To some people in Coffee County, deep in southern Georgia and far from interstates, the alleged crimes were merely the latest chapter in a local history of failing to secure the rights and votes of residents. And they worry it’s a history that will repeat.
Prosecutors allege that former county Republican Party chair Cathy Latham and former elections supervisor Misty Hampton helped to facilitate employees from a firm hired by Trump attorneys to access and copy sensitive voter data and election software. Surveillance video captured Latham waving the visitors inside, and Hampton in the office as they allegedly accessed the data. Both have pleaded not guilty.
Coley-Pearson, named a “human rights hero” by the American Bar Association, follows in the footsteps of her mother, who was a political activist in Coffee County in the 1970s, the decade after segregationist Gov. Lester Maddox had picked the county to host many of his speeches. Gladys Coley is commemorated with others in a memorial plaque for fighting for civil rights in Douglas and across the county.
Coley-Pearson is well-known for helping people who may need a ride to the polls. Not everyone around town appreciates her efforts, however. In a Facebook Live video posted a couple days before the alleged breach, Latham complained about Coley-Pearson’s get-out-the-vote efforts for Georgia’s runoff elections to the US Senate.
“Olivia Pearson’s up to her normal – handing out hamburgers and hot dogs … to people who voted and stuff,” Latham said, running her fingers through her cropped blonde hair in apparent exasperation. “So, all kinds of things happening in Coffee County just to get people to come vote. Yeah, it’s not a really good situation down here.”
Coley-Pearson had tangled with local officials over voter access several times. Georgia law allows people who are disabled or illiterate to get assistance in voting, and Coley-Pearson helped with that in the 2012 election. At the time, it seemed uneventful.
But Coffee County officials complained to the Georgia secretary of state’s office that she helped people who didn’t qualify for assistance. It led to a years-long investigation, and though the state didn’t prosecute her, she was charged locally with two felonies. After one trial ended in a hung jury, she was found not guilty in the second in 2018.
Like many places in the South, Black citizens have had to fight for democratic rights in court – repeatedly suing for representative districts for the election of local officials since the 1970s.
It really sounds exhausting to be a black person in the south who just wants to participate in the democratic process. The smaller the community, the less we have gotten away from the Jim Crow era.
The bar crowd tipped CNN off to a group of older White men known for holding court over breakfast every morning at the restaurant Hog-N-Bones. After debating with CNN the meaning of the Sermon on the Mount, Zip Grantham and Tommy Crozier agreed to an interview. They said they didn’t think there was racial discrimination in the county anymore – Black people, they said, could serve in the military and learn at the same schools. The men said they’d vote for Trump in the 2024 election if he was the Republican nominee, but maybe not in the primary.
I get a strong sense that they believe this because they don’t recognize their own racism and consider it normal.
It always baffled me that black people stayed in the south after the end of slavery. Especially during the him crow era much less now.
Moving is hard and expensive in 2023, I cannot fathom how difficult it would have been in the 1800s.
To paraphrase Office Space:
“They are the ones who suck, why should I move?”
Fair points. Idk I feel like seeing my ppl hanging from trees would be enough for me…
I assume this isn’t the only place. It’s not tRuMp that’s leading things… He’s just a pawn. There’s more work to be done, don’t be satisfied if Trump gets convicted.
There’s gotta be plenty of corrupt towns across the country.
That’s what people don’t understand. Trump didn’t do this by himself–he had the help of Russia, the entire GOP, the Koch brothers and other billionaires. And corrupt 50-70 somethings that live in these small towns and LARP about election fraud.
We need to volunteer and help run elections in states ourselves by volunteering to be poll workers during election seasons and actually act as a counter to it or run for elections positions. That’s what the GOP are doing right now.
Corrupt election officials in Coffee County, GA and corrupt police officers in Coffee City, TX.
Sounds like racists doing racist things. Pretty much par for the course in parts of the south.
Note how corrupt Cindy Latham refuses to call Olivia Coley-Pearson by her name and instead insists on naming her for her partner.
This is the best summary I could come up with:
The sprawling racketeering allegations spread from centers of power with pressure on the vice president to ignore the Constitution, reported calls to secretaries of state to change vote counts, and the creation of slates of fake electors for Congress.
But to some people in Coffee County, deep in southern Georgia and far from interstates, the alleged crimes were merely the latest chapter in a local history of failing to secure the rights and votes of residents.
Mike Clark, owner of some small businesses in Douglas, said he was struck by the way the surveillance footage showed the election officials entering the building in broad daylight.
Coley-Pearson, named a “human rights hero” by the American Bar Association, follows in the footsteps of her mother, who was a political activist in Coffee County in the 1970s, the decade after segregationist Gov.
In a Facebook Live video posted a couple days before the alleged breach, Latham complained about Coley-Pearson’s get-out-the-vote efforts for Georgia’s runoff elections to the US Senate.
“Olivia Pearson’s up to her normal – handing out hamburgers and hot dogs … to people who voted and stuff,” Latham said, running her fingers through her cropped blonde hair in apparent exasperation.
The original article contains 1,838 words, the summary contains 199 words. Saved 89%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!
Why am I getting strong Dukes of Hazzard vibes?
I recently watched a few episodes and Dukes of Hazzard was surprisingly “woke”. The Duke boys are antiracist, support defunding the police, and are always ready to fight against corruption wherever they find it.
While driving around in a car with the Confederate flag. Surrealism
It’s the banjos
steve martin is so cool though
It’s the confederate flags on old cars, and non-ironic mentions of “The General”
