On Wednesday, Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger bowed to demands from his fellow Republicans and ordered an unprecedented hand recount of nearly 5 million ballots cast in the Georgia presidential contest – even as he said he doesn’t expect the result to change.
Democrat Joe Biden currently leads Republican incumbent Donald Trump by 14,045 votes. From our AJC colleague Mark Niesse:
Flanked by local elections officials at a Capitol press conference, Raffensperger said the count will be conducted by hand under Georgia's election audit rules before a Nov. 20 deadline to finalize results. The cost of the enormous undertaking, requiring hundreds of poll workers, wasn't immediately clear.
So the question of the day is – if no change in result is anticipated, what does the Trump campaign win from a recount? The answer may be time. Because after the recount, we could have a recount of the recount:
State and county election officials acknowledged Wednesday that a hand recount could introduce more inaccuracies than computer scans. But they said the recount will be worthwhile to check the work of Georgia's voting machinery.
The recount was scheduled to begin Thursday and Friday in Georgia's 159 counties, and they face a Nov. 20 deadline to finish it. That's the state's election certification deadline, which can only be extended “for just cause" by a superior court judge's order, according to state law.
Even then, another recount is possible.
Candidates have a right to a recount upon request if they lost by less than half a percent after results are certified. Trump currently trails Biden by about 0.3%.
This part of the secretary of state’s press conference also requires some context:
Raffensperger announced that he will use emergency powers to postpone a statewide runoff in a race for public service commissioner that was scheduled for Dec. 1. That runoff will now coincide with federal runoff elections for the U.S. Senate on Jan. 5.
We’re told that the December contest was moved to assuage county election officials overwhelmed by the logistical and financial demands of a hand recount.
The runoff pits longtime Public Service Commission member Lauren “Bubba” McDonald against Democrat Daniel Blackman.
As an orphaned, low-turnout contest, the runoff favored McDonald. Republicans have long enjoyed an edge in getting their voters to the polls for a second round of voting that occurs in the tryptophanic days after Thanksgiving.
This low-profile contest will now be tied to two U.S. Senate contests that could see half a billion dollars in spending to drive voters to the ballot box.
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Brad Raffensberg may not be on every Republican’s Christmas card list, but the Wall Street Journal weighed in on the secretary of state’s side last night with a lead editorial that praised his “reassuring” decision to begin a hand recount of every vote cast for president in the general election. It’s more than state law requires, the paper says, but is also about more than just Donald Trump:
Raising the stakes further is the fact that Georgia is set to hold two Senate runoff elections in January, which will decide which party controls the upper chamber. Senate control will determine the national policy direction for the next two years. Georgia should be assured, going into that political maelstrom, that its new election systems are functioning as designed.
In the words of the WSJ: “Keep calm and count on.”
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Brad Raffensberger also gets nearly 2,000 words in the New York Times, but this piece isn’t nearly so glowing. Among other unflattering observations, the Times describes Raff’s “punctilious blandness,” and says he has a voice “that rarely rises above the dispassionate tone of a functionary behind the desk at a Department of Motor Vehicles office.”
It also notes that, in a sit-down interview, he looked toward his deputy, Jordan Fuchs, for help in delivering apparently rehearsed talking points. But these words from an unexpected ally jumped out at us:
Andrea Young, the executive director of the A.C.L.U. of Georgia, praised Mr. Raffensperger's handling of this year's general election and characterized this week's criticism as “voter suppression 2.0."
“As a child of the South," she said, “it just sounds like too many Black people voted and we don't like it."
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Georgia is becoming an early proving ground for potential 2024 presidential candidates. On Wednesday, U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida joined chamber colleague Kelly Loeffler for a rally. On Friday, fellow Floridian and Sen. Rick Scott is scheduled to visit Cumming with Loeffler and Sen. David Perdue for a “Save the Majority” rally.
Vice President Mike Pence is headed to Georgia next Friday, and other potential presidential hopefuls are sure to return to the state, including Sen. Tom Cotton of Arkansas, Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina and former U.N. ambassador Nikki Haley. The latter two were campaigning in Georgia with Loeffler the week before the election.
Rick Scott is getting a jump on his new job as the incoming chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Campaign Committee, the GOP outfit whose mission is, indeed, keeping the Senate majority for Republicans. Scott’s focus will be winning the 2022 election cycle, when either Loeffler or Rev. Raphael Warnock will be up for election again.
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But about that Rubio/Loeffler gathering at Cobb County GOP headquarters in Marietta. It was a packed affair, with people standing shoulder-to-shoulder -- and often maskless. From the Twitter account of CNN national correspondent Kyung Lah:
My entire @CNN team has physically left this indoor rally. It's not safe given the #Covid19 numbers in Georgia. Again, this is the “Save our Majority" rally in Cobb County
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The COVID-19 pandemic has hammered thousands of businesses in Georgia, and one of the hardest hit areas was the hospitality industry.
AJC budget nerd James Salzer reported last week that seven months after pandemic hit, taxes on hotel/motel stays were still off 27.1% in October.
While perusing recent state audits, he also noticed the hospitality and convention falloff has hit the Georgia World Congress Center pretty hard.
The massive state-owned facility in downtown Atlanta, typically home to hundreds of conventions and events each year, reported that operating revenues were down 31.5% in fiscal 2020, which ended June 30, or about $20.8 million. Expenses declined 1.6% in the same period.
“The significant reduction in revenue is a direct effect of the COVID-19 pandemic, which results in cancellations of over 100 events,” the audit said.
The decrease in expenses, it added, “was mainly in personnel services due to a reduction in overtime and temporary help based on event cancellations.”
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U.S. Rep. David Scott, D-Atlanta, has a new ally in his bid to become chairman of the House Agriculture Committee: fellow Congressional Black Caucus member Marcia Fudge, D-Ohio.
Fudge has her sights set on becoming Biden’s agriculture secretary. Therefore, she is backing Scott for the committee chairmanship instead of competing with him, Cleveland.com reports.
By seniority, Scott is next in line to become the committee’s leader, given that the current chairman, Collin Peterson, D-Minn., lost his bid for re-election last week. But there are other House Democrats who hope Speaker Nancy Pelosi will pick them instead.
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We have found a point of agreement between Democrat Raphael Warnock and GOP incumbent Kelly Loeffler, who are locked in one of two U.S. Senate runoffs in Georgia.
Both are condemning Facebook’s temporary ban on political ads is coming at precisely the wrong time for Georgia’s Senate runoffs. The social media network says the ban will continue for at least another month and there is no exception for candidates with upcoming races, Adweek reports.
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The U.S. government has deported some of the immigrant detainees who accused a south Georgia doctor of performing unnecessary medical procedures on them, NBC news says.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has already deported six former patients who complained about Dr. Mahendra Amin, who has been accused of operating on migrant women without their consent or performing procedures that were medically unnecessary and potentially endangered their ability to have children. At least seven others at the Irwin County Detention Center in Ocilla, Georgia, who had made allegations against the doctor have received word that they could soon be removed from the country, the lawyers said.
