Fresh Loaf

Did I mention that already? In Decatur, where I voted an hour ago, there were no lines; poll workers said people had been filing in all morning long.

The obvious big contests are Georgia’s U.S. Senate seat, Georgia Public Service Commission District 4 and the state Court of Appeals. There are several county elections still undecided, as well.

To find out where you need to go to vote, visit Georgia Secretary of State Karen Handel’s poll locator. Don’t forget to bring photo ID. If you have any questions, contact your county’s election office. Polls close at 7 p.m.

After today — unless we have a recount — all this will be over. We’ll come out holding hands and happy.

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This has been a grueling election cycle. Not only have we been burdened with the impossible task of writing about abstract things like “hope,” “change” and “drilling for oil,” we’ve had to slog through an extra four weeks of attack ads and endorsements long after the rest of the country (except for Minnesota!) had declared their winners.

But the candidates ask you to please — please — return to the polls tomorrow, Dec. 2.

If you didn’t vote on Nov. 4 — or during early voting — you can still vote in the runoff. To find out where to cast your ballot, visit the Georgia Secretary of State Karen Handel’s poll locator. Polls open at 7 a.m. and close to 7 p.m. And be sure to bring one of the six following forms of identification:

• Any valid state or federal government issued photo ID, including a FREE Voter ID Card issued by your county registrar’s office or the Georgia Department of Driver Services (DDS)

• A Georgia Driver’s License, even if expired

• Valid employee photo ID from any branch, department, agency, or entity of the U.S. Government, Georgia, or any county, municipality, board, authority or other entity of this state

• Valid U.S. passport ID

• Valid U.S. military photo ID

• Valid tribal photo ID

Enjoy! Let us know if there are any shenanigans.

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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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Usually the Libertarians end up siding with Republicans. Not so in the Public Service Commission Dec. 2 runoff between Republican Lauren “Bubba” McDonald and Democratic nominee Jim Powell.

Brandon Givens, the Libertarian challenger for the seat who received the strongest showing by a third-party candidate in the Nov. 4 General Election, has announced his endorsement for Powell in the Dec. 2 runoff.

From the Powell campaign:

“After speaking with Mr. Jim Powell I’ve discovered that he too has the vision for a new system that would allow for both a free market in energy and a growth in green technology,” Givens said in a news release. “Mr. Powell also shares my strong opposition to ex parte communications, the behind-closed-doors dealings between PSC members and the industries they are charged with regulating. He will stand up for transparency in government. I strongly encourage all voters, Libertarian and fiscally conservative to vote for Jim Powell.”

…

“I congratulate Brandon Givens on the strong race that he ran and bringing attention to many of the important issues in this campaign,” Powell said. “I am honored to have his support in the runoff election.”

Powell has also been endorsed by incumbent Public Service Commissioner Angela Speir, former Republican candidate Pam Davidson, and four of the state’s major daily newspapers: the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, the Savannah Morning News. the Rome News-Tribune and the Waycross Journal-Herald.

Powell won the popular vote in both the Democratic primary and the Nov. 4 General Election. He also fought a long and tiresome battle with Georgia Secretary of State Karen Handel over his residency. Just one week before the General Election, the state Supreme Court  ruled he was eligible to run.

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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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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.”

(more…)

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The state Supreme Court unanimously ruled today that Public Service Commission Democratic nominee Jim Powell can stay on the ballot.

UPDATE: Grift has some discussion on his site about the ruling, plus the actual opinion. You can also download it here.

Here is the release from the court:

STATE SUPREME COURT AFFIRMS POWELL’S RUN FOR PSC

Atlanta, Oct. 30, 2008 – The Supreme Court of Georgia today upheld James R. Powell’s right to run in Tuesday’s election for a seat on the Public Service Commission.

Secretary of State Karen Handel had appealed a Fulton County Superior Court ruling that sided with Powell and overturned her decision finding Powell ineligible to run based on where he lived. In June 2008, Handel first challenged Powell’s qualifications a month after he filed his intent to run as a Democrat against Republican Lauren McDonald for the PSC District 4 post. She argued that a homestead exemption Powell had on his Cobb County property established an irrefutable presumption of legal residence and proved Powell did not live in the North Georgia district he seeks to represent. In her appeal, Handel argued that under state law, the trial court should have given deference to her interpretation of the law on residency that she is in charge of enforcing.

But in today’s unanimous decision, written by Justice Robert Benham, the Supreme Court disagrees. “It is the role of the judicial branch to interpret the statutes enacted by the legislative branch and enforced by the executive branch…, and administrative rulings will be adopted only when they conform to the meaning which the court deems should properly be given,” 8-page opinion says. The facts of the case are not in dispute, merely the interpretation of the law, the opinion points out.

In 2006, Powell purchased a second home in Towns County, which is in District 4. In 2007, he attempted unsuccessfully to transfer his homestead exemption from Cobb to Towns County, but he missed the filing deadline. Evidence shows Powell spends more than 60 percent of his time in Towns County, where he has voted three times, attends church and pays taxes.

The residency law, which is Section 21-2-217 in the Official Code of Georgia, lists 15 rules for determining a candidate’s legal residence. At least seven apply to Powell, the Supreme Court has found, “but the Secretary’s decision did not take into account any of the applicable rules other than the homestead exemption rule.”

“We agree with the superior court that the Secretary committed an error of law that authorizes reversal of the Secretary’s decision,” today’s opinion says.

More to come.

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U.S. Senate Democratic nominee Jim Martin is touring Georgia in a final push to convince undecided voters. Today, Martin and Public Service Commission Democratic nominee Jim Powell make several stops during the former state lawmaker’s “Road to Change” bus tour.

After the jump, the full list of stops.

(more…)

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For you political junkies out there **cough**Grift, sara**cough**, here’s the state Supreme Court case summary of the Jim Powell and Georgia Secretary of State Karen Handel residency slugfest. These excellent write-ups are penned by Jane Hansen, the court’s public information officer. She’s a former AJC reporter and two-time Pulitzer Prize finalist.

Monday, October 20, 2008

10:00 A.M. Session

HANDEL V. POWELL (S09A0074)

This appeal stems from a dispute between Secretary of State Karen Handel and James R. Powell, who is running for a seat on the Public Service Commission. Handel is appealing a Fulton County Superior Court ruling that sided with Powell, overturning Handel’s decision that Powell was ineligible to run based on his residency. The Supreme Court agreed to expedite oral arguments in the case.

(more…)

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A source sends word that the Georgia Supreme Court will hear arguments in the Jim Powell residency kerfuffle on Monday, Oct. 20 at 10 a.m.

Georgia Secretary of State Karen Handel started fighting Powell — the Democratic nominee for the Public Service Commission’s Northern District — shortly before the primary. Even with that cloud hanging over the race, Powell still walked away with 85 percent of the vote. The nominee’s had a tough time raising funds and campaigning because of the legal challenges, but he’s pushed on regardless. (To read CL’s coverage, click here.) No telling if the justices will issue a ruling before the Nov. 4 General Election.

Powell faces Republican nominee Lauren “Bubba” McDonald and Libertarian Party nominee Brandon Givens.

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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.

(more…)

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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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Andre Walker at Georgia Politics Unfiltered reports that three former opponents of Ralph Long, the Democrat who won the state representative district that includes Atlanta, have filed a residency challenge against him with Georgia Secretary of State Karen Handel. Long does not face a Republican challenger in the general election and is therefore the presumptive state Representative-elect.

Paul Lockhart, Tony McCann, and Keisha Waites –who came in 5th, 6th and 2nd in the July 15th Democratic primary respectively [Source: Georgia Secretary of State, Georgia Election Results, July 22, 2008]– claim that Ralph Long “will not have met the Constitutional and Statutory residency requirements for the office of State Representative” and that by claiming to live in the 61st district, Long “intentionally deceived and defrauded the voters of the 61st District.”

The residency challenge also alleges that Long never claimed homestead exemption for his residence and that he did not reside in Georgia for one year prior to his candidacy. The challenge says that based on utility bills, Long was actually living in an apartment in Washington, D.C.

If the challenge to Ralph Long’s residency is successful, it’s expected that a special Democratic primary will be held to fill the vacancy on the Democratic ticket.

To view the residency challenge, click here.

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Jim Powell, the Public Service Commission candidate who’s been both campaigning for a seat on the powerful agency and fighting a residency challenge through Georgia’s legal system, will get his day in state Supreme Court.

The candidate, a former U.S. Department of Energy official, says the court has denied Georgia Secretary of State Karen Handel’s request to send the case back to the Court of Appeals and have placed it on the calendar for November. (I think it’s safe to say they’d hear the case prior to election day on Nov. 4 — it’s early and I’m awaiting confirmation from the court’s spokesperson.)

Powell’s fought a long battle so far. He first faced a residency challenge posed by Bob Indech, his opponent in the July 15 primary. After Powell cleared that obstacle, Handel booted him from the ballot in an eleventh-hour decision. A Fulton County Superior Court judge granted him a stay the day before the primary and he went on to trump Indech 85-15. Since then, it’s been a game of legal ping pong between Powell and the state’s guardian of the polling place. The state’s highest court is where the back-and-forth must end.

“It’s hurting me,” Powell says when asked of the legal battle’s impact. “It’s obviously been a distraction. The biggest disadvantage is in fundraising.”

Distractions aside, he says he’s continuing his campaign. Today’s schedule is nothing but fundraising meetings and phone calls.

To read CL’s ongoing coverage of the Battle of Powell©, click here.

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