The Fair Fight Campaign Against the 2020 2020 Georgian Governor’s Election: The Case Against Perdued and Trumped Elections

The judge ruled against the group formed Friday by the Democratic candidate for Georgia governor to challenge the state’s voting laws.

In suburban Gwinnett County, for example, “voting integrity” activists have challenged the eligibility of more than 40,000 registered voters in the increasingly diverse, increasingly Democratic county, putting an incredible burden on the county’s small elections staff. Two Democrats and an independent voted against the challenges that had been acted upon so far.

Fair Fight filed the lawsuit just after the 2018 gubernatorial election and the case went to trial earlier this year. The longest voting rights trial was on the Eleventh Circuit, according to Fair Fight.

Kemp has shown other Republicans the road map for navigating the post-Trump presidency. The governor of Georgia found himself in the former president’s crosshairs after certifying the 2020 election. Trump was so enraged that he recruited former Senator David Perdue to mount a quixotic primary challenge based solely on the falsehood that the 2020 election was stolen. Kemp won the race by more than 50 points.

“As governor, I will expand the right to vote. I will defend minority voters, not bemoan their increased power or grow ‘frustrated’ by their success. This case demonstrates that the 2022 election will be a referendum on how our state treats its most marginalized voices,” Abrams said in a tweet.

Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger called the ruling a win for elections officials, saying the state’s elections have always been “safe, secure, and accessible.”

It comes at a time when Georgia is about to vote in a high profile battle for the US Senate. The outcome of the senate race between Herschel Walker, a Republican and Raphael Warnock, a Democrats, could decide which party controls the chamber next year.

Stacey Abrams Assailed In Georgia During the 2018 Georgia Senate Election Campaign: When Walker And His Families Arose After Heheavily

“Stolen election and voter suppression claims by Stacey Abrams were nothing but poll-tested rhetoric not supported by facts and evidence,” Raffensperger said in a statement.

The 12th lieutenant governor of Georgia is a Republican namedGeoff Duncan. The views expressed in this commentary are his own. CNN has more opinion articles.

Walker did not win the Senate primary because of his policy proposals. He trounced his opponents because of his performance on the football field 40 years ago and his friendship with former President Donald Trump – neither of which are guaranteed tickets to victory anymore.

Everyone in America deserves due process, and Walker vehemently denied the Daily Beast report suggesting he had paid for a woman’s abortion in 2009 after the two conceived a child while they were dating. Walker has opposed abortion rights. He went so far as to threaten legal action against the publication as a recourse. The impact on the court of public opinion was immediate and intense. Even influential conservative personality told us it was probably a KO.

Now, members of a nervous GOP infrastructure must hold their breath and hope Walker can weather the storm. To his political credit, Walker has faced other serious allegations, including domestic abuse, an exaggerated business career and an erratic personality. He has a Teflon quality of surviving scandals that would ruin the lives of mere mortals. Walker’s test is his most serious, not just by it’s nature but in its October timing.

Her stock has fallen sharply. She refused to concede her loss. A federal judge tossed out a lawsuit by a group claiming the election was unfair. The State Ethics Commission looked into her practices in the summer of 2018, but they did not find anything.

Kemp is breathing easier this year for some things beyond the flaws of Abrams. He has a good record to fall back on, and that is an accomplishment. Georgia was recently named the best state for business for the ninth consecutive year by Area Development magazine. In a decision that has aged well over time, Kemp re-opened our state from the pandemic faster than many others, angering even then-President Trump. More people are moving to our state for its business friendly climate, and that has helped Georgia become the technology capital of the East Coast.

Source: https://www.cnn.com/2022/10/06/opinions/herschel-walker-scandal-georgia-senate-gop-duncan/index.html

How Do Election Deniers Get Their Documents? A Correspondence between a Republican Senator and a State Senator who Voted for Joe Biden

Meanwhile, incumbent Democratic Senator Raphael Warnock has maintained a slim but steady lead over Walker. He has voted for President Joe Biden in a state where just 44% of voters approve of him, compared to the majority who don’t.

Those numbers do not lie. The Senate race should be a referendum on Biden and his agenda. The American Rescue Plan Act and $750 billion Inflation Reduction Act were two pieces of flawed legislation that could have been stopped by an even split upper chamber.

If we want the American public to care about us, we need to start by nominating people who will take us seriously. The process goes beyond fame or celebrity. It requires leaders capable of winning elections by articulating a conservative vision for governing.

“How is the November midterm election the third or fourth thing on my radar?” Forrest K. Lehman was the county’s director of elections and registration. “It should be number one.”

They didn’t stop there. Many of my colleagues and I believe that election deniers sent unprecedented number of public records requests to attempt to cripple our operations. For example, our county has received multiple requests for the same documents – many of which look to be copied and pasted from the same template. The requests divert a significant amount of my time and resources that should be spent on planning the next election.

Sue Ertmer, a county clerk in Wisconsin, said she had 120 requests for records last month. She said it gets a little harder to get more things done when you get those types of requests. “It’s a little overwhelming.”

The requests come from a variety of sources, but a number of election officials noted that Mike Lindell, the pillow salesman and purveyor of conspiracy theories about the 2020 vote, has encouraged supporters to submit them. The election deniers gave instructions on how to file records requests at the seminar.

In a telephone interview, Mr. Lindell said providing information to the public was an important part of the job of election workers. He added that local supporters had sent him digital recreations of the ballot choices of every voter, commonly called cast vote records, from more than a thousand election jurisdictions. Mr. Lindell said that his theory of balloting manipulation is supported by the records.

CNN’s “America’s Future Starts Now” series: Natalie Adona, a clerk-recorder elect, in Nevada County, California

The CNN Opinion series “America’s Future Starts Now” features a series in which people talk about how they have been affected by the biggest issues facing the nation and experts offer solutions. The authors of these commentaries have their own views. CNN has more opinion.

In late September 2020, the Philadelphia Office of Emergency Management called the who’s who of Philadelphia government to the Emergency Operations Center for a more than three-hour tabletop exercise on the 2020 presidential election. During that time, a facilitator presented a set of worst-case scenarios, and everyone worked on addressing the problems that arose.

November 3, 2020, was a strangely quiet and calm Election Day in Nevada County, California, where I help run the voting process. Most voters in this purple county had already cast their ballots by mail. And those who did come to vote in-person cast their ballots in an orderly and respectful fashion.

And these elections deniers made me a particular target of their frustrations. They accused me of violating the state’s campaign finance laws, doing corrupt acts and lying about my job experience. Some even subjected me to racist vitriol in a mailer that was distributed countywide. It got so bad at one point that I had to get a restraining order against one individual who threatened me.

That said, I remain firmly committed to restoring Americans’ faith in US democracy, and so this year I left a 32-year career in government and joined the Committee for Safe and Secure Elections (CSSE), a cross-partisan organization made up of current and former election officials and law enforcement officers with the shared goal of protecting election officials and workers.

Stakeholders from both sides of the aisle need to make sure our elections are free and fair. If you think that’s impossible, just let an election official show you how it’s done.

Natalie Adona is the clerk-recorder elect, a non-partisan office, in Nevada County, California. She is a member of the California Association of Clerks and Election Officials. Adona is a part of the Bipartisan Policy Center’s elections task force, an editorial board member for the Journal of Election Administration Research and Practice, and a member of the Election Official Legal Defense Network. There is one “faces of democracy” campaign.

Source: https://www.cnn.com/2022/10/13/opinions/us-election-workers-voting-threats-roundup/index.html

Observation of the 2016 U.S. Election Workers Voting Truth Roundup: Insights from a Case Study with the Philadelphia Electoral Commission

Democrats were able to vote by mail. When the in-person results came in on election night, Trump was winning several battleground states, including Pennsylvania. Early Wednesday morning, Trump prematurely declared victory. But his margin over Biden started to close as mail-in ballots were counted. Trump and his team tried many times to stop the count but were unsuccessful.

By the end of the week, Biden would take the lead and the demonstrations would become violent. The exercise finished, “Even though the initial vote count is largely complete, there is no end in sight as weeks of civil unrest, legal action and intense scrutiny loom.”

I saw the top officials express serious concern during this scenario. This scenario felt plausible even though it sounded extreme.

A few days after the election, I made the mistake of leaving the bubble of the convention center where the votes were still being counted to get some air. I was followed outside by a member of the Trump campaign. After a video of myself was posted on the dark corners of the internet, I received a lot of attacks, including some mocking my appearance and weight and some threatening my life, which is common to women in politics.

One of the threats turned out to be credible, and I had two plain-clothes Philadelphia police officers assigned to follow me wherever I went – including the bathroom. I didn’t get my haircut because I did not want to explain who my escort was.

Source: https://www.cnn.com/2022/10/13/opinions/us-election-workers-voting-threats-roundup/index.html

The 2016 Philadelphia City Commissioners Returned: How the Russian Abuse of Voting Rights Has Grown to a Worst, Roundup

Election Day has always been important to me. My mother was the local committee person in our neighborhood. She was a single mother and I followed the polls on Election Day. I was a barber back then, and I used to take everything in on my leather barber’s chair.

But not every American has a mother – or barber shop – like mine. We need to invest in our teachers and schools, so they can better teach civics education and impart on young people just how precious democratic ideals truly are.

The leader of the Philadelphia City Commissioners is a Democrat named Lisa Deeley, who is in charge of elections and voter registration in Philadelphia.

The Russian attempt to interfere in our politics and social media was first noticed in 2016 when a hand recount of the election results in Michigan was halted.

Not surprisingly, it led some to doubt our very election process. Doubt in this process, which began as a seed, had grown into an invasive weed choking the profession four years later.

The November 2020 election only reinforced my worst fears. All eyes were on Michigan after I oversaw the administration of the most challenging election of my career. After the election, I immediately fixed the error my team and I made in resubmitting an Absentee voter file.

A leading national figure held a press conference in Michigan later in the week and claimed that 2000 votes for one presidential candidate had gone to another, thus pushing my colleagues and I into the national spotlight.

Source: https://www.cnn.com/2022/10/13/opinions/us-election-workers-voting-threats-roundup/index.html

The 5 Steps to Prevent Election Disturbances for Elections: A Report on Tony Patterson, a Los Angeles City Clerk and Former Oakland County Clerk

The committee has developed a five-step process that election officials and law enforcement can follow to better prepare for elections. It states that election officials and law enforcement should meet, share their situational knowledge, agree on a vision for establishing order and safety around election spaces, plan for a variety of possible disturbance scenarios and practice their responses ahead of each election.

It is my hope that more election officials follow our guidelines, so that public servants can once again do their jobs without fearing for their lives.

Tina Barton is the former appointed city clerk of Rochester Hills, Michigan, and 2020 Oakland county clerk Republican candidate. She currently serves as a senior election expert with The Elections Group.

Editor’s Note: Van Jones is a CNN host and political commentator and the founder of Dream.org. The national director of Dream.org is Janos Marton. The views expressed in this commentary are the authors’. CNN has more opinion.

The detained man, Tony Patterson, was shown handcuffed and placed in a squad car, in images from a recently-released body cam recording seen around the country.

The Florida Right to Vote Act: New Electoral Correlations and the Second Chance for Black Americans to Reenter in Society

There were 20 people arrested for voter fraud as part of the sting in Florida by the new governor. They now face new felony charges, fines of up to $5,000 fines and a possible return to prison if they are convicted. The charges were dropped on the grounds that the prosecutor didn’t have the authority to bring them. Their second chance is being taken away from them simply because they participated in our democracy.

The new law made it nearly impossible for those with felony convictions to vote and placed them behind a laborious bureaucratic maze. Why? To maintain a form of voter suppression in the US that is racist. According to The Sentencing Project, one in every 16 Black adults across the country is disenfranchised. In Florida, it is one in seven black adults. This bill would ensure we keep it that way.

The Florida Rights Restoration Coalition is leading the effort to allow people who have been imprisoned to reenter society and participate in one of the most cherished activities after they are released.

The police body cam images showing confused and upset people were obtained through public records requests by the Tampa Bay Times.

Source: https://www.cnn.com/2022/10/22/opinions/florida-desantis-voter-fraud-jones-marton/index.html

The formerly convicted citizen of Orange County, Florida, is charged with felony counts for having voted in the 2020 election via mail-in ballot

The woman who thought that her rights had been restored because she was a voter registration card holder is, of course, 52 years old. She voted in the 2020 election in Orange County via mail-in ballot and now faces two felony counts for having voted, charges punishable by up to five years in prison.

Leo Grant Jr., a 55-year-old Black man, told officials he voted by mail after election administrators sent him a voter ID card. He too was bewildered over how he could be accused of fraud when the government told him he could vote.

The arrests became a national news story when body cam footage of the people who were taken away from them was released.

In 2021, four residents of The Villages, a predominantly White, Republican community, were arrested for double voting in the 2020 election. They had voted in other states. Two of the defendants were allowed to turn themselves in. Three accepted pretrial intervention deals requiring that they perform community service and earn at least a C in a civics class.

Florida’s governor showed his desperation for attention and desire for headlines, but this is bigger than one election, campaign or political party. The United States was founded on the principles of freedom and democracy. The right to vote is one of those principles. Voting is a cornerstone of American values and cherished way of life. Democracy can work for everyone, that’s what we dream of.

The arrests of formerly convicted people do not strengthen our democracy or protect our communities. They are a political stunt with real world consequences.

America has a high incarceration rate and should be more than that. Ours should be a country of second chances. The leaders who want to reach the goal must view formerly incarcerated people as people, not props.

Jay Bookman: Early Voting in Georgia: Predicting What Happened After a Presidential Election In April 2005 (Editor’s Note)

There was an Editor’s Note. Jay Bookman is an author and award-winning political columnist who has written for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution and other newspapers. He writes frequently for the Georgia Recorder. Follow him on Twitter at @jaysbookman. The views he has are of his own. Read more opinion at CNN.

The number of voters in Georgia is at an all time high, and early voting totals are just about to be the same as a presidential election year. The question is understandable, in a campaign season like this one: What is it?

It is hard to say if it is accurate in predicting outcomes. It seems that high turnout isn’t the advantage that it used to be in the Trump era, and we don’t know how much of the early voter surge is motivated voters or merely voters who would have cast their ballot anyway. With so many factors at play this year, it is not possible to know what will cause voters to cast their ballot.

That uncertainty is a nightmare for pollsters. It is easy to predict how people will vote. Predicting whether they’ll vote is where things get complicated – and results get misleading. In a tumultuous year like this one, with so many variables, that’s a caution to the rest of us about putting too much credence in pollsters’ work product.

Georgia Republicans, however, are ready to claim victory on at least one front. They believe the high turnout represents vindication, proving that SB 202 – the “Election Integrity Act” that they passed last year – wasn’t an effort to suppress voter turnout, as Democrats had claimed.

The fear and anger apparently driving voters of both parties to the polls this year may have swamped whatever suppressive impact last year’s SB 202 was intended to have.

Source: https://www.cnn.com/2022/10/27/opinions/georgia-early-voting-record-meaning-bookman/index.html

Democrats are Doing Their Job: Finding a Way to Fight Voting Fraud, and a Frustrated Commissioner Isn’t

Democrats have built an effective, well-funded voter-protection apparatus to help people overcome whatever bureaucratic hurdles are placed between them and the ballot box.

That last point is important. Republicans say changes to Senate Bill 202 are necessary to fight voter fraud because it makes Absentee Balloting more difficult and reduce the number of drop boxes in urban areas. But logically, that motive makes no sense.

From the beginning, the entire “voting fraud” industry has been a bad-faith invention by the right to serve as cover for its voter suppression targeting minorities. We know that because every Republican administration in the last quarter of a century has tried desperately to find evidence of such fraud on a scale sufficient to swing elections, and every such investigation has failed abysmally. Kemp failed to find fraud while he was Georgia secretary of state. Florida’s Gov. Ron DeSantis has also been trying to find it, but thus far he has come up empty.

And it’s the consequences of that bad-faith narrative that ought to worry us. The electoral system that the GOP has championed for decades was transformed to an excuse to suppress voting in 2020 as a result of the suspicion and distrust President Donald Trump had of it.

He is still telling supporters at rallies that he doesn’t believe in a fair election. I don’t believe it.”

Georgia Republicans added a clarifying sentence to a section of state law to clarify how a voter can legally challenge the eligibility of other voters to cast ballots. It now says that “There shall not be a limit on the number of persons whose qualifications such elector may challenge.” Local election boards are required to hold a hearing on the challenges within 10 business days.

Around the state, conservatives are attempting to challenge the eligibility of tens of thousands of legally registered voters on extremely flimsy grounds and are growing frustrated that those challenges keep failing.

“We are doing your job,” one frustrated activist told the Gwinnett elections board at its October 19 meeting. Get your things in order or not.