Georgia

Georgia’s Raffensperger should investigate Trump over phone call, state elections board member says | Teo Armus/The Washington Post

The only Democrat on Georgia’s state election board on Sunday called on Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger (R) to investigate possible civil and criminal violations committed by President Trump during a phone call over the weekend in which the president pressured Raffensperger to “find” enough votes to overturn his defeat. David J. Worley, an Atlanta lawyer, said a transcript of the hour-long call, a recording of which was obtained by The Washington Post, amounted to “probable cause” to believe that Trump had violated Georgia election code. “It’s a crime to solicit election fraud, and asking the secretary to change the votes is a textbook definition of election fraud,” he said in an interview with The Post on Sunday. In his letter to Raffensperger, Worley said that “such an incident, splashed as it is across every local and national news outlet, cannot be ignored or brushed aside.” Worley cited Georgia state code § 21-2-604, which makes it a crime to solicit someone else to commit election fraud. Such a violation can be punished by up to three years in prison.

Full Article: Georgia’s Raffensperger should investigate Trump over phone call, state elections board member says – The Washington Post

Georgia: Judge rolls back order on runoff voter challenges | Josh Gerstein and Kyle Cheney/Politico

A federal judge has agreed to allow a Georgia county to require that certain voters cast provisional ballots, just days before two runoff elections in the state that will decide control of the U.S. Senate. More than 4,000 voters faced eligibility challenges ahead of the Jan. 5 runoffs based on unverified postal change-of-address records. The new injunction from U.S. District Court Judge Leslie Abrams Gardner, issued just before midnight on Wednesday, replaces an earlier restraining order she had issued that prevented Muscogee County from forcing those voters to cast provisional ballots at all. The latest order represents a significant move in the direction the county board urged during a court hearing earlier Wednesday. Although the county may now require provisional ballots from those voters, Gardner’s order directs that no challenges to their eligibility be upheld based exclusively on data in the National Change of Address Registry, a U.S. Postal Service database that Democrats have worried is an unreliable and unverified indicator of whether individuals have changed their legal residence. “The challenge to their eligibility will not be sustained absent specific evidence of ineligibility,” ordered Gardner, who sits in Albany, Ga. “Such specific evidence shall not include the appearance of a voter’s name or other information on the NCOA registry” Her order also requires Muscogee County to notify any voters for whom it finds such evidence of ineligibility and give them a chance to present evidence to count their ballot by Jan. 8. The order came in a suit brought by Majority Forward, a Democratic nonprofit, affiliated with Senate Majority PAC, that focuses on voter registration.

Full Article: Judge rolls back order on Georgia runoff voter challenges – POLITICO

Georgia can expect election disputes after Senate runoff election | Mark Niesse and Greg Bluestein/The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Georgia’s extraordinarily thin partisan divide set the stage for rampant misinformation, lawsuits and fights over election integrity after the presidential election. With control of the Senate on the line Jan. 5, elections officials are bracing for a new round of drama — especially if the races are as close as polls, analysts and the campaigns suggest they will be. President Donald Trump has warred with state leaders and elections officials for weeks following his narrow defeat here, even though flipping Georgia wouldn’t be enough to reverse Joe Biden’s White House victory. Imagine, though, an equally tight margin in the twin runoffs, which have attracted unprecedented spending and attention with the fate of Biden’s legislative agenda at stake. Gabriel Sterling, the state’s voting system manager, is preparing for such a drawn-out scenario. “Even if there’s a blowout election, I think we’ll have people saying: ‘Well, obviously it was stolen. We have close elections in this state,’ ” Sterling said. “So no matter what direction you go, that’s going to happen.” He’s not alone. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution interviewed more than a dozen state officials, voting rights experts and party leaders who are quietly gearing up for a tortured election aftermath even while the U.S. Senate runoff campaigns are in full swing. Their message: Brace yourselves, Georgia voters. These races might not be settled for weeks.

Full Article: Georgia can expect election disputes after Senate runoff election

Georgia secretary of state wants to limit voting by absentee ballot | Mark Niesse/The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Republican Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger on Wednesday asked Georgia state representatives to end no-excuse absentee voting, a proposal that would limit the voting method over 1.3 million people used in the presidential election. Raffensperger wants to reduce absentee voting after promoting it during the coronavirus pandemic, when he mailed ballot applications to active registered voters before the primary election. In last month’s election, about one-quarter of Georgia’s 5 million voters cast absentee ballots as Democrat Joe Biden defeated President Donald Trump. “It makes no sense when we have three weeks of in-person early voting available. It opens the door to potential illegal voting,” Raffensperger told the House Governmental Affairs Committee. “From a logistical challenge, it’s a tremendous burden on our counties” that run elections. Absentee voting became politicized after Trump frequently suggested it wasn’t trustworthy, causing Republicans to move toward voting early or on Election Day. About 34% of Biden voters submitted absentee ballots, compared with 18% of Trump voters. Georgia law has allowed anyone to cast an absentee ballot without having to give a reason since 2005.

Full Article: Georgia secretary of state wants to limit voting by absentee ballot

Georgia: GOP activist’s voter challenges raise questions | Bill Barrow/Associated Press

When a conservative organization announced plans this month to launch an election integrity operation in Georgia, the group’s news release included a high-profile name: the chairman of the state’s Republican Party. Less than a week later, the same group announced plans to challenge the eligibility of hundreds of thousands of Georgia voters. To Democrats in the state and voting rights advocates, it was verification of what they have long argued — that the Georgia GOP is supporting efforts to suppress voting in one of the nation’s newest political battlegrounds. It also raised questions about the legality of any coordination between the state party and the group True the Vote, charges the organization’s founder disputes. A relatively obscure conservative group, True the Vote is among the numerous political organizations descending on Georgia ahead of a pair of high-stakes Senate run-offs on Jan. 5. The outcome of the contests will determine which party controls the Senate as President-elect Joe Biden launches his administration. On Dec. 14, True the Vote announced it was launching an “election integrity” campaign in Georgia as “partners with (the) Georgia GOP to ensure transparent, secure ballot effort” for the Senate runoffs. The release featured a quote attributed to Georgia Republican Chairman David Shafer: “The resources of True the Vote will help us organize and implement the most comprehensive ballot security initiative in Georgia history.”

Full Article: GOP activist’s voter challenges raise questions in Georgia

Georgia Senate Runoff Targeted by Misinformation ‘Superspreaders’ | Sheera Frenkel and Davey Alba/The New York Times

Two weeks ago, the conservative media personalities Diamond and Silk falsely claimed on their Facebook page that people who were not eligible to vote were receiving ballots in Georgia’s special elections next month. Their post was shared more than 300 times. A week later, the right-wing commentator Mark Levin shared a post on his Facebook page falsely suggesting that the Rev. Raphael Warnock, one of the two Democrats running in the Georgia Senate runoffs, once welcomed Fidel Castro to his church. The misleading claim was shared more than 3,000 times. At the same time, a drumbeat of misinformation about the presidential election count in Georgia droned on. Lara Trump, President Trump’s daughter-in-law, and the Hodgetwins, a bodybuilding duo who have turned to pro-Trump political comedy, shared several false stories on their Instagram and Facebook pages that claimed suitcases filled with ballots were pulled out from under tables during the November vote count. Tens of thousands of people shared their posts. As Georgia prepares to hold special elections that will determine which party will control the U.S. Senate, the state has become the focus of a misinformation campaign that is aimed at discrediting the results of the November elections and convincing voters that Democrats are trying to steal the upcoming vote. A small group of “superspreaders” is responsible for the vast majority of that misinformation, according to new research by Avaaz, a global human rights group. Not only are those accounts responsible for most of the misinformation swirling around the vote, they are drowning out accurate reporting by mainstream media outlets on Facebook and Instagram.

Full Article: Georgia Senate Runoff Targeted by Misinformation ‘Superspreaders’ – The New York Times

Georgia: Eligibility of 364,000 voters challenged before Senate runoff by Texas-based True the Vote | Mark Niesse/The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

A Texas-based organization is working with Georgia Republican Party members to challenge the eligibility of over 364,000 Georgia voters who might have moved, an attempt to disqualify their ballots in the U.S. Senate runoffs. The effort questions voters’ residency and leaves decisions over whose ballots should count to county election boards. The election watchdog group True the Vote targeted voters whose names showed up on U.S. Postal Service lists showing their addresses had changed. The organization enlisted Republicans in dozens of counties to file voter challenges with their local election boards. The effort has gained traction in at least two counties, Forsyth and Muscogee, questioning the eligibility of over 9,000 voters who will be forced to use provisional ballots if they show up at the polls. Election boards in many other counties have rejected similar objections to voters, including in Athens-Clarke, Cobb, DeKalb, Fulton and Gwinnett counties. Requiring voters to use provisional ballots would prevent their ballots from being counted until election officials verify residency. The burden of proof is on the challenger, but voters might be asked to provide information that shows their votes are valid. Voting rights groups say True the Vote is trying to disenfranchise voters, using inexact and unverified change-of-address lists to cancel ballots in a major election that will decide control of the U.S. Senate. It’s “one of the oldest tricks in the voter suppression playbook,” said Sean Young, an attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union of Georgia. He called it an example of “voter caging,” the practice of using mail lists to seek large cancellations of registrations. “It’s unsurprising that political operatives would pull this out in the middle of a contentious election,” Young said. “There’s no shortage of conspiracy theories in this election. Mass voter challenges attempt to make those conspiracies real and disenfranchise hundreds of thousands of voters in the process.”

Full Article: Texas-based True the Vote contests residency of 364K Georgia voters

Georgia: Government report warns of potential violence and foreign interference during Senate runoffs | Crystal Hill/Yahoo News

With the Georgia Senate runoff races just two weeks away, the Department of Homeland Security is warning of the possibility of “ideologically motivated violence” and even a foreign influence campaign as voters prepare to go to the polls, according to a new internal report obtained by Yahoo News. The Dec. 22 report, marked for official use only, says Georgia faces a “potentially heightened physical threat environment” that could drive violence or threats of violence similar to those seen nationwide during the 2020 presidential and state election season. Incidents of violence in or near the state capitol in Atlanta, courts and other “symbolic political institutions” could also negatively affect elected officials or election workers in Georgia, the report says. “We further judge that violent extremists or other actors could quickly mobilize to violence or generate violent disruptions of otherwise lawful protests in response to a range of issues,” the report says, including possible disputes over the results of the Nov. 3 presidential election. The agency based its judgments on a review of national and local media coverage, relevant social media postings, state law enforcement officials detailing “ideologically motivated violence or threats of violence” and its other election violence assessments made over the past six months.

DHS Georgia Warning

Full Article: Government report warns of potential violence and foreign interference during Georgia Senate runoffs

Georgia: Appeals court rejects absentee ballot signature lawsuit | Mark Niesse/The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

The 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has denied a Republican Party effort to reject more absentee ballots in Georgia’s U.S. Senate runoffs by changing how election officials verify voters’ signatures. A three-judge panel ruled unanimously Sunday against the lawsuit brought by the political campaigns of Republican U.S. Sens. Kelly Loeffler and David Perdue, as well as the Georgia Republican Party and the National Republican Senatorial Committee. It’s the latest in a series of court decisions rebuffing challenges to Georgia’s election rules and procedures following President Donald Trump’s 12,000-vote loss to Joe Biden. Loeffler and Perdue face Democrats Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff in runoffs Jan. 5 that will determine control of the U.S. Senate. The court found that it would be “contrary to state law” to order the secretary of state and State Election Board to conduct a different signature matching process. Elections in Georgia are run at the county level. “Since the secretary and the election board do not conduct the signature matching process, are not the election officials that review the voter’s signature, and do not control whether the signature matching process can be observed, the campaigns’ alleged injury is not traceable to the secretary,” wrote Judges Charles Wilson, Beverly Martin and Robert Luck.

Full Article: 11th Circuit denies appeal over Georgia absentee ballot signatures

Georgia Republican lawmakers say they were right to back Texas lawsuit against state | Maya T. Prabhu and Tia Mitchell/The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

For many legal scholars, it was a longshot effort at best: one state’s leaders suing over the elections in other states after their preferred candidate — President Donald Trump — lost. Still, 28 Republican state legislators and seven congressmen from Georgia said there were enough irregularities in the November presidential election that they filed a brief in support of a lawsuit brought by Texas officials against Georgia and other states. The U.S. Supreme Court quickly declined to consider the case, saying Texas did not have legal standing to sue Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin over their handling of the election. In a brief decision, the court said Texas didn’t have the legal right to bring a lawsuit against elections run by other states. Most Georgia politicians — particularly Republicans — jealously guard and regularly cite states’ rights, and they are loath for any other state, or the federal government, to tell them what to do. But many of Georgia’s Republican elected officials were willing to side with Texas in its lawsuit against their state’s handling of the election. Some still say, without evidence, that Trump won the election in Georgia.

Full Article: Georgia Republican lawmakers say they were right to back Texas lawsuit against state

Georgia: Judge rejects another election lawsuit by U.S. senators | David Wickert/The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

A federal judge Friday rejected a request by Georgia’s two U.S. senators to segregate ballots cast by newly registered voters in the Jan. 5 runoff election. Republican Sens. Kelly Loeffler and David Perdue and other plaintiffs said hundreds of people newly registered to vote in Georgia have previously voted in the November general election in another state. They said that potentially violated federal laws against double voting – a contention disputed by Georgia officials. The senators asked U.S. District Court Judge Lisa G. Wood to order election officials to segregate tens of thousands of ballots that might be cast by voters who had registered since the November election so they could be investigated later. Wood rejected the request. Echoing judges in other recent election lawsuits, she said the plaintiffs had not provided enough evidence of specific harm to have standing to bring the lawsuit. She also worried about changing the rules in the middle of the election. The lawsuit comes amid intense national interest in the Georgia runoff, which will determine which party controls the U.S. Senate. Some Georgia officials have expressed concern that people will seek to move here temporarily to vote in the election, then move back to their state of residence – a move that would be illegal. Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger has said he will prosecute anyone who attempts to do so, and his office is investigating a Florida attorney who said he planned to move to Georgia temporarily to vote, and encouraged fellow Republicans to do so.

Full Article: Judge rejects another election lawsuit by Georgia U.S. senators

Georgia GOP Senators Lose Bid to Alter Mail-in Ballot Rules | Erik Larson/Bloomberg

A federal judge in Georgia rejected a lawsuit by the state’s two Republican senators seeking to change the mail-in ballot signature verification rules for their Jan. 5 runoff election, calling their worries about voter fraud “far too speculative.” U.S. District Judge Eleanor L. Ross in Atlanta on Thursday granted the state’s motion to dismiss the suit brought by the Georgia Republican Party and the campaigns of Senators David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler, whose races will determine control of the U.S. Senate. Lawyers for Georgia’s embattled Republican elections chief, Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, argued at a Thursday hearing that the suit was filed far too late given that the current rules for verifying signatures on mail-in ballots were put in place months ago. Charlene McGowan, a lawyer for Attorney General Chris Carr, also a Republican, argued that the campaigns failed to provide evidence that any mail-in ballots had been cast fraudulently under the current rules, or even that they might be. She also accused the GOP of cherry-picking data about mail-in ballot rejection rates to falsely suggest Georgia rejected too few of them.

Full Article: GOP Georgia Senators Lose Bid to Alter Mail-in Ballot Rules – Bloomberg

Georgia: Judges dismiss two GOP lawsuit challenging absentee ballot rules | David Wickert/The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Federal judges Thursday dismissed two Republican lawsuits that sought to change the rules for absentee voting in Georgia amid the hotly contested Jan. 5 runoff election. In the first case, a federal judge in Augusta rejected a Twelfth Congressional District Republican Committee lawsuit that, among other things, sought to eliminate the use of absentee ballot drop boxes in Georgia. In the second, a judge in Atlanta dismissed a request by the state’s two Republican incumbent U.S. senators – Kelly Loeffler and David Perdue – for more scrutiny of signature matching for absentee ballots. The lawsuits are part of an extraordinary effort by Republicans to ask courts to change the rules for absentee ballots amid the runoff election that will determine which party controls the U.S. Senate. Through Wednesday, more than 423,000 Georgians had already cast absentee ballots for the runoff. Early in-person voting began Monday. “We are not even on the eve of an election,” J. Randal Hall, chief judge of the U.S. District Court in Augusta, said in rejecting one of the lawsuits. “We are, as it relates to this particular election, closing in on halftime.”

Full Article: Judges dismiss two GOP lawsuit challenging Georgia’s absentee ballot rules

Georgia: An outraged Kemp blasts pro-Trump conspiracy theorists harassing his family | Greg Bluestein/The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Gov. Brian Kemp is fed up with the unrelenting attacks from conspiracy theorists calling on him to overturn President-elect Joe Biden’s victory in Georgia. But he’s even more enraged that some of those peddlers of false claims are targeting his wife and three daughters. “It has gotten ridiculous — from death threats, (claims of) bribes from China, the social media posts that my children are getting,” he said. “We have the ‘no crying in politics rule’ in the Kemp house. But this is stuff that, if I said it, I would be taken to the woodshed and would never see the light of day.” The Republican singled out the invective targeting his daughter Lucy, who has received hate-filled messages about inane false conspiracies about the death of her longtime boyfriend, Harrison Deal, who was killed in a traffic accident this month in Savannah. “I can assure you I can handle myself. And if they’re brave enough to come out from underneath that keyboard or behind it, we can have a little conversation if they would like to.” Kemp, speaking to reporters shortly after a vaccine-related event at Grady Memorial, did not blame President Donald Trump for the wrath he’s facing from Republicans, even though the president has stoked the fury by blasting Kemp for refusing to illegally reverse his defeat in Georgia. “As far as I know, my relationship with the president is fine. I know he’s frustrated, and I’ve disagreed on things with him before,” he said, adding: “Look, at the end of the day, I’ve got to follow the laws and the Constitution and the Constitution of this state.” Trump has repeatedly vented his outrage at Kemp, and has called him a “clown,” predicted he would lose the 2022 Republican primary and said he was “ashamed” for endorsing him in 2018. At his rally in Valdosta, Trump encouraged U.S. Rep. Doug Collins to run against Kemp in two years. State elections officials say there is no evidence of systemic irregularities, and courts at every level have tossed out every complaint.

Full Article: An outraged Kemp blasts pro-Trump conspiracy theorists harassing his family

Georgia: GOP launches legal war on absentee voting ahead of runoffs | Zach Montellaro and James Arkin/Politico

Federal judges in Georgia will hear arguments Thursday in Republican-led lawsuits to restrict absentee voting ahead of next month’s Senate runoffs — the first salvos in a GOP effort to change voting rules for future elections following President Donald Trump’s loss in 2020. Republicans have filed three lawsuits in the state ahead of the Jan. 5 runoffs, in which hundreds of thousands of people have already voted by mail or in person for races that will decide control of the Senate in 2021. The suits primarily target the use of drop-boxes to return absentee ballots, as well as aiming to raise the threshold for signature verifiers to accept absentee ballots. The net result of the suits, which are backed by a combination of local, state and national Republican Party organizations, would make successfully voting by mail harder in Georgia, which Republicans say is necessary to protect the security of the elections — and others claim is an attempt to suppress votes for Democratic candidates. The legal efforts are likely just the start of a yearlong push by state Republicans to tighten voting rules in response to the 2020 election, which prompted unsubstantiated claims of widespread fraud from Trump, his supporters and other GOP leaders who are convinced that the contest wasn’t fair. Republican lawmakers in Georgia, Michigan and Pennsylvania, among others, have already announced their intention to seek changes to state election laws next year in response to perceived irregularities, and Trump’s opposition to mail voting in 2020 — coupled with the way those late-counted ballots broke against him in some key states — has destroyed the decades-long bipartisan consensus on expanding the practice.

Full Article: GOP launches legal war on absentee voting ahead of Georgia runoffs – POLITICO

Georgia: Loeffler won’t say whether she’ll formally challenge Biden’s win in Senate | Greg Bluestein/The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

U.S. Sen. Kelly Loeffler won’t say whether she’ll formally challenge President-elect Joe Biden’s victory when Congress convenes a day after twin Jan. 5 Georgia runoffs to decide control of the U.S. Senate. U.S. Sen. David Perdue won’t have a say even if he wins another term. The two Republicans have refused to acknowledge Biden’s victory and echoed President Donald Trump’s false assertions of widespread voter fraud. They’re under pressure not to alienate the president – and his loyal base – ahead of the high-stakes election. Shortly after she cast her ballot on Wednesday, Loeffler was noncommittal over whether she would join an effort by U.S. Rep. Mo Brooks of Alabama to challenge Biden’s victory when Congress meets to formally ratify the Electoral College vote on Jan. 6. The effort is doomed to fail. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has congratulated Biden on his victory and told his GOP colleagues Tuesday that he wouldn’t back the push to circumvent the voter’s will. Still, some supporters of the president have sought to cast Loeffler, who has relentlessly promoted her pro-Trump voting record, as a wild card who could join the challenge in the Senate. Pressed on her stance, Loeffler said Jan. 6 is a “long ways off.”

Full Article: Loeffler won’t say whether she’ll formally challenge Biden’s win in Senate

Georgia: Raffensperger, Sterling defend election from ‘disinformation’ | Susan McCord/Augusta Chronicle

Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger continued efforts Wednesday to dispel disinformation about the Nov. 3 general election as voters turn out in record numbers for U.S. Senate runoffs Jan. 5. “The facts are on our side. There are those that are exploiting the strong feelings so many of President Trump’s supporters have for him,” Raffensperger said at a news conference. “Truth has been a casualty of the campaigns.” The president, Republicans nationwide and Sens. Kelly Loeffler and David Perdue have assailed Raffensperger, a lifelong Republican, for allegedly mishandling the election. Trump retweeted Tuesday that Raffensperger and Gov. Brian Kemp were “going to jail” for their roles. The National Republican Senatorial Committee said Tuesday that “Republicans are so concerned about the Georgia Secretary of State’s competence.” Republicans Loeffler and Perdue are in high-stakes runoffs with Democrats Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff. Wins by Warnock and Ossoff will shift control of Congress to Democrats. On Thursday, a federal judge in Augusta will hear one of the latest lawsuits alleging the potential for fraud in the use of absentee, mail-in ballots, an unsubstantiated claim raised in earlier suits on Trump’s behalf that judges have dismissed. It contends Raffensperger did not properly require signature matching in the general election and seeks to change the process and remove ballot drop boxes in the runoffs, for which advance voting started Monday.

Full Article: Raffensperger, Sterling defend Georgia election from ‘disinformation’

Georgia to Review Mail-in Ballot Signatures to Boost Confidence in Elections | Alexa Corse/Wall Street Journal

Georgia will audit signatures submitted by absentee voters in one county, after President Trump and his allies called for such a review as they continued to question President-elect Joe Biden’s victory in the state. Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, who announced the review on Monday, has said the audit wouldn’t change the outcome of the presidential race in Georgia. “Now that the signature matching has been attacked again and again with no evidence, I feel we need to take steps to restore confidence in our elections,” Mr. Raffensperger, a Republican, said Monday at the state Capitol. The secretary of state’s office will work with the Georgia Bureau of Investigation to audit signatures in the Atlanta suburb of Cobb County, which is expected to take two weeks, Mr. Raffensperger said. The secretary of state’s office also plans to work with a university to conduct a statewide signature match audit, he said. Also in Georgia, voting is under way for the hotly contested Jan. 5 Senate runoffs, which will determine control of the U.S. Senate. More than 482,000 votes already have been cast, including roughly 314,000 absentee by-mail ballots and 168,000 early in-person votes as of Tuesday morning, the secretary of state’s office said. Election officials were already required to verify signatures before ballots were counted in Georgia. Absentee voters had to sign the outside of the envelope, not the ballot. Election officials had to compare that signature with the voter’s registration file. If the signatures were consistent, the envelopes were then separated from the ballots to protect the privacy of voter’s choices. Election officials also verified signatures on paper applications for an absentee ballot. Mr. Raffensperger has said state investigators haven’t found evidence of widespread fraud. Two recounts, one by hand and one by machine, confirmed Mr. Biden’s victory in Georgia.

Full Article: Georgia to Review Mail-in Ballot Signatures to Boost Confidence in Elections – WSJ

Amid a fusillade of baseless claims, Georgia sees a normal start to early voting in Senate runoffs | Cleve R. Wootson Jr./The Washington Post

Around 3 p.m. Monday, Tania Thompson pulled her car into the parking lot of the C.T. Martin Natatorium and Recreation Center for the second time in a day. She and her neighbor had first come to cast their ballots shortly after the early-voting location had opened, but they found a line nearly wrapped around the building. They opted to return in the afternoon, hoping for a shorter line and warmer temperatures. “I want to feel like my voice has been heard,” Thompson, 47, an immigrant originally from Jamaica, told The Washington Post. She said it was especially important at a time when her state is in the national spotlight and its voting system is under attack by President Trump. “It’s nonsense,” she said of the president’s voting fraud claims. “I don’t feel like there is any merit to what he has been saying. All he’s doing is causing division. I just feel like he’s grasping at straws.” Georgia voters streamed to early-voting locations Monday, the first day they could cast ballots in the extraordinary pair of runoffs that will culminate Jan. 5 and determine which party controls the Senate. Voters cast ballots despite — and in some cases because of — the fusillade of baseless claims Trump has directed at Georgia officials in the weeks since he lost the state to President-elect Joe Biden in the Nov. 3 general election. For the first time since Trump began to wage his failed effort to overturn the results here and in several other swing states, voting commenced once again — with many casting ballots using the same Dominion machines the president’s allies have falsely claimed were rigged to benefit Biden.

Full Article: Early voting begins in crucial Georgia Senate run-offs amid a fusillade of baseless claims – The Washington Post

Georgia: Governor blasts ‘ridiculous’ attacks over refusal to overturn election | Greg Bluestein/The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Gov. Brian Kemp criticized “ridiculous” attacks from fellow Republicans outraged that he won’t call a special session to overturn the election results, as he faces unrelenting criticism from President Donald Trump and his allies infuriated by Joe Biden’s election victory. Although Georgia’s 16 Democratic electors formally cast their ballots for Biden on Monday, Kemp told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution he still wasn’t prepared to concede Trump’s defeat, saying he would respect the legal process and “reevaluate that when all that plays out.” Nor did he directly criticize Trump, who overnight called him a “clown” and has openly invited U.S. Rep. Doug Collins to challenge the governor in a Republican primary in 2022. Instead, Kemp expressed frustration that he’s been blamed for following state laws by certifying, and later re-certifying, three separate tallies of roughly 5 million votes. “I’m disappointed in the results so far, in regards to the election, but also I’ve got to follow these laws and the Constitution and that’s what I’m doing,” Kemp said. “It’s a little frustrating that there are some out there who don’t know where these duties fall, and I’m being blamed for a lot of things.” In the interview, he pointed to his record as Secretary of State for much of a decade, saying he fought to “make sure it’s easy to vote and hard to cheat, and that we have secure, accessible and fair elections in the state. “It’s ridiculous, quite honestly, that many are blaming me for being responsible for what happened in the election,” he said.

Full Article: AJC Interview: Kemp blasts ‘ridiculous’ attacks over refusal to overturn election

Georgia orders audit of voter signatures on absentee ballots in Cobb County | Mark Niesse and David Wickert/The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Investigators will audit voter signatures on absentee ballot envelopes in Cobb County, a step announced Monday by Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to further verify election results. The move follows intense pressure from President Donald Trump and other Republicans who have continued to make unsupported claims that last month’s election wasn’t legitimate. The review of absentee ballot signatures won’t change the results of the presidential election. Machine and hand counts showed Democrat Joe Biden won Georgia by about 12,000 votes, and the Electoral College voted for Biden on Monday. The unprecedented signature audit could show whether signatures on absentee ballot envelopes really did match the voter signatures kept on file. But there’s no way to match voter signatures to ballots after envelopes were opened. The right to cast a secret ballot is guaranteed by the state Constitution.

Source: Georgia orders audit of voter signatures on absentee ballots in one county

Georgia: Here’s what happened when a state lawmaker scrutinized the Trump campaign’s list of allegedly illegal votes | Michelle Ye Hee Lee/The Washington Post

Full Article: Here’s what happened when a Georgia lawmaker scrutinized the Trump campaign’s list of allegedly illegal votes – The Washington Post

At Georgia House Hearing, Republicans’ Baseless Claims Of Voting Fraud Persist | Stephen Fowler/Georgia Public Broadcasting

For the second week in a row, Georgia Republican lawmakers have invited the Trump campaign and other right-wing witnesses to spread baseless conspiracies and claims of voting fraud under the guise of improving elections in the state. The House Governmental Affairs committee, chaired by Bonaire Republican Shaw Blackmon, spent Thursday morning hearing from witnesses who have supported lawsuits and efforts to overturn Georgia’s certified election results that show President-elect Joe Biden defeated President Donald Trump in the presidential race. Rudy Giuliani, the president’s personal attorney, who was just released from the hospital after getting COVID-19, reiterated debunked claims of fraud in Fulton County by playing a short snippet of surveillance footage from State Farm Arena. State investigators and county officials have reiterated that there was no “suitcase” of ballots illegally added into vote totals and that the video shows normal vote-counting processes. Investigators also said that while some partisan monitors left when other election workers were done for the night, that nobody was instructed to leave. Georgia law does not require partisan monitors be present for counting to occur. Giuliani also brought forth several other witnesses who spread conspiracies about voting machines and election results being hacked and repeated claims about widespread absentee ballot fraud.

Full Article: At Georgia House Hearing, Republicans’ Baseless Claims Of Voting Fraud Persist | Georgia Public Broadcasting

Georgia House speaker takes aim at state’s top election official | Mark Niesse and David Wickert/The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Full Article: Proposal introduced for legislators to choose Georgia elections chief

Georgia: ‘It’s surreal’: the US officials facing violent threats as Trump claims voter fraud | Ed Pilkington and Sam Levine/The Guardian

On 1 December Gabriel Sterling, a Republican election official in Georgia, stood on the steps of the state capitol in Atlanta and let rip on Donald Trump. “Mr President, it looks like you likely lost the state of Georgia,” he said, contradicting Trump’s increasingly unhinged claim that he had won the presidential race against all evidence. “Stop inspiring people to commit potential acts of violence,” Sterling went on, referring to a storm of death threats and intimidation that had been unleashed by Trump supporters against public officials in the state. “Someone is going to get shot, someone is going to get killed. And it’s not right.” Then Sterling uttered the phrase that instantly entered the annals of American political rhetoric: “It has to stop.” It did not stop. Two days after Sterling’s impassioned speech went viral, Elena Parent, a Democratic state senator in Georgia, turned up for a hearing organized by Republican leaders to try to cast doubt on the election result. Trump attorneys, led by Rudy Giuliani, presented the hearing with a raft of conspiracy theories and baseless claims that tens of thousands of dead people and other ineligible individuals had voted. The Republicans hadn’t warned Parent that the event would be attended by Giuliani, Trump’s henchman in his mission to undermine American democracy until this week when the former New York mayor came down with Covid-19. So she had no idea that a big crowd of far-right fanatics and the media outlets that feed them lies and falsehoods would also be in the chamber. If she had known, she would have been careful to protect her personal details online. And she might not have sent out an anodyne tweet decrying the event accurately as a “sad sham”.

Full Article: ‘It’s surreal’: the US officials facing violent threats as Trump claims voter fraud | US news | The Guardian

Georgia: Trump warns state Attorney General not to rally other Republicans against Texas lawsuit | Greg Bluestein/The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Full Article: Trump warns Georgia AG not to rally other Republicans against Texas lawsuit

Georgia: Courts jettison more election challenges | David Wickert and Mark Niesse/The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Full Article: Courts jettison more Georgia election challenges

Georgia Senate GOP push for end to no-excuse absentee voting | Ben Nadler/Associated Press

Republicans in Georgia’s state Senate are calling for an end to absentee voting without cause and want to ban ballot drop boxes, after an increase in mail voting helped propel Democrat Joe Biden to a narrow victory over President Donald Trump in the state. Trump has for months made unsubstantiated claims about the integrity of mail-in votes and has made baseless claims of widespread fraud in Georgia’s presidential election. GOP election officials have vehemently and repeatedly disputed those claims, saying there is no evidence of systemic errors or fraud in the November election. Democrats and voting rights groups say the effort by Republicans is anti-Democratic and, if successful, will disenfranchise lawful voters. The state Senate Republican Caucus said in a statement Tuesday that they would push for the changes the next time the legislature convenes, while also shooting down the idea of a special legislative session — which Trump has repeatedly called for in the hopes of subverting the election results. The 2021 legislative session is set to begin Jan. 11. Senate Republicans are also calling for a photo ID requirement for absentee voters who have a specific reason to vote by mail. Biden beat Trump by more than 11,700 votes in Georgia, a result that was confirmed by two recounts — including an audit that triggered a full hand tally of ballots. Biden received nearly double the number of absentee ballots as Trump, according to the secretary of state’s office. Biden got nearly 850,000 absentee votes by mail, compared to just over 450,000 for Trump.

Full Article: Georgia Senate GOP push for end to no-excuse absentee voting

Georgia: Federal judge throws out ‘kraken’ lawsuit challenging election results | Mark Niesse  and David Wickert/The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

A federal judge threw out a lawsuit Monday that relied on conspiracy theories to try to invalidate Georgia election results showing Democrat Joe Biden defeated President Donald Trump. U.S. District Judge Timothy Batten dismissed the lawsuit brought by former Trump attorney Sidney Powell in an attempt to decertify Georgia’s election. He said overturning the election would have amounted to “judicial activism.” “They want this court to substitute its judgment for the 2.5 million voters who voted for Biden,” Batten, who was appointed by President George W. Bush, said in court in Atlanta. “This I’m unwilling to do.” The decision leaves Georgia’s results intact, supporting state elections officials’ statements that there was no evidence of widespread fraud. Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger on Monday recertified the election results after a second recount again confirmed Biden defeated Trump. Powell’s lawsuit had combined a series of theories, many of them discredited, about how the election could have been rigged for Trump to lose in Georgia.

Full Article: Federal judge throws out ‘kraken’ lawsuit challenging Georgia election results

Georgia Recertifies Election Results, Affirming Biden’s Victory | Richard Fausset and Nick Corasaniti/The New York Times

Full Article: Georgia Recertifies Election Results, Affirming Biden’s Victory – The New York Times