She’s Back! Stacey Abrams run-off

[Pete at Home]

The word from my work is that a bunch of votes were just found and it appears that there is going to be a runoff so I’m being called back to work for Stacy Abrams for Georgia Governor.

If you’re not familiar with that name, catch up. It’s an interesting story of what happens when you campaign against the government official whose job it is to count the votes

[LetterRip]

Hmm nothing in the news on this yet - you sure it isn't for other runoffs?

[Pete at Home]

I’m in employee only of the Stacy Abrams campaign. I have no relationship to the Democratic Party other than my registration as a Democrat

[cherrypoptart]

Votes found is so suspicious. Were they hidden there so they wouldn't be counted or put there after the fact and is there really any way to tell if they are legitimate or not since there is no way to tie a vote to a person, or is there?

[Pete at Home]

Votes found is so suspicious. Were they hidden there so they wouldn't be counted or put there after the fact and is there really any way to tell if they are legitimate or not since there is no way to tie a vote to a person, or is there?

Depends. When the person who hid or lost the votes in the first place is the candidate running against Stacey Abrams, I agree that suspicion is warranted but not at Abrams.

[TheDrake]

You know this just drives me nuts:

"A bunch of votes were just found."

A bunch of votes have never been counted. Mail-in ballots continue to flow in after election day, and are valid. Provisional ballots require hand counting and are never available on election night.

538

Given the extremely long wait times in these Democratic counties, a lot of people have wised up and use the mail-in option. Republican counties have an easier time voting in person and so they are usually more completely counted on election day.

The "found ballot" meme makes it sound like there are hundreds of illegal aliens furiously filling out extra ballots and then shady Clinton operatives are slipping them into the pile.

There are some exceptions, there were 266 ballots found in a mail facility for instance. But this isn't why we are seeing the bulk of additional votes being tallied.

It is also interesting to note that when the news or the state government declares "precincts reporting" it may not mean what people think. Many states have county vote centers which are not in the precinct totals. Mail-in is not in the precinct total in some states. Precincts are also not proportional. I don't know how much that applies to Florida, but it is counter-intuitive and something I didn't understand until the past few years.

[LetterRip]

TheDrake,

thanks for posting that clarification - I'm aware of that but it seems like most people are not.

[Seriati]

Pete, what do you make of this analysis of the nationally reported pre-election issues on voter registration in Georgia.  If this is accurate, it sounds like they were flat lies for the most part.

https://www.creators.com/read/erick-erickson/11/18/where-do-we-go-when-journalism-fails-us

[TheDrake]

Seriati, I'm not familiar with the blogger that you linked, and he's not citing any sources for the information. I'm intrigued, but not enough to hunt down the veracity of his claims.

[Seriati]

Most columnists do not cite their sources.  He specifically noted that he was  using local Georgia sources and comparing them to the national stories they promoted.

I kind of assume, as a participant in the campaign Pete is aware of what Abrams claims and the link ups they are getting to the national media.

[TheDrake]

AJC I would call local, they ran the same story about the exact match law. They mentioned that hyphens can cause problems, they didn't link it all to one person.

The Reuters story doesn't mention an example name.

CNN ran a story about hundreds of minority ballots getting tossed. And an AP story talked about how 53,000 people got put in limbo.

The articles I've seen don't necessarily imply that there were not mistakes on the applications, they usually suggest that the state should be helping more to validate and/or correct the application. So if somebody gets a social security digit wrong, the state can check the database and see that there is a soft match of 8 numbers and a perfect match on the name and work to rectify the discrepancy.

Kristen Clarke, the president of the Washington DC-based advocacy group Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, said the racial disparities in the county's rejections set off red flags for her organization.
Clarke's group sent a letter to Gwinnett County that argued officials should "err on the side of the voter" and accept more of the ballots, since she said Georgia county officials have discretion to decide if ballots contain sufficient information to establish a voter's identity and eligibility.

So if somebody wrote Bob on his application, and he's officially listed as Robert, they had the discretion to say "oh, that makes sense" and pass it through.

[LetterRip]

Seriati,

Kemp directed Malone to recommend that the Democrat polling locations be closed,

Mike Malone, a longtime Kemp associate, consulted with the Randolph County Board of Elections following a recommendation by the Secretary of State’s office earlier this year. A known Kemp donor, Malone says he was directed by Kemp to travel around the state to “recommend polling closures.”

In a statement, Brian Kemp claimed to oppose the Randolph County polling closures.

However, new audio evidence highly suggests that Kemp himself directed Malone to recommend the very same polling closures Kemp now claims to oppose. Both in the audiotape and during the presentation, Malone makes it clear that the polling closures come “highly recommended” by Kemp himself.

In his statement, Kemp made no mention of why he had recommended those closures therefore in the first place, if he was now opposing them. When asked about the contradiction, a spokesperson simply repeated the earlier statement and insisted that his position “is crystal clear.”

https://www.georgiademocrat.org/2018/08/randolph-county-polling/

That sort of sinks Erickson's credibilty.

[Pete at Home]

Pete, what do you make of this analysis of the nationally reported pre-election issues on voter registration in Georgia.  If this is accurate, it sounds like they were flat lies for the most part.

https://www.creators.com/read/erick-erickson/11/18/where-do-we-go-when-journalism-fails-us

 The article races some interesting questions. I hope you recognize that my history on this board shows that I am generally as likely to attack fraud and dishonesty from my own party as well as from the Republicans. My historical and tagging us on this board have almost all been left wing, not right.   But your article is very first time I have ever seen offer heard any claims of leftist wrongdoing On the part of anyone arguably allied to Stacey Abrams.

 With that said, I admit quite a bit of bios on my part. I actually dropped my own businesses  to dedicate all of my time for the race of Stacey Abrams for governor.  Some of my black fellow workers had dogs sat on them.  One day I was partnered up with an 18-year-old black girl and we had to walk past the old state of Georgia ragged and sitting in the middle of the field. I’m talking about the old flag with a confederate piece on it. I was afraid for her life. Changing weather was making my hip give out and I begged my partner not to get too far ahead because I thought she was in danger. I mean actual danger. Not the pony pretend danger that white people usually talk about out of racial guilt or desire to be taken as open minded.

So I admit that I may be too emotional in this to be objective. I’m 51 years old and I’ve never put my name and everything I had behind a candidate before. I think Stacy is what this state needs.