Columbus, GA Mayor Teresa Tomlinson told Joy Reid that the way for people to defeat the GOP effort to rig the vote is to get to the polls and swing these close elections to elect officials who will reverse these policies.

Video:

Tomlinson said:

You know in 2013 in the Shelby County case, of course, this court prior to the addition of the more conservative Kavanaugh actually helped gut the Voting Rights Act. I don’t know we will fare any better, but Joy, voting starts in Georgia on Monday. October 15th. Early voting starts on Monday. So I don’t know that this will be resolved. Hopefully, in the future, it will be, but our only hope at this point, you need to remember that in Georgia for the past several gubernatorial races and past several senates state-wide races, only 200,000 votes difference with all of these millions of people voting, only 200,000 votes difference in the winner and loser for the governor’s race in Georgia.

So 53,000 voters make a huge difference. We have to turn up at the polls. We will have three weeks of early voting starting October 15th, Monday. October 27th and October 28th are on a Saturday and a Sunday, which we are required by law to have our polls open. Our early voting polls open in Georgia. People need to get out and that’s how you thwart this. Put people in office that do not believe this is an acceptable way to issue government power, and we cannot have people in office that utilize government power in a way that disenfranchises huge segments of our population. Everyone should have access to voting.

The name of the game is discouragement

There is nothing new about the Jim Crow era tactics that Republicans are using in Georgia. They want to keep minorities from voting, but they also want to multiply the impact of their voter suppression so that it discourages other minorities who haven’t been targeted from showing up to vote. Republicans are trying to make it as difficult as possible for people who tend to vote for Democrats to cast their ballot.

Even in the face of all of this suppression, statewide elections in Georgia remain close, which is why it is important for minorities to fight and get to the polls. Georgia could easily tip in the Democrats’ direction, and if people want the theft of voting rights to stop, they must elect officials who reject using public policy to disenfranchise voters.

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Jason Easley

Jason is the managing editor. He is also a White House Press Pool and a Congressional correspondent for PoliticusUSA. Jason has a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science. His graduate work focused on public policy, with a specialization in social reform movements.

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