The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and the Southern Poverty Law Center sued a Georgia county on Friday, over allegations that it failed to send out approximately 3,000 absentee ballots by a requested deadline.
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As Georgia gears up for the critical 2024 presidential election in November, state officials within the Legislature and Georgia’s State Election Board say they are enhancing security measures at polling stations in response to ongoing concerns stemming from the 2020 election.
Cobb County’s Board of Elections & Registration Director Tate Fall announced new safety protocols – including more instruction on conflict resolution for poll workers and discreet alert badges for managers – aimed at addressing potential threats and ensuring a secure voting environment. This heightened focus on election security comes amid a backdrop of intensified political rhetoric and unrest, underscoring Georgia’s pivotal role in the upcoming election.
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Cobb County commissioners are expected to vote Tuesday on a measure that the board’s District 2 seat “is deemed vacant” following a judge’s ruling this week.
Last month, Superior Court Judge Kellie Hill ruled that the map of commission districts that county leaders created in October 2022 was unconstitutional and outside the home rule powers.
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Voters in two metro Atlanta counties will decide on a tax to support transit when they head to the polls for November’s presidential election.
On Tuesday, Cobb County commissioners voted 3-2 to place the 1% 30-year Mobility SPLOST on the Nov. 5 General Election ballot. Officials previously said a 1% SPLOST could generate $10.9 billion in tax revenue for the county over 30 years.
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Georgia State Election Board (SEB) member Edward Lindsey is up for reconfirmation before the state House amid new revelations that he has voted on cases involving counties for which he is a lobbyist.
Lindsey, who was appointed to the SEB position on Jan. 7, 2022, is a lobbyist for both Cobb County and DeKalb County, according to the Georgia Government Transparency and Campaign Finance Commission. The two counties are among the top five most populous in Georgia, which has 159 counties.
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Cobb County Superior Court Judge Henry Thompson unsealed the divorce case Monday for Fani Willis’ alleged lover, Nathan Wade, who she appointed as special prosecutor on the case against former President Donald Trump.
Thompson ruled that the case should be unsealed, but deferred on deciding whether Willis will be required to testify, temporarily blocking the deposition scheduled for Tuesday but leaving the possibility open for a later date. During the Monday hearing, Thompson stopped attorneys from discussing Willis’ claim that requiring her to testify would interfere with “an ongoing criminal prosecution,” which she raised in her bid to quash the subpoena issued by the attorney for Nathan Wade’s wife, Joycelyn Wade.
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A Georgia high school teacher in Cobb County was arrested on October 4 and charged with sexual assault by a teacher and solicitation of sodomy over an alleged inappropriate relationship with a student.
Harrison High School social studies teacher Eric Taylor Butler was arrested for an alleged inappropriate sexual relationship with a student that began in June. The alleged abuse reportedly and continued until October 2, according to Atlanta First News, which reported the 28-year-old teacher allegedly carried on a relationship with a 16-year-old student.
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A Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion (DEI) consultant explained to an undercover Project Veritas journalist he is an “evil salesman” who plans to undermine a Georgia law banning the teaching of the concepts of Critical Race Theory (CRT). “If you don’t say the words ‘Critical Race Theory,’ you can technically teach it,” Dr. Quintin Bostic, content manager at The Teaching Lab, is heard telling the Project Veritas (PV) journalist in the video.
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A judge has ordered a Georgia county to extend its deadline of absentee ballot receipts after county officials last week sent out hundreds of ballots that the election office had earlier failed to mail.
Officials in Cobb County, Ga., said late last week that they would mail out hundreds of absentee ballots after a county elections worker “did not employ any process” to ensure huge numbers of ballots were going out as ordered.
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Two Cobb County Sheriffs Deputies were killed in the line of duty Thursday night while attempting to serve a warrant, that law enforcement agency said.
“Two deputies died tonight in the line of duty while serving a warrant,” the Cobb County Sheriff’s Office (CCSO) said Thursday night. “SWAT and FAST teams are at the scene. The suspect is barricaded. We will release additional information, including the names of the fallen deputies, as it becomes available.”
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The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Georgia announced on Thursday that The National Integrated Ballistic Information Network (NIBIN) has aided the undercover law enforcement effort, dubbed “Operation United Front,” in the indictment of a third person that was involved in narcotics distribution and the illegal possession of weapons.
“Addressing violent crime in Middle Georgia means utilizing every asset at our disposal, including high-level ballistics technology like ATF’s NIBIN,” said U.S. Attorney Peter D. Leary.
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With the Georgia General Assembly’s passage of the Election Integrity Act of 2021, otherwise known as SB202, the application of absentee ballot drop boxes looks significant different in the first statewide elections since the January 5, 2021, federal runoff and special election for Georgia’s two U.S. Senate seats.
The use of drop boxes in the November 2020 presidential and January 2021 elections were enabled by an emergency rule promulgated by the State Election Board in June of 2020. During the November 2020 election, more than 300 absentee ballot drop boxes were deployed throughout the state, funded with $45 million in “Zuck Bucks” that flowed through the Center for Technology and Civic Life (CTCL) into Georgia, according to analysis conducted by Capital Research Center.
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MARIETTA, Georgia – State Attorney General Chris Carr did not respond when The Georgia Star News asked why he did not mention the topic of election integrity at the “Conversation with the Candidates” event hosted by the Cobb County Republican Women’s Club (CCRWC) on Tuesday.
Despite a request from the emcee and moderator to maintain quiet respect for all candidates, Carr’s introduction received the loudest boos of the night from a portion of the crowd – surpassing the dissent heard from the crowd for Georgia Secretary of State, Brad Raffensperger, later in the evening. Raffensperger was observed walking in late with his wife, Tricia, both of whom were dapperly dressed, minutes before his scheduled appearance after the event’s intermission.
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Thursday morning on The John Fredericks Radio Show, host Fredericks talks to Georgia Senator Brandon Beach (#BeachBalls) and the last-minute play to dismiss a vote on election integrity in the Georgia state Senate.
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Expansion of Northside Hospital into Cobb County is underway following a private groundbreaking last week, according to recent news release.
Representatives of the Knoxville-based Realty Trust Group (RTG), which is providing, among other things, advisory services through land purchase and zoning, joined with Northside personnel for the Nov. 3 groundbreaking for the medical office building.
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A group of about 30 Georgia residents who have formed the group Project Opal said this week they have identified certain irregularities in last year’s presidential election in Cobb County. Project Opal spokesman Paul Nally told The Georgia Star News Tuesday that group members are trying to determine if criminal acts took place.
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A Cobb County school counselor who advocates for Critical Race Theory (CRT) and intersectionality has resigned from her job. That woman, Jennifer Susko, said the school district’s ban on anti-racism curricula prompted her to leave. Susko announced her intentions this week.
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Greater Georgia members have launched a digital ad campaign to boost voter turnout for the special election for State House District 34, which includes Marietta. Group members said the ad highlights “the Radical Left’s misinformation campaign that cost Cobb County countless jobs and a $100-million opportunity.”
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A Texas nonprofit is suing Major League Baseball (MLB) after the league moved its 2021 All Star game from Atlanta to Denver, Colorado in protest over a recently-implemented voter ID law.
“A 21-page lawsuit by conservative small-business advocacy organization Job Creators Network, filed Monday in federal court in New York, demands the immediate return of the game to Atlanta and $100 million in damages to local and state small businesses,” The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported. “The suit also seeks $1 billion in punitive damages.”
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Members of the group Greater Georgia announced this week they have launched a voter registration and mobilization effort in Marietta ahead of the scheduled June 15 election for the open State House District 34 seat. Greater Georgia members told followers in an emailed newsletter this week they are deploying staff members, volunteers, and organizers to register conservative-leaning voters ahead of the deadline. They said they also want to get out the vote via door-to-door canvassing, phone-banking, texting, and handwritten mail.
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The Cobb County Travel and Tourism Bureau said that it estimates it will miss out on $100 million in revenue, after Major League Baseball (MLB) was brow-beaten by political activists into moving its 2021 All-Star game from Atlanta.
“This event would have directly impacted our county and the state, as visitors spend their dollars on local accommodations, transportation, entertainment and recreation, food and retail throughout the county,” the bureau said. “This would have been a big boost to Cobb businesses and help with recovery after the COVID-19 pandemic.”
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Georgians are circulating petitions demanding that the state government, particularly the Georgia Department of Labor (GDOL) begins responding to their requests for information.
“This petition was started and organized by residents all throughout the State of Georgia that have filed claims with the Georgia Department of Labor,” says a Change.org petition started by Felicia Primus. “Many of Georgia Residents [sic] haven’t received any updates on claims or they’re missing payments from the Department of Labor. GDOL has not provided better Self-service [sic] options for its website or phone support to help with the increasing demand of unemployment claims, during the COVID-19 pandemic.”
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Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger is not responding to questions about major flaws in his office’s “audit” of Cobb County absentee ballot envelope signatures counted in the November 3 presidential election, the results of which were announced in a press release last week.
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An analysis of ballot transfer forms from Cobb County reveals that 78 percent of the more than 89,000 absentee ballots from drop box locations, required to be “immediately transported” to the county registrar according to Emergency Rule of the State Election Board for Absentee Voting, took more than one hour to be transferred to election officials.
State Election Board Emergency Rule 183-1-14 relative to securing absentee ballot drop boxes was adopted by the State Election Board at the July 1, 2020, meeting.
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A review of drop box ballot transfer forms reveals that Cobb County violated the Rules of the State Election Board for Absentee Voting that requires absentee ballots from drop box locations be “immediately transported” to the country registrar.
Specifically, the Rules of the State Election Board of the Georgia Election Code Chapter 183-1 for Absentee Voting states, “The ballots from the drop box shall be immediately transported to the county registrar and processed and stored in the same manner as absentee ballots returned by mail are processed and stored.”
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Nearly one in four of the 387,305 votes cast in Cobb County in the 2020 general election were absentee ballots placed in the drop boxes located around the county.
More than 1.3 million absentee ballots were returned and counted in the 2020 general election in Georgia, out of 5 million votes cast. In the current tally, Joe Biden leads Donald Trump in the 2020 presidential contest by 12,670 votes.
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The Cobb County Board of Elections and Registration is defending itself after being accused of shredding election documents during Georgia’s controversial recount.
President Donald Trump’s attorney Lin Wood tweeted videos shot by a witness who identified herself as Susan Knox and said she was outside the Jim R. Miller Event Center, where ballots were stored, on Friday. She documented a mobile shredder company destroying documents, which she called ballots.
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