In an attack ad released Wednesday, a political action committee backing Democrat Stacey Abrams for governor accuses GOP rival Brian Kemp of “making it harder for rural Georgians to vote.”
The plot
The ad from PowerPAC Georgia references last month's uproar over the recommendation from a consultant — who is also a Kemp campaign donor — to shut down seven of the nine polling places in rural and majority-black Randolph County in southwest Georgia.
The spot shows the consultant, Mike Malone, at a public forum, stating that consolidating polling places is “highly recommended” by Kemp, Georgia’s secretary of state.
The ad opens with a familiar image from the GOP primary — Kemp pointing a shotgun in the direction of a young man.
It concludes with the narrator saying: “Pointing a shotgun at a teenager. Trying to shut down our right to vote. How can anyone trust someone like Brian Kemp?”
The context
The Board of Elections in Randolph County last month fired Malone and rejected the idea of eliminating all but two local polling places.
Critics called the consolidation plan a brazen move to suppress the black vote in the governor’s race, which pits Kemp, the state’s white secretary of state, against Abrams, who is the former minority leader in the Georgia House and is running to become the nation’s first African-American female governor.
The response
Before the Election Board's vote, Kemp joined a choir of elected officials opposed to the move.
Kemp labeled the ad “absolutely not true” Wednesday afternoon.
Consolidating polling precincts “is a local control issue,” and Democrats are in control in Randolph County, he said.
Watch the ad here:
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