The county attorney for a largely Black community in Georgia was pushing to limit voting access in the state. Residents there protested -- and now he's out

A state lawmaker leading an effort to restrict voting rights in Georgia has been asked to resign from his role as attorney for a majority-Black Georgia county where residents as recently as 2015 accused other local officials of "making Black votes disappear."

State Rep. Barry Fleming, R-Harlem, is cosponsoring a bill that's among more than 250 proposals, pending across 43 states, to restrict voting access. Until last week, Fleming also served as county attorney in Hancock County, where 7 of 10 residents is Black and where residents will cast ballots through the end of the year under the watch of a court-appointed examiner after the county election board was accused in a federal lawsuit of unfairly removing voters -- most of them Black -- from the rolls. While Fleming was not lead counsel for the county defendants in the federal lawsuit, his recent efforts to limit voting access in the state angered some Hancock County residents, who are still reeling from the battle over voting rolls.