Nuh-uh, kids! GOP almost suppressed those home for Thanksgiving
Dante Atkins points up a likely explanation for Georgia’s attempt to stomp out U.S. Senate runoff voting last Saturday.
If you (like me) had not followed the push-pull over whether Georgians could vote last Saturday, Marc Elias, Democrats’ premier election attorney, sketches it out in this morning’s Democracy Docket newsletter:
At the center of this dispute was the application of a 2016 Georgia law that prohibits counties from offering early voting in primary and general elections on certain Saturdays that follow holidays. On its face, the law is unclear whether a runoff election qualifies as a “primary” or “general” election and thus is open to interpretation.
Tipping the scale in favor of allowing early voting is a newer law that requires counties to begin advance voting — Georgia’s term for early voting — for this rapidly approaching runoff election “as soon as possible” to maximize the number of days on which Georgians can vote.
Also supporting allowing early voting on the Saturday after Thanksgiving is the fact that in 2020, several Georgia counties held in-person early voting on Saturday, Dec. 26, 2020 — the day after Christmas.
Immediately following Election Day on Nov. 8, 2022, the Georgia secretary of state and his chief deputy adopted this more permissive view. On Nov. 9, both of them told national television audiences that counties could offer in-person early voting on the Saturday after Thanksgiving — Nov. 26. Three days later, without further public explanation, the secretary changed his position. In a written guidance document sent to Georgia counties on Saturday, Nov. 12, the secretary’s office stated flatly that voting on Saturday, Nov. 26 was prohibited.
Why the change? We don’t know. What we do know is that the new interpretation was incorrect.
As is so often the case, the job of rectifying this wrong — of holding election officials accountable — fell to the courts. Days after the incorrect guidance was given, the Democratic Party and Warnock’s campaign filed a lawsuit in state court. Predictably, the Republican National Committee (RNC), National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC) and Georgia Republican Party intervened to support the secretary’s wobbly position.
The court process was a rout from start to finish. First, the trial court struck down the secretary’s guidance and repudiated his incorrect interpretation. Both the secretary and GOP appealed, which was then denied. At this point, the secretary could see the writing on the wall, later announcing he would appeal no further, but that did not stop the Republican Party. The RNC, NRSC and Georgia Republican Party filed a last-ditch appeal with the conservative Georgia Supreme Court. On the Wednesday before Thanksgiving, the court unanimously denied this final appeal.
All told, 13 judges — the majority of whom were appointed by Republican governors — rejected Republicans’ effort to restrict voting. Not a single judge who heard the case or any of its appeals agreed with the secretary or Republican committees.
The result was that 27 counties — both Democratic- and Republican-controlled — held early voting on Saturday, Nov. 26. Over 70,000 voters took advantage of the opportunity, close to the 93,000 vote margin by which Warnock won his 2021 runoff election. In what is expected to be another close election, the ability of counties to have early voting on this Saturday may prove pivotal to the outcome.
My jaundiced eye reads that as I suspect yours does.