How Much Must We Be Disrespected Before We Decide to Vote?

Georgia people should know this case well. They also likely know Representative Sue Burmeister, who is Secretary House Republican Caucus, Vice Chairman Rules, Secretary Special Committee on Tort Reform from House District 119, and a Republican representing Augusta, Georgia. She is currently serving her third term as a State Legislator. But do you realize her racist views?

In the seminal, and new, case of Billups v. Georgia, 439 F. Supp. 2d 1294 (2006), Burmeister’s sponsored bill to require that all registed voters in Georgia who vote in person in all primary, special, or general elections for state, national, and local offices held after July 1, 2005, was challenged. She wanted everyone, including poor blacks, to pay money ($35) for the ability to present a government-issed Photo ID to officials as a condition of being admitted to the polls and before being issued a ballot and being allowed to vote.

When questioned about the possibility of disenfranchising African Americans from voting (preventing us from doing something we rarely, if ever do…vote) she said, “that if there were fewer black voters because of this bill, it will ONLY be because there is less opprotunity for fraud.” She went on to say that when black voters in her black precints are not paid to vote, they do not go to the polls.

So there you have it. Whites don’t have to hide the fact they are trying to prevent you from voting. They don’t even hide their racial views, believing that the only way blacks will go and vote is if they are paid. 

So, what are we going to do about it? Vote? Malcolm X, the man we love to quote and adore, advocated for it when he said the ballot or the bullet. The phrase is just as relevant now as it was all those years ago. If we don’t vote people who think like us in, we will suffer from the bullet of tyrany from whites who don’t believe in our abilities.   

Please, vote in the upcoming elections. Go and register now! Don’t prove these racist right!