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CNN Has A Good Article On "Crooked Coffee" County, GA And Republican Efforts At Voter Suppression. [1]

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Date: 2023-09-03

While searching for the latest on the criminal activities of Coffee County Republicans involved with the break in and dissemenation of voter data, I found an article by CNN that does a deeper dive into how those in power in Coffee County have done their damndest with regards to voter suppression and intimidation of black voters. Parts of the article dovetail with the state’s efforts on voter suppression and intimidation (e.g., It is against the law to give water to voters standing in long voter lines in GA.). However, we get to see two of the RICO indicted officials from Coffee County, Cathy Latham and Misty Hampton, treating black voters as a threat to democracy. You can feel the time warp as you read Latham’s and Hampton’s comments and actions.

Frankly, I was surprised that CNN actually wrote this article.

Douglas, Georgia CNN — The breach of the Coffee County elections office can seem almost out of place in the 97-page Georgia indictment of former President Donald Trump and associates. 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. They also include the invitation of a tech team to a non-public area of a small-town administration building. 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. And they worry it’s a history that will repeat. Among the 19 mugshots that flowed from the charges brought 200 miles north in Atlanta were faces that were familiar in Douglas, the seat of Coffee County.

Cathy Latham Head of the Coffee County Republican Party.

Misty Hampton Former Coffee County Election Supervisor.

Now, as a reminder, Cathy Latham was caught on security cameras leading a group of hackers hired by Sidney Powell into breaking into Dominion Voting machines in Coffee Conty and copying voter data. I know I shouldn’t call them hackers because they were supposedly “forensic experts,” but what else do you call someone who breaks into a computer system?

As for Misty Hampton, she was the one who sent out an “invitation letter” to the Trump campaign and lawyers that allowed the voter data breach.

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.

But the only thing that surprises black business owner Mike Clark of Douglas in Coffee County is the brazeness of the break in by Latham and the others. To Clark, Latham and the others felt they were above the law. And those in power in Coffee County could only be that arrogant because they have been doing this for a long, long time.

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. “You walk inside the voter registration office with no mask on, and they just give you the votes. They just give them to you! Why? Why would that be?” Clark said. “That shows you right there it ain’t just started. It’s always been just like that.”

Douglas is a majority black town in Coffee County. And as the article points out, once outside of Douglas, Coffee County is 68% white and 29% black. And like many other places in the South, the black citizens of Coffee County have had to fight for their right to vote.

Which brings us a local black leader’s run in with Latham and Hampton.

Olivia Coley-Pearson is a Douglas city commissioner, the first Black woman elected to the position. She’s a tall woman who wore a Barbie-pink blazer when we met, and like many others CNN spoke with in Coffee County, she saw the involvement of her county in the alleged Trump scheme as part of a long local pattern of voter suppression and intimidation. “There’s power – a certain amount of power and control when you’re in certain offices,” Coley-Pearson told CNN. “Some people will do whatever it takes to maintain it. … And if it takes voter intimidation to do it, some people willing to intimidate to maintain that power and control.”

According to CNN, Coley-Pearson is the type of woman who will give people a ride to their polling places. Guess who didn’t appreciate this act of kindness? If you guessed, “Cathy Latham!”, you would be correct. Seems Latham during a live video on Facebook said the following:

“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.” Latham urged her viewers to vote. “We got to out-vote the fraud,” she said. She has not responded to CNN’s request for comment.

The horror! Coley-Pearson was FEEDING PEOPLE stuck in voting lines in 2020! This was just too much for Latham! And you know all THOSE PEOPLE WERE VOTING TWICE OR MORE!

Coffee County election officials have harassed Coley-Pearson since 2012. Georgia law allows people how cannot read to have someone assist them at the polls. When Coley-Pearson did this, she was accussed by the locals of helping those who did not need assistance. She was reported to the GA Secretary of State, and Coley-Pearson was charged locally with felonies. Two trials were held, and one was a hung jury, while she was acquitted in the other.

This was in 2018.

And this will probably violate fair use, but I think you need to read this for yourself:

Then, during early voting in October 2020, Coley-Pearson asked a question about the buttons on a voting machine, sparking a confrontation with then-election supervisor Misty Hampton. Coley-Pearson says Hampton was “hollering” that she must not touch the machine. Hampton, who is White, has said in a deposition that she spoke in a “normal voice” and told Coley-Pearson she was being “disruptive.” The voter Coley-Pearson assisted said in a deposition she felt afraid of Hampton. Coley-Pearson left the polling place to pick up another voter, Rolanda Williams. In the meantime, Hampton called the police. “She’s out here touching my darn machines,” Hampton told the police, as recorded in a police video. At one point, after saying Coley-Pearson had improperly touched the ballot, Hampton said, “I don’t care what I got to file, what I got to do, she is not to come back to my office. If I have to say I feel threatened I don’t care. Because I do!” Hampton has not responded to CNN’s request for comment. When Coley-Pearson returned to the polling place with Williams and stepped out of the car, she was met by police officers. They said she was banned from the property for yelling, she remembers. “I guess they didn’t like me asking why, and I got arrested. I was put in handcuffs,” Coley-Pearson said, beginning to cry at the memory. “She was telling the cop that the handcuffs were too tight. And to me, he was trying to get them tighter,” Williams, the voter Coley-Pearson was driving, told CNN. When Williams went inside the polling place, she said Hampton began asking her questions. “She was asking me where I work – which, I felt was none of her business. … She actually pulled up a Facebook page of mine. And I felt like I was into some type of trouble or something.” “I was scared and fearful,” Williams said. “I didn’t want to go back up there to vote. And I won’t go back and vote, because of everything that’s going on. I didn’t understand why they call this ‘Crooked Coffee.’ But now I understand.” Coley-Pearson is now suing the city and election officials over her treatment. The city says it did not violate her constitutional rights.

The article also points out that Coffee County is also a place where segregationist Georgia Governor Lester Maddox would hold many of his rallies. This was back in the late 60’s and early 70’s, but it seems that not much has changed. There is also some anonymous sourcing from some whites in the county that they do not approve of what Latham and Hampton did, but they are too scared to say anything publicly.

I’m not surprised.

Suffice it to say, it paints in some very ugly details about these two. Latham and Hampton are the stereotypical Trump supporter. Both believe that laws do not apply to them, and they will do anything to maintain white supremacy.

Lord I hope they are convicted and sent to prison.

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[1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/9/3/2191326/-CNN-Has-A-Good-Article-On-Crooked-Coffee-County-GA-And-Republican-Efforts-At-Voter-Suppression

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