The Jolt: The Jackson County elections board calls for a shift to all-mail voting

News and analysis from the AJC politics team
Poll worker Brittni Nix waits to assist voters during special election voting at city hall to fill an empty city council seat on Tuesday, March 24, 2020, in Dacula. The voting happens to occur on a day that was supposed to be the test run for the state's new election system before coronavirus COVID-19 caused it to be called off.

Credit: John Amis

Credit: John Amis

Poll worker Brittni Nix waits to assist voters during special election voting at city hall to fill an empty city council seat on Tuesday, March 24, 2020, in Dacula. The voting happens to occur on a day that was supposed to be the test run for the state's new election system before coronavirus COVID-19 caused it to be called off.

How we vote in a pandemic has suddenly become a litmus test among many Republicans, though not all.

On Wednesday, Gov. Brian Kemp announced an extension of Georgia’s public health emergency, a move that’s likely to result in a shift of the state’s May 19 primaries to a June date.

Whether the coronavirus will be put to bed by then is hard to say. Probably not. And so the debate over vote-by-mail remains relevant.

Hours before the governor extended his emergency shelter-in-place order, the Jackson County Board of Elections voted four-to-one to send a resolution to Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger and House Speaker David Ralston recommending that the state primaries be conducted entirely by mail.

"[V]oting by mail in the current COVID-19 pandemic is the only guaranteed method to protect voters, poll workers, and others involved in the voting process," a draft of the resolution reads. The vote was taken via a Zoom meeting.

The “others” mentioned in the resolution would be those downstream from voters. “Our paramedics, doctors and nurses,” board member Erma Denney told our AJC colleague Chris Joyner.

Both Raffensperger and Ralston have publicly worried about increased voter fraud from mail-in balloting. Denney, a former mayor of Hoschton, said those fears are unfounded and said “thousands” of absentee primary ballots have already been cast in Jackson County alone.

“Maybe other people don’t know how safe that process is,” she said. “I watched and learned how the election staff goes through and does signature checks. If people are worried about fraud, this can’t be hacked.”

“What’s unsafe about voting this year is voting in person. That’s the danger. Not voter fraud,” she said. “It’s a citizen’s duty to participate in the election process, but it is the (government’s) duty to protect Georgians.”

Denney said she realizes that voting entirely by mail would require a change in the law, but she thinks it’s imperative. She said the scenes of primary voters In Wisconsin Tuesday standing in long lines to cast their ballots in person is a warning for Georgia.

“That’s why the secretary of state, the governor and Speaker Ralston – they’ve all got to get on board with it,” she said. “It won’t be easy, but it will be easier than overwhelming our healthcare system two or three weeks after election day.”

Counties have been accused in the past of voter suppression for limiting early voting locations, and Denney said she is “absolutely concerned” that such changes in Georgia’s primaries – because of a shortage of poll workers -- could make it more difficult for some to cast their ballots.

“However, it is countered by my founded fear of what could happen with bringing people together to execute their duty to vote,” she said. “We are weighing everything else in our life to a minute detail. This is no different.”

The action in Jackson County, which Kemp won in 2018 with 82% of the vote, provoked an email discussion that began with a note to Denney from T.J. Dearman, chairman of the Jackson County GOP. He wrote:

I just wanted to reach out and let you know that when your term expires this November, I will NOT be reappointing you. If you want to step down before that, I will accept your resignation. Thank you.

This was Denney’s reply:

Dear TJ,

Thank you for participating in today's first JC BoE virtual meeting. By utilizing this medium, we were able to continue the business of the board and work in a controlled environment. We did so safely and without the possibility of spreading a deadly virus amongst us.

It is in this same vein that I will do whatever I can to ensure the upcoming election doesn't compromise our community, and more importantly our already overwhelmed healthcare and EMS system. I want no one's blood on my hands just because they fulfilled their civic duty to vote. It is reckless to endanger people's lives when a tried and tested channel is already in place. Matter of fact, it is one of the few things we didn't have to rework during this national emergency.

I will not - repeat - I will not resign at your request, nor would I wish to be reappointed by an organization that fails to put the health of Georgians first. History will not forget our actions during this pandemic. You're young, but you need to consider this.

Kindest regards to you and your family - stay safe.

Denney quickly added this postscript:

In my haste to respond to your email, I left out a pertinent point.

As someone who saw this crisis coming for quite a while, I prepared my household for this situation. By doing so early, I was then able to pivot to helping others. Because of my quick thinking, all Jackson County paramedics, fire and rescue team members are equipped with protective face shields. They had NONE before my donation - now they have #45. A rural hospital in Middle Georgia had NONE, now they have the other 9 I was able to procure before they were out of stock.

If you two think that I would go through that expense to protect our first responders and healthcare workers, THEN turn around and inundate them unnecessarily, you are sorely mistaken. Ask yourselves whether you are going to be part of the solution, or contribute to this disaster.

Kind regards,

Erma

Denney then sent the exchange to her fellow elections board members:

Dear fellow Board members,

I do not take the situation we are in lightly. Matter of fact, I have taken it very seriously for some time now. Today I am perplexed at how something that should strictly be a decision based on public health, when we are in a national emergency, has veered off into the political field. 

I tried to explain my position to TJ and hope this gives some insight into my actions. Point blank, should any of us require a paramedic or rescue intervention in Jackson County, the face shield protecting both the EMS and the resident is there because of this PPE donation.

On a personal note, I've had a zoonotic virus (twice) already and don't want to bear another. I don't want any of you, most whom are in a vulnerable category, to become sick. I don't want our staff and poll workers to fall ill when it is avoidable. As I said, we can prevent Georgians from contracting the virus and therefore keep an election from becoming a tragic surge event.

This is not political - this is life and death - and I make no apologies for my firm stance. Eric, thank you for drafting the resolution. We appreciate your extra assistance during this difficult time.

All the best,

Erma

***

President Donald Trump is pushing a questionable argument that voting by mail encourages fraud, though he modified that stance somewhat on Wednesday. From the New York Times:

At his daily news briefing on Wednesday, Mr. Trump said he believed vote-by-mail had been abused to hurt Republicans, and "I will not stand for it," though he allowed that mail ballots could help some older voters — an important part of his voting base. It was a slight modulation that came at the urging of his advisers.

The message is mixed in Georgia, as well. For instance, Trump’s name is being invoked in dial-up calls by one GOP congressional candidate urging voters to embrace voting by mail.

Mark Gonsalves, a Seventh District contender, sent out robo-calls pitched as a “coronavirus voter update” urging voters to return ballot request forms that began arriving in every active Georgia voter’s mailbox this week.

“President Trump needs your help and you can do it without leaving home,” said the recording.

***

The editorial board of the Wall Street Journal rarely subjects Donald Trump to broadsides. But this morning, we have this headline: "Trump's Wasted Briefings: The sessions have become a boring show of President vs. the press." At issue, of course, are the daily 5 p.m. (or so), 90-minute appearances by the president with cast members from his coronavirus task force. A taste:

The President's outbursts against his political critics are ...notably off key at this moment. This isn't impeachment, and Covid-19 isn't shifty Schiff. It's a once-a-century threat to American life and livelihood.

The public doesn't care who among the governors likes Mr. Trump, or whether the Obama Administration filled the national pandemic stockpile. There will be time for recriminations. What the public wants to know now is what Mr. Trump and his government is doing to prevent the deaths of their loved ones or help the family breadwinner stay employed.

***

U.S. Sen. Kelly Loeffler announced Wednesday that she would stop trading in stocks for individual companies all together, investing her vast wealth in exchange-traded and mutual funds instead.

The move essentially is a concession that the controversy surrounding her trading during the coronavirus pandemic has made things tough for her ahead of November’s special election to determine if she will remain in her seat.

Her decision was unveiled in an opinion piece published by the Wall Street Journal. A taste:

I'm not doing this because I have to. I've done everything the right way and in compliance with Securities and Exchange Commission regulations, Senate ethics rules and U.S. law. I'm doing it because the issue isn't worth the distraction. My family's investment accounts are being used as weapons for an assault on my character at a time when we should all be focused on making our country safe and strong. 

Hours later, U.S. Rep. Doug Collins of Gainesville, Loeffler's most prominent Republican opponent in the November election, was interviewed by Fox Business' Lou Dobbs. Said Collins:

"Just this week, she stated in an article that was written by the Washington Post that, looking back on it, she would have done nothing different. Well, now she's doing something very different, and I guess it's not because – as she claimed in the editorial or anywhere else that it was wrong. It was just, I believe, that she found out the people of Georgia didn't believe her."

***

One state lawmaker's decision to keep working after a coronavirus diagnosis, which exposed countless others to the virus, has become an issue in his upcoming campaign, our AJC colleague Maya T. Prabhu reports. A sampling:

When state Sen. Brandon Beach announced he tested positive for the novel coronavirus two days after attending a special legislative session last month at the Capitol, some colleagues openly aired their frustration.

The Alpharetta lawmaker's admission has become an undercurrent of his re-election campaign, as he faces state Rep. Michael Caldwell in the Republican primary. Beach has said, in hindsight, he shouldn't have come to the Capitol on March 16.