On Politics: Georgia governor faces new pressure over far-right elections board takeover
Good evening! This election is a contest for votes — but there are also battles brewing over how those votes will be counted. Tonight, we're looking at three stories about democracy and the fight over election integrity — beginning with some news from my colleague Nick Corasaniti. — Jess Bidgood
Georgia governor faces new pressure over far-right elections board takeoverThe latest, with 61 days to go
Georgia has long been a battleground in the fight over the country's democratic institutions. This year, it is shaping up to be just as critical. Earlier this year, a new majority of far-right Republicans gained control of Georgia's State Election Board. The votes taken since have prompted deep concern that the board is rewriting the rules of the game in a key swing state to disrupt certification of elections and favor former President Donald Trump. Now, a bipartisan effort to pressure the governor to investigate the three-person majority is ramping up. Democrats, voting rights groups and some Republicans are pressing Gov. Brian Kemp to rein in what they see as a rogue board increasingly aligned with the far-right wing of the Republican Party. The effort is anchored by a new targeted television ad campaign by Fair Fight, the voting rights group founded by Stacey Abrams. The ad buy is small, just $50,000, and the commercial will run in Atlanta on CNN, MSNBC and Fox News with the goal of encouraging Georgians to flood the governor's phone lines. We got an early look at the ad, which can be seen here. "Brian Kemp could shut it down to make sure our elections are independent," a deep-voiced narrator proclaims in the ad. He instructs voters to "call Kemp" and tell him to "remove these MAGA extremists from power." Also on Thursday, a group of Republicans sent a letter to the governor imploring him to exert his power over the state election board to both investigate and remove members. The letter is signed by more than a dozen national Republican figures who have been critical of Trump, including Ty Cobb, the former counsel for Trump who has since broken with the former president. "The State Election Board is entrusted with the vital responsibility of assuring 'fair, legal and orderly elections' in Georgia," the letter said. "No reasonable observer could conclude that these three people are upholding that duty, according to the complaints. That is why we urge you to take immediate action to restore faith in the democratic process." The members of the Georgia State Board of Elections who voted for the new rules have previously stated at meetings and in the media that their aim was to increase transparency and accuracy in elections, and stressed that the new rules do not attempt to change certification deadlines or requirements in Georgia law. A spokesman for Kemp declined to comment. A spokesman for the Georgia State Election Board declined to comment. A battleground for the election and moreThe pressure campaign is unfolding in a critical battleground state in the presidential race with just two months to go before the vote. It follows successful efforts by the election board to change the rules for certifying elections in Georgia. Critics have said the new rules have the potential to delay certification and create chaos in the days and weeks after Election Day. Trump has been supportive of the board, so the campaign could pit Kemp against the former president and threaten the recent rapprochement reached between the two. For years, Trump's simmering anger over the governor's refusal to overturn the 2020 election in Georgia resulted in frequent public outbursts directed at Kemp, but the two have reached a truce of sorts. Trump recently praised the governor on his social media website, thanking him for "all of your support and help." A rupture in the relationship could jeopardize Trump in Georgia, where most polls show the presidential race in a dead heat. As my colleague Maya King reported yesterday, Kemp is very popular in Georgia, according to recent polling, and commands an influential political machine, whose canvassers are out knocking doors for State House candidates in metro Atlanta. A long list of complaintsThe letter sent on Thursday is one of several sent to the governor's office in recent months that made allegations of ethics violations and requested investigations into the elections board. In July, Cathy Woolard, who was then the chair of the Fulton County Election Board, filed a complaint against the State Election Board for potentially violating Georgia's open meetings law. Last month, State Representative Nabilah Islam Parkes filed an ethics complaint (and Woolard signed on), stating that new rules passed by the board were intended to help Trump win. Kemp has not commented publicly on the actions of the State Election Board. But last week, he referred the ethics complaints to the state attorney general and asked for legal guidance as to whether he had the power to remove members of the board. Trump, however, has praised the current direction of the board. At a campaign rally in Atlanta last month, he called its three right-wing members "pit bulls fighting for honesty, transparency and victory." Cobb, who is a former federal prosecutor and former member of the Trump administration, said he believed the law was clear that Kemp had the authority to both investigate and remove the members. "This is sort of playing with the roots of democracy," he said in an interview. He praised Kemp as "a very principled, thoughtful leader" and said there needed to be a check on the Georgia State Election Board. "One way to throw up a roadblock is to use this authority and make sure the people do what they're appointed to do," Mr. Cobb said. "And if they can't do it or have done it inappropriately in a way that merits removal, remove them." How Republicans are seizing on false theories about immigrant votingToday, my colleague Alexandra Berzon has a deep look at another important development in the fight over election integrity. Republican lawmakers, election deniers and other Trump allies are ramping up pressure on local election officials to stop what they falsely claim is an effort by Democrats to use votes by undocumented immigrants totilt elections in their favor. There is no indication that noncitizens are actually voting in large numbers. Alexandra looks at how this conspiracy theory is spreading — and how it could undermine faith in election systems, shaping the run-up to the November election and its aftermath.
When democracy has everything but a choiceThere's another challenge facing democracy: a lack of competition. My colleague Michael Wines looked at how Democrats, who have made defending democracy core to their political identity, often fail to field candidates in down-ballot elections. I asked him to tell us more. JB: How frequent are elections with only one candidate on the ballot? Is it more often Democrats or Republicans who sit races out? MW: They're extraordinarily frequent. The data we analyzed, covering elections to more than 29,000 partisan offices in 2022, showed that close to half of those races were uncontested. And that's probably an underestimate. In those uncontested races, Democrats were more than three times as likely to fail to field a candidate as were Republicans. You traveled to southeastern Missouri for this story. Why? Everybody knows that Democrats are strongest in cities and Republicans have a hold on rural areas. But when you map out the data, it's clear that Republicans have kept at least a toehold in urban areas, while Democrats are all but locked out of much of rural America. Small-town Missouri is a quintessential illustration of that. In one county I visited, there were 17 down-ballot races — not one of which was contested by a Democrat. Why is it important for candidates to face competitive elections? Political scientists will tell you that politicians who face no opposition are, by and large, worse public servants. They sponsor less legislation and miss more votes on bills than officeholders who have to work to win re-election. They tend to become more extreme over time, too, because the only elections they have to win are primaries where the most rabid party loyalists make up a lot of the vote. Read past editions of the newsletter here. If you're enjoying what you're reading, please consider recommending it to others. They can sign up here. Have feedback? Ideas for coverage? We'd love to hear from you. Email us at onpolitics@nytimes.com.
|
posted by Goatz @ 3:16 PM
0 comments
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home