Brunswick, GA – Around 1000 people took to the streets of Brunswick, Georgia, May 16, to demand justice for Ahmaud Arbery, the young African American man murdered in late February by the racist vigilantes Gregory and Travis McMichael. Organized by a coalition of many organizations, protesters also demanded the resignation of State Attorneys Jackie Johnson and George Barnhill, both prosecutors who originally declined to press charges against the McMichaels for the murder of Ahmaud Arbery.

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Elaine Brown, a former Black Panther Party leader, decided to run for mayor of Brunswick after attending an anti-globalization protest on nearby Sea Island, where the G-8 ministers met to divide up the world economy. The contrast between Sea Island and Brunswick is stark: rich whites with political power versus working poor Blacks given little choice in local elections. The most recent mayor of this majority Black town was a Lieutenant Colonel of the Sons of Confederate Veterans.

Brown ran on an agenda of Black political empowerment, including a plan to create a local port authority that would benefit the majority of the people in the area. The current port is run by the State of Georgia and benefits the wealthy and powerful, with little benefit to Brunswick. Elaine Brown’s candidacy represented the democratic desires of the majority of the 16,000 people in Brunswick. It exposes the lie about the U.S. government 'spreading democracy overseas in Iraq,' while showing how little democracy there is down home in the South.

Brown is now backing African American mayoral candidate Otis Herrington. She states, “It is very important that an agenda that serves the needs of all the people be preserved and advanced. This is why I'm supporting Otis Herrington. I believe he provides the only other opportunity to marginalized voters to save our communities from a takeover by rich and powerful outside forces.”

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A Brown for Mayor press release said: “In Federal Court today, Judge Anthony Alaimo ordered the Glynn County Board of Elections to count the write-in votes for mayoral candidate Elaine Brown.”

Brown had been disqualified as a candidate by the Board of Elections last month and removed from the ballot.  The Glynn County Superior Court had upheld the Board’s decision.

However, in the United States District Court today, Judge Alaimo ruled that write-in votes for Elaine Brown had to be counted pending a trial on the merits.

While this ruling does not address the advance voting period, where more than 300 voters were told their votes for Brown would not count, she will contest the outcome of the election.

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Brown’s post-election press release stated: “Even though the racist, Republican-backed opposition to Elaine Brown’s campaign for mayor of Brunswick, Georgia, succeeded in removing her name from the Nov. 8 ballot – and taking away her right to vote! – a federal court judge, at the eleventh hour, on Nov. 7, ruled the local Board of Elections had to count her votes! In other words, Elaine had only hours to mount another campaign to convince blacks their votes for her would now be counted.”

“By then, of course, the majority-black population of Brunswick, slated to vote for Elaine and make her the City’s first black mayor, had already sat out the five-day advance voting period and really didn’t know or believe they could vote for Elaine on Election Day. Her name was still not on the ballot. So, black voter turnout was low, and the Republican-backed candidate was declared the winner,” the statement continued.

Brown plans a challenge in Federal Court with the aim of a new election.

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The grounds Brown raised in her contest included fraud and misconduct in the Nov. 8 Brunswick municipal election. She also raised that Bryan Thompson, the mayor-elect, is not eligible to take office. Brown asserts that Thompson’s position as CEO and president of Blueprint Brunswick, Inc., is “incompatible” and a conflict of interest with his being mayor of Brunswick. Indeed, Blueprint Brunswick (a development corporation trying to gentrify the city) is seen by many as a ‘shadow’ government of the city of Brunswick.

Despite the vigorous objections made by Thompson’s attorney, Austin Catts, who is also a member of the Board of Blueprint Brunswick, and City Attorney Lynn Frey, representing the Glynn County Board of Elections, Judge Tom Pope granted Brown’s motion to continue, based on, among other issues, Superior Court Clerk Lola Jamsky’s failure to give proper notice of the hearing to all parties, including the other two mayoral candidates, Betsy Bean and Otis Herrington. Bean and Herrington asserted their intention to pursue their interests arising in Brown’s Contest.

Pope also granted the motion to continue filed by Rev. Zack Lyde on his Contest of the Election, and Lyde’s hearing date was also continued to Dec.19.

In the meantime, Elaine Brown has other legal challenges pending in her effort to address the gross misconduct in Brunswick’s municipal election.

Brown is a former leader of the Black Panther Party and her candidacy for mayor was a direct challenge to Brunswick’s white elite.

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