Georgia: “incompetence or corruption”

One thing that Midterm elections proved was that the GOP would go to just about any length to win, no matter how much foul plan was involved. The classic case of that was Georgia, where voter suppression seemed to become an art form under the direction of Brian Kemp. Stories of long lines at polling places, malfunctioning voting machines, and general malfeasance on the part of election officials were legion.

Things got so bad, according to the Washington Post, that Jesse Jackson characterized Georgia election officials as incompetent or corrupt “or both.” The Post quoted Jackson as saying, “…it was inexcusable that at several polling sites in Atlanta, including at Morehouse College, not enough machines were provided, resulting in hours-long waits to vote.”

But what may have been the supreme insult was the discovery after the election that “hundreds” of functional voting machines had been locked away in warehouses and not used. According to Law & Crime, “Hundreds of functional voting machines sat unused, locked away in warehouses, across metropolitan Atlanta as thousands of black voters weathered hours-long lines at the polls on Election Day.” The ostensible reason for not using the machines was that they might be vulnerable to hacking.

It is no wonder that the results of several of the Georgia contests are now being contested. But the larger question is how we, as a nation, deal with the fact that the GOP looks ever more like a criminal enterprise.