Georgia's Very Own Megathread!

[Dr. Arch]

Georgia is considering sending absentee ballots to all older voters for the May primary:

Jordan Fuchs, deputy secretary of state, said Sunday that – logistically and financially – the state could not afford to shift to a system in which all balloting is conducted by mail, as some have called for. But it could afford to mail ballot applications to those over 65 or even 60 – whichever is recommended by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the state Department of Public Health.

https://www.ajc.com/blog/politics/the-jolt-keep-them-out-long-lines-may-primary-ballots-may-mailed-older-voters/6ge4dTrJ33XkkkZyflmqVO/

How is this not voter discrimination? Everyone should have the same access.

[Adam Griffin]

There's no inherent reason (especially with the legislature still in session to approve funding) that they can't mail ballots to all voters for this primary.

With that being said, to do so on a more permanent basis, GA would either need to abolish the concept of runoffs or move to RCV to make it cost-effective. Just as an example, GA was scheduled to have seven elections this year:

• presidential primary & special elections (March 24)
• special election runoff (April 21)
• state/local primary (May 19)
• state/local primary runoff (July 21)
• general election (November 3)
• general election runoff for state/local races (December 1)
• general election runoff for federal races (January 5, 2021)

Even in a non-presidential year, you're still looking at 6-7 elections per cycle (including special elections & depending on whether there's a Senate race), which is untenable. RCV would consolidate this to 3 elections per cycle.

[Adam Griffin]

2,240 ballots were cast (in-person) or requested (by mail) on 3/15 & 3/16.

As of 3/16, 306,704 ballots have been cast or requested for the March 24th May 19th presidential primary. Partisan breakdown of ballot requests is:

212488   69.28% Democratic
91623      29.87% Republican
1625        0.53% Non-Partisan
968          0.32% Unknown

72.0% of ballots cast or requested on 3/15 & 3/16 were Democratic; 25.9% were Republican.

[Adam Griffin]

Given the primary has been "cancelled" in its original incarnation and merged, we're not likely to get a true snapshot of what the final presidential composition would look like (since the May primary will potentially muddy the waters; I assume there will be two separate ballots, but I'm not sure if voters will still be allowed to pull a D presidential primary ballot and a R local/state ballot per usual, etc).

As such and for now, this is about as good of a final figure as we can expect. Even if people can "split-ticket" in May between the two ballots, there'll be a lot more people who probably choose not to do so who would have on 2 separate election dates, which will give the GOP a relative advantage over what would've transpired throughout the final week of early voting and Election Day voting on March 24.

So I've looked at the outstanding mail ballots - of which there are 30,321. A bigger number than I expected, frankly. Anyway, here is their composition:

20433   67.38% Democratic
8315      27.42% Republican
606        2.00% Non-Partisan
968        3.20% Unknown

Obviously all of the unknown ballots from the daily updates are unreturned, given these are application errors and the like. The large number of non-partisan ballots in this batch isn't surprising either, given there's literally nothing on these ballots in most jurisdictions (only places with special elections will have any contests on them).

What is interesting is the lack of difference between D-R returned/cast ballots and unreturned mail ballots. Historically, a substantially larger percentage of Democrats don't return requested ballots, yet among all ballots requested and cast, there's a 39.4 point Democratic advantage; among unreturned, it's 40.0 points. Presumably this can be explained by the fact that there's no real competitive GOP presidential primary, but still neat to see.

[TrendsareUsuallyReal]

Can one of the Georgia people tell me why we never hear Bob Trammell’s name floated for higher office? I believe he is the only Democrat to represent a seat in the legislature that Brian Kemp won. He fits the profile for a solid candidate for something like Attorney General: young former prosecutor with a track record of winning tough races

He honestly sounds like he would have been a better candidate against Perdue than the lackluster field we have.

[Adam Griffin]

So this is garbage, y'all.

Apparently the state is forcing the use of a "combo ballot" for this primary. That means that you will not have the option of voting in the Democratic presidential primary and the GOP state/local primary (or vice-versa) if you haven't already voted: whichever party you pick is the party you get for both primaries (which are one and the same now for this election). Obviously those who have already voted for President will still have the option of picking a different party's ballot that only includes the state/local contests, but this is frustrating.

In counties like mine, you have like 100% of Republicans and 30% of Democrats voting in GOP state/local primaries; the only sure-fire way to identify even some of them is by their presidential primary preferences. This is the case in a lot of counties (especially those where 98% of the population isn't black or white, and where you can't just say "black = D" and "white = R" 90-95% of the time). On one hand, this could force those Democrats to pull a Democratic primary ballot for the presidential primary part and improve our ability to identify them. On the other, given it'll be May when we vote, they may just decide to opt to weigh in on their de-facto general elections in the GOP primary per usual.

[TrendsareUsuallyReal]

Adam, Noob, RFK, GAModerate, anyone?^^

[Rookie Yinzer]

Can one of the Georgia people tell me why we never hear Bob Trammell’s name floated for higher office? I believe he is the only Democrat to represent a seat in the legislature that Brian Kemp won. He fits the profile for a solid candidate for something like Attorney General: young former prosecutor with a track record of winning tough races

He honestly sounds like he would have been a better candidate against Perdue than the lackluster field we have.

Can't answer that but I can see him running for AG in 2022. I don't think it's a coincidence that he endorsed Kamala Harris for POTUS last year.

[TrendsareUsuallyReal]

Can one of the Georgia people tell me why we never hear Bob Trammell’s name floated for higher office? I believe he is the only Democrat to represent a seat in the legislature that Brian Kemp won. He fits the profile for a solid candidate for something like Attorney General: young former prosecutor with a track record of winning tough races

He honestly sounds like he would have been a better candidate against Perdue than the lackluster field we have.

Can't answer that but I can see him running for AG in 2022. I don't think it's a coincidence that he endorsed Kamala Harris for POTUS last year.

Thanks! It’ll be interesting to see if he can survive this year since I imagine Trump will still carry his seat even if he loses Georgia (it was one of the places where Kemp did better than Trump).

Either way, he’ll probably get forced to run statewide for AG in 2022 when Republicans make his seat unwinnable.

[QAnonKelly]

So the entire state senate is being ordered to self quarantine after Sen. Brandon Beech got tested for COVID on Saturday and showed up to vote Monday before his results came back positive.

[GeorgiaModerate]

A second Georgia state senator has tested positive for the disease caused by coronavirus and several other legislators and staffers said they had symptoms of the illness, days after the state’s entire legislative branch was urged to go into self-quarantine because of possible exposure.

https://www.ajc.com/blog/politics/more-coronavirus-cases-reported-georgia-senate/IhLqmvw0BRJlCZkpLaJ9XN/

Brandon Beach should be expelled for his negligence.

[Continential]

A second Georgia state senator has tested positive for the disease caused by coronavirus and several other legislators and staffers said they had symptoms of the illness, days after the state’s entire legislative branch was urged to go into self-quarantine because of possible exposure.

https://www.ajc.com/blog/politics/more-coronavirus-cases-reported-georgia-senate/IhLqmvw0BRJlCZkpLaJ9XN/

Brandon Beach should be expelled for his negligence.

He's a Republican, so he's safe.

[QAnonKelly]

Forget expelled, Beach should be held criminally liable. What on earth was he thinking?

[GeorgiaModerate]

https://twitter.com/bluestein/status/1241881549513134082

I believe this brings the total to four state senators who have tested positive.

[GeorgiaModerate]

Georgia to mail absentee ballot request forms to all voters for May primary.

[Rookie Yinzer]

https://twitter.com/RElliotWSB/status/1243272041370980354?s=20

[Adam Griffin]

SW Georgia is eaten up with coronavirus: 1 in 6 cases (500 out of 3000) and 1 in 3 deaths (32 out of 102) statewide are there, with 339 cases & 26 deaths in Sumter, Lee and Dougherty alone.

To put it in perspective, these three counties have 150,000 people combined, yet Dekalb County (750,000) has fewer cases (294).

[Adam Griffin]

[Lisa's voting Biden]

SW Georgia is eaten up with coronavirus: 1 in 6 cases (500 out of 3000) and 1 in 3 deaths (32 out of 102) statewide are there, with 339 cases & 26 deaths in Sumter, Lee and Dougherty alone.

To put it in perspective, these three counties have 150,000 people combined, yet Dekalb County (750,000) has fewer cases (294).

Video is private.

[QAnonKelly]

It's crazy how one funeral in the middle of nowhere can be such a hotspot while the ATL counties where the 2nd biggest employer is an airline at the world's biggest airport are doing okay.

[Rookie Yinzer]

It's crazy how one funeral in the middle of nowhere can be such a hotspot while the ATL counties where the 2nd biggest employer is an airline at the world's biggest airport are doing okay.

Albany is majority black, far away from the Atlanta metropolis, and inadequate healthcare. All recipes for disaster in a state led by racist conservatives who refuse to expand Medicaid.

[GeorgiaModerate]

Georgia primary delayed (again) to June 9.

[GeorgiaModerate]

The State Election Board voted unanimously Wednesday to allow Georgia voters to turn in their absentee ballots at drop boxes, an option that avoids human contact during the coronavirus pandemic.

Drop boxes can be set up on government property before Georgia’s primary on June 9. Voters will be able to submit their absentee ballots without having to pay for postage or hand them directly to county election workers.

https://www.ajc.com/news/state--regional-govt--politics/ballot-drop-boxes-approved-for-georgia-voters-during-coronavirus/4Bir3Ymx1zL0ZOGsXMazEO/

This is a nice development and I applaud the board for implementing it.  Using a drop box will also ensure that an absentee ballot isn't lost or delayed in the mail.

[Rookie Yinzer]

The State Election Board voted unanimously Wednesday to allow Georgia voters to turn in their absentee ballots at drop boxes, an option that avoids human contact during the coronavirus pandemic.

Drop boxes can be set up on government property before Georgia’s primary on June 9. Voters will be able to submit their absentee ballots without having to pay for postage or hand them directly to county election workers.

https://www.ajc.com/news/state--regional-govt--politics/ballot-drop-boxes-approved-for-georgia-voters-during-coronavirus/4Bir3Ymx1zL0ZOGsXMazEO/

This is a nice development and I applaud the board for implementing it.  Using a drop box will also ensure that an absentee ballot isn't lost or delayed in the mail.

This is amazing.

[QAnonKelly]

The State Election Board voted unanimously Wednesday to allow Georgia voters to turn in their absentee ballots at drop boxes, an option that avoids human contact during the coronavirus pandemic.

Drop boxes can be set up on government property before Georgia’s primary on June 9. Voters will be able to submit their absentee ballots without having to pay for postage or hand them directly to county election workers.

https://www.ajc.com/news/state--regional-govt--politics/ballot-drop-boxes-approved-for-georgia-voters-during-coronavirus/4Bir3Ymx1zL0ZOGsXMazEO/

This is a nice development and I applaud the board for implementing it.  Using a drop box will also ensure that an absentee ballot isn't lost or delayed in the mail.

I wonder if they were afraid of losing a lawsuit. Seems awfully kind hearted for crooked Kemp and co.