Early voting ahead of the Dec. 6 U.S. Senate runoff will begin today for some, this weekend for others and statewide on Monday.
From one county to the next, the early voting options are varied because of flexibility built into state law and the fight over interpretations of those laws. Plus, counties have to gauge what they can pull off with limited resources and a short runoff window.
After an appeals court on Monday denied an attempt to ban early voting this Saturday, elections officials are giving counties one last opportunity today to announce plans to open voting centers that day.
But it remains optional, and few of the state’s 159 counties have said they will do so.
Most of the counties that will offer weekend early voting are in heavily Democratic areas, which we told you in yesterday’s Jolt has created some consternation among Georgia Republicans. After all, this runoff is expected to hinge on turnout and weekend early voting is a popular option for voters from both sides of the aisle.
Now, some GOP-leaning counties have started to get on board. Among the roughly dozen counties that said they will offer early voting this Saturday are Crawford, Screven and Walton.
Douglas County will open voting centers today, the earliest in the state to do so. Wednesday, polling locations will be open only in Douglas and DeKalb Counties.
Every county is required to offer in-person early voting Nov. 28 through Dec. 2.
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Credit: Steve Schaefer/AJC
Credit: Steve Schaefer/AJC
REPUBLICAN UNITY. A trio of Republican leaders fired off a memo to donors and supporters promoting their alliance behind U.S. Senate hopeful Herschel Walker.
The Republican National Committee and the state GOP report having 400 staffers and more than 85,000 volunteers working to turn out the vote for the Dec. 6 runoff against U.S. Sen. Raphael Warnock, according to the document.
The memo said Walker also has about 30 staffers for his ground game operations, and that Republicans are sharpening efforts to target Hispanic, Black, Jewish and Asian American voters.
The letter was signed by U.S. Sen. Rick Scott of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, RNC chairwoman Ronna Romney McDaniel and state GOP chair David Shafer.
It’s part of a growing effort to project GOP unity. Gov. Brian Kemp held his first public campaign rally with Walker over the weekend and directed his ground-game operation to help the Senate nominee.
And a contingent of local and national Republican leaders are stumping with Walker this week. U.S. Sens. Ted Cruz and Lindsey Graham will join him in Powder Springs tonight. Former U.S. Sen. Kelly Loeffler campaigned with him in Milton on Monday.
“It feels like two years ago we were in the same spot,” she said to a crowd of hundreds at a horse barn in the north Fulton suburb. “If you don’t think elections have consequences, let me tell you they do.”
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CAPITOL CEREMONY. The late House Speaker David Ralston will lie in state under the rotunda of the Georgia state Capitol today through Wednesday. Ralston died last week at the age of 68.
Credit: Nathan Posner for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Credit: Nathan Posner for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The 24-hour honor will begin with a formal ceremony this morning, as Gov. Brian Kemp and first lady Marty Kemp escort a procession from Washington Street into the Capitol. Members of the General Assembly, along with staff to the Speaker and the Capitol complex, will line the procession route into the Capitol.
The public receiving line will begin after the 11 a.m. ceremony and end at 7 p.m. tonight, with a second period from 7 a.m. to 11 a.m. Wednesday.
The events will be livestreamed by Georgia Public Broadcasting.
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Credit: WSB-TV
Credit: WSB-TV
DEMOCRATIC LEADERSHIP. State House Democrats will decide their next slate of officers today.
State Rep. Carolyn Hugley, a veteran Columbus lawmaker who was Stacey Abrams’ top deputy in the House, told us she’s planning to challenge House Minority Leader James Beverly to lead the chamber’s Democrats.
Billy Mitchell and David Wilkerson — two other members of the House Democratic leadership team — also have opposition.
Democrats picked up three state House seats in the November elections and will enter the next session with 79 members.
House Republicans earlier chose Jon Burns to succeed the late House Speaker David Ralston. He’s set to be formally elected the chamber’s leader in January.
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Credit: Jason Getz/AJC
Credit: Jason Getz/AJC
TODAY ON THE TRAIL:
- Herschel Walker holds a rally in Powder Springs along with U.S. Sens. Lindsey Graham and Ted Cruz.
- U.S. Sen. Raphael Warnock holds four rallies today. He’ll start in Rome and then head to Paulding County, Fayetteville and Newnan.
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Credit: Nathan Posner for the AJC
Credit: Nathan Posner for the AJC
SHE’S BACK. U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene’s personal Twitter account has been reinstated under the Elon Musk regime.
When her account was suspended in January, it was after she received multiple warnings for posting misinformation about the COVID-19 pandemic. Her official congressional Twitter account remained active, and that is what she used to announce the return of her personal page.
“Go follow @mtgreenee for MTG unfiltered,” she tweeted.
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FLYNN’S TURN. Former National Security Advisor Michael Flynn is expected to testify today before the Fulton County special purpose grand jury investigating former President Donald Trump and his allies’ attempts to overturn the 2020 election.
Flynn asked a Florida judge to quash the subpoena but lost that battle last week. He filed an appeal, but so far the lower court’s ruling has not been overturned.
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TODAY IN WASHINGTON:
- The House and Senate are in recess for the Thanksgiving holiday week.
- President Joe Biden is headed to Nantucket, Massachusetts, where he will celebrate the holiday with his family.
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Credit: Chip Somodevilla via The New York Times
Credit: Chip Somodevilla via The New York Times
SCOTUS LEAKS. U.S. Rep. Hank Johnson and a counterpart in the Senate are raising questions after reports of another Supreme Court leak.
Johnson, a Lithonia Democrat, and U.S. Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-Rhode Island, were responding to the Rev. Rob Schenck’s interview with The New York Times. Schenck said he received early notice of the outcome of the court’s 2014 ruling in a case involving craft store Hobby Lobby and contraception requirements as part of employee healthcare.
The Times noted that both this opinion in Hobby Lobby’s favor and the Dobbs ruling in June overturning federal protections for abortion were both cheered by conservatives and written by Justice Samuel Alito Jr.
Johnson and Whitehouse, who each serve on the Judiciary Committee in their respective chambers, have written to Chief Justice John Roberts asking for information about what he is doing to respond to these leak allegations.
And they say Congress may need to get involved.
“It seems that the underlying issue is the absence of a formal facility for complaint or investigation into possible ethics or reporting violations,” they wrote. “Congressional oversight and internal investigations initiated by the Court itself are, as a general matter, the only two avenues of investigating unethical conduct at the Court.”
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Credit: Arvin Temkar/AJC
Credit: Arvin Temkar/AJC
CITY LIMITS. Local leaders in Cobb County want to see the cityhood process revamped by the Georgia General Assembly after three of four proposed cities in Cobb were greenlit by lawmakers, but defeated by voters in referendums.
The Marietta Daily Journal reports the request came from Cobb administrators to the Board of Commissioners and includes a suggestion to require a baseline of local support before moving the question of cityhood to a ballot for voters. More:
Before any cityhood bill is proposed, Cobb has asked, at least 10% of the voters within the city's boundary should sign onto a petition expressing support. That suggestion echoes the sentiments of Commissioner Keli Gambrill, who told a Georgia House of Representatives subcommittee this summer the failed Lost Mountain effort “originated from something other than grassroots."
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Credit: File image
Credit: File image
PROGRAMMING NOTE: The Jolt will be off on Thursday and Friday for the Thanksgiving holiday. We’ll be back to our regular schedule on Monday.
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AS ALWAYS, Jolt readers are some of our favorite tipsters. Send your best scoop, gossip and insider info to patricia.murphy@ajc.com, tia.mitchell@ajc.com and greg.bluestein@ajc.com.
