ATLANTA – A federal judge has dismissed a voting rights group’s lawsuit, confirming VoteAmerica’s online tool that helps people obtain absentee ballots is legal under the terms of Senate Bill 202, the voting reform law the General Assembly adopted last year.
False claims about the 2020 presidential election by former President Donald Trump and his allies are spurring new interest in working the polls in Georgia and elsewhere for the upcoming midterm elections, but for different reasons.
Voting advocacy groups in Georgia are working to mobilize a disengaged and diverse group of voters for the upcoming midterm elections that will determine not just leadership of the state government but could also once again decide control in Congress.
A third of Olivia Coley-Pearson's neighbors in Coffee County struggle to read at a basic level, and she wants to make sure they have help navigating their ballots. It's an effort that runs counter to other efforts to block help at the voting booth for people who struggle to read — a group that amounts to about 48 million Americans, or more than a fifth of the adult population.
Friday on Political Rewind: Attorney General Merrick Garland wants to unseal the warrant that led to an FBI search of Mar-a-Lago. Plus, a special panel of guests discusses voting in Georgia, including its history of discriminatory voting rules, Senate Bill 202, the experiences of election workers and more.
A federal judge has ruled that Georgia's statewide election of its five public service commissioners illegally dilutes Black voting power. The judge on Friday ordered the state to not prepare ballots for two races that had been scheduled in November.
Friday on Political Rewind: After claiming the 2020 election was rigged, Republicans are mobilizing election volunteers and disputing individual voter registrations statewide. Plus, teachers are better-paid this school year, but they face new restrictions on teaching race and gender.
A change in a Georgia website may have resulted in a sharp drop in people registering to vote as they obtained driver's licenses. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution finds the share of Georgians registering or updating information through the Department of Driver Services fell from 79% in 2020 to 39% last year.
The majority-white, majority Republican rural county planned to move from seven to one polling place because of scarce resources and a change in voter behavior.
Klobuchar during a virtual panel Thursday with state lawmakers said that she met this week with Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, (D-N.Y.), along with Manchin and Georgia Sen. Raphael Warnock, to discuss crafting a bill to protect and expand voting rights, as well as require states to use independent commissions for redistricting.
The original lawsuit, filed last summer, claims the Georgia Public Service Commission’s statewide at-large districts dilute the voting strength of the state’s Black residents and that the state should move to regional districts represented by one commissioner.
During a panel discussion, state lawmakers from Georgia, Arizona, Pennsylvania, Texas and Florida discussed how they’ve fought against restrictive elections measures introduced and passed in their legislatures.
A U.S. Senate committee gathered in downtown Atlanta on Monday to hear how shortened runoff timeframes, tighter absentee ballot deadlines, and new state powers over local election officials are cause for Congress to expand voting protections through pending federal legislation.
Monday on Political Rewind: Sen. Amy Klobuchar is in Atlanta today to hold a field hearing on the impact of Georgia’s new election law on voters of color. It’s unlikely that any Republicans on the committee will attend the hearing, which Klobuchar hopes will shine a spotlight on the need to pass a federal voting rights act.
Meanwhile, Georgia Republicans are doing a bit of counterprogramming today. At the same time of the Klobuchar event, GOP House leaders are holding a committee hearing to look at rising violent crime in Atlanta. And Gov. Brian Kemp has scheduled a conference call with reporters to defend the new election law.
