Georgia Primary: Republican Voter Supression Backfired

That Republican- engineered shitshow that was Georgia's primary election last week was doubtless intended as a dry run for Republicans in November. The obstacles they put in the way of voting included purging voter rolls, a new and overly complicated Republican- contracted computer system that caused long lines, especially in Democratic precincts, and a bollixed effort to get absentee ballots to all who requested them. Sounds pretty impressive (also, repressive).  So, in retrospect, how did this latest attempt at voter suppression work out for Republicans?

Democrats set a new turnout record for primary voting in last week’s Georgia vote, soaring past 1 million voters to outpace Republicans during an election plagued by significant obstacles at polling sites.

The latest results, still being tallied as absentee ballots are counted, show Democratic turnout in Georgia surpassed 1,060,851 – the previous high-mark set during the 2008 presidential primary when then-U.S. Sen. Barack Obama trounced Hillary Clinton. [snip]

Georgia Democrats pointed to the high numbers as another sign of voter enthusiasm headed into the November election. Joe Biden aims to be the first Democratic presidential contender to carry Georgia since 1992, and state Democrats are racing to flip two U.S. Senate seats and a suburban U.S. House seat. 

The turnout numbers soared mainly due to a surge in absentee ballots after an expansion of mail-in voting ordered by Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, a Republican, amid coronavirus restrictions. A review showed those mail-in ballots were roughly split between Democrats and Republicans. [snip]

The increase in Democratic votes comes after recent demographic trends that encourage  party leaders. An AJC analysis found that more than 320,000 new voters registered in Georgia since 2019, and many are younger and racially diverse – blocs of voters who tend to favor Democrats.

And top state Democrats hope to channel frustration over the federal and state coronavirus response, as well as the outrage over police brutality that’s sparked nationwide protests for racial justice, into votes in November. (our emphasis)

As with their spectacularly unsuccessful attempts to suppress Democratic votes in a state supreme court election Wisconsin in April, Republicans efforts to keep people from voting is pissing them off to such an extent that they'll stay in line to vote for hours, even during a pandemic.

There's voter enthusiasm out there;  it's enthusiasm to get Republicans at every level out of office so that we can have some semblance of sanity and humanity in our public life again.  Those are powerful motivators that Republicans haven't yet figured out how to squelch.

Keep calm, and vote.

(Image: Steve Sack, Minneapolis Star Tribune)

Republican Voter Fraud In North Carolina, Georgia

The Republican Party, which uses "voter fraud" to justify voter- suppressing voter i.d. laws and purges of voter rolls, has been caught once again committing (allegedly!) voter fraud on a massive scale (our emphasis throughout):

DUBLIN, N.C. — In a low-slung, aging commercial strip across the street from an online-gaming parlor here, a local operative named Leslie McCrae Dowless ran his command center for Republican Mark Harris in the 9th Congressional District primary this spring.  

Dowless sat at a desk at the back of one of the strip’s vacant storefronts, where he oversaw a crew of workers who collected absentee ballots from voters and updated the Harris campaign on the numbers, according to Jeff Smith, who is the building’s owner and a former Dowless friend. [snip]

And, by "collected absentee ballots" they mean "collected and shitcanned Democratic absentee ballots":

Investigators with the bipartisan state elections board — which last week voted unanimously to delay certifying the race — have identified hundreds of potential witnesses to interview, many of them voters whose absentee ballots were never turned in, according to the people familiar with the probe. That raises the possibility of a weeks-long investigation and an uncertain start date for the next congressman from the 9th District. 

That Republican operative at the center of this, Dowless, he's seems nice:

Dowless, 62, who serves as vice chairman of the Bladen Soil and Water Conservation District, has a criminal record. Court records show he was convicted of fraud, perjury and passing a worthless check in the late 1980s and early 1990s. 

He first came under scrutiny from the state elections board in 2016, when officials began investigating similar ballot irregularities, leading to a public hearing. 

That year, in the 9th District primary election, Dowless was on the campaign payroll of Todd Johnson, a Union County insurance salesman who also won a curious number of the mail-in ballots in Bladen County: 211, compared with four for Harris, who was also a candidate that year, and just one for the incumbent, Rep. Robert Pittenger (R), records show. Johnson did not respond to a request for comment. 

There's fishy, and then there's... Fishy (click to enlarge):



There's more data and anecdotal evidence of voter fraud in this North Carolina Congressional District at the link above.  The Democrats are going to court over it., while State election officials are working with the FBI and U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of North Carolina, and the State Bureau of Investigation is also on the case. ("Lock them up, lock them up!")

In Georgia, there's a special runoff election today (!!) with conservaDem John Barrow hoping to reverse some of the egregious voter suppression tactics of "Governor- elect" Brian Kemp. Turnout by Democrats and anyone interested in free and fair elections will be critical. A lawsuit filed by a voting rights group  supporting Democrat Stacey Abrams alleges gross mismanagement of the recent runoff election.  If Barrow is elected today, the lawsuit would provide fertile ground for making changes in Georgia's discriminatory election systems.

Tweets Of The Day -- Georgia On Our Mind Edition

.@staceyabrams: "Movements for change are not built overnight, and they do not end when the polls close. We must continue the fight for progress...because the better, brighter Georgia we seek is always over the next hill." #gapol pic.twitter.com/rMUrHvrUxJ

— Team Abrams (@teamabrams) November 17, 2018

This hack @BrianKempGA is the next "governor*" of Georgia. But he cheated & undermined democracy every step of the way. @staceyabrams should be governor, but isn't due to actions that can't be tolerated. She has a bright future. We need a new, enforceable Voting Rights Act. Now!

— John Weaver (@jwgop) November 17, 2018

There are over 20 productions shooting in Georgia.

Is the entertainment industry willing to support the economy of a totally corrupt state that suppresses democracy; where the winner isn’t the best choice for the people but the best schemer or crook?

— Alyssa Milano (@Alyssa_Milano) November 17, 2018

To all my friends who are studio and network executives, if you choose to shoot movies and tv in Georgia, don’t bother to call me. https://t.co/gtIKNJBhNF

— Ron Perlman (@perlmutations) November 17, 2018

No question.  #boycottgeorgia https://t.co/fkGFuGq3lL

— Bradley Whitford (@WhitfordBradley) November 17, 2018

As a reference, here's how Georgia (and specifically Atlanta, the "Hollywood of the South") stacks up in terms of top 100 film productions as of last year:

People need to think hard about where they want to spend their money now, whether it's Georgia, Florida or any other vote suppressing state.

Monday Pre-Election Reading

As always, please go to the links for the full articles/ op eds (and, if you haven't already, VOTE tomorrow!).

Francis Wilkinson writes about the pervasive racism in the Republican Party, and offers poll after poll illuminating how their base has shifted ever further into the dark recesses of racial resentment and ignorance.  Here's his conclusion:

Preservation of a racial hierarchy is the glue that holds much of the GOP’s rickety planks together. It’s the basis of Trump’s call to end birthright citizenship. [snip] 

The broader electorate may be ready to reject GOP control of at least the House on Tuesday. Perhaps that will deter Republicans from advancing their race war. But it’s possible that they’ve steeped in their resentments for too long, and traveled with Trump too far. They may not want to go back, or even know how to.  (our emphasis)

Republicans need to be defeated at all levels, over and over again.

Leonard Pitts, Jr., puts it bluntly:

... Tuesday is about what we do for ourselves, for our country. It is about whether those of us who see this madness for what it is acquiesce to it or whether, like the guy in Rockwell’s painting, we stand up and speak out. It shouldn’t be a hard choice. 

If you find this calamity unacceptable, make your case. 

If you think we should be better than this, raise your voice. 

If you are disgusted and appalled, make yourself heard. 

Because we could absolutely lose America. Or, we could save it. 

What do you say?

We say, Republicans need to be defeated at all levels, over and over again.

"Trump is on the ballot.  Vote accordingly."  ABC News:

President Donald Trump has repeatedly refused to accept any responsibility for inciting violence in American communities, dismissing critics who have pointed to his rhetoric as a potential source of inspiration for some citizens acting on bigoted beliefs. [snip] 

But a nationwide review conducted by ABC News has identified at least 17 criminal cases where Trump's name was invoked in direct connection with violent acts, threats of violence or allegations of assault. 

Nearly all -- 16 of 17 -- cases identified by ABC News are striking in that court documents and direct evidence reflect someone echoing presidential rhetoric, not protesting it. ABC News was unable to find any such case echoing presidential rhetoric when Barack Obama or George W. Bush were in the White House.  (our emphasis)

Republicans need to be defeated at all levels, over and over again.

Meanwhile, here's more on the vote- suppressing, racist über- Trumper running for governor of Georgia while simultaneously running the election there, Georgia Secretary of State Brian "No Show" Kemp, and his banana Republican last- minute effort to smear Democrats for his fraud- friendly voting system:

But the latest appalling move by Kemp to publicly accuse the Democrats of hacking without evidence is even worse than that: Kemp has been one of the few state election officials to refuse help from the federal Department of Homeland Security to deter foreign and domestic hacking of voter registration databases. After computer scientists demonstrated the insecurity of the state’s voting system, he was sued for having perhaps the most vulnerable election system in the country. His office has been plausibly accused of destroying evidence, which would have helped to prove the vulnerabilities of the state election system.  [snip]

 ... [The latest episode] shows Democrats, like many others, pointing out the glaring security flaws in Georgia’s voting system. To turn this around and blame Democrats is an act of political chutzpah by an election official on par with nothing else I’ve seen. 

It is bad enough there is a partisan election official running Georgia’s elections. It is also bad enough that this partisan election official is in charge of his very own election, an election where he is running in a very tight race against Democrat Stacey Abrams, and that he has engaged in acts of voters suppression aimed to decrease the turnout for the candidate who would be this nation’s first black woman to win a governor’s mansion. It is still worse that we have an election official who, according to audio leaked to Rolling Stone, expressed concern about the state’s citizens exercising their rights to vote via absentee ballot: “[Democrats] have just an unprecedented number of [absentee ballot applications],” he said, “which is something that continues to concern us, especially if everybody uses and exercises their right to vote—which they absolutely can—and mail those ballots in, we gotta have heavy turnout to offset that.” 

But what Kemp has done now goes beyond the pale. He’s accused his opponents of election tampering without evidence on the eve of the election, and plastered the incendiary charge on an official state website in the days before his office will administer that election. This is some banana republic stuff.  (our emphasis)

This speaks for us:

There are few more disgracefully corrupt figures in American public life than Kemp. He should be nowhere in the vicinity of a position of public trust. Enabler of Russian interference in our elections, racist scoundrel.

— Norman Ornstein (@NormOrnstein) November 4, 2018

Republicans need to be defeated at all levels, especially this shitbag Kemp.

As always, we close with a recommendation to check out Infidel 753's link round- up for a great assortment of interesting political, social, universal, etc., topics.  A fine way to start the week.

Vote Suppressor Brian Kemp's Desperate Ploy

Following his Jim- Crow- style efforts to suppress the votes of Democratic- leaning constituencies, the ethically compromised Republican Georgia Secretary of State Brian "No Show" Kemp is making desperate claims about unspecified "cyber crimes" by Democrats:

The office of Georgia Secretary of State Brian Kemp, the state's Republican gubernatorial nominee, said Sunday it has opened an investigation into the state's Democratic Party for possible unspecified cybercrimes after an attempted hack of the state's voter registration system. 

"While we cannot comment on the specifics of an ongoing investigation, I can confirm that the Democratic Party of Georgia is under investigation for possible cyber crimes," Candice Broce, press secretary for Kemp's office, said in a statement. 

"We can also confirm that no personal data was breached and our system remains secure," she added. 

The announcement comes two days before Election Day, when Kemp faces Democrat Stacey Abrams in the governor's race. Kemp has rebuffed calls to resign his position as secretary of State while he campaigns, with critics citing conflicts of interest. 

Democratic Party of Georgia Executive Director Rebecca DeHart in a statement described the investigation as “yet another example of abuse of power by an unethical Secretary of State.”

This cracker clown is running the election in which he's a candidate for the highest office in the state of Georgia.  That seems right.

If you've been following this race, you know the momentum is moving toward Democratic nominee Stacy Abrams;  it's also a race that is statistically tied (though we suspect there are a lot of first time Democratic voters who aren't being captured by the polling).  If neither Kemp nor Abrams wins 50% of the vote on Tuesday, they will have a runoff election on December 4.

There are a number of likely, non-exclusive motives for Kemp to be introducing this red herring, including sheer desperation to counter the surge by Democrats in the past week or so (thank you, Oprah Winfrey!).  Another likelihood is Kemp, who as Secretary of State would have to certify the results of the election, is beginning to establish a pretext for asserting "voter fraud" or vote- rigging should he lose the election (or a runoff).  Desperate to hold onto power in a state that is inexorably changing demographically, Kemp and his fellow slimeball Republicans will resort to any means necessary, whether it's leveling ludicrous, last minute charges against Democrats, suppressing their right to vote or denying them legitimacy should they win.

Georgians, you know what to do with this banana Republican!

BONUS:  Here's Stacy Abrams' rebuttal --

Stacey Abrams on Georgia Secretary of State’s office opening an investigation into the Democratic party of Georgia for possible alleged cyber crimes: “This is a desperate attempt on the part of my opponent to distract people” #CNNSOTU pic.twitter.com/CzVrwqTKkB

— CNN Politics (@CNNPolitics) November 4, 2018

Republicans Misusing Laws To Restrict Voting, Arm Schools (UPDATED)

We noted last week about Republican shenanigans in several states to suppress Democratic voting.  Here's an update on the latest twist in their efforts in Georgia, under the guise of compliance with a federal accommodation law:

A majority-black county in rural Georgia announced a plan last week to close seven of its nine polling places ahead of the November election, claiming the polls cannot continue to operate because they are not compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act. 

The move sparked instant opposition from voting rights advocates, who have threatened legal action if Randolph County follows though with the plan. Activists are also scrambling to collect enough signatures to stop the effort before Friday, when the election board will make a final determination. 

The racial implications of the closures have generated significant attention. The county is over 61 percent black, and one of the polling locations that would be shuttered serves a precinct where more than 95 percent of voters are African American. Had the U.S. Supreme Court not gutted the Voting Rights Act in 2013, the closures would most likely have been blocked by the Department of Justice. (our emphasis)

And, it's not the only time Republicans have used the ADA to subvert the Voting Rights Act:

Under President Trump, the federal government has been employing the same strategy. Jim Tucker, an attorney and member of the Native American Voting Rights Coalition, said he learned earlier this year that the Department of Justice’s Disability Rights Section is targeting at least three largely Native American counties, where facilities used as polling locations often lack paved parking lots, designated handicapped parking spots, entrance ramps, wide doorways, and other ADA-required features. In several counties, the Justice Department has threatened enforcement actions if local governments do not either spend large sums of money to modernize polling locations or shutter them altogether. (our emphasis)

Disenfranchising voting rights for minorities and other Democratic constituents isn't the only focus of Republicans.  Billionaire bozo Betsy DeVos is hard at work at the "Education" Department considering whether to use grants under the Student Support and Academic Enrichment program in an end run to provide more educational materials guns to schools:

The Education Department is considering whether to allow states to use federal funding to purchase guns for educators, according to multiple people with knowledge of the plan. 

Such a move appears to be unprecedented, reversing a longstanding position taken by the federal government that it should not pay to outfit schools with weapons. And it would also undermine efforts by Congress to restrict the use of federal funding on guns. As recently as March, Congress passed a school safety bill that allocated $50 million a year to local school districts, but expressly prohibited the use of the money for firearms. 

But the department is eyeing a program in federal education law, the Student Support and Academic Enrichment grants, that makes no mention of prohibiting weapons purchases. That omission would allow the education secretary, Betsy DeVos, to use her discretion to approve any state or district plans to use grant funding for firearms and firearm training, unless Congress clarifies the law or bans such funding through legislative action. [snip]

The $1 billion student support program, part of the Every Student Succeeds Act, is intended for academic and enrichment opportunities in the country’s poorest schools and calls for school districts to use the money toward three goals: providing a well-rounded education, improving school conditions for learning and improving the use of technology for digital literacy.  (our emphasis)

It's sometimes hard to believe the lengths to which Republicans will go to keep you from voting, while pandering to their National Rifle Rampage Association patrons.  But then you remember they're all about party before country and keeping the money flowing to stay in power, and it makes perfect sense.

UPDATE:  The Randolph County election board has voted not to close any voting places, a big victory for voting rights in Georgia leading into the mid- terms.

Voter Suppression, Peach State Style

Attempts by Republican officials to suppress voters that will likely vote Democratic have been rampant in recent years.  The basic idea is that the Rethugs are losing voters with each election, as the populace becomes more diverse, younger, and better educated.  So their solution is:  instead of letting the voters select us, let's select them.  It can be onerous voter ID requirements that target minorities and the young, restrictions on early voting and voting hours that discriminates against working women, and other tricks.

In Georgia, Rethuglican Secretary of State Brian "Democracy? F-ck It!" Kemp has decided that vigorous voter registration among minority groups can't be tolerated, so he's launched a bogus "voter fraud" investigation looking at the registration forms for typos, blanks, etc.  Here's what he had to say to a group of KKK fellow Rethuglicans this past July:

"...Democrats are working hard, and all these stories about them, you know, registering all these minority voters that are out there and others that are sitting on the sidelines, if they can do that, they can win these elections in November." (emphasis added)

 Exactly.  That's why it's so important to register as many of the estimated 700,000 African-American voters in Georgia, as civic groups are doing now.  If just half of that number gets registered and turn out to vote, Mr. Kemp and his ilk can pack their bags.

(hat tip for the story to blog fave P.E.C.)