Latest news with #GeorgiaElection
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Politics
- Yahoo
Elections board member says she still believes rules were ‘beneficial' despite Supreme Court ruling
In a massive 96-page ruling, the Georgia Supreme Court struck down four controversial rules on Tuesday that the State Election Board tried to implement right before last year's presidential election The justices said the SEB went way beyond its authority when it required each precinct to hand count ballots and allowed local election board members to refuse to certify results. Chief Justice Nels Peterson wrote, 'The SEB can pass rules to implement and enforce the election code, but it cannot go beyond, change, or contradict the law.' Scot Turner heads a group of former GOP lawmakers who challenged the rules in court. 'I think it's a tremendous victory for conservatism,' Turner told Channel 2's Richard Elliot. RELATED STORIES: Lawsuit filed against State Election Board by Republicans to 'rein in unelected' members' authority Raffensperger says voters 'should be concerned' over new, possibly illegal, Election Board rules Secretary of State say State Election Board has overstepped legal authority over new rules State elections board votes to require hand-counting of ballots at polling places Georgia AG says new rules from State Election Board may 'conflict' with state election laws Brad Raffensperger calls Georgia Election Rule Changes misguided, criticizes state board Judge says new Georgia election rules are 'illegal, unconstitutional and void' Georgia Election Board member's appearance at Trump rally sparks debate over code of conduct, Other groups joined in later, including the ACLU and the NAACP. Turner said the SEB basically tried to create laws, something blatantly unconstitutional. 'Nobody elected the State Election Board members, and they took it upon themselves to create new laws. That's a separation of powers issue. It becomes a major problem when you allow that to go unchecked,' Turner said. Election board member Janelle King said she respects the ruling but still believes in the rules they tried to pass. 'I absolutely respect our judicial system,' King said. King told Elliot that they'll now focus their attention on convincing lawmakers to either give the SEB the legal authority to make these rule changes or change the rules themselves. 'I still wholeheartedly believe that these rules are beneficial, useful, and the intent is still there. However, now the ball is in the court of our legislators,' King said. Just hours after the Supreme Court announced its decision, the Georgia House announced its blue-ribbon study committee on election procedures will meet for the first time on July 17.
Yahoo
14-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Federal court might revive Georgia lawsuit claiming mass challenges violate Voting Rights Act
Mass voter challenges have been a mainstay in Georgia since the 2020 presidential election, when Democrat Joe Biden narrowly defeated Republican Donald Trump by about 12,000 votes in the state. Ross Williams/Georgia Recorder A three-judge federal court panel spent an hour in a downtown Atlanta courthouse Tuesday hearing arguments from attorneys about whether a conservative Texas organization's mass voting challenges during a 2021 runoff violated the federal Voting Rights Act by intimidating minority voters. Plaintiff Fair Fight Action, founded by Stacey Abrams, argued in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit that U.S. District Court Judge Steve C. Jones erred in ruling last year that True the Vote's challenge to 365,000 Georgia voters' eligibility did not constitute intimidation prior to historic Democratic Senate victories in Georgia when Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff prevailed in the Jan. 5, 2021 runoff. At least one of the judges expressed skepticism about the soundness of the lower court ruling. Mass voter challenges have been a mainstay in Georgia since the 2020 presidential election, when Democrat Joe Biden narrowly defeated Republican Donald Trump by about 12,000 votes in the state. According to Fair Fight Action and others who filed suit, True the Vote's actions likely violated the Voting Rights Act by using inaccurate voter registration information and voter intimidation tactics such as posting citizen watchdogs to monitor people casting ballots. On Tuesday, the federal panel peppered the attorneys with questions while acknowledging the case's national significance on voting rights protections. Attorney Jake Evans, representing True the Vote, asserted that the intent behind the mass challenges was to protect election integrity. Evans said that the mass challenging of voters' eligibility prior to the 2021 runoff did not amount to voter intimidation. Fair Fight's attorney, Uzoma Nkwonta of the Elias Law Group, argued that although Jones acknowledged recklessness in his ruling, the district court erred in not following the generally accepted standard for taking a substantial step towards the course of action that led to the injury. Nkwonta referenced the Muscogee County election board having to take up more than 4,000 challenged ballots from the 2020 November general election based on faulty national change of address data. 'Not only was it foreseeable, it's exactly what True the Vote wished for and exactly what True the Vote demanded,' Nkwonta said. 'True the Vote issued press releases, prepared one-pagers, considered suing counties and did everything in their power to force (Muscogee) County to take the very action that they took.' 'The voter intimidation statutes have been enforced since the 1960s and even earlier, and they often involve cases in which individuals were applying laws or taking actions that were permissible in every other scenario, but were impermissible because they were intimidating voters,' Nkwonta said. Evans said that over the course of a seven-day trial the voters who testified did not provide proof of how they were intimidated by True the Vote. He argued the plaintiffs have failed to prove a violation of the Voting Rights Act. 'An attempted act has to be traceable to the alleged intimidation,' Evans said. 'Here, there are three individual voters where there is no connection. There is no alleged challenger that's submitted to challenge these individuals. It's completely untraceable.' Judge Federico Moreno said he disagreed with Evans stating it was an 'open and shut appeal.' 'I don't know about the substantive 11 B claims, but I think the district court committed legal error with regard to the attempt,' Moreno said, referencing a section of the act that bars voter intimidation. 'Attempt is generally defined, both in civil and criminal law, as the intent to carry out an objective and taking a substantial means toward doing that.' Moreno provided an anecdote about how a bank robber told a teller, 'Give me the money in your drawer' before then being thwarted by a security officer. 'That person has attempted to commit bank robbery, even though he has not stolen the money because he was stopped by a third-party intermediary,' Moreno said. In addition, Moreno questioned Evans about whether an organization that filed several hundred frivolous voter challenges could be considered an attempt to intimidate voters. Evans said that True the Vote did not use tactics to intimidate voters like other cases where robocalls were used to threaten voters or Native Americans were targeted by sending people to follow them into polling places. 'Judge Jones looked at the evidence,' Evans said. 'He evaluated the demeanor of the witnesses. He saw the witnesses testify, evaluated the totality of the evidence, and he made a factual finding in his order that said that there was no intent by True the Vote to intimidate any voter, any witness.' SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX
Associated Press
13-05-2025
- Politics
- Associated Press
Federal appeals court may revive lawsuit against conservative group for voter intimidation
ATLANTA (AP) — A federal appeals court appeared inclined Tuesday to revive a lawsuit accusing a conservative group of violating the Voting Rights Act when it announced it was challenging the eligibility of more than 360,000 Georgia voters. The lower court committed 'legal error' in its ruling finding no violation of the Voting Rights Act, 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Adalberto Jordan said at a hearing in Atlanta. Another judge on the panel, Federico Moreno, seemed to agree, saying the district court judge had failed to conduct a separate analysis of one part of the law. The three-judge panel did not immediately issue a ruling. The panel was considering a lawsuit against Texas-based nonprofit True the Vote by Fair Fight, a group founded by former Democratic Georgia gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams. Fair Fight argued True the Vote's mass voter challenge ahead of a 2021 runoff election for two pivotal U.S. Senate seats violated a section of the 1965 Voting Rights Act that prohibits voter intimidation. In a 145-page decision last year, U.S. District Judge Steve Jones disagreed, saying the evidence presented during a trial did not show the actions of True the Vote 'caused (or attempted to cause) any voter to be intimidated, coerced, or threatened in voting.' Jones added, however, that the list of voters to be challenged 'utterly lacked reliability' and bordered on 'recklessness.' Jordan and Moreno took issue with Jones' conclusion that True the Vote did not attempt to intimidate voters. Moreno asked an attorney for the group, Jake Evans, whether intimidating voters was the goal of the challenge. Evans said there was no evidence of any desire by True the Vote's co-founder, Catherine Engelbrecht, to intimidate voters, and she had no contact with the challenged voters who testified at trial. Jordan said that argument did not speak to the claim that the group attempted to intimidate voters. 'Attempt does not require success,' he said. Moreno also suggested the 11th Circuit needed to weigh in on such mass challenges for future elections.
Yahoo
07-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Special election to decide who helps set the prices on your power and gas bills
Richmond County voters have until May 19 to register to vote in a special election to help decide the next seat on the Georgia Public Service Commission. The special primary election will be from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Tuesday, June 17, the Richmond County Board of Elections recently announced. All in-person voting requires a valid photo ID. The Georgia PSC rules on issues involving investor-owned telecommunications, natural gas and electric utilities. Notably, it helps set and regulate the rates Georgians pay for those utilities. PSC qualifiers: Eight qualify to fill two Georgia Public Service Commission seats in long overdue election Advance voting will be from May 27 to June 13 at the Linda W. Beazley Community Room, 535 Telfair St.; the Henry Brigham Community Center, 2463 Golden Camp Rd.; the Robert Howard Community Center, 103 Diamond Lakes Way; and the Warren Road Recreation Center, 300 Warren Road. Citizens can apply until June 6 to vote by mail. Ballots will be mailed beginning May 27. More information is available at . Voting hours will be from 8:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. weekdays; 8:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturdays, May 31 and June 7; and 8:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. Sunday, June 9, in the Beazley Room only. For assistance, call the Board of Elections at (706) 821-2340. This article originally appeared on Augusta Chronicle: Richmond County calls special election for Public Service Commission
