Georgia certainly did a better job than several other states in counting their votes in a timely manner after Election Day–particularly considering the state’s record early voting turnout.
Now Democrats are suing, claiming the state with record early voting is trying to suppress early voting, demanding that polls be open the Saturday after Thanksgiving Day for the Senate runoff next month.
As explained in “The Myth of Voter Suppression: The Left’s Assault on Clean Elections,” election reforms in Georgia and 18 other states, which President Joe Biden, twice-losing Georgia gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams and other Democrats smeared as “Jim Crow 2.0,” did not deter voting in the least. Voter turnout soared in these states.
While Georgia officials counted ballots on time, because of the Peach State’s annoying runoff system, we still have another election to go. Neither Democrat Sen. Raphael Warnock nor his Republican challenger Herschel Walker scored 50 percent on Election Day and are heading for a Dec. 6 runoff.
Last Friday, Fulton County Superior Court Judge Thomas Cox gave the Warnock campaign, the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee and the Georgia Democratic Party a win, buying into the argument advanced by Democrat super lawyer Marc Elias.
Georgia is appealing the ruling. The Honest Elections Project filed a brief in the case on the side of Georgia.
“There should be fair and equal voting opportunities across the state, but left-wing anti-democracy lawyer Marc Elias is determined to manipulate Georgia’s voting laws for partisan gain,” Jason Snead, executive director of the Honest Elections Project, said in a statement Monday. “Once again, Elias is gaming the system with a cynical lawsuit intended to give more time to vote only to urban, Democratic counties.”
At issue is a 2016 law on early voting that says, “if such second Saturday follows a public and legal holiday occurring on the Thursday or Friday immediately preceding such second Saturday … such advance voting shall not be held on such a second Saturday.” The same statute specifically refers to “each primary, election, or runoff.”
Yet Elias argued that the law isn’t applicable to runoff elections. And Judge Cox bought it, ruling the law, “does not explicitly prohibit counties from conducting advance voting on Saturday, November 26, 2022.”
As noted in “The Myth of Voter Suppression,” Democrats were the party of Tammany Hall and Jim Crow, both of which share a common thread: the willingness to change election laws and procedures for the sole purpose of ensuring Democrat victories.
That’s what Elias has tried to do through litigation in other states and what he’s trying to do Thanksgiving week in Georgia.
Many on the left who at once lionized Georgia’s Republican Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger are unlikely to concur with his statement about the frivolous Elias-led lawsuit.
“If recent elections prove one thing, it’s that voters expect candidates to focus on winning at the ballot box- not at the courthouse,” Raffensperger said. “Senator Warnock and his Democratic Party allies are seeking to change Georgia law right before an election based on their political preferences. Instead of muddying the water and pressuring counties to ignore Georgia law, Senator Warnock should be allowing county election officials to continue preparations for the upcoming runoff.”
Raffensperger is correct on the law. But Democrats don’t play around when it comes to winning elections.
If Democrats got their way, it’s hardly a guarantee of anything, as Republicans won the early vote in Georgia. But a favorable ruling potentially allows the Democrats to get their ballot harvesting machinery in motion.
“Rewriting the law in Georgia at the last minute creates a slew of complications that further distorts elections, confuses voters, and create unequal voting opportunities across Georgia,” Snead said. “No matter how many times Marc Elias tweets it, this lawsuit is not about ‘voting rights.’ It is about skewing the rules to favor Democrats. Republicans, after all, won early voting in the Georgia and Florida midterms. Elias may be worried that his party will lose again in a fair fight, but that is no excuse to treat courts like super-legislatures.”
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