ACLU-GA Senior Voting Rights Attorney Urged Cobb County to Reverse its Decision Moving Poll Place to Police Academy
On September 13, 2021, the ACLU of Georgia sent a letter to the Cobb County Board of Elections and Registration urging it to reverse its decision to move a polling location from Cooper Middle School to the Cobb County Police Academy. At the board's meeting that afternoon, Rahul Garabadu, ACLU of Georgia Voting Rights Attorney, testified.
“Using a police academy as a polling place in a majority-Black neighbor-hood will likely deter voters from exercising their right to vote [and] may violate federal law,” the ACLU of Georgia letter states. According to September 2021 voter registration data from Cobb County, the precinct serves a community that is majority-Black. In this country’s not-so-distant past, Black people have been harassed, arrested, and even beaten for trying to exercise their right to vote, often at the hands of law enforcement.