Black Georgia Voters Fear GOP Redistricting and Growing Voter Apathy - Capital B News
Columbus resident Dorris Porter Edgerton is aware of the Republican-led redistricting efforts looming in the General Assembly, but she’s more concerned about a lack of Black voter engagement in the state’s second-most populous city.
“We have lots of people who really just do not vote at all because they say it won’t make a difference,” Edgerton, 80, told Capital B Atlanta during a May 12 campaign stop by Democratic gubernatorial candidate Keisha Lance Bottoms at the Columbus Public Library.
“This is what I hear, especially talking to younger people. Some just don’t vote. They say, ‘It’s going to be done the way [those in power] want it to be done anyway,” Edgerton continued. Voting doesn’t matter, they say, “because we don’t have any rights.’”
Columbus residents like Edgerton live in Georgia’s 2nd Congressional District, a predominantly Black area that includes parts of central and southwest Georgia. It is the state’s largest congressional district by land mass and includes most of Col…