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State
flag issue returns
Author:
Lori Glenn
Publication Date: 2005-02-09
MOULTRIE — The state flag issue is rising again today at
the Georgia dome. Flaggers plan to present poll findings
indicating that most Georgian want a chance to vote on the
1956 flag that bears the Confederate battle emblem that was
changed in 2001.
On Jan. 25, the Georgia Division of the Sons of Confederate
Veterans (SCV) commissioned a statewide poll. A total of 625
registered voters were interviewed statewide in January by
telephone by Mason-Dixon Polling & Research Inc. of
Washington, D.C. The sampling size of the poll provides a
margin of error of 4 percent.
All respondents stated that they vote regularly in state
elections, SCV spokesmen said. Those interviewed were selected
from a randomly generated telephone sample drawn from a
complete list of registered Georgia voters. Quotas were
assigned to reflect voter turn-out by county.
The poll indicated 79 percent want another referendum to
choose between the current flag and the 1956 flag. Forty-seven
percent said they would vote for the current flag, while 40
percent would support the 1956 flag. Thirteen percent remain
undecided, the poll said.
“What it boils down to is the only place we have that much
opposition is in the Fulton/Dekalb area, and they don’t run
Georgia despite what they think,” said Moultrian Jack
Bridwell, Commander of the Georgia Division SCV.
Bridwell will speak at the capitol along with cosponsors of
the Georgia Flag FAIR Vote Bill, H.B. 15, which was prefiled
in November.
“We’ve commissioned the poll to see what the people of
Georgia felt about it,” he said. “A lot of support is there,
if we can get it out of committee.”
The bill sits in the Governmental Affairs Committee — of
which Tifton Republican Rep. Austin Scott is chairman. SCV and
other special interest groups believe Scott has always opposed
a vote on the 1956 flag and will block committee passage,
Bridwell said.
“I don’t know what the governor’s feelings are,” Bridwell
said. “He’s seen the poll. I’ve put it in his hand myself. He
is concerned that that many people in Georgia feel
disenfranchised by not being able to vote. He realizes that
some of the people who feel disenfranchised are some of the
very same people who voted to put him in office when he won
the governor’s seat. A lot of them unless they have the
opportunity to vote on this flag will not support him or vote
for him in this next election.”
The SCV is willing to let the people decide which flag to
fly, even if it means the battle emblem is history once and
for all.
“If the ’56 flag wins, great. If the present flag wins, we
can accept that,” Bridwell said. “We can live with it. It’s
just that we feel — and the majority of people in Georgia
apparently feel — that we should have a fair vote and get it
behind us and go on.”
Source:
http://www.moultrieobserver.com/content/1/7917/State+flag+issue+returns.htm
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