The NAACP Clayton County Branch is holding a candidate forum today, Sunday, March 5 from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. at the Forest Park Recreation Center, 803 Forest Parkway.

NAACP Clayton County Branch members will pose prepared questions to the candidates for Clayton County Sheriff, Georgia House District 75, Jonesboro mayor, and Jonesboro City Council.

Audience members also will have the chance to ask questions directly of the candidates.

Those invited include:

In the Jonesboro City Council races, Don Dixon ran unopposed for one of the two council seats vacated by Sebo-Hand and Sartor; he is an attorney with McMichael and Gray. The only contested race for Jonesboro City Council is between former City Councilman Alfred Dixon, a Democrat, and GOP activist Charles, who was deeply involved with the Herschel Walker campaign.

To date, Allen has chosen not to take part in any candidate forums, instead riding on the coattails of former sheriff and convicted felon Victor Hill, who is scheduled to be sentenced March 14 on federal civil rights violations the week before the election. Hill, who has issued messianic endorsements on Allen’s behalf, was convicted of strapping pretrial detainees into restraint chairs for hours at a time—some to the point of urinating on themselves—even though they had not posed any threat, which is illegal. Allen, who is widely seen as a Hill puppet by opponents and a Hill substitute by backers, did not complete The Clayton Crescent’s candidate survey on issues about CCSO, the jail, and the campaign. Allen also continues Hill’s lack of transparency by ignoring interview requests and routine requests for comment from local news media. Allen has come under fire from his opponents for using taxpayer dollars to plaster his name and face on CCSO vehicles, billboards, and previews in the AMC Southlake 24 movie theaters. Rather than face questions from voters in a public forum Allen has resorted to Hill’s tactics of leveraging Nixle as a PR platform and attacking unfavorable coverage on social media. With Hill facing a likely federal prison sentence and the expense of an appeal, Allen took out a federal VA loan to buy his former superior officer’s house in December 2022 for nearly half a million dollars.

NAACP Branch Chair C. Synamon Baldwin told The Clayton Crescent that she is concerned about extremely low voter turnout for early voting thus far in Forest Park. As of press time, 114 people had voted early in Forest Park. Of the seven early voting sites, Forest Park has had the lowest turnout. However, it is possible that voters who live in Forest Park may have voted at any of the other early voting locations. Early voting continues today from 12 p.m. to 5 p.m. This is the only Sunday for early voting.

Where to vote early

During early voting only, registered voters may cast their ballots at any early voting site, which includes the Forest Park Senior Center, Morrow City Hall, the Historic Courthouse in Jonesboro, Carl Rhodenizer Recreation Center, Virginia Burton Gray Recreation Center, Lake Spivey Recreation Center, and South Clayton Recreation Center.

Where to vote on March 21 (Election Day)

On Election Day itself, which is March 21, voters must cast their ballot at their usual polling place. You can look up your precinct online on your My Voter Page at https://mvp.sos.ga.gov.

Voters who live in the incorporated City of Jonesboro will cast ballots twice: once for the city races and again for the sheriff, House District 75 (if applicable), and the Clayton County Schools SPLOST, which would renew the one-cent sales tax for another five years in order to build the convocation center at Southlake Mall and to repair or build additional schools, as well as provide new computers.

Previous forums

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Robin Kemp is executive editor and CEO of The Clayton Crescent, which she founded in 2020. She has worked for Gambit, CNN, The Weather Channel, Clayton News, Henry Herald, and numerous freelance outlets....

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