trump frame the conversation or select the setting of the moment. She’s not here to reply to his madness. She’s running her own race.

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She then responded to Gaynor’s query by adding more commentary on the subject of joy. “I find joy in the American people,” she said. “I find joy in the optimism… I find joy in the ambition of the people.” She listed several places where she found joy, poetically linking each with the words, “I find joy in…” It was the type of repetition you would possibly expect from a black preacher. She ended the list with, “I find joy in believing that the true measure of a leader’s strength is not who you knock down, but who you lift up.”

All of this jogged my memory that it is a campaign based on optimism, not pessimism, regret, anger and fear-mongering.

At one point she was asked about Springfield, Ohio, home to immigrants Trump and Sen. J.D. Vance falsely accused of eating pets. She didn’t let Trump lead the conversation. When asked about the city, she modified the subject to people. She said it was school picture day they usually needed to evacuate the kids. She began talking about the kids. Harris again insisted on fascinated by people and refused to follow Trump’s conversation. Watch her do that during the race — it’s clearly her selection. Harris is deliberate in avoiding responding to Trump. She doesn’t follow the conversation into the mental gutter he wants to guide her to. Instead, she comes across as a babbling old geezer, and she’s above the argument and above him.


This article was originally published on : thegrio.com
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