Georgia bills would replace bipartisan county election boards | Mark Niesse/The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

With a quick vote last week, the Georgia General Assembly passed the first bill to break up a county’s volunteer, bipartisan elections board. It’s the beginning of legislation to remove equal political representation over local election offices across Georgia. Other county election boards could soon face the same fate as Morgan County’s, where replacement election board members would instead be chosen by the mostly Republican County Commission. Bills to change local elections management are being debated along with sweeping legislation to require ID for absentee voting, restrict drop boxes and limit weekend early voting in Georgia. These measures follow a two-month effort by Donald Trump and his Republican supporters to overturn the presidential election results despite state officials saying there was no evidence of widespread fraud. So far, legislators from Morgan and at least two more counties are pursuing the removal of bipartisan election boards, whose members were appointed by each party with a nonpartisan chairperson to break ties. Lawmakers are also considering similar changes in metro Atlanta and other counties, creating the possibility of politicized local elections oversight.

Full Article: Georgia bills would replace bipartisan county election boards

Georgia Counties Sue Trump for Expenses From His Failed Voting Fraud Suit | Aimee Sachs/Courthouse News Service

Two Atlanta-area counties filed lawsuits against former President Donald Trump this week, seeking legal fees in his campaign’s failed voting fraud lawsuit against state election officials. Cobb County filed a motion in Fulton County Superior Court on Monday, followed by DeKalb County filing a similar motion against Trump and Georgia Republican Party Chairman David Shafer. Cobb County’s Director of Registration and Elections Janine Eveler and DeKalb County’s Erica Hamilton were among a dozen of others named in the original complaint, which was filed in Fulton County Superior Court in December. Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensberger was also listed as a defendant. The Trump campaign filed similar legal actions that failed in several other states. “Given the number of failed lawsuits filed by the former President and his campaign, Petitioners apparently believed that they could filed their baseless and legally deficient actions with impunity, with no regard for the costs extracted from the taxpayers’ coffers of the consequences to the democratic foundations of our country,” the motion states. The Georgia lawsuit alleged widespread voter fraud in the Peach State and challenged the results of the 2020 presidential election that Democrat Joe Biden won with the help of voters of Cobb County and DeKalb County. Biden won Cobb County with 56.35% of the vote, and in DeKalb County he received 83.12% of the vote. A statewide recount confirmed Biden’s victory.

Full Article: Georgia Counties Sue Trump for Expenses From His Failed Voting Fraud Suit – Courthouse News Service

Georgia bill clears Senate that would let state take over local election boards | David Wickert/The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

The Georgia Senate approved a bill Wednesday that would allow the state to take over local election offices that fail to meet standards. Senate Bill 89 would allow the State Election Board to establish criteria for “low-performing” election offices and, if they don’t improve, to replace the local officials with new election superintendents indefinitely. Supporters said the bill would mean more support for local election officials, as well as accountability for those — such as Fulton County — that have repeatedly had election problems. “The state has come down on Fulton County numerous times, but we still see systemic problems,” said Sen. John Albers, R-Roswell. Critics said the state already has the authority to investigate and hold local officials accountable. They say the proposal would usurp local control of elections guaranteed in the Georgia Constitution. “What this bill is really trying to get to is removing (local) election superintendents,” said Sen. Harold Jones, D-Augusta. The measure passed by a vote of 35-18. SB 89 is one of a slew of bills that seek to reshape voting in Georgia in the wake of a 2020 election that confirmed Georgia’s status as a national partisan battleground. The state helped deliver the presidency to Democrat Joe Biden and flipped control of the U.S. Senate.

Full Article: Georgia bill clears Senate that would let state take over local election boards

Georgia voters confront lawmakers over Sunday and absentee voting | Mark Niesse and David Wickert/The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

An expansive bill that would end Sunday voting, limit drop boxes and require ID for absentee ballots moved closer to a vote after a Georgia House elections committee listened to nearly three hours of public comments Monday. Voting rights advocates told lawmakers the bill would reduce turnout and create new limitations on voting without doing much to improve election security. Skeptics of Georgia’s elections said they’re suspicious of absentee voting and encouraged legislators to pass stricter laws that would ensure only legitimate voters cast absentee ballots. In the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, 1.3 million Georgia voters cast absentee ballots, but election officials, backed up by multiple recounts, have said there’s no evidence that widespread fraud occurred during the presidential election. The House Election Integrity Committee could vote on the sweeping legislation, House Bill 531, as soon as Tuesday, potentially setting it up for a vote in the full House of Representatives within days. Several people told lawmakers that restrictions on Sunday voting and absentee ballots would disproportionately affect Black voters who participate in ”Souls to the Polls” events after church during early voting. “Voter confidence is improved through community conversation and engagement, not through barriers to access to the voting booth,” said the Rev. James Woodall, president for the Georgia NAACP.

Full Argticle: Georgia lawmakers to decide on limits to Sunday and absentee voting

Georgia Republicans File Sweeping Elections Bill That Limits Early, Absentee Voting | Stephen Fowler/Georgia Public Broadcasting

Republicans in the Georgia House have released an omnibus elections bill that proposes tougher restrictions on both absentee and in-person early voting, among other sweeping changes to election laws after a controversial 2020 election. HB 531, filed by Rep. Barry Fleming (R-Harlem) was introduced directly into the Special Committee on Election Integrity on Thursday, and the text of the bill was made available about an hour before the 3 p.m. hearing. Section 12 of the bill would provide "uniformity" to the three-week early voting period, Fleming said, requiring all counties to hold early voting from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday for three weeks before the election, plus a mandatory 9-to-5 period of voting the second Saturday before the election. It would allow counties to extend hours to 7 a.m. and 7 p.m., but would prohibit counties from holding early voting any other days — including Sunday voting popular in larger metro counties and a high turnout day for Black voters that hold "souls to the polls" events.

Full Article: Georgia Republicans File Sweeping Elections Bill That Limits Early, Absentee Voting | Georgia Public Broadcasting

Georgia Senate committee votes for absentee voting restrictions | Mark Niesse/The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Bills requiring an excuse and an ID number for absentee voting in Georgia cleared their first committee Wednesday, creating new restrictions after last year’s presidential election. A Senate subcommittee voted 3-2 along party lines to approve the bills, which now advance to the full Ethics Committee. Georgia law has allowed any registered voter to cast an absentee ballot since 2005, but Senate Bill 71 would limit absentee voting to people who are over 75, have a physical disability or are out of town. Democrats said the bill would stop people from voting from home if they’re worried about their health, especially during the coronavirus pandemic. “COVID isn’t choosy,” said state Sen. Sally Harrell, a Democrat from Atlanta. “We are all vulnerable. We don’t know which person this virus is going to kill.” The bill’s sponsor, Republican Sen. Jeff Mullis of Chickamauga, said voters should have to provide a reason to vote outside a polling place, as they had to before the Republican-controlled General Assembly’s made it available to everyone 16 years ago.

Full Article: Georgia Senate committee votes for absentee voting restrictions

Georgia: Graham’s post-election call with Raffensperger will be scrutinized in probe | Amy Gardner, Tom Hamburger and Josh Dawsey/The Washington Post

An Atlanta-area prosecutor plans to scrutinize a post-Election Day phone call between Sen. Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.) and Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger as part of a criminal investigation into whether former president Donald Trump or his allies broke Georgia laws while trying to reverse his defeat in the state, according to a person familiar with the probe. The individual, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the ongoing probe, said the inquiry by Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis will include an examination of the call Graham, a staunch Trump ally, made to Raffensperger 10 days after the Nov. 3 election. During their conversation, Graham asked the Georgia secretary of state whether he had the power to toss out all mail ballots in certain counties, Raffensperger told The Washington Post in an interview days later. He said Graham appeared to be asking him to improperly find a way to set aside legally cast ballots. Graham denied that, saying he was seeking information to better understand how the state verified mail ballots. At the time, Trump was trailing Joe Biden by about 14,000 votes in Georgia, which was recounting by hand all 5 million ballots cast in the election.

Full Article: Graham’s post-election call with Raffensperger will be scrutinized in Georgia probe, person familiar with inquiry says - The Washington Post

Georgia: Fulton County’s DA opens criminal investigation into Trump attempt to overturn election | Christian Boone and Greg Bluestein/The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

As U.S. House managers made their case for the impeachment of Donald Trump, Fulton County’s top prosecutor on Wednesday launched a wide-ranging criminal investigation into the former president. The investigation by District Attorney Fani Willis, a Democrat entering her second month in office, centers on a Jan. 2 phone call to Georgia’s Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger in which Trump pleaded with him to “find” enough votes to overturn his narrow defeat in the state. “This letter is notice that the Fulton County District Attorney has opened an investigation into attempts to influence the administration of the 2020 Georgia General Election,” Willis wrote in correspondences delivered Wednesday morning to Raffensperger, Gov. Brian Kemp, Lt. Gov. Geoff Duncan and Attorney General Chris Carr. Willis told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution on Wednesday that her office was best suited to handle the investigation since all other relevant state investigative agencies have conflicts. In her letter, Willis said her office “is the one agency with jurisdiction that is not a witness to the conduct that is the subject of the investigation.” “I don’t have any predetermined opinions” about whether a prosecution will even occur, she said. Willis would not say whether anyone else besides the former president is under investigation.

Full Article: Metro Atlanta prosecutor investigating Trump attempt to overturn Georgia election

Georgia GOP ‘election confidence’ report splits state Republicans | Greg Bluestein/The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

The Georgia GOP released a lengthy list of recommendations to limit voting after bruising political defeats. But the 10-page report immediately divided Republicans and led to a scathing response from one of the state’s highest-ranking officials. Several of the proposals promoted by the “election confidence task force” on Monday echo the demands then-President Donald Trump made as he sought to illegally reverse his election defeat in Georgia despite the repeated insistence of top officials that there was no evidence of widespread fraud. The report calls for photo ID verification for mail-in ballots, eliminating ballot drop boxes, ending no-excuse absentee voting, banning third-party groups and state officials from sending ballot request forms, and preventing voters from being automatically registered when they get their driver’s licenses. It also urges lawmakers to replace newly installed software from Dominion Voting Systems that was approved in 2019 as part of a $107 million overhaul of the state’s election infrastructure. Another recommendation calls for the elections division to be moved to the state Elections Board, stripping Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger of oversight of Georgia’s vote. Raffensperger infuriated Trump and his allies for refusing demands to “find” enough votes to overturn his November defeat in a call that factors into the Senate impeachment trial that opened Tuesday.

Full Article: Georgia GOP ‘election confidence’ report splits state Republicans

Georgia opens probe of Trump phone call asking to overturn Biden’s election victory | Mark Niesse/The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Georgia election officials opened an investigation Monday into Donald Trump’s phone call to Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger urging him to “find” enough votes to reverse the outcome of the presidential contest in the state. The investigation will review Trump’s Jan. 2 call when he pressured Raffensperger to overturn the election, said Walter Jones, a spokesman for the secretary of state’s office. Raffensperger, a Republican, has repeatedly said there was no widespread fraud that could have changed the results of the election, which Joe Biden won by less than 12,000 votes in Georgia. He told Trump the “data you have is wrong” as he resisted the president’s false claims that he had won in Georgia. “The secretary of state’s office investigates complaints it receives. The investigations are fact-finding and administrative in nature. Any further legal efforts will be left to the attorney general,” Jones said.

Full Article: Georgia opens probe of Trump phone call asking to overturn Biden's election victory

Georgia election is over, but lawsuits continue | David Wickert/The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

The votes were counted, recounted and audited. President Joe Biden and Georgia’s two new U.S. senators took office weeks ago. The election, in short, is over — except in the courts. More than 30 lawsuits contested some aspects of the November presidential election or the January U.S. Senate runoff in Georgia. Most were tossed out by judges in short order. But others live on, and new lawsuits are still being filed. They will not change the outcome of those elections. But the lawsuits underscore the prospect that future elections may be decided in the courts as well as at the ballot box. Biden’s victory over Donald Trump sparked a wave of litigation in Georgia and other swing states. Trump and his supporters claimed widespread fraud cost him reelection — claims that were consistently rejected by the courts and the people who ran the elections.

Full Article: Georgia election is over, but lawsuits continue

Georgia’s election certification avoided an even worse nightmare that’s just waiting to happen next time | Andrew Appel/Freedom to Tinker

Voters in Georgia polling places, 2020, used Ballot-Marking Devices (BMDs), touchscreen computers that print out paper ballots; then voters fed those ballots into Precinct-Count Optical Scan (PCOS) voting machines for tabulation. There were many allegations about hacking of Georgia’s Presidential election. Based on the statewide audit, we can know that the PCOS machines were not cheating (in any way that changed the outcome). But can we know that the touchscreen BMDs were not cheating? And what about next time? There’s a nightmare scenario waiting to happen if Georgia (or other states) continue to use touchscreen BMDs on a large scale. There were many allegations about hacking of Georgia’s voting-machine computers in the November 2020 election—accusations about who owned the company that made the voting machines, accusations about who might have hacked into the computers. An important principle of election integrity is “software independence,” which I’ll paraphrase as saying that we should be able to verify the outcome of the election without having to know who wrote the software in the voting machines.

Indeed, the State of Georgia did a manual audit of all the paper ballots in the November 2020 Presidential election. The audit agreed with the outcome claimed by the optical-scan voting machines. This means,

  • The software in Georgia’s PCOS scanners is now irrelevant to the outcome of the 2020 Presidential election in Georgia, which has been confirmed by the audit.
  • Georgia’s PCOS scanners were not cheating in the 2020 Presidential election (certainly not by enough to change the outcome), which we know because the hand-count audits closely agreed with the PCOS counts.
  • The audit gave election officials the opportunity to notice that several batches of ballots hadn’t even been counted the first time; properly counting those ballots changed the vote totals but not the outcome. I’ll discuss that in a future post.

Suppose the polling-place optical scanners had been hacked (enough to change the outcome). Then this would have been detected in the audit, and (in principle) Georgia would have been able to recover by doing a full recount.† That’s what we mean when we say optical-scan voting machines have “strong software independence”—you can obtain a trustworthy result even if you’re not sure about the software in the machine on election day.

Full Article: Georgia’s election certification avoided an even worse nightmare that’s just waiting to happen next time

Georgia GOP bills would end no-excuse absentee voting, automatic registration | Mark Niesse, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Republican state senators introduced a package of bills Monday to ban automatic voter registration, ballot drop boxes and no-excuse absentee voting in Georgia. The proposals amount to an overhaul of Georgia’s election laws after record turnout resulted in wins for Democrats, including Joe Biden’s run for president and the bids by Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock for the U.S. Senate. One measure would prevent voters from being automatically registered to vote when they get their driver’s licenses. Another would ban drop boxes, requiring absentee ballots to be returned through the mail or at county election offices. In addition, a proposal would roll back a state law allowing registered voters to cast an absentee ballot for any reason. Absentee voting would be limited to those over 75 years old, voters with disabilities or anyone required to be absent from his or her precinct. “We’ve got to restore confidence in the ballot box. When people lose confidence in the ballot box they ultimately lose confidence in their government,” said Senate President Pro Tem Butch Miller, a Republican from Gainesville and co-sponsor of the bills. “Our goal is to be sure every vote is accounted for, accurate and legal.” Democrats said the bills mark a concerted effort to reduce voting access after Donald Trump lost his presidential reelection bid and his supporters made unsubstantiated allegations of fraud.

Full Article: Voting: Georgia GOP senators propose limits on absentee voting and use of ballot drop boxes

Georgia Republican State Senator Proposes Law That Would Add Photo ID For Absentee Ballots | Christopher Alston/WABE

A new bill introduced in the Georgia Senate, if passed, would require voters to submit a copy of an approved form of photo identification when applying for and submitting an absentee ballot. The bill filed by freshman state Sen. Jason Anavitarte, a Republican from Dallas, is the first measure introduced this session that would increase restrictions on absentee voting. Top Republican lawmakers have said they want to tighten security on the absentee process after Democrats’ record-breaking use of the method led to Republicans suffering major losses in November and January. If the law is passed, Georgians would have to scan and make a copy of their driver’s license, passport or another form of government-issued ID when they submit their ballot application, and again when they return the ballot itself. The new law would replace the current signature-verification process, which received heavy criticism from former President Donald Trump and his supporters following the presidential election. Trump insisted the process was fraudulent despite repeated assurances from Georgia’s election officials that absentee voting is secure. Multiple legislative hearings and federal court cases found no credible instances of voting irregularities that would call into question the results of the election.

Full Article: Republican State Senator Proposes Law That Would Add Photo ID For Ga. Absentee Ballots | 90.1 FM WABE

Georgia pays $30,000 to settle lawsuit over Crosscheck purge program | Mark Niesse/The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

The Georgia secretary of state’s office paid $30,000 to resolve a lawsuit over the state’s role in Crosscheck, a defunct program for canceling voter registrations. The settlement ended the lawsuit, but the plaintiffs didn’t get what they had sought: records showing that Gov. Brian Kemp, when he was secretary of state, had used Crosscheck to cancel Georgia voters. Though Georgia election officials contributed voter information to other states that participated in Crosscheck, they said they never used it on their own voters. They said the cancellations of 534,000 Georgia voter registrations in 2017 and 287,000 registrations in 2019 were done separately from Crosscheck. The settlement was obtained Friday by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution through the Georgia Open Records Act. The Crosscheck program, which ended in 2019, collected voter registration lists from Georgia and other states to identify potentially invalid and duplicative registrations. Voting rights groups have criticized Crosscheck for inaccuracies that erroneously flagged legitimate voters. Greg Palast, a journalist who filed the lawsuit against Kemp, said it verified that Georgia participated in the effort to remove voters in dozens of states. Crosscheck was led by then-Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach, and Georgia enrolled in the program from 2013 to 2017.

Full Article: Georgia pays $30,000 to settle lawsuit over Crosscheck purge program

Georgia: Bartow County Election Workers Complete Audit Of Jan. 5 Runoff | Christopher Alston/WABE

Bartow County election officials released a report Thursday from a voluntary audit confirming the results of Georgia’s Jan. 5 Senate runoffs. The audit found an 89-vote discrepancy from the original tally, a 0.2% difference, which Bartow election supervisor Joseph Kirk attributed to human error in the counting process. Candidates can request a recount in Georgia if the margin of victory is less than half a percent – Sen. Jon Ossoff won his race by 1.2%, and Sen. Raphael Warnock won by 2%. Even though the Senate races were close, neither was close enough to require a recount, but in the report, Kirk said they decided to perform the audit to discredit the “mountain of misinformation” that was spread leading up to the election. In particular, Kirk was trying to dispel rumors that the Dominion voting machines used for the first time this election cycle were subject to hacking or malfunction. “Rather than engage in speculation on whether or not the system changed votes after they were cast (it didn’t) or whether it was connected to the internet (it wasn’t), we choose to respond with the simple fact that we know every voter’s vote was accurately counted in Bartow County because we checked – one ballot at a time,” Kirk wrote in the report. Party monitors were present to observe the audit, and the monitors chose which of the Senate races was going to be audited by flipping a coin.

Full Article: Bartow County Election Workers Complete Audit Of Jan. 5 Runoff | 90.1 FM WABE

Georgia: ‘Kraken’ back on its leash: Election lawsuit withdrawn | David Wickert/The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

The “kraken” is back on its leash and licking its wounds. After vowing to “unleash the kraken” — a mythical beast — on alleged election fraud and to overturn the presidential election in Georgia, attorney Sidney Powell quietly withdrew the lawsuit Tuesday. The move came a day before Joe Biden will be sworn in as the nation’s next president. Powell, once a member of President Donald Trump’s legal team, filed the lawsuit in November in U.S. District Court in Atlanta. Like other lawsuits seeking to overturn the election results, Powell’s made numerous unsubstantiated allegations of voting fraud. Among other things, she falsely claimed the company that provided Georgia’s new election equipment has ties to Venezuela and could have altered results. Like the others, Powell’s lawsuit went nowhere in court. In December a U.S. district judge dismissed the case. She then appealed to the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. But the case ran into more trouble. Last week the appeals court notified Powell that she had not been admitted to practice law in the 11th Circuit. The court told Powell that, unless she applied to be admitted, her motions would be stricken and treated as if they had never been filed. Powell voluntarily withdrew the lawsuit Tuesday. But it’s not the end of her legal issues. Earlier this month, Dominion Voting Systems, the company that provided Georgia’s machines, filed a lawsuit against Powell in U.S. District Court in the District of Columbia. The lawsuit says Powell’s “viral disinformation campaign” has harmed its business. Dominion is seeking more than $1.3 billion in damages.

Full Article: ‘Kraken’ back on its leash: Georgia election lawsuit withdrawn

Georgia: Audit of Senate run-off votes finds similar results in test of voting system | Mark Niesse/The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

One county’s audit of Georgia’s voting system found just a five-vote difference between machine and hand totals in one of this month’s U.S. Senate runoff elections, according to findings released Thursday. The manual review of 43,000 ballots cast in Bartow County should give voters confidence in the outcome of the race between Democrat Jon Ossoff and Republican David Perdue, county Elections Supervisor Joseph Kirk said. “We know every voter’s vote was accurately counted in Bartow County because we checked — one ballot at a time,” Kirk wrote in an audit report. “Now that every vote cast in the state is recorded on a paper ballot, we can give our communities certainty and confidence that their votes were accurately recorded.” Kirk conducted his county’s audit the same way as a statewide review of the presidential election in November. After the Senate runoffs, which Ossoff won across Georgia by 1.2%, Kirk decided to do another hand tally to counter “a mountain of misinformation” about the state’s election equipment manufactured by Dominion Voting Systems. Twenty-four workers conducted the audit over 9 1/2 hours last week, at a cost to the county of about $3,000. The audit found a total of 89 votes that were different from the original count, usually caused by human errors when sorting ballots into piles of 10 each. Because those votes were distributed among both candidates, the overall count was only five votes off from official results, with Ossoff losing four votes and Perdue gaining one. The audit doesn’t change the official results in Bartow, a mostly Republican county northwest of Atlanta where Perdue received 32,239 votes to Ossoff’s 10,735.

Full Article: Georgia county's election audit validated results of Georgia Senate runoff race

Georgia: Atlanta Prosecutor Appears to Move Closer to Trump Inquiry | Richard Fausset and Danny Hakim/The New York Times

Prosecutors in Georgia appear increasingly likely to open a criminal investigation of President Trump over his attempts to overturn the results of the state’s 2020 election, an inquiry into offenses that would be beyond his federal pardon power. The new Fulton County district attorney, Fani Willis, is already weighing whether to proceed, and among the options she is considering is the hiring of a special assistant from outside to oversee the investigation, according to people familiar with her office’s deliberations. At the same time, David Worley, the lone Democrat on Georgia’s five-member election board, said this week that he would ask the board to make a referral to the Fulton County district attorney by next month. Among the matters he will ask prosecutors to investigate is a phone call Mr. Trump made in which he pressured Georgia’s secretary of state to overturn the state’s election results. Jeff DiSantis, a district attorney spokesman, said the office had not taken any action to hire outside counsel and declined to comment further on the case. Some veteran Georgia prosecutors said they believed Mr. Trump had clearly violated state law. “If you took the fact out that he is the president of the United States and look at the conduct of the call, it tracks the communication you might see in any drug case or organized crime case,” said Michael J. Moore, the former United States attorney for the Middle District of Georgia. “It’s full of threatening undertone and strong-arm tactics.”

Full Article: Atlanta Prosecutor Appears to Move Closer to Trump Inquiry - The New York Times

Georgia: Judge considers voter suppression claims in broad voting rights suit | Mark Niesse/The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

So much has changed in Georgia over the past two years, including new voting laws and the election of Democratic U.S. senators, that a federal judge should reject a lawsuit alleging rampant voter suppression, attorneys for the state said Tuesday. The lawyers asked U.S. District Judge Steve Jones to rule in their favor in the case that has been pending since Democrat Stacey Abrams lost the 2018 election for governor to Republican Brian Kemp. But attorneys for Fair Fight Action, the voting rights group founded by Abrams that filed the suit, told Jones that Georgia’s elections continue to disenfranchise voters through voter registration cancellations, absentee ballot rejections, long lines and poll closures. Jones didn’t immediately decide Tuesday on the state’s motion for summary judgment, a key step before a potential trial. He questioned whether he has the authority to consider anything beyond the secretary of state’s voter registration cancellation practices because county governments handle most election functions.

Full Article: Far-reaching Georgia voting rights case argued in federal court

Georgia: After Attacks On Election Integrity, Officials Work To Rebuild Confidence | Stephen Fowler/NPR

It's been more than a week since the Georgia Senate runoff elections delivered control of Congress to Democrats. But inside the Bartow County, Ga., Senior Center on Tuesday, a dozen teams worked in pairs to do a hand recount of more than 43,000 votes cast in the Jan. 5 runoffs. The final margin for the races are outside the threshold for a recount, and the voters in this county an hour northwest of Atlanta are about 75% Republican — so the result isn't close, or expected to change. So why did poll workers spend a day conducting a voluntary audit at the end of an exhausting election cycle? "A lot of my voters, a lot of my citizens, do not trust the voting system after November, after a lot of misinformation went out about this specific system," elections director Joseph Kirk said. Kirk is a firm believer in transparency and education when it comes to the state's voting system - especially after one of the most secure elections in state history, one that saw record turnout and few reported problems. But Georgia was also ground zero for misinformation and attacks on election integrity, led by President Trump and a number of top Republicans in Georgia and beyond.

Full Article: Georgia Republicans Work To Rebuild Election Confidence : NPR

Georgia: Trump’s pick for U.S. attorney dismisses election fraud claims: ‘There’s just nothing to them’ | Chris Joyner/The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

The acting U.S. attorney for Northern Georgia, who was named after his predecessor reportedly angered President Trump for not finding election fraud, told staffers in a conference call Monday that he dismissed two election fraud cases on his first day. “I would love to stand out on the street corner and scream this, and I can’t,” said Bobby Christine, according to an audio recording of the call obtained by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “But I can tell you I closed the two most — I don’t know, I guess you’d call them high profile or the two most pressing election issues this office has,” he said. “I said I believe, as many of the people around the table believed, there’s just nothing to them.” Christine also said he found fewer election-related investigations in the office than he expected. “Quite frankly, just watching television you would assume that you got election cases stacked from the floor to the ceiling,” said Christine. “I am so happy to find out that’s not the case, but I didn’t know coming in.” Christine declined to comment on the call when contacted by the AJC Tuesday. Former U.S. Attorney Byung J. “BJay” Pak, a Republican who had served since 2017, had planned to remain through the end of the Trump administration but resigned abruptly Jan. 4. Over the weekend, The Wall Street Journal reported the White House forced Pak to resign because Trump believed he was not being aggressive enough in investigating allegations of election fraud. In a call with Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger two days before Pak’s resignation, Trump disparaged Pak as a “never Trumper U.S. attorney.” Christine, the U.S. attorney for Georgia’s Southern District, was appointed to replace him. The appointment bypassed the number two prosecutor in the office, Kurt Erskine, and raised fears of political interference as Trump was waging a campaign to overturn the results of the election.

Full Article: Trump’s pick for U.S. attorney in Georgia dismisses election fraud claims: ‘There’s just nothing to them’

Georgia Governor Brian Kemp: Photo ID rule for Georgia absentee ballots ‘front and center’ in 2021 Legislature | Greg Bluestein/The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Gov. Brian Kemp strongly endorsed adding photo ID requirements for absentee ballots on Monday at the start of a legislative session that’s sure to be shaped by a debate over voting laws after epic turnout helped Democrats flip Georgia in the race for president and sweep the Senate runoffs. In an interview, the Republican said he is “reserving judgment” on a series of proposals that seek to end at-will absentee voting, ban ballot drop boxes and restrict state officials or outside groups from sending out absentee ballot applications. But Kemp said he unequivocally supported measures to tighten voter ID laws for mail-in ballots, which Republicans have targeted after record turnout helped Joe Biden capture Georgia, snapping 24 years of GOP presidential wins, and Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock swept Senate runoffs. “It’s a simple way to make sure that type of voting is further secured, and it’s a good first place to start,” Kemp said, adding: “It’s completely reasonable in this day and time, and in light of what’s going on, it would give all voters peace of mind and wouldn’t be restrictive.” He’s found common cause with Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, who wants to eliminate a voter’s signatures as the main verification method for an absentee ballot and replace it with options that could include requiring a voter to submit a copy of his or her driver’s license or an ID number with the ballot.

Full Article: Brian Kemp: Photo ID rule for Georgia absentee ballots ‘front and center’ in 2021 Legislature

Georgia: Trump pressured an elections investigator in call legal experts say could amount to obstruction | Amy Gardner/The Washington Post

President Trump urged Georgia’s lead elections investigator to “find the fraud” in a lengthy December phone call, saying the official would be a “national hero,” according to an individual familiar with the call who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the conversation. Trump placed the call to the investigations chief for the Georgia secretary of state’s office shortly before Christmas — while the individual was leading an inquiry into allegations of ballot fraud in Cobb County, in the suburbs of Atlanta, according to people familiar with the episode. The president’s attempts to intervene in an ongoing investigation could amount to obstruction of justice or other criminal violations, legal experts said, though they cautioned a case could be difficult to prove. Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger had launched the inquiry following allegations that Cobb election officials had improperly accepted mail ballots with signatures that did not match those on file — claims that state officials ultimately concluded had no merit. In an interview with The Washington Post on Friday, Raffensperger confirmed that Trump had placed the Dec. 23 call. He said he was not familiar with the specifics of what the president said in the conversation with his chief investigator, but said it was inappropriate for Trump to have tried to intervene in the case. “That was an ongoing investigation,” Raffensperger said. “I don’t believe that an elected official should be involved in that process.” The Post is withholding the name of the investigator, who did not respond to repeated requests for comment, because of the risk of threats and harassment directed at election officials.

Full Article: Trump pressured a Georgia elections investigator in call legal experts say could amount to obstruction - The Washington Post

Georgia: Voluntary audit of US Senate run-off election results planned in Bartow County | Mark Niesse/The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Georgia’s U.S. Senate runoffs weren’t as close as the contentious presidential election, but one county is planning a full audit of every ballot to verify the results. Bartow County Elections Supervisor Joseph Kirk announced Friday that election workers will manually recount the county’s 43,000 ballots cast in the runoffs, checking the accuracy of machine counts. “The whole reason we have these paper ballots is to confirm that we counted properly,” Kirk said. “This is a key step in promoting public confidence. Whether the results are close or not, we should always be working toward that.” There’s no reason to doubt that the Dominion Voting Systems election equipment, which uses touchscreens to print out paper ballots, counted votes accurately, Kirk said. But a human review will provide another check on the process. Unlike after the presidential election, a statewide audit of every ballot isn’t planned by the secretary of state’s office. Hand recounts and machine counts in November both confirmed that Joe Biden defeated President Donald Trump by about 12,000 votes in Georgia, a 0.24% margin. In the Senate runoffs, as of Friday, Democrat Jon Ossoff led Republican David Perdue by nearly 1%, and Democrat Raphael Warnock was ahead of Republican Kelly Loeffler by almost 2%.

Full Article: Voluntary audit of US Senate election results planned in Bartow County

Georgia: Next Capitol stress test for democracy: What if the Senate won’t seat Georgia’s winners? | Kevin Johnson/The Fulcrum

The Senate election results in Georgia have Democrats dancing in the streets and democracy advocates cheering another seemingly successful high stress election. Turnout was extraordinary for a runoff, election officials performed efficiently, and fears of conflict and voter intimidation proved unfounded. But there could be trouble ahead. Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock will not officially become senators, and cannot swing control of Congress to their party, until they are seated by the Senate. That normally mechanical procedure could become the next round in our never-ending partisan dogfight. If either Republican candidate contests the results — as President Trump and his allies will surely insist — it will not be Georgia's stalwart secretary of state, Brad Raffensperger, with the last word on who won. Nor will it be the Georgia Supreme Court, or even the U.S. Supreme Court. The "Judge of the election of ... members" of the Senate, according to the Constitution, is the Senate itself. For the vast majority of elections to both the House and Senate, this quirk — let's be more honest, this flaw — in our founding document does not pose a problem. Normally, with losers having conceded, the House and Senate dispense with a vote and permit the state-certified winners to take their seats. But little else has happened normally this year, and with control of the Senate in the balance and Mitch McConnell still in charge, we should not be surprised if another challenge to our democracy is ahead. McConnell did try to protect the Electoral College count from objections, but he did so less on principle than to avoid politically difficult votes for his caucus. At least for the election between Ossoff and David Perdue, the closer of the two on Tuesday, there are certain to be GOP claims asserting Perdue's victory. McConnell will be tempted to call for the Senate to investigate before seating a winner — which would mean depriving himself of the gavel.

Full Article: What if the Senate won't seat Georgia's winners? - The Fulcrum

Georgia: Trump attorney ends four lawsuits challenging election | Mark Niesse/The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

President Donald Trump has ended his court challenges to try to reverse his loss to Joe Biden in Georgia. An attorney for Trump filed notice in court Thursday that he is voluntarily dismissing four lawsuits making unsubstantiated allegations about ineligible voters, election equipment problems and fraud. No judges in Georgia have ruled in Trump’s favor. Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, a defendant in the lawsuits, said Trump gave up on his false claims. “Rather than presenting their evidence and witnesses to a court and to cross-examination under oath, the Trump campaign wisely decided the smartest course was to dismiss their frivolous cases,” Raffensperger said. The court dismissals came after Congress accepted electoral votes Wednesday showing that Trump had lost the election. Raffensperger had sent a letter to Georgia’s members of Congress with a point-by-point rebuttal of Trump’s allegations about voting machines, ballot counting, signature verification and illegal voters.

Full Article: President Trump and GOP voters have dismissed four Georgia lawsuits

Georgia elections chief counters false claims in letter to Congress | Mark Niesse/The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger delivered an exhaustive rebuttal of false election claims to Congress, telling the state’s skeptical representatives that the presidential vote count was investigated and found to be accurate. His 10-page letter, sent Wednesday as Congress was debating electoral votes, countered a collection of unsubstantiated allegations about voting machines, ballot counting, signature verification and ineligible voters. “My job is to make sure that both sides know that the results are accurate,” wrote Raffensperger, a Republican. “We do not have to like the results of an election to accept them.” Congress accepted Georgia’s 16 electoral votes after U.S. Rep. Jody Hice, a Republican from Greensboro, challenged them Wednesday evening. He was joined by Georgia Republican U.S. Reps. Rick Allen, Buddy Carter and Marjorie Taylor Greene. U.S. Reps. Andrew Clyde and Barry Loudermilk also said they would object. Hice said there had been an “unprecedented amount of fraud and irregularities” during the general election. But Republican U.S. Sen. Kelly Loeffler withdrew her plan to support the challenge to Georgia’s votes, and without the required support from at least one senator, Vice President Mike Pence rejected Hice’s petition.

Full Article: Raffensperger defends Georgia election results in Congress letter

Georgia: Fulton County delays counting final ballots due to security concerns | Ben Brasch/The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Fulton County’s adjudication process – and also a final tally of votes – has been postponed due to safety concerns, Fulton spokeswoman Jessica Corbitt said Wednesday afternoon. “We have a strong basis for concern based on security threats over recent weeks as well as awareness that there are people, including the President himself, who have singled out Fulton County as a cause for the outcome of the Presidential election,” Corbitt said. Among the concerns is a call in which Trump tried to convince Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to “find” enough votes to overturn the statewide election results. Fulton — home to a tenth of all Georgians — was mentioned by name 16 times during the Saturday call. County officials have rebuked the insinuations. Corbitt said Fulton has received bomb threats and “endless comments” on social media alleging they committed fraud – which has been disproven.

Full Article: Georgia Senate runoff: Fulton County delays counting final ballots due to security concerns

Georgia: Militia members gather outside the Capitol as pro-Trump rioters storm Washington DC | Gustaf Kilander/The Independent

Militia members gathered around the Georgia Capitol in Atlanta, as Pro-Trump rioters in DC attempted to take matters into their own hands and prevent Congress from certifying President-elect Joe Biden’s electoral college win by storming the US Capitol. Capitol Police escorted Georgia’s secretary of state Brad Raffensperger and his staff out of the building, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported. Supporters of Donald Trump attempted to enter the building to deliver “written grievances” about Mr Trump’s November loss. Deputy Secretary of State Jordan Fuchs said: “We heard reports of threats and left immediately." Mr Fuchs told ABC News that the people gathering at the parking deck at the Capitol were members of a militia.

Full Article: Militia members gather outside the Georgia Capitol as pro-Trump rioters storm Washington DC | The Independent