Retiring Guy's Digest: Population loss in Georgia: Quitman County/Georgetown

Wednesday, October 30, 2019

Population loss in Georgia: Quitman County/Georgetown

It all started here.

Population loss as in major -- 50% or more.

Source: Wikipedia (Quitman County, Georgetown)

Georgetown-Quitman County is a consolidated government.

Population loss by degrees: 80-90%, 70-79%, 60-69%, 50-59%.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau QuickFacts

Percentage of population 25 and older with a bachelor's degree:

8.3% - Quitman County
29.9% - Georgia
30.9% - U.S.

Percentage of population 65 and older:

31.2% - Quitman County
13.9% - Georgia
16.0% - U.S.

% of population living in poverty:

26.1% - Quitman County
14.3% - Georgia
11.8% - U.S.

In 2016, Quitman County voted for a GOP presidential candidate for the first time since 1972. Trump won 55.1% of the vote. George Wallace won 61.5% of the vote in 1968.

Quitman County Library, Georgetown

Related reading:
How to Punish Voters. (The New York Times, 10/31/2018)

Georgia Secretary of State [now governor] Brian Kemp, the chief elections official in the state, is a pioneer of present-day voter suppression. Mr. Kemp has a record of making it harder for people to register to vote, and more difficult for those voters to remain on the rolls.

[snip]

When residents in Quitman County, Ga., elected a majority-black school board for the first time in 2010, Mr. Kemp’s office and the Georgia Bureau of Investigation sent armed investigators to interrogate residents about voter fraud and ultimately charged 12 organizers. One Quitman resident, Debra Dennard, was charged with two felonies for helping her partly blind father fill out his absentee ballot. Lula Smart was accused of assisting voters by carrying their sealed absentee ballots to the mailbox. She was charged with 32 felony counts. If convicted, she faced over 100 years in prison.