Black Voters Matter Chapter files official complaint against elections supervisor

ALBANY, Ga. – The local Black Voters Matter Chapter filed an official complaint with the Dougherty County Board of Elections. The group is targeting elections supervisor Ginger Nickerson.

Amna Farooqi

“We are filing an official complaint against Ginger Nickerson on the following counts: calling the Sheriff’s Office on Black Voters Matter without investigating any complaints that were received and for not properly administering early voting,” Black Voters Matter member Amna Farooqi said.

People falsely accused the group of electioneering and distributing campaign materials within 150 feet of the early voting location on Pine Avenue, an illegal activity in Georgia, members said.

“Throughout this process we never once received an email or a call from any county or elections official to verify what we were distributing or to invest the complaints in an official manner,” Farooqi said.

County Administrator Michael McCoy was seen in a video posted to Facebook telling the group that they must stay 150 feet from the voting location, a requirement for politically affiliated groups. Even though the group claims to be non partisan, and made it clear that they weren’t handing out campaign material but instead water and snacks.

“After speaking with several of us, they admitted that they knew we were not distributing campaign material but said the we were intimidating voters with our Black Voters Matter apparel,” Farooqi said.

April Albright, a Black Voters Matter member, says nothing about the organization should intimidate people, and that regardless, the organization should not have been asked to keep back 150 feet.

April Albright

“Just because someone is Black there’s an assumption that there’s something hostile and wrong so today we’re taking a stand in solidarity that the word Black is not intimidating or hostile,” Albright said.

Ginger Nickerson nor the board of elections commented on the official complaint; however, the board has committed to responding within a week.