Fresh Loaf

Thought you fulfilled your duty as a citizen on Nov. 3? Think again! Several local races are still undecided, and from now until Nov. 20 you can vote early to beat the Dec. 1 “crowds” (aka five voters who turn out for runoffs).

Among the contested races:

• Atlanta mayor, between Mary Norwood and Kasim Reed.

• Atlanta City Council president, between Ceasar Mitchell and Clair Muller.

• Atlanta City Council Post 2 At-Large, between Amir Farokhi and Aaron Watson.

• Atlanta City Council District 6, between Liz Coyle and Alex Wan.

• State House District 58, between Simone Bell and Asha Jackson.

• State Senate District 35, between Donzella James and Torrey O Johnson.

From Nov. 23-25, you can participate in Advance Voting. After that, your last chance to vote for the city’s next elected officials is Dec. 1. If you registered prior to Oct. 5, you should be good to go. If you didn’t vote on Nov. 3, you can still come out and cast a ballot for the runoff. Remember to bring a photo ID and thank the kind folks manning the polls.

UPDATE: You can also vote by absentee ballot. Download an application PDF here. Fax the completed application to your County Board of Registrars office. You can find their info here. They’ll mail you a ballot. Fill it out, mail it back, or deliver it to your polling location. Just be sure to do so before polls close on Dec. 1.

After the jump, we present a Fulton and DeKalb County poll location list that we’ve shamefully pulled from the City of Atlanta’s “Election Central” portal.

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Take note, ballot casters! Today’s the last day to register if you want to vote for Atlanta’s next mayor and councilmembers on Nov. 3.

We ran through a list of links and how-to’s last week, so you can jump back to that post for info. But here they are again if you want to save a click.

Check to see if you’re already registered to vote. If not, here’s how you can get registered. Look here to see how you can vote via absentee ballot. To view Early and Advance Voting dates and locations, check out our previous post. This FAQ can answer a lot of questions about the upcoming municipal elections. Your county elections office can answer more specific questions or help you out with specific problems. The Georgia Secretary of State’s office has a convenient one-stop resource to handle general registration and election concerns.

Many municipal races will end up in a runoff, which traditionally have low voter turnout. That means your vote could make or break your favored candidates’ hopes for actually winning office. Now go forth and get registered!

(File photo by Joeff Davis)

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The political process sure has a helluva way of sneaking up on ya, don’t it?

If you want to help decide Atlanta’s next mayor and city councilmembers, you have to get legit with the state before Oct. 5. That’s… seven days away.

Don’t know whether you’re registered to vote? This handy tool courtesy of the Georgia Secretary of State can tell you. If you’re not registered to vote, here’s the info about what you gotta do if you want to cast a ballot. If you have any specific questions, it’s best to contact your county elections office. (The Secretary of State has an easy-to-use one-stop resource that can provide you with most registration and election information. Here’s a list of frequently asked questions about the upcoming Atlanta elections.)

You’ll have the option of voting before Nov. 3. Registered voters can cast ballots Oct. 12-23 during Early Voting. Advance voting will be held Oct. 26-30. We really don’t understand the difference between the two, only that there are additional polling locations. We gleefully copied a chart from the city’s elections website that lists dates and locations and pasted it after the jump.

If you want to vote via absentee ballot, you can download an application from the Secretary of State’s website and a ballot will be mailed to you.

Remember to bring one of these valid forms of ID to the polls. And grab a doughnut or some coffee if they’re available. We’ll have more details as voting time approaches. But in the meantime, get registered.

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Georgia Secretary of State Karen Handel’s website shows more recent results.

as of 11/19/08

Number of ballots cast :33,555

Number of ballots voted in person: 33,523
Number of mail-in ballots returned: 32

Turn out Demographics:
Black Female 4,548
Black Male 3,565
White Female 11,343
White Male 13,093
Asia-PI Female 69
Asia-PI Male 51
Hisp-Lt Female 59
Hisp-Lt Male 57
Native AM Female 1
Native AM Male 1
Other 768
Total 33,555

Fulton County’s now fourth in turnout. Forsyth is off the list.

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They’ll do it every time. One of the great ironies of our democracy is that we leave election law up to politicians.

We figured it was only a matter of time until Georgia Republicans, distraught over last week’s elections, began suggesting tweaks to voting guidelines. It’s the political equivalent of Monday-morning quarterbacking – except that, instead of second-guessing failed plays by the losing team, you day-dream about how the rules might have been changed to produce a different outcome.

I should note that both parties do this – in fact, the Democrats may have started it after Wyche Fowler lost the 1992 Senate runoff – and it’s pretty scuzzy every time it happens.

You’ll remember, of course, that state Sen. Eric Johnson, R-Savannah, started the ball rolling back in October when he called early voting “a mistake” after the GOP noticed that the wrong people seemed to be going to the polls. Then, only a day or so after the election, attorney Stefan Passantino, who heads the political law group for McKenna Long & Aldridge, Georgia’s most politically influential law firm, wrote an op-ed for the AJC in which he brazenly lambasted early voting as “uncontrolled voting.” Trust me, it’s got to be read to be believed. (more…)

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UPDATE: Bah, semantics! Received word that I garbled some of the terminology on the post. It’s been corrected.

Were you one of the 2 million Georgians who enjoyed his or her early voting experience? The long lines, the new friends, the chance you may have ended up as a “missed connection” on Craigs List?

Good news! Absentee and early voting will be available for the Dec. 2 runoff.

After Georgia Secretary of State Karen Handel certifies election results next week, state election maestros and county election officials will start coordinating the runoff.

Matt Carrothers, Handel’s spokesman, told me these details over the phone a few minutes ago:

Early voting is anticipated to begin Nov. 17. According to Handel’s office:

Counties can begin early voting. While it is a county-by-county decision, there should be consistency state-wide.

Advance voting will be held Monday through Wednesday (Nov. 24-26) during the week of Thanksgiving. County election offices are closed Thursday and Friday because of the holiday.

If you voted by mail-in or absentee ballot in the General Election, you’ll have to re-request a ballot. You can download an application at the Secretary of State’s website or pick one up at your county election office. (Or just click here.) To find your county election office, click here. Applications can either be dropped off, mailed, or faxed as well.

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A story recently posted by the AJC says the unimaginable: that statewide voter turnout for this election was lower than it was in 2004. Although there are nearly a million more potential voters than there were four years ago and the actual number of ballots cast was higher, the turnout was only 74 percent, compared to 77 percent in 2004. How could that be, when election officials were predicting a 85 percent turnout?

Well, UGA political science professor Charles Bullock, an expert on voting issues, admits it’s a surprise to him, given that voter turnout across the country was the highest it’s been in a century. However, Bullock says that if state officials based their Election Day expectations on early-voting numbers, it’s no shock that the reality fell short.

“Early voting has been shown not to increase overall turnout,” he says. “It’s often simply a reallocation of votes.”

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Jim Galloway of the AJC’s Political Insider — who did a great job as a panelist during last night’s Atlanta Press Club U.S. Senate debate/finger-pointing quibblefest — posts a memo from State Elections Boardmember Randy Evans. Evans says it could be Wednesday morning before all votes are counted.

From the memo:

Based on the most recent data, it appears that there are in fact three real reasons regarding why Georgia may not know the winner of the 2008 general election until Wednesday.

If we have a two- to four-hour line, as expected in many precincts around Georgia, it could be 9 p.m. or later before voters are done. Counties that finish earlier can start to tabulate votes immediately and some returns will come in early. However, the outcome will likely have to wait until all votes are in, and then tabulated. This could be late on Tuesday or possibly on Wednesday morning.

He then reminds us of absentee and provisional ballots. Click here to read what Evans has to say about those pesky devils.

(Awesome Vivarin car photo from RacingRoadTrip)

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Georgia Democrats are calling for Georgia Secretary of State Karen Handel to extend advanced voting on Saturday and Sunday after computer glitches caused a reported 500 people to wait two hours in line at a Fulton County polling place.

State Rep.-elect Rashad Taylor, D-Atlanta, says poll workers at the Adamsville Recreation Center in Southwest Atlanta told him voter check-in machines couldn’t access the Secretary of State’s system shortly after 7 p.m. on Thursday night. When he arrived at the rec center to assist poll workers, Taylor — who was joined by Atlanta City Council President Lisa Borders, Councilmember C.T. Martin and City Council Clerk Rhonda Johnson — says he saw an estimated 500 people still waiting to cast ballots.

“A few days ago, there was a problem connecting to the system,” the representative-elect says. “This time, there was a problem with the system.”

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I don’t know what it’s like in Bainbridge or Waycross, but the lines for early voting around metro Atlanta have been crazy long. Down at the Fulton guvment building, the minimum wait runs about two hours, but it’s been worse in the ‘burbs. On Monday, Norcross voters stood in line for six hours, while some unlucky Clayton County residents had to wait up to 12 hours to cast their ballot! (I just realized the term “unlucky Clayton County resident” is probably redundant.)

In light of all the long lines, Jane Kidd, chairwoman of Georgia Democratic Party, has asked Secretary of State Karen Handel to call for an extension of poll hours across the state. She writes:

I urge you to contact the Department of Justice immediately and request clearance to keep the polls open longer during the week and over the weekend, as well as on Monday, Nov. 3.

Currently, state law does not allow for weekend voting or for polls to be open after 7 p.m.. And no doubt you’ve heard that, because of the 1965 Voting Rights Act, Georgia’s Election Division can’t take a dump — legally speaking — without first checking with the feds. So there are some practical hurdles to carrying out Kidd’s suggestion.

But even if there weren’t, what are the chances that our Republican Secretary of State would jump to follow a recommendation offered by the Democratic Party head? How ’bout a Republican Secretary of State whose top priority appears to be keeping Georgians away from the polls?

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Which soft-spoken U.S. Senate candidate — who also served in the Georgia General Assembly — was spotted waiting in queue in Fulton County at 11:20 a.m. to cast his early ballot? We’re not naming any names, but trusted sources say this modern-day Atticus Finch doesn’t just want to kick the incumbent out of office — he also plans to honor his citizen’s duty so he can continue his hard-fought campaign.

Which leads us to wonder: What better time for the incumbent Republican — who we’ll just call Sugar Daddy — to launch a sneak attack against this challenger than when he’s standing two hours in the cold, like a noble soldier, slogging on the slow march toward freedom and a brighter life for all Americans? See him stand there, like a beacon of justice, like a — wait, what the hell am I writing? Jim Martin was seen standing in line to vote early with Joan, his wife, just now in Fulton County.

My inimitable colleague Scott Henry just returned from Fulton County’s early voting location and spotted Martin there. He says the line was two hours long.

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Georgia Secretary of State Karen Handel got her hand slapped a few hours ago by a three-judge court that decided her efforts to challenge the citizenship of registered voters violated the 1964 Voting Rights Act.

Specifically, the federal judges decided that Handel’s office should have gotten approval from the U.S. Department of Justice before submitting voters names to be checked against the Social Security Administration database. Because she didn’t do so, those voters whose citizenship has been questioned – about 4,500 people – will be allowed to cast a paper ballot on Nov. 4. The court further ordered Handel’s office to notify these “flagged” voters of their right to vote on Election Day.

The ruling came in response to a lawsuit brought by the ACLU and other groups on behalf of a Cherokee County man whose voting eligibility had been challenged by Handel’s office even though he became a U.S. citizen last fall.

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My friend, former Scene & Herd Recurring Character Matt Gove, reports he’s been waiting in line for more than 90 minutes this afternoon to vote at the Fulton County government building downtown.

From the look of the line, he says he expects to be in line for another hour or so.

Our democracy is prepared for all challenges — except voter participation.

UPDATE: Mr. Gove says he waited in line for three-and-a-half hours before he was able to vote.

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As of this morning, more than a million Georgians — a stunning 18 percent of the state’s nearly 5.6 million registered voters — had already cast ballots. Pundits figure that most of the state’s early votes in the presidential race went to Obama. Here’s why:

First off, African Americans have turned out in far greater numbers that most experts expected, casting nearly 35 percent of the ballots since early voting began Sept. 22, despite representing only 29 percent of the state’s registered voters. In the 2004 election, blacks accounted for only 25 percent of the ballots cast in Georgia.

Perhaps even more telling is a comparison of early voters to their participation in Super Tuesday. Here’s a breakdown of the million voters who’ve already gone to the polls:

Voted in 2008 Democratic Presidential Primary        33.85 %

Voted in 2008 Republican Presidential Primary         26.2   %

Did Not Vote in 2008 Presidential Primary                39.95 %

Can we agree that most of the nearly 40 percent of early voters who didn’t vote on Feb. 5 are likely newly registered voters? And can we further agree that most of the 400,000 people who’ve registered to vote in Georgia in 2008 will be casting ballots for Obama rather than McCain?

If so, then it’s easy to understand why recent polls are calling the presidential race in Georgia a toss-up.

(For a more complete examination of early voting stats, check out this post.)

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If you’re stuck at college in Atlanta or Macon without a car and those damn campus buses don’t go anywhere near the polls, the Barack Obama campaign is here to save you.

Workers from the presidential nominee’s Hope Depots© will offer free bus rides for students from select colleges and universities next week for advanced voting.

Full list with details follows after the jump:

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If you’ve been put off by articles about the long lines at early-voting locations, but you don’t want to wait until Election Day to cast your ballot, you may get a break next week. That’s when Georgia counties begin advanced voting.

What’s the difference, you ask? Oh, there’s a world of difference; early voting began Sept. 22, while advance voting runs next Monday through Friday.

Still not clear? (more…)

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A couple weeks back, the AJC’s esteemed Jim Galloway ran a blog item that had Georgia politicos buzzing. In it, he quoted Senate Majority Leader Eric Johnson, R-Savannah, attacking the state’s new early voting program as a vehicle for voter fraud. Johnson called early voting “a mistake” and explained that it gave cheaters extra time “to go out there and pick up homeless people, and carry them to the polls, and register cats.”

Sen. Eric Johnson

Putting aside for a moment the fact that homeless people have as much legal right to vote as anyone else, Johnson’s statements were jaw-droppingly ironic because early voting in Georgia was a Republican initiative that party strategists believed would give the GOP an advantage at the polls. Statistics have shown that absentee voting is more popular among Republicans than Democrats. Therefore, the reasoning went, if absentee voting were extended to a month and folks no longer had to give an excuse to get an absentee ballot, then early voting could serve as an effective, state-subsidized get-out-the-vote effort for the GOP.

But it doesn’t seem to be working out that way. (more…)

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Even with two more work weeks left for early voting, the number of Georgians who have voted early this year has already exceeded 2004’s total.

So reports George Mason University Professor Dr. Michael McDonald*, who is keeping track of early voting around the country on his blog United States Election Project.

691,507 Georgians have voted early, as of today.

Ben Smith at Politico looked at the demographic breakdown of early voters in Georgia and North Carolina and describes them “almost unbelievably tilted Obama’s way.”

Information about when and where you can vote be found in CL’s Voter Guide.

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This is the last time I’ll hector you about it. But if you haven’t yet registered to vote, you have until the end of today to do so at a local registrar’s office or mail in your application.

And to brighten your Monday morning, view the latest early voting statistics after the jump. According to Georgia Secretary of State Karen Handel’s office, 263,408 people have taken advantage of absentee and in-person early voting ballots. African Americans, historically a key demographic for Democrats, have thus far cast 37 percent of those. DeKalb County leads the pack with 28,639 early voters. Fulton and Gwinnett Counties follow with 19,589 and 14,966 ballots cast, respectively.

Handel says she hopes 1 million of Georgia’s 5.5 million registered voters visit the polls before Nov. 4. Help her out and save yourself a headache — find your nearest early voting location here.

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When you’re sitting at the breakfast table Sunday morning, reading Ranger Rick and writing out your weekly to-do list, be sure the first thing you jot on there is “register to vote.” Monday is the deadline. Don’t miss it.

Also, it needs to be noted: Just got off the phone with Matthew Carrothers of Georgia Secretary of State Karen Handel’s office. He wanted to clear up the confustion about Wednesday’s post about people who haven’t voted in the last three years getting dropped from voting rolls.

“The issue of not having any contact with your county board of elections or registrars’ office [affecting your voting status] is completely false. You’re not removed from the voting rolls at all. If you have any questions about your voting status, please check with your county registrars’ office or check online at the Secretary of State’s website.”

I’m going to hammer this home and say it again and again. Check to be sure you’re registered. If your status is listed as “inactive,” you need not worry. Carrothers says that’s a coding mechanism required by law and after voting in this election, your status will be updated. (He says Debra was correct in the comments.)

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The AJC adds some details to Wednesday’s Fresh Loaf post about voters who’ve been purged from registration lists.

The state regularly removes the names of voters who have died, committed felonies or relocated. But critics say qualified voters like Coxwell, who temporarily moved to another Georgia county, sometimes get expelled in the process.

Just days remain before Monday’s deadline to register to vote and be eligible to vote in the presidential election — or re-register, if necessary. Watchdog groups worry some Georgians might arrive at their precincts only to find their votes will not count if they have been removed from the rolls.

State officials won’t say how many names have been purged from the voter rolls in the past year. Purging is a routine process mandated by law meant to ensure registrars’ records are up to date, thereby reducing the likelihood of ineligible voters casting ballots.

But Helen Butler, executive director of Coalition for the People’s Agenda, has voiced concerns about problems that purging creates. Last year, after 274,000 names were removed from the rolls, Butler criticized elections officials for not doing enough to notify affected voters.

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Monday, Oct. 6 is the last day to register to vote. And if you think you’re already registered but haven’t cast a ballot in the last three years, you may be turned away when you try to exercise your right.

There are murmurs that some folks who, after visiting Georgia Secretary of State Karen Handel’s website to see if they’re registered, are told they’re not, and this is one of the reasons listed as why:

You have not had written contact with your board of registrars office within the last 3 years (which includes voting, change of address, updated voter registration application), which would cause your name to be removed from the voter rolls.

Emphasis added. So if you haven’t voted in the last three years — or you’ve been a bad citizen and not written a letter to your dear old friend Karen Handel — you may not be eligible to cast a ballot.

Don’t let that happen to you when you go to vote. Double check your registration status here. It takes less than a minute. Literally. (I found out I’m still registered in Cobb County, so I’ve got to fix that mess.) Tell your friends to do the same. If your status is not listed as “ACTIVE,” contact or visit your local registration office or the secretary of state. You can download a registration application here.

Don’t let one of the most politically exciting times in your life be screwed up by bureaucratic bullshit. You’ve got until Monday, Oct. 6.

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The AJC may have more daily poll questions about what socks you like to wear or what disgusting caloric mess you want to eat — really, guys? — but CL is blessed with better commenters. Maybe not all the time, but even when they’re dicks, they’re kind of clever!

But check out Jim Galloway’s Political Insider post this morning about 40 percent of early voters being African American. The AJC kooky komment klan are livid — LIVID I TELL YOU — about the news, and in their usual way, accuse the paper of being a bunch of Communist hacks wanting us to wait in bread lines and also make broad claims against African Americans. Metro Atlanta rocks in that progressive way.

Let us bask in the wisdom of three dudes using different handles, copying and pasting the same trite Free Republic nonsense every single day.

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Former Gov. Roy Barnes, state Rep. Stacey Abrams and Red Clay Democrat Shyam Reddy will headline a “get-out-the-vote” fundraiser at Manuel’s Tavern this Thursday, 7-9 p.m. The event is hosted by the Vote From Home, a political action committee that wants to secure 10,000 early voters in Ohio to help turn the crucial state for Democrats in the November presidential election.

It’s free and open to the public. I may attend, which could be frightening, as I’ve been told Barnes and I look very similar.

UPDATE: The event is open to the public, but it’s not free. Tickets are $50, $25 for students. A spokesperson says Barnes will speak and it’ll be an informal affair.

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Registered voters can perform the act (of voting, that is) this week at select locations within their counties in advance of the July 15 primary.

Locations and hours are limited though. Find out where to vote early by clicking here and clicking on the second Adobe document. You can only vote early this week, because the Monday before the July 15 primary isn’t an advance voting day.

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