Is Georgia on your mind?

[southernhybrid]

https://www.ajc.com/resizer/LHJB81V...ishing.com/ajc/HK4PBC56E5ELHJCCL2Q3J7CVPE.png

That graph shows black turnout at almost exactly 34%: the portion of blacks in the state. Is that good news because blacks usually have low turnout?

With blacks voting heavily for the humans, as many as 65 or 70% of whites could vote for the monsters and the human candidates would win in a landslide! Doug Jones was elected as Alabama Senator with less than 20% support from white men without degrees — whites overwhelmingly voted for the pederast. Keep these facts in mind when a claim is made that white voters in the South are increasingly humane or rational.

It's the young voters who haven't been turning out yet, and supposedly 2/3rds of them trend Democrat. One of my concerns is that something like 100K of Republicans in Georgia voted for Biden in the general. It's doubtful that these same people will vote for the two Democrats in the runoff. Some probably will, but will it be a large enough percentage to matter?

And then there is this, which I've been expecting.


https://www.ajc.com/politics/get-ready-georgia-more-election-drama-expected-after-senate-runoffs/QLGVE463RVHKTEVD7ZO3MLS5VY/

Georgia’s extraordinarily thin partisan divide set the stage for rampant misinformation, lawsuits and fights over election integrity after the presidential election.


With control of the Senate on the line Jan. 5, elections officials are bracing for a new round of drama — especially if the races are as close as polls, analysts and the campaigns suggest they will be.

President Donald Trump has warred with state leaders and elections officials for weeks following his narrow defeat here, even though flipping Georgia wouldn’t be enough to reverse Joe Biden’s White House victory.

Imagine, though, an equally tight margin in the twin runoffs, which have attracted unprecedented spending and attention with the fate of Biden’s legislative agenda at stake. Gabriel Sterling, the state’s voting system manager, is preparing for such a drawn-out scenario.

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution interviewed more than a dozen state officials, voting rights experts and party leaders who are quietly gearing up for a tortured election aftermath even while the U.S. Senate runoff campaigns are in full swing.

Their message: Brace yourselves, Georgia voters. These races might not be settled for weeks.

Once again, there could be drawn-out legal battles that seek to challenge the election results, restrict counting of certain ballots and allow others to be tallied.

Once again, there could be an unwavering stream of misinformation infecting the social discourse, requiring elections officials, voting rights groups and the news media to work overtime to play Whac-A-Mole with falsehoods that spread virally on social media.

And once again, officials are preparing for the threat of violence after the election — no idle concern after this chaotic campaign season. Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger required a security detail after he and his wife received death threats; some low-level county elections workers targeted by conspiracy theorists had to go into hiding.

There's a lot more in the linked article, but you get the idea. This election is probably going to be a mess.

 

[Copernicus]

It's the young voters who haven't been turning out yet, and supposedly 2/3rds of them trend Democrat. One of my concerns is that something like 100K of Republicans in Georgia voted for Biden in the general. It's doubtful that these same people will vote for the two Democrats in the runoff. Some probably will, but will it be a large enough percentage to matter?

And then there is this, which I've been expecting.


https://www.ajc.com/politics/get-ready-georgia-more-election-drama-expected-after-senate-runoffs/QLGVE463RVHKTEVD7ZO3MLS5VY/

Georgia’s extraordinarily thin partisan divide set the stage for rampant misinformation, lawsuits and fights over election integrity after the presidential election.


With control of the Senate on the line Jan. 5, elections officials are bracing for a new round of drama — especially if the races are as close as polls, analysts and the campaigns suggest they will be.

President Donald Trump has warred with state leaders and elections officials for weeks following his narrow defeat here, even though flipping Georgia wouldn’t be enough to reverse Joe Biden’s White House victory.

Imagine, though, an equally tight margin in the twin runoffs, which have attracted unprecedented spending and attention with the fate of Biden’s legislative agenda at stake. Gabriel Sterling, the state’s voting system manager, is preparing for such a drawn-out scenario.

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution interviewed more than a dozen state officials, voting rights experts and party leaders who are quietly gearing up for a tortured election aftermath even while the U.S. Senate runoff campaigns are in full swing.

Their message: Brace yourselves, Georgia voters. These races might not be settled for weeks.

Once again, there could be drawn-out legal battles that seek to challenge the election results, restrict counting of certain ballots and allow others to be tallied.

Once again, there could be an unwavering stream of misinformation infecting the social discourse, requiring elections officials, voting rights groups and the news media to work overtime to play Whac-A-Mole with falsehoods that spread virally on social media.

And once again, officials are preparing for the threat of violence after the election — no idle concern after this chaotic campaign season. Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger required a security detail after he and his wife received death threats; some low-level county elections workers targeted by conspiracy theorists had to go into hiding.

There's a lot more in the linked article, but you get the idea. This election is probably going to be a mess.

My major concern is that quite a few Americans, especially moderates, believe that a divided government is best for the country, so they will vote to keep the Senate Republican. They don't share the perspective of many more Americans who see that as a recipe for gridlock, or they just don't care. When they voted in the general, voting for Biden made more sense, because Republicans controlled both the Supreme Court and the Senate. Now they will think that flipping the Senate is a bad idea. So they will go for Loeffler and Perdue, regardless of the consequences.

 

[Derec]

If McConnel was a reasonable leader that would be a viable strategy to have checks and balances on Dem power and prevent for example confirmation of radical cabinet members like Deb Haaland.

In any case it's mot. Löffler and Perdue are almost certain to win their respective seats.

 

[southernhybrid]

It's the young voters who haven't been turning out yet, and supposedly 2/3rds of them trend Democrat. One of my concerns is that something like 100K of Republicans in Georgia voted for Biden in the general. It's doubtful that these same people will vote for the two Democrats in the runoff. Some probably will, but will it be a large enough percentage to matter?

And then there is this, which I've been expecting.


https://www.ajc.com/politics/get-ready-georgia-more-election-drama-expected-after-senate-runoffs/QLGVE463RVHKTEVD7ZO3MLS5VY/

Once again, there could be drawn-out legal battles that seek to challenge the election results, restrict counting of certain ballots and allow others to be tallied.

Once again, there could be an unwavering stream of misinformation infecting the social discourse, requiring elections officials, voting rights groups and the news media to work overtime to play Whac-A-Mole with falsehoods that spread virally on social media.

And once again, officials are preparing for the threat of violence after the election — no idle concern after this chaotic campaign season. Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger required a security detail after he and his wife received death threats; some low-level county elections workers targeted by conspiracy theorists had to go into hiding.

There's a lot more in the linked article, but you get the idea. This election is probably going to be a mess.

My major concern is that quite a few Americans, especially moderates, believe that a divided government is best for the country, so they will vote to keep the Senate Republican. They don't share the perspective of many more Americans who see that as a recipe for gridlock, or they just don't care. When they voted in the general, voting for Biden made more sense, because Republicans controlled both the Supreme Court and the Senate. Now they will think that flipping the Senate is a bad idea. So they will go for Loeffler and Perdue, regardless of the consequences.

Yes. Certainly most of the Republicans who voted for Biden will feel that way. They found Trump appalling but will be frightened by all the attempts to paint the two Dems as radical socialists. The ads here are becoming insane, especially on television. At almost ever break, there are 4 back to back ads, one for each candidate. At this point, most of them are attack ads. I get text messages several times a week asking me to vote or go knocking on doors to get other people to vote. If I had saved all of the junk mail from candidates that I've received, I'd have quite a large stack of junk by now. What a waste.

 

[southernhybrid]

How will Latino voters impact the runoff election?

https://www.ajc.com/news/georgias-latino-voters-draw-big-attention-from-us-senate-campaigns/GWGYBTBIH5AJTKYE273HUTDISE/

.As the runoff election nears, both Democrats and Republicans are courting the roughly 250,000 Latino voters in Georgia.

Democratic U.S. Senate candidates Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff are trying to get Latinos back to the polls by emphasizing COVID-19 relief and changes to immigration policy.

Republican U.S. Sens. Kelly Loeffler and David Perdue are ripping pages out of the playbook of President Donald Trump — who saw a 10-point bump this year among Georgia Latinos — by pointing out the significance of a strong economy and their opponents’ supposed embrace of socialism.


In what are expected to be tight races, Latinos could be the deciding factor, said Stephanie Lopez-Burgos, the Gwinnett County field director for the Working Families Party.

The article discusses the various positions that Latinos support. There are conservative Latinos who oppose free healthcare and have been frightened by the claims that the two Dems are socialist, but I get the impression that there are more Latino voters in Georgia who will support the two Democrats. The claim has been made that they are more like Latinos in Arizona then those in Florida. This makes sense as the majority of Latinos who I have known personally are of Mexican heritage, or in some cases, they are from countries in Central America.

I do find it almost amusing that so many different groups are trying to claim credit for gradually turning Georgia blue. Black voters are claiming that, as well as female voters. Latino voters and Asian voters are also claiming that, but I've even heard of former Republicans and independents making that claim. I do wish we would not be so concerned with these identities and just say that we are in this together.

“People in our community are getting left behind,” said Gaeta, whose family is from Mexico. “Latinos will for sure come out and make a difference in the polls. We saw in November where we turned Georgia blue. We will continue to do that and engage the party and our representatives to make sure that our voices are heard. Our voices have not been heard in such a long time, and we know that.”

That's how the linked article ends. One of the best things about the Democratic Party imo, is it's diversity. That also sometimes makes it much more difficult to agree since a diverse group of people have a harder time reaching a consensus.

The other hope is that there are more than 64,000 newly registered voters who didn't vote in the November election but are now registered to vote in the runoffs. This group is made up mostly of minorities and younger voters. So, as stated before, the results depend on turnout. This time, it seems as if the Democratic voters are at least as energized as the Republican voters.

 

[T.G.G. Moogly]

Judge orders Georgia counties to halt voter purge ahead of Senate runoff

“Defendants are enjoined from removing any challenged voters in Ben Hill and Muscogee Counties from the registration lists on the basis of National Change of Address data,” she said in the court order. This judge is the sister of Stacey Abrams, the Democratic activist who lost a race for Georgia governor in 2018.

This is bound to make the right-wingers' heads explode. How typical of Georgia, however, to continuoually and openly attempt to disenfranchise voters. This seems to be the republican strategy, just keep decreasing the voting rolls.

 

[southernhybrid]

Judge orders Georgia counties to halt voter purge ahead of Senate runoff

“Defendants are enjoined from removing any challenged voters in Ben Hill and Muscogee Counties from the registration lists on the basis of National Change of Address data,” she said in the court order. This judge is the sister of Stacey Abrams, the Democratic activist who lost a race for Georgia governor in 2018.

This is bound to make the right-wingers' heads explode. How typical of Georgia, however, to continuoually and openly attempt to disenfranchise voters. This seems to be the republican strategy, just keep decreasing the voting rolls.

I've lived in Georgia for over 25 years and I've never seen anything like what the Republicans are trying to do during this runoff election. They have a history of trying to somewhat suppress the vote, but those things were minimal compared to what they are trying to do now.

To be honest, I will be very surprised if the Dems win since, as I've said before, there was a large number of Republicans who voted split ticket in the general. They hated Trump, so they voted for Biden, but then they voted for the Republicans in the other races. It's going to be very difficult for either of these two Democrats to win, although I've met a few Republicans who are either sitting out the runoff or who have decided they want to get rid of McConnell. The Democrats do seem more energized during this runoff compared to the Republicans, but the Republicans in Georgia have been more reliable voters in the past compared to the Democrats. I guess the Republican leadership is a bit scared or they wouldn't keep trying to disenfranchise so many voters. Most of us will just be glad when this election is over.

 

[Copernicus]

The latest wrinkle is that Perdue and Loeffler declare their intention to vote for the $2,000 increase in checks in order to blunt Warnock and Ossoff's attack on them for opposing the larger payout. At the same time, McConnell simply blocks the Senate from voting on the matter, saving Perdue and Loeffler from actually having to follow through on their promise. McConnell claims that he is only temporarily blocking the vote, but after the election, Perdue and Loeffler will vote to keep him in power, and he will simply leave the stingy $600 checks in place. Republicans will all have a good chuckle while thumbing their noses at people who are in desperate need of the money.

 

[Jarhyn]

The latest wrinkle is that Perdue and Loeffler declare their intention to vote for the $2,000 increase in checks in order to blunt Warnock and Ossoff's attack on them for opposing the larger payout. At the same time, McConnell simply blocks the Senate from voting on the matter, saving Perdue and Loeffler from actually having to follow through on their promise. McConnell claims that he is only temporarily blocking the vote, but after the election, Perdue and Loeffler will vote to keep him in power, and he will simply leave the stingy $600 checks in place. Republicans will all have a good chuckle while thumbing their noses at people who are in desperate need of the money.

Well, Trump is issuing a fatwa now on Bitch, so we'll see where that goes, first.

I wonder what will happen if some of his sychophantic followers will reshape the Senate in the next few days... Something something, don't wish them dead, something something obituaries.

 

[ZiprHead]

Watchdog Group Goes After True The Vote's Tax-Exempt Status

“Charities and nonprofits don’t get to partner with political parties to suppress the vote and engage in political dirty tricks,” said Michelle Kuppersmith, executive director of the Campaign for Accountability.

Texas-based True the Vote is working with the Georgia Republican Party to challenge more than 364,000 Georgians who they say may not qualify to vote in the Jan. 5 runoff election because they may have changed addresses. That effort already has drawn a court challenge from the voting rights group Fair Fight, founded by Democrat Stacey Abrams.

Now True the Vote is the subject of an Internal Revenue Service complaint that says is has violated federal laws prohibiting charities from engaging in political activities. The complaint accuses True the Vote of working with the Republican Party and making partisan statements against Democrats and liberals. And it asks the IRS to revoke True the Vote’s tax-exempt status.

“Charities and nonprofits don’t get to partner with political parties to suppress the vote and engage in political dirty tricks,” said Michelle Kuppersmith, executive director of the Campaign for Accountability, which filed the complaint and bills itself as a nonprofit watchdog organization.

On Monday True the Vote said the IRS complaint has no merit. It said the Campaign for Accountability is “part of a concerted campaign by the left to penalize and to prohibit conservative groups from engaging in efforts to preserve the integrity of our elections.

 

[Elixir]

The Democrats do seem more energized during this runoff compared to the Republicans, but the Republicans in Georgia have been more reliable voters in the past compared to the Democrats. I guess the Republican leadership is a bit scared or they wouldn't keep trying to disenfranchise so many voters. Most of us will just be glad when this election is over.

The only hope is that GA Republicans (at least some of them) realize that their only chance of getting that $2k or anything like it now or in the next 2 years, is to elect Warnock and Ossoff.
I very much doubt that this will occur, but stranger things have happened.
Just not very often.

 

[TomC]

The only hope is that GA Republicans (at least some of them) realize that their only chance of getting that $2k or anything like it now or in the next 2 years, is to elect Warnock and Ossoff.

Why would you think this?

The reason the aid is being held up is because the "Republicans" insist on billions in corporate welfare. They could just agree to provide the payments without a bunch of other budget breaking stuff. But they won't.

The problem is the GOP. Trump can still refuse to sign, since he's not a Republican.
Tom

 

[SimpleDon]

If McConnel was a reasonable leader that would be a viable strategy to have checks and balances on Dem power and prevent for example confirmation of radical cabinet members like Deb Haaland.

In any case it's mot. Löffler and Perdue are almost certain to win their respective seats.

I agree with you, I don't see where the Democrats have a chance. The only reason that there is a run-off for the Purdue seat is that there was a Libertarian candidate and I don't see that the Libertarians will vote for Ossoff, they will vote for Purdue if they show up at all to vote. The election for the Löffler seat was designed to go into a run-off but it was obvious that Löffler thought that she would be in an election run-off against Doug Collins, therefore the ads proclaiming her to be to the right of Attila the Hun.

 

[laughing dog]

The voters of Georgia already pulled off their miracle - electing Biden. I don't expect miracles to occur, so GA is not on my mind at all.

 

[southernhybrid]

After extensive news reading and watching news tv today, I'm a little bit more optimistic than I was before. Apparently, a lot more Democrats have been voting during early voting. There are about 74K new, young voters who didn't vote in November, who are voting in the runoff. About 2/3rd of these are supposedly Democrats. The percentage of Black voters is higher than ever. There are still long lines in areas that are primarily Democratic. So, unless a huge number of Republicans come out on Tuesday, there is a chance that the Dems could pull this thing off. Perhaps people are being overly optimistic, but so far, the numbers for a runoff election are higher than they've ever been.

It appears to me as if the Republicans are scared shitless, or they wouldn't have been trying to challenge so many voters. Everything they've brought to court so far has been thrown out. So, nobody has been removed from the rolls. Today is the last day of early voting.

https://www.ajc.com/politics/whos-voted-so-far-in-georgias-runoff-elections/FGY2DQ5EOBB55BOUBHYRRRRTLY/

With two U.S. Senate seats and control of the legislative body up for grabs in the Jan. 5 runoff election, Georgians are eager to have their say. So far, more than 2.8 million people have voted, according to an analysis of data from the secretary of state’s office.

76K new Georgia voters registered before US Senate runoffs

.Most voters are voting in-person, but mail voting remains popular. About 890,000 people have cast mail ballots, which is 32% of the early vote. About 351,000 requested mail ballots have not been returned.

I have a friend who canceled her mail in ballot and then voted in person. It could be that's why so many haven't been returned yet. Who really knows?

Females make up 56% of early voters compared to 44% for males.

There is a map in the link and so far, the districts that trend heavily for Democrats have had a much higher turnout, compared to those that trend Republican.

Voters 65 and older make up 32% of all early votes, a number that has been steadily dropping as more votes have rolled in.

While I am over 65, white and a Democrat, people over 65 in Georgia tend to vote Republican, so maybe it's a good thing for the Dems that the percentage of older voters is dropping.

I'm not claiming that the Democrats are going to win this thing, but it's looking better than I expected at this point. I also read about many very young voter organizations, mostly Democrats, although some were Republicans. They are literally knocking on doors and doing a lot to get out the vote. This is a very interesting runoff, since in the past, only very reliable, most older Republican voters bothered with runoffs. I'll be glad when it's over, regardless of the results. It's just good to see so many new voters and young people beginning to realize how important it is to vote in every single election.

 

[blastula]

[TWEET]https://twitter.com/PriscillaWT/status/1344623101036912643[/TWEET]

You do have mail in voting in GA, right?

 

[hyzer]

While I am over 65, white and a Democrat, people over 65 in Georgia tend to vote Republican, so maybe it's a good thing for the Dems that the percentage of older voters is dropping.

My mom, 86, living in Tucker (outside of Atlanta), voted in person in November (driven to the polling location by my brother) and for the first time in her life voted for the democratic candidate on a national ticket. And last week she went out again, insisting that she have "another say against Trump".

 

[ZiprHead]

Newly released Georgia Senate runoff poll finds Democratic candidates with widening leads

Jon Ossoff and the Rev. Raphael Warnock, the two Democratic US Senate candidates in Georgia, widened their leads against Republican Sens. David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler in a new poll from JMC Analytics and Polling.

The JMC poll, conducted with 500 respondents on Monday and Tuesday, found Ossoff ahead of Perdue 50% to 43%, or 7 points, with 7% of respondents saying they were undecided.

The divide between Warnock and Loeffler in the poll was even larger: Warnock was ahead 53% to 44%, or 9 points, with 3% of respondents saying they were undecided.

JMC's poll was its first of the Senate runoff elections. A recent survey conducted by SurveyUSA found Ossoff with a 5-percentage-point lead and Warnock with a 7-point lead. And according to FiveThirtyEight's polling tracker, the margin of support has steadily increased for the Democratic candidates in polls conducted since the general election on November 3.

When JMC asked how and when its respondents planned to vote, 91% said they had already voted or planned to vote early in person or by mail, while 7% said they planned to vote on Election Day on Tuesday.

 

[Elixir]

The only hope is that GA Republicans (at least some of them) realize that their only chance of getting that $2k or anything like it now or in the next 2 years, is to elect Warnock and Ossoff.

Why would you think this?

The reason the aid is being held up is because the "Republicans" insist on billions in corporate welfare. They could just agree to provide the payments without a bunch of other budget breaking stuff. But they won't.

The problem is the GOP. Trump can still refuse to sign, since he's not a Republican.
Tom

Newsflash: TRUMP LOST. BIGLY.
The GOP is the problem and voters are the solution.
He will be unemployed in three weeks, less time than it takes to negotiate a fraud settlement.

 

[ZiprHead]

WaPo-Youth voter turnout in Georgia runoffs shows signs of sustained enthusiasm post-November

More than 281,000 voters under 30 have already cast their ballots in the runoffs, rivaling the historic early turnout of young voters in Georgia at this point in the November election. It is an unusual level of enthusiasm for an age group that typically has low rates of voting — particularly in runoff elections, which historically draw much less attention than presidential races.

But this race has garnered enormous attention because of the high stakes for Senate control, which will decide whether Biden can enact a more ambitious Democratic agenda with the support of a unified Congress.