Georgia State event was largest yet for vice president, her campaign says
Vice President Kamala Harris used her rally to assure the people who crowded the Georgia State University Convocation Center that they have a big role in this year’s election, telling them the “path to the White House runs right through this state.”
Former President Donald Trump seems to agree with her. He scheduled a rally to be held in the same building only four days later, well past press time.
What the two rivals for the White House have yet to agree on is whether they will debate.
Harris pushed for a showdown during the rally, which her campaign officials called the biggest since she became the Democratic Party’s presumptive nominee for president a few weeks ago. The vice president said that a debate would offer a chance to counter Republican attacks against her.
“Donald, I do hope you’ll reconsider, to meet me on the debate stage,” Harris said. “Because as the saying goes, if you got something to say, say it to my face.”
Democratic U.S. Sen. Jon Ossoff also focused on debates and the reluctance of some candidates to participate when he spoke during the rally.
During his 2020 run for the Senate — which ended with his victory in a January 2021 runoff — Ossoff faced off against an empty podium when his opponent, then-U.S. Sen. David Perdue, opted to skip their debate put on by the Atlanta Press Club.
“Let me tell you,” Ossoff said with a smile, “a candidate dodging a debate is a candidate who is losing.”
Credit: Miguel Martinez/AJC
Credit: Miguel Martinez/AJC
Georgia gives voters option to cancel registrations online
Georgia is now offering self-serve voter cancellation.
Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger launched a website this past week to make it easier for voters who moved away to cancel their own voter registrations without having to wait for the government to confirm that they’re no longer residents.
Previously, voters had to fill out a cancellation form and return it to their county’s election office.
Unless voters cancel their own registrations, it can take years to remove them from the rolls. Federal and state laws require mailed notifications to voters who appear to have moved, and if they don’t respond, registrations can be canceled if they don’t participate in the next two general elections.
Georgia currently has 914,000 voters in “inactive” status. They’re still allowed to vote, but the state could cancel their registrations if they skip upcoming elections.
Conservative activists have sought to accelerate the registration cancellation process, filing over 100,000 voter challenges with county election boards since the 2020 election. They say outdated registrations could be used for fraud, though very few cases of out-of-state voting have been proved and voter ID is required in Georgia.
Democrats have raised concerns that the cancellation website could be misused.
“This portal is ripe for abuse by right-wing activists who are already submitting mass voter challenges meant to disenfranchise Georgians,” said Tolulope Kevin Olasanoye, executive director for the Democratic Party of Georgia. He called on Raffensperger to ”take it down immediately.”
The voter registration cancellation website is available at cancelmyregistration.sos.ga.gov.
Georgians can check their registration status and sign up to vote through the state’s My Voter Page at mvp.sos.ga.gov.
State Election Board to revisit rules three members approved at contested meeting
The State Election Board voted unanimously for a do-over to reconsider rules that three of its members approved during a heated meeting that critics have said was illegal.
The proposed rules, which the board will discuss Tuesday, would allow more poll watcher access to ballot counting and require counties to post daily ballot tallies on their websites during early voting.
Three Republicans on the five-member board approved those proposals in a July 18 meeting that spurred a lawsuit by the left-leaning group American Oversight alleging that it violated the Georgia Open Meetings Act because it was called with just over 24 hours’ notice and wasn’t livestreamed for the public.
Board members Rick Jeffares, Janice Johnston and Janelle King said they wanted to move forward with the board’s business, even if Republican Chairman John Fervier and Sara Tindall Ghazal, the lone Democrat on the board, were unwilling or unable to attend. The proposals weren’t considered at a full-day meeting two days earlier because it ran long.
The board could be in for another heated meeting Tuesday, when it may review as many as 16 new election rule petitions and consider a plan for monitors to oversee Fulton County’s election this fall.
The board has already voted to reprimand Fulton for double-scanning over 3,000 ballots during a recount of the 2020 election.
Debate over election rules has flared since then-President Donald Trump sought to overturn his narrow loss to Democrat Joe Biden in the 2020 election, claiming the election was rife with voting fraud.
Jeffares, Johnston and King have all questioned the conduct of the 2020 election even though numerous investigations by state and federal officials and Trump’s own campaign have found no evidence of enough fraud to affect the outcome of the election.
Credit: Nathan Posner for the AJC
Credit: Nathan Posner for the AJC
Johnson backs Biden plan to overhaul Supreme Court
U.S. Rep. Hank Johnson, D-Lithonia, praised President Joe Biden’s proposal to overhaul the U.S. Supreme Court.
Biden this past week called for establishing term limits for justices, creating an enforceable code of conduct for the high court and passing a constitutional amendment that would clarify that presidents can be prosecuted for crimes committed while in office.
“I applaud President Biden’s acknowledgment of the need for Supreme Court reform,” Johnson, a member of the U.S. House Judiciary Committee, said in a statement. “Without a binding and enforceable code of conduct and with lifetime tenure, this power grabbing Supreme Court, while becoming corrupt and unaccountable, has upset the delicate system of checks and balances upon which our democracy rests.”
Polling shows that approval of the high court has suffered as justices have been accused of conflicts of interest and other ethical lapses, coupled with controversial opinions such as the overturning of Roe v. Wade, the 1973 decision that ensured a right to abortion.
Justice Clarence Thomas, a Georgia native, is among the members of the court whose activities have spurred scorn.
He has been accused of accepting luxury trips and other favors from a Republican mega-donor who has had business before the court. Thomas’ wife was also active in efforts to overturn the 2020 election that preceded the Jan. 6, 2021, attack at the U.S. Capitol.
Biden’s proposals are unlikely to lead to any real changes in the short term because Republicans hold a slim majority in the House. And a constitutional amendment is a nearly impossible task requiring two-thirds support in each chamber of Congress, followed by ratification by three-fourths of the 50 states.
Credit: Arvin Temkar/AJC
Credit: Arvin Temkar/AJC
Barnes singles out Abrams and Trump for criticism for hurting voter confidence
Former Gov. Roy Barnes has joined a bipartisan group to bolster confidence in Georgia’s election system after years of lies about voter fraud.
He’s taken a bipartisan approach to pointing out problems, too.
During a guest spot on the “Politically Georgia” podcast, Georgia’s most recent Democratic governor said that anyone working to undermine confidence in elections is doing their nation a disservice.
That includes fellow Democrat Stacey Abrams, who in 2018 refused to concede her defeat to Brian Kemp in the governor’s race.
Barnes noted a recent commentary in The Atlanta Journal-Constitution that singled out both Abrams and Donald Trump for criticism.
“Stacey Abrams questioned Brian Kemp’s election — that was wrong, just as much as questioning the 2020 election,” Barnes said. “In politics generally, I don’t find a lot of profiles in courage. And that’s unfortunate, whether they be Democrat or Republican. But we have to speak up and say: ‘Listen, this is a great system. Don’t blow it.’ ”
Political expedience
- Rising in leadership: U.S. Rep. Lucy McBath, D-Marietta, is the new top-ranking Democrat on the U.S. House Judiciary Committee’s Subcommittee on Crime. She fills a void left by the death of Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee of Texas from pancreatic cancer. If Democrats win control of the House in November, McBath would be in line to chair the subcommittee.
- Campaign role: Kamau Marshall of Columbus has joined Vice President Kamala Harris’ presidential campaign as a senior adviser. Marshall was the director of strategic communications for Joe Biden’s campaign in 2020. He also worked as a senior adviser to the U.S. Department of Education after spending two years in the White House as a deputy assistant U.S. trade representative for media and public affairs.
- Savannah’s on the tour: Savannah will be a different type of tour spot when it gets an early look at Vice President Kamala Harris’ choice of running mate as they campaign together next week in several swing states. Politico reports that Harris plans to announce her pick for vice president by Tuesday, when she launches a four-day swing through battleground states in Philadelphia. The campaign also plans stops in Detroit; Las Vegas; Phoenix; Raleigh, North Carolina; and western Wisconsin.
- New job: Stacey Abrams will soon be making a new entry on her resume: podcaster. The Hollywood Reporter reports that Abrams, twice a candidate for governor, recently signed a deal with Crooked Media to host a new podcast, “Assembly Required with Stacey Abrams.” It will air on the Crooked Media network, which is led by a trio of former Obama administration staffers. On the podcast, which launches Aug. 15, Abrams will explain the hot topics of the day and answer questions from listeners, which she compared to the town hall meetings she held with constituents when she was serving in the Georgia House.
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