AP

Georgia election rule changes by Trump allies raise fear of chaos in November

Published

4 months ago

September 19, 2024

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FILE – State Election Board member Rick Jeffares asks the crowd to settle down during a hastily planned State Election Board meeting at the Capitol in Atlanta on Friday, July 12, 2024. The Georgia State Election Board, which once toiled in relative obscurity, now hosts raucous meetings where public comment spans several hours and attendees regularly heckle its members. (Arvin Temkar/Atlanta Journal-Constitution via AP, File)Read More

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FILE – From left, State Election Board Executive Director Mike Coan greets an election skeptic after a hastily planned State Election Board meeting at the Capitol in Atlanta, July 12, 2024. (Arvin Temkar/Atlanta Journal-Constitution via AP, FILE)Read More

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FILE – John Fervier, Chairman of the State Election Board, takes questions from the media during a brief recess during a meeting at the Capitol in Atlanta, Aug. 6, 2024. (Matthew Pearson/WABE via AP, File)Read More

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FILE – Brad Raffensperger, Georgia Secretary of State, listens as the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol continues to reveal its findings of a year-long investigation, at the Capitol in Washington, June 21, 2022. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin, File)Read More

By JEFF AMY and KATE BRUMBACKUpdated 12:03 AM GMT+6, September 20, 2024Share

ATLANTA (AP) — Four years ago, Georgia was at the center of former President Donald Trump ’s attempts to overturn his loss to Democrat Joe Biden. Democrats worry that Trump is at it again, even before the first votes have been cast.

Many Democrats in the crucial swing state believe Trump-aligned Republicans are laying the groundwork for another attempt to undermine the vote should the GOP nominee narrowly lose in November, this time by manipulating election rules.

The turmoil springs from a takeover of the Georgia State Election Board earlier this year by Trump allies after Republican lawmakers yanked the secretary of state, who had resisted Trump’s efforts to subvert the election in 2020, off the panel. The new majority started making election rule changes that have alarmed Democrats, legal experts and democracy advocates.

One provides for an undefined “reasonable inquiry” before county election officials certify results, while another allows county election officials “to examine all election related documentation created during the conduct of elections.” Critics say those new rules could be used by county officials who want to refuse certification, likely igniting a legal firestorm at a time when the statewide results would need to be certified.

State Rep. Saira Draper, an Atlanta Democrat who was Joe Biden’s state director of voter protection in 2020, said hindering a final statewide tally may not even be Republicans’ main goal.

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“It’s not about whether they’re successful in stopping certification,” she said. “It’s about injecting enough confusion to the process that you have a significant segment of the population that will not accept the results. I think they’re going to meet that goal regardless of what these judicial opinions say.”

Despite widespread criticism, the board has proposed nearly a dozen additional rules it is scheduled to consider when it meets again on Friday.

The controversy playing out in Georgia has national implications, since the presidential race is expected to be narrowly decided by voters there and in six other swing states. Disrupting certification of election results, a once routine process that Trump politicized through his lies about the 2020 election, could hinder states’ ability to meet deadlines for their electoral votes to be counted.

But some legal experts say the doomsday scenario of Republican-dominated local election boards refusing to certify vote counts and preventing Georgia from certifying its totals by an early December deadline remains improbable. That’s because state law and court precedent firmly state that county officials can’t unilaterally discard votes and “shall certify” by deadlines written into state law, no matter how much local board members might distrust their results.

“There is no wiggle room for local certifying officials to take matters into their own hands,” said Lauren Miller Karalunas, a legal historian at New York University’s Brennan Center. “Their only duty during certification is to sign off on the completeness of the results.”

The state board has no direct role in determining election results, but instead writes rules to ensure that elections run smoothly and hears complaints about violations.

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Growing Democratic anxiety over the board majority and its actions mushroomed after Trump praised the majority members by name during an Aug. 3 rally in Atlanta, calling them “pit bulls fighting for honesty, transparency and victory.”

Trump’s focus on the administrative board shows how battles over voting and ballot-counting are a tool that both major parties use to motivate voters in Georgia. Many Democrats say protecting the right to vote is a key issue that particularly motivates Black voters. But it’s also a driver for Republicans, with state Republican Party Chairman Josh McKoon praising the takeover of the board in May. He later emailed proposed rules to board members and others, including an election integrity adviser at the RNC.

Many of the rules come from grassroots Republicans linked to a national web of election integrity advocates connected to lawyer Cleta Mitchell, who was on a call Trump made in January 2021 urging Republican Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to help him “find” the votes needed to overturn his loss in Georgia.

“Forces undermining the security of our elections argue that counties must certify election results no matter what — even if they are fraudulent and illegitimate,” the RNC said in a statement last month. “The Establishment is fighting hard against these rules because they want to keep election systems that are easy to manipulate, with no transparency and no checks in place to prevent cheating.”

To be clear, there was no widespread fraud in Georgia’s 2020 elections. While Atlanta’s Fulton County has admitted double-scanning some ballots during a 2020 recount, those errors if anything benefitted Trump. Georgia’s votes for president were counted three times, including one by hand, and each affirmed Democrat Joe Biden’s win. Recounts, reviews and audits in the other battleground states where also clearly affirmed Trump’s loss.

In a lawsuit seeking to declare the rules invalid, Democrats argue the state election board exceeded its legal authority. A trial is set for Oct. 1. A conservative group led by a former Republican state lawmaker also has filed a lawsuit saying the board is improperly using rules to encroach on the Legislature’s authority to make laws.

Opponents of the board’s majority also are trying to get Republican Gov. Brian Kemp to remove the three Trump-aligned members, alleging ethics violations. The governor so far hasn’t acted.

With less than two months until Election Day and mail ballots already going out to military and overseas voters, county election officials say it’s too late for new rules. The Georgia Association of Voter Registration and Election Officials has been repeatedly critical of many of the proposed changes, saying they provide little benefit, duplicate efforts of already-required procedures or invite local boards to refuse to certify results.

Karen Glenn, an election official in Butts County, located south of Atlanta, said she thought it was “very irresponsible” for the board to be pushing new rules on counties as local governments prepare for an election that could see record turnout.

“We have a lot to do to prepare, so to implement a new rule right now, we have to stop, learn that,” Glenn said in an interview at a training meeting for election officials last month. “It’s just too close. It could lead to mistakes, and we don’t want to make mistakes. We already have low public confidence as is, so that only hurts us.”

Some Republicans argue that county election boards can decline to certify election results. A Republican-appointed Fulton County board member is asking a judge to affirm that position in a lawsuit. But court decisions in Georgia and nationwide say officials can’t refuse.

“That has been asked and answered hundreds and hundreds of times over more than a century,” said Karalunas of the Brennan Center.

Certifying Georgia’s statewide vote in November is the job of Raffensperger and Kemp, not the State Election Board. Raffensperger, a Republican, has repeatedly signaled he will push counties to comply and called their duty to certify “very clear and black-letter law.”

“We fully expect them to do their job.” he said.

JEFF AMY

Jeff Amy covers Georgia politics and government.

AP

The final day of voting in the US is here, after tens of millions have already cast their ballots

Published

3 months ago

November 5, 2024

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People stand in line during the last day of early voting, Saturday, Nov. 2, 2024, in Charlotte, N.C. (AP Photo/Mike Stewart)Read More

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Voters line up to vote as a early voting location opened in Carmel, Ind., Wednesday, Oct. 23, 2024. (AP Photo/Michael Conroy)

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A person walks past a sign during early voting in the general election, Friday, Nov. 1, 2024, in Fall River, Mass. (AP Photo/Steven Senne)

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An election worker demonstrates mail-in ballot processing during a media preview at the Philadelphia Election Warehouse, in Philadelphia, Friday, Oct. 25, 2024. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)

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A voter fills out their their ballot during early voting in the general election, Friday, Nov. 1, 2024, in Fall River, Mass. (AP Photo/Steven Senne)

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People line up to vote at the Chicago Early Voting Loop Supersite in Chicago, Thursday, Oct. 24, 2024. (AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh)

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Bennett College student Zairen Jackson listens to a fellow student answer a question during a roundtable in Greensboro, N.C., Tuesday, Oct. 8, 2024. (AP Photo/Chuck Burton)

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FILE – A Delaware County secured drop box for the return of vote-by-mail ballots is pictured, May 2, 2022, in Newtown Square, Pa. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke, File)

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An elections official sorts counted mail-in ballots on the first day of tabulation, Wednesday, Oct. 23, 2024, at the Maricopa County Recorder’s Office in Phoenix. (AP Photo/Matt York)

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People wait in line to cast their ballots at an early voting location, Thursday, Oct. 31, 2024, in Blue Springs, Mo. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel)

BY CHRISTINA A. CASSIDY AND ALI SWENSONUpdated 11:05 AM GMT+6, November 5, 2024

WASHINGTON (AP) — Election Day 2024 arrived Tuesday — with tens of millions of Americans having already cast their ballots. Those include record numbers in Georgia, North Carolina and other battleground states that could decide the winner.

The early turnout in Georgia, which has flipped between the Republican and Democratic nominees in the previous two presidential elections, has been so robust — over 4 million voters — that a top official in the secretary of state’s office said the big day could look like a “ghost town” at the polls.

As of Monday, Associated Press tracking of advance voting nationwide showed roughly 82 million ballots already cast — slightly more than half the total number of votes in the presidential election four years earlier. That’s driven partly by Republican voters, who were casting early ballots at a higher rate than in recent previous elections after a campaign by former President Donald Trump and the Republican National Committee to counter the Democrats’ longstanding advantage in the early vote.

That included in the parts of western North Carolina hammered last month by Hurricane Helene. State and local election officials, benefiting from changes made by the Republican-controlled legislature, pulled off a herculean effort to ensure residents could cast their ballots as they dealt with power outages, lack of water and washed out roads.

By the time early voting in North Carolina had ended on Saturday, over 4.4 million voters — or nearly 57% of all registered voters in the state — had cast their ballots. As of Monday, turnout in the 25 western counties affected by the hurricane was even stronger at 59% of registered voters, state election board Executive Director Karen Brinson Bell said.

Brinson Bell called the voters and election workers in the hurricane-hit counties “an inspiration to us all.”

Besides the hurricanes in North Carolina and Florida, the most worrisome disruptions to the election season so far were arson attacks that damaged ballots in two drop boxes near the Oregon-Washington border. Authorities there were searching for the person responsible.

The absence of any significant, widespread problems has not stopped Trump, the Republican nominee, or the RNC, which is now under his sway, from making numerous claims of fraud or election interference during the early voting period, a possible prelude to challenges after Election Day.

He has mischaracterized an investigation underway in Pennsylvania into roughly 2,500 potentially fraudulent voter registration applications by saying one of the counties was “caught with 2600 Fake Ballots and Forms, all written by the same person.” The investigation is into registration applications; there is no indication that ballots are involved.

In Georgia, Republicans sought to prohibit voters from returning mailed ballots to their local election office by the close of polls on Election Day, votes that are allowed under state law. A judge rejected their lawsuit over the weekend.

Trump and Republicans also have warned about the possibility that Democrats are recruiting masses of noncitizens to vote, a claim they have made without evidence and that runs counter to the data, including from Republican secretaries of state. Research has consistently shown that noncitizens registering to vote is rare. Any noncitizen who does faces the potential of felony charges and deportation, a significant disincentive.

One case of noncitizen voting was caught during early voting last month and resulted in felony charges in Michigan after a student from China cast an illegal early ballot.

This is the first presidential vote since Trump lost to Joe Biden four years ago and began various attempts to circumvent the outcome and remain in power. That climaxed with the violent Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol to halt certification of the results after Trump told his supporters to “fight like hell.”

Even now, a solid majority of Republicans believe Trump’s lie that Biden was not legitimately elected, despite reviews, audits and recounts in the battleground states that all affirmed Biden’s win. A survey last month from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research showed Republicans remain much more skeptical than Democrats that their ballots will be counted accurately this year.

Seeking to rebuild voter confidence in a system targeted with false claims of widespread fraud, Republican lawmakers in more than a dozen states since 2020 have passed new voting restrictions. Those rules include shortening the window to apply or return a mail ballot, reducing the availability of ballot drop boxes and adding ID requirements.

On the last weekend before Election Day, Trump continued to falsely claim the election was being rigged against him and said a presidential winner should be declared on election night, before all the ballots are counted.

Vice President Kamala Harris urged voters not to fall for Trump’s tactic of casting doubt on elections. The Democratic nominee told supporters at a weekend rally in Michigan that the tactic was intended to suggest to people “that if they vote, their vote won’t matter.” Instead, she urged people who had already cast ballots to encourage their friends to do the same.

Through four years of election lies and voting-related conspiracy theories, local election officials have faced harassment and even death threats. That has prompted high turnover and led to heightened security for election offices and polling sites that includes panic buttons and bullet-proof glass.

While there have been no major reports of any malicious cyberactivity affecting election offices, foreign actors have been active in using fake social media profiles and websites to drum up partisan vitriol and disinformation. In the final weeks, U.S. intelligence officials have attributed to Russia multiple fake videos alleging election fraud in presidential swing states.

On the eve of Election Day, they issued a joint statement with federal law enforcement agencies warning that Russia in particular was ramping up its influence operations, including in ways that could incite violence, and likely would continue those efforts well after the votes have been cast.

Jen Easterly, the nation’s top election security official, urged Americans to rely on state and local election officials for information about elections.

“This is especially important as we are in an election cycle with an unprecedented amount of disinformation, including disinformation being aggressively peddled and amplified by our foreign adversaries at a greater scale than ever before,” she said. “We cannot allow our foreign adversaries to have a vote in our democracy.”

___

The Associated Press receives support from several private foundations to enhance its explanatory coverage of elections and democracy. See more about AP’s democracy initiative here. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

ALI SWENSON

Swenson reports on election-related misinformation, disinformation and extremism for The Associated Press.

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AP

Georgia high court says absentee ballots must be returned by Election Day, even in county with delay

Published

3 months ago

November 5, 2024

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A woman holds up her sticker that signifies that she has officially voted in the state of Georgia, Thursday, Oct. 31, 2024, in Atlanta. (AP Photo/Jason Allen)

Updated 5:13 AM GMT+6, November 5, 2024

ATLANTA (AP) — Thousands of voters in Georgia’s third-largest county who received their absentee ballots late will not get an extension to return them, the state’s highest court decided on Monday.

Cobb County, just north of Atlanta, didn’t mail out absentee ballots to some 3,400 voters who had requested them until late last week. Georgia law says absentee ballots must be received by the close of polls on Election Day. But a judge in a lower court ruled last week that the ballots at issue could be counted if they’re received by this Friday, three days after Election Day, as long as they were postmarked by Tuesday.

The Georgia Supreme Court ruling means the affected Cobb County residents must vote in person on Election Day, which is Tuesday, or bring their absentee ballots to the county elections office by 7 p.m. that day.

The high court ruling instructs county election officials to notify the affected voters by email, text message and in a public message on the county election board’s website. And it orders officials to keep separate and sealed any ballots received after the Election Day deadline but before 5 p.m. Friday.

Board of elections Chair Tori Silas said the board will comply with the Supreme Court order, but it’s still up in the air whether ballots received after Election Day will be counted. The order only addressed a motion for a stay, so election officials will have to wait for the court’s final ruling to see whether votes received after Tuesday will be counted, she said in a statement.

To deliver the ballots on time, election officials in Cobb County were using U.S. Postal Service express mail and UPS overnight delivery, and sending the ballots with prepaid express return envelopes. The Board of Elections said that more than 1,000 of the absentee ballots being mailed late were being sent to people outside of Georgia.

Silas last week blamed the delay in sending out the ballots on faulty equipment and a late surge in absentee ballot requests during the week before the Oct. 25 deadline.

The original ruling extending the deadline stemmed from a lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union and the Southern Poverty Law Center on behalf of three Cobb County voters who said they had not received absentee ballots by mail as of Friday.

AP

Elon Musk’s $1 million-a-day voter sweepstakes can proceed, a Pennsylvania judge says

Published

3 months ago

November 5, 2024

electionlive_gcw35j

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Elon Musk is pledging to give away $1 million a day to voters for signing his political action committee’s petition backing the Constitution. The giveaway by the Donald Trump supporter is raising questions among some who say it’s a violation of the law.Read More

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America PAC lawyer Chris Gober speaks with members of the media ahead of a hearing at a City Hall courtroom in Philadelphia, Monday, Nov. 4, 2024. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)

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Elon Musk speaks before Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump at a campaign rally at Madison Square Garden, Sunday, Oct. 27, 2024, in New York. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

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Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner arrives for a hearing at a City Hall courtroom, in Philadelphia, Monday, Nov. 4, 2024. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)

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America PAC lawyer Chris Gober speaks with members of the media ahead of a hearing at a City Hall courtroom in Philadelphia, Monday, Nov. 4, 2024. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)

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Elon Musk speaks before Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump at a campaign rally at Madison Square Garden, Sunday, Oct. 27, 2024, in New York. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

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Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner, third from right, arrives for a hearing at a City Hall courtroom, Thursday, Oct. 31, 2024, in Philadelphia. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)

BY MARYCLAIRE DALEUpdated 4:19 AM GMT+6, November 5, 2024Share

Follow live: Updates from AP’s coverage of the presidential election.

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — The $1 million-a-day voter sweepstakes that Elon Musk ‘s political action committee is hosting in swing states can continue through Tuesday’s presidential election, a Pennsylvania judge ruled Monday.

Common Pleas Court Judge Angelo Foglietta — ruling after Musk’s lawyers said the winners are paid spokespeople and not chosen by chance — did not immediately explain his reasoning.

District Attorney Larry Krasner, a Democrat, had called the process a scam “designed to actually influence a national election” and asked that it be shut down.

Musk lawyer Chris Gober said the final two recipients before Tuesday’s presidential election will be in Arizona on Monday and Michigan on Tuesday.

“The $1 million recipients are not chosen by chance,” Gober said Monday. “We know exactly who will be announced as the $1 million recipient today and tomorrow.”

Chris Young, the director and treasurer of America PAC, testified that the recipients are vetted ahead of time, to “feel out their personality, (and) make sure they were someone whose values aligned” with the group.

Musk’s lawyers, defending the effort, called it “core political speech” given that participants sign a petition endorsing the U.S. Constitution. They also said Krasner’s bid to shut it down under Pennsylvania law was moot because there would be no more Pennsylvania winners before the program ends Tuesday.

Young also acknowledged that the PAC made the recipients sign nondisclosure agreements.

“They couldn’t really reveal the truth about how they got the money, right?” Summers asked.

“Sounds right,” Young said.

In an Oct. 20 social media post shown in court, Musk said anyone signing the petition had “a daily chance of winning $1M!”

Summers grilled him on Musk’s use of both the words “chance” and “randomly,” prompting Young to concede the latter was not “the word I would have selected.”

Young said the winners knew they would be called on stage but not specifically that they would win the money.

Musk did not attend the hearing. He has committed more than $70 million to the super PAC to help Trump and other Republicans win in November.

“This was all a political marketing masquerading as a lottery,” Krasner testified Monday. “That’s what it is. A grift.”

Lawyers for Musk and the PAC said they do not plan to extend the lottery beyond Tuesday. Krasner said the first three winners, starting on Oct. 19, came from Pennsylvania in the days leading up to the state’s Oct. 21 voter registration deadline.

Other winners came from the battleground states of Wisconsin, Nevada, Arizona, Georgia, North Carolina and Michigan. It’s not clear if anyone has yet received the money. The PAC pledged they would get it by Nov. 30, according to an exhibit shown in court.

More than 1 million people from the seven states have registered for the sweepstakes by signing a petition saying they support the right to free speech and to bear arms, the first two amendments to the U.S. Constitution. Krasner questioned how the PAC might use their data, which it will have on hand well past the election.

“They were scammed for their information,” Krasner said. “It has almost unlimited use.”

Krasner’s team called Musk “the heartbeat of America PAC,” and the person announcing the winners and presenting the checks.

“He was the one who presented the checks, albeit large cardboard checks. We don’t really know if there are any real checks,” Summers said.

Foglietta presided over the case at Philadelphia City Hall after Musk and the PAC lost an effort to move it to federal court.

Krasner has said he could still consider criminal charges, as he’s tasked with protecting both lotteries and the integrity of elections.

Pennsylvania remains a key battleground state with 19 electoral votes and both Trump and Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris have repeatedly visited the state, including stops planned Monday in the final hours of the campaign.

Krasner — who noted that he has long driven a Tesla — said he could also seek civil damages for the Pennsylvania registrants. Musk is the CEO and largest shareholder of Tesla. He also owns the social media platform X, where America PAC has published posts on the sweepstakes, and the rocket ship maker SpaceX.

MARYCLAIRE DALE

Dale covers national legal issues for The Associated Press, often focusing on the federal judiciary, gender law, #MeToo and NFL player concussions. Her work unsealing Bill Cosby’s testimony in a decade-old deposition led to his arrest and sexual assault trials.

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