Home > Political Insider > Archives > 2008 > October > 30 > Entry
DEL.ICIO.USOn the topic of Karen Handel and extended hours for early voting
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The argument over whether Georgia should extend early voting to the weekend is showing no signs of cooling off.
In today’s AJC, Secretary of State Karen Handel made her argument against it:
[E]ven if the authority existed —- which it does not —- Georgia is covered under Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act, which means that any changes in election procedures must be “precleared” by the U.S. Department of Justice before they can be implemented….
The facts are that Georgia voters enjoy perhaps the broadest ballot access of any state in the nation. Thanks to the 45 days of early and advance voting, approximately 1.5 million citizens have already cast ballots, and this is with the photo ID law in effect. By most measures, this would be considered a success. Even compared to Florida, our voters have much more time to vote.
…. Maybe if Florida had followed our lead, Gov. Charlie Crist may not have had to declare a state of emergency and ask counties to stay open longer and over the weekend.
According to the NYT’s blog, The Caucus, North Carolina — like Georgia, a Voting Rights state — just announced that polls would be open for four hours on Saturday:
The emergency decision affects “one-stop” registration and voting sites in the state’s 100 counties, which have experienced long lines since opening on Oct. 16. The sites can now stay open four hours later, until 5 p.m., on Saturday.
According to The Associated Press, more than 1.7 million people, just under a third of the state’s registered voters, had cast ballots by Wednesday evening in the surprise swing state.
In Georgia, an unsigned editorial on InsiderAdvantage, founded by Matt Towery, is the most flammable item on the topic out there today. It accuses Handel of digging a “Katherine Harris-style hole.”
But while Democrats have been the loudest in their demands for more time to cast early votes, the IA piece makes the argument from a Republican point of view:
GOP voters vote before work - impossible given the current lines - or after work - sorry, parking lot full; skip the vote. As it stands, her unwillingness to extend voting hours will guarantee big problems for McCain and Chambliss.
Makes you wonder why someone would want the job of running Georgia’s elections. What used to be a three- or four-month sprint has turned into a 45-day slog, with several million on-site observers.
Comments
By Katydid
October 30, 2008 7:54 PM | Link to this
Karen Handel could have averted this by asking for pre-approval for longer hours or weekend voting. And just what, pray tell, are these poll workers doing over the weekend anyway? The poll leaders in my precinct say that they have NEVER had to do preparation work on the weekend before an election, and especially not with electronic voting. This will backfire, for the reasons explanined on the Towery website.
Her problem … voters will remember this when she makes a run for higher office. I certainly won’t vote for her, given her narrow constructionism views.
By My Two Cents
October 30, 2008 7:57 PM | Link to this
I will not stand in line for 4 hours to vote. I will vote on Nov. 4.
By JerryT
October 30, 2008 8:20 PM | Link to this
Handel might as well change the title of her job to Secretary of Voter Suppression.
By catlady
October 30, 2008 8:44 PM | Link to this
Funny that all of a sudden she wants to follow her perception of the letter of the law. The reason she is in trouble with the feds is because she tried to suppress voting. Now she could try to FACILITATE AND ENCOURAGE voter turnout (which the feds would NOT be UN happy about) by increasing the opportunity to vote this weekend but she will NOT because “those people” are more likely to vote on their day off. So, once again, she is suppressing the vote.
I have no problem with requiring voter ID to vote. I have no problem with cutting out these ACORN-type voter registrars in favor of more accessible REAL registrars. I do have a problem with throwing up every barrier to discourage voters from voting, to get them to give up rather than wait for long periods. It stinks, and the feds should come down hard on Ga and Ms. Handel personally for their efforts to discourage voters.
Thinking voters will remember Ms. Handel and her party.
By Jess
October 30, 2008 9:14 PM | Link to this
Up until a few years ago I worked in a county election office, so I know these things work . The Sec of State has no ability to tell us what hours we should have. We the ones who set the hours for advanced voting. If we wanted to be open from 3am until midnight it would happen. Heck, if we requested and DOJ approved it, my county make that change today. Whether she wants it to happen or not, Handel has no say in what my county does. Besides, most counties elections are going great. It appears that the problems are limited to a select few and it seems to me they should have planned better.
By Jess
October 30, 2008 9:29 PM | Link to this
One other thing. If a county wanted to have weekend voting, there is nothing stopping them. It would have cost the county more money, but there is nothing stopping us. However, to have voting this weekend would be a disaster. North Carolina can get away with it because they had already had voting planned for this Saturday. All the sites were selected, the machines were accounted for, the staff was set, and the notices sent out. The only thing that they changed was to make it longer.
As for the lines, things arent going to get any better until the counties start allocating more money for elections - and that starts with paying the staff better. My advice to all my friends and family is “Vote Absentee!”
By Will Jones
October 31, 2008 6:30 AM | Link to this
Anyone have the definitive answer on the discrepant 1.9 million new Georgia voter registrations attested to by the Social Security Administration’s complaint about SSN verifications, and Handel’s 400-some thousand?
By catlady
October 31, 2008 6:34 AM | Link to this
Things to do:
Get rid of GW Bush and his party
Get rid of Saxby Chambliss
Get rid of Sonny Perdue and his party
Get rid of Cathy Cox
Get rid of Karen Handel
By Sally
October 31, 2008 8:00 AM | Link to this
If we suspect that the volunteers who host the voting polls are stuffing the boxes or deleting our vote with fraud and trickery, can we use force to stop them? What kind of citizen/voter’s arrest can we make to prevent our constitution from being trampled by the GOP snakes who have seized our ballot tradition and made a travesty of the only means Americans have of obtaining justice and change?
In ‘04, this horrid, fat Cobb County GOP potatoe-head used a funny looking device to disarm my ballot plug. Nobody else had to hand over their plug but me. I was eyed suspiciously by the lone security guard. Somehow they knew I was a democrat. I was a new registrar, yet they didn’t have my name on the file cards. And the lady overseeing the voting alerted several staff members of my impending vote. There were huddled discussions, extended-arm finger pointing, and then some number recitation coded chant, hell, I expected someone to hike a football. I am convinced that my vote was negated last time, and if I were Patrick Henry, I shoulda hanged them all. But this is not the French Revolution, and I am not Robespierre, or Sir Thomas Moore, or Rasputin, or der heetler.
But get this: if I smell a rat this time around, I’m going to alert everyone in line to the scheme, if I spot it, like last time, and then we’ll see how democracy self-corrects in the modern era of U-tube, kool-aid, and self flushing toilets.
I dont know what I just threatened to do. Now I want my mommy.
By Sally
October 31, 2008 8:23 AM | Link to this
That’s quite a hairball you coughed up, Catlady. We shouldn’t expect to win too many swing states or log cabin districts.
We should just hope to win the national election and begin the new era that was denied us in November, 1963, in Dallas, the day after Nixon visited there, on a trip that has never been fully explained.
Nixon’s interview with David Frost did more to expose the fool than any other event: Nixon’s face suddenly changed to one of surprised regret, as he mulled over a lost opportunity to escape the Watergate mess. He suddenly sat up in his chair, his hands open and extended toward Frost, and exclaimed, “Why, I could have just pardoned everyone. That’s what I should have done. Just used the presidential pardon.” (like he would still have been president if he had only thought of the pardon back then).
He appeared to have riffed the thought, that it just occurred to him, during the interview. His face changed. His eyes bulged, his mouth hung open, his entire demeanor became energized with the idea, yet he dripped regret.
Check it out in the archives. Where do we get our leaders?
By Voters Rights
October 31, 2008 8:24 AM | Link to this
I’m confused, for the first time in history we have early voting available for 45 days. People wait to the last week, then complain about the lines. I voted three weeks ago and it took me 20 minutes.
According to the AJC almost 27% of eligible voter have already voted, and both parties are upset. Get a grip people.
4 years ago, there was one week of advanced voting, there were lines then.
By Sally
October 31, 2008 8:52 AM | Link to this
Very funny riff, Voter’s rights! “People wait till the last week”.
great. Gonna keep an eye on you.
The whole voting institution, or suffrage, has endured in spite of 2000 and 2004, when it is painfully clear that the GOP stole the elections with the help of the supreme court and the states.
Do you realize what a criminal conspiracy that is? Yet, because half the country was involved, we’d have to spend the next 50 years prosecuting everyone. I mean, at what point does a population deserve the country it creates? If Red Staters dont want free elections or a constitution, and there’s enough of them, then America is lawless, and voteless, and so what? that’s what americans want? then thats what we get.
Then we can only look jealously at Iraq and use them as our standard to strive for in the future.
By The Oddball
October 31, 2008 8:55 AM | Link to this
As a life-long Southerner, I thought I would never again see the day when American elected officials would manipulate the voting process to discourage people from voting against their party. No matter what political views you hold, you should be very afraid of this.
Karen Handel is Katherine Harris with a GED and less makeup. Utterly shameful.
By Sally
October 31, 2008 9:24 AM | Link to this
At least Katherine Harris was hot. If only she was the one arrested drunk at Hooters instead of John Daly, eh?
By RL
October 31, 2008 1:37 PM | Link to this
I think Karen may be attracting a little too much attention… she will be a target in two years for sure. What’s up with trying to prevent people from voting. Why do we have 4-8 hour waits in GA… we should be ashamed.
By Jeff
October 31, 2008 1:57 PM | Link to this
People:
In all fairness, if you run the numbers, it is possible to win the Presidency according to the Electoral College with just 28.5% of adults voting for you - and that is assuming that every adult is a registered voter that voted in the election. For some scenarios I’ve looked at, that percentage drops to just 5.8% of all adults. (That particular scenario involved 25% of adults ineligible to vote for whatever reason (unregistered, convicted felon, mentally unstable, etc) and 25% voter turnout, so admittedly it was a lowball. I was simply trying to compute the LEAST number of votes needed.)
The key to EC victory right now is to win each of the following states:
California, Texas, New York, Florida, Pennsylvania, Illinois, Ohio, Michigan, Georgia, North Carolina, New Jersey.
Win EACH of those ELEVEN states, and you have 271 EC votes - and therefore, the Presidency of the United States. No matter what happens in the other 39.
Talk about stealing an election…
By FultonGOPer
October 31, 2008 2:30 PM | Link to this
Karen Handle is failing her first test at managing anything. At Fulton she was in a policy making position and now, when faced with actual management responsibilities, she is floundering badly. Her poor handling of the election will cost her votes among Republicans if she decides to run for Governor cause we are having to stand in ridiclously long lines. Rather than find a solution she is doing the typical bureaucratic thing and being an obstacle to efficiency and digging in. Shirley Franklin and Karen Handel both are glorified secretaries with no college degrees and this is coming more and more to light as they fail in their management responsibilities.
By Nos
October 31, 2008 10:57 PM | Link to this
I am a Republican and I am fed up with how Karen Handel has managed this election and her office. Three hours to vote? Ga Supreme Court and a Federal Court say she acted outside the bounds of the law? Driving around in a taxpayer-funded Lexus SUV? Sonny couldn’t get her a free Kia? Flying around the State for pre-campaign speeches on the taxpayer dime? Flying to China with Sonny on the taxpayer dime? This lady is simply too much. And to top it all off she doesn’t even have a college education. How does it happen that someone without a college education is allowed to oversee the licenses of thousands of college educated Georgians? Doesn’t her staff include professionals? How does that work? FultonGOPer is right. Karen Handel is nothing more than a glorified secretary. You make coffee for Dan Quayle’s wife and write press releases at Ciba and you are ready to manage a major Georgia agency because you have “corporate” experience? Give me a break.
By Paula
November 1, 2008 2:06 AM | Link to this
What is wrong with voting on Nov. 4th. My son came home from college to cast his first vote because he will be unable to on Tuesday and because everyone else had to rush to the polls there was a 1000 people ahead of him. Atlanta has gotten crazy. the metro area needs longer day and hours. The traffic is hell and some people were unable to get to the polls during the primary. The metro area needs some serious looking at. His 1st vote and he can’t cast it. And an informed one at that!!!
By Roswellian
November 1, 2008 9:36 AM | Link to this
She lives in a glass closet.