Newbern is about 80% Black and 20% white
Many residents did not know they were allowed to have elections.
[checks year] …WTF?
Braxton assumed office by default in 2020 when he filed for office and no one else, including the incumbent, did the same.
The defendants, listed as former mayor Haywood “Woody” Stokes III and his town council, held a secret, special election, preventing Braxton from appointing his town council. During their special election, the previous town council re-elected themselves, and ultimately reappointed the previous town mayor.
[Rechecks the year] …WTF??
It sucks to slog through voter suppression efforts every day online and then find an entire town being suppressed. THIS… THIS…THIS… POST is the cumulative result of the efforts of ANYONE who tells SOMEONE else to withhold their vote for a political stance. You ARE a vote suppressionist! 👈👈👈
I’ve been told my vote won’t matter if I don’t vote for the right candidate. that’s voter suppression if I’ve ever seen it
The common thread with any definition of voter suppression is that it reduces voting. Being encouraged to vote and in such a way as to increase its power is as close to the opposite of voter suppression as you can get.
Call it something else if you like, but it ain’t voter suppression.
if i’m told my vote won’t count, why would i vote?
Where have you been for the past 3 months lol.
why would i vote?
The power of your vote isn’t affected by someone…commenting on it…so you’d still vote for whatever reason you had before you were told that. Being told that your vote would be wasted on, presumably, a third-party candidate is just practical commentary. If you find yourself dissuaded by that, you’re not being suppressed, you’re just…childishly impressionable. Please forgive the insult.
At a time, white supremacy tactics thrived in elected positions, from local to Fed. No longer are we going to allow this to continue.
Keep educating citizens on their rights to hold office, in school boards, state positions, and the presidency, and this kind of shit will finally die like it should have ages ago.
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The Legal Defense Fund (LDF), an organization that focuses on racial and civil rights, along with an Alabama-based private law firm, filed a preliminary injunction to force Newbern, a town of about 133 people, to hold elections and allow its citizens to vote for the first time in years.
Previous Newbern mayors had also been appointed or ran unopposed, with several of the officers serving in the position for more than 10 years.
Though the white officials have not recognized his position, Braxton has continued trying to serve as mayor, using his own funds to host events and food distribution drives.
The LDF suit aims to give all citizens in the town an opportunity to vote – something that would be history making.
“For decades, officials in my town have excluded me and other voters from participating in elections and having a say in what happens here,” Braxton said in a statement provided by the LDF.
We ask the courts to enforce elections in Newbern this November so that we can cast our ballots and actively participate in the democratic process.”
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