GA prisoners registering to vote

Prisoners at Georgia jails are being registered to vote in the Nov. 4 election, creating controversy in some quarters. About two dozen residents of the Clarke County Jail in Athens signed up in the facility's first voter registration drive this week as part of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference's "Democracy Behind Bars. In DeKalb County, suburban Atlanta, the sheriff's office helped 376 jail inmates request absentee ballots and registered an additional 441 inmates so they can vote in the upcoming election, Sheriff Thomas Brown said Friday. Brown called it "ironic" that the jail was across the street from the voter registration office but eligible inmates are unable to exercise the freedom for which so many people have fought and even sacrificed their lives."

(Associated Press)