Skidaway Island Democrats

2 days ago

From the Brennan Center for Justice:

For months, we have warned of a drive by President Trump and his administration to undermine the 2026 election. It is unprecedented, outlandish. Now Trump himself is blaring his intent — and over the past week, the public issue has exploded. The fight for a free and fair vote is taking shape, starting on the floor of the House this week as it once again considers the SAVE Act.

Make no mistake: The SAVE Act would stop millions of American citizens from voting. It would be the most restrictive voting bill ever passed by Congress. It is Trump’s power grab in legislative garb.

Today, the House Rules Committee is voting to send the measure to the full House for a vote. Effectively, the bill would require Americans to produce a passport or a birth certificate to register and thus to vote. Brennan Center research shows that 21 million people lack ready access to these documents. Half of all Americans don’t have a passport, for example. And millions of married women who have changed their names might need to jump through extra hoops to vote.

The measure likely will pass the House, as it did in an earlier form last year. Once again, it will be up to senators to block it. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) declared it “dead on arrival.” But this time around, a mobilized outside drive is pushing lawmakers to restrict voting. “It must be done or democracy is dead,” instructed Elon Musk. The SAVE Act will not expire quietly, surrounded by loved ones. It’s on all of us to stand up and speak out, once again.

And now we see how it fits into the broader strategy.
In recent days, Trump has repeatedly demanded that Republicans “nationalize” the elections on behalf of his political party. Each time his aides try to clean up his remarks, he doubles down. “A state is an agent for the federal government in elections,” he wrongly insisted.

Constitutionally, that’s upside-down land. The Constitution is unambiguous: States run elections. Presidents have no role.
Congress, appropriately, can enact national legislation. It should use that power to pass national standards to protect the freedom to vote, not restrict it.

Then there’s the appalling abuse of federal law enforcement. We still do not know why Kash Patel’s FBI raided election offices in Fulton County, Georgia, nearly two weeks ago. A judge has ordered that the underlying legal papers, secret until now, be released. ProPublica reports the raid may be linked to agitation by a “conservative researcher” who has peddled discredited conspiracy theories.

Intelligence chief/gadfly Tulsi Gabbard showed up at the Atlanta raid. FOMO? Amid Justice Department ducking and a denial by Trump, Gabbard wrote to Congress that in fact the president ordered her to go even though her office plays no part in elections. Now it turns out that Gabbard last year obtained voting machines in Puerto Rico. And Trump’s allies in 2020 claimed that Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez, long dead, had masterminded a plot.
This is comic opera stuff. But it’s deadly serious, too — certainly for the public servants in Fulton County. It all aims to send a message to intimidate election officials around the country. If you preside over an election and we don’t like the result, we may come after you.

Steve Bannon, the Trump strategist who served prison time for defying a congressional subpoena, declared on Tuesday, “We’re going to have ICE surround the polls come November. We’re not going to sit here and allow you to steal the country again.” When we see how politicized and aggressive immigration forces have become, that threat becomes more than a podcaster’s bombast.
Here, the law is clear: That would be a federal crime. My colleague Sean Morales-Doyle explains: “Can the president send troops or ICE agents to polling places? No — both federal and state laws explicitly prohibit the federal government from carrying out these implied threats.” It’s a federal crime to intimidate voters, too.

In coming months, if we see abuses of power like this, what can we all do to ensure that voters have their voice?

So far, we and others have staved off Trump’s worst impulses. After Trump signed an executive order last year purporting to unilaterally rewrite election rules, we sued the administration, and we won. And as the Trump administration continues to sue states for sensitive voter information, courts in California, Michigan, and Oregon have reaffirmed states’ right to refuse.

State and local governments, too, must be ready to act to protect the polls.

And voters will need to know that, despite all the noise and drama, we can make sure the 2026 elections are free, fair, secure, and, yes, uneventful. It may require voting early or by mail, for example.

In an election year, voting rights advocates often ponder whether pointing to threats risks demobilizing citizens. At some point, warning about voter suppression can accidentally dampen participation.

Not this year, it seems. Each time Trump declares that his goal is to “nationalize” the election — not for the greater good, but for his own political interests — the stakes become clearer. When he wrongly insists American elections are “rigged,” as he did over the weekend, it’s more than bluster. He’s saying the quiet part out loud.

In 2026, the right to vote will demand a fight to vote. ... See MoreSee Less

Skidaway Island Democrats

2 days ago

Yesterday, the affidavit was unsealed that allowed Trump’s FBI to raid the Fulton County elections center. The Democratic Party of Georgia made the following comment:

This affidavit only confirms that the warrant and seizure of 700 boxes of ballots and sensitive election materials are based on nothing more than the same long-debunked conspiracy theories about the 2020 election.

But now the goal is even more dangerous – the President is not actually trying to overturn the results of a long past election, he is laying the groundwork for his plan to put himself and his party – not state and local election officials – in charge of elections in 2026.

The affidavit only confirms that none of this is a legitimate investigation.

REMINDER: All it tells us is Trump/Bondi finally found an FBI agent and a prosecutor willing to sign their name to an affidavit that relies on debunked conspiracy theories to allege a crime was committed.

And because the real “evidence” is nonexistent, they had to go all the way to Missouri – quite a way from the Northern District of Georgia – to find a prosecutor willing to carry this water for the President.

In issuing the warrant, the magistrate judge did not in any way evaluate the credibility of those claims – that is not the judge’s role. The judge just confirmed that the warrant alleged the elements of a crime were met by probable cause, the lowest burden of proof in any criminal proceeding.

The only thing that the press and American people should take seriously about this investigation is what it tells us about the President’s willingness to weaponize the Department of Justice to further his desire to control the results of state and local elections.

The press and our elected officials should all be standing up and calling this investigation what it is – the President testing out his ability to take physical control of voted ballots in clear violation of the U.S. Constitution. ... See MoreSee Less

Skidaway Island Democrats

4 days ago

From the League of Women Voters of Georgia:

Georgia remains the center of controversy over the results of the 2020 presidential election. Fulton County, with the most registered voters of any county in the state, and where criminal election interference charges were once filed against 19 defendants, is battling litigation from private citizens, the Georgia State Election Board (SEB), and now the Department of Justice.

On January 28, the Department of Justice (DoJ) raided Fulton County election headquarters and seized ballots from the 2020 election. This happened because last summer the SEB referred SEB case 2023-025 to the DoJ for review and to “bring any action necessary.” The case, brought by a member of the Fulton County Board of Elections, claimed that she could not perform her duties without direct access to the ballots. The Elections Director refused that access because the tabulation process was rigorous and thorough and could be trusted.

Referring SEB cases to the DoJ is new, as the administration of elections is under the purview of states, not the federal government. And so, immediately following the raid, Fulton County sued the DoJ for the return of all materials seized. Among those materials are the voter rolls for Fulton County. The DoJ has been denied access to voter roles by Georgia and most other states, and so they’ve taken them from one county via a warrant.

Rather than side with Georgia elections law and the Secretary of State, the Georgia Senate passed SR563, urging the Secretary to comply with the DoJ request for every Georgia voter’s unredacted personal information, with the intended purpose of sending that information to an unnamed third party. On the bright side, HR1200 was filed to protect the privacy of Georgia’s voters.

At a more local level, a case that has been dismissed multiple times may finally have been completely dismissed, as a state judge ruled on a long-running lawsuit from a group of Fulton County residents who wanted to see the 2020 ballots and do their own audit. The judge said the lawsuit “presented zero factual or legal questions.” He also charged them $39,000 in court costs.

At the federal level, there were threats to “nationalize” elections, which would violate the US Constitution. Then there’s the on-going threat of the SAVE Act, which would make registration especially difficult for married women and some citizens in minority groups.

It was a busy week.

Here in Georgia the SEB, in October, again recommended that the General Assembly end “no-excuse” absentee voting. The raid in Fulton County prompted the cancellation of the Governmental Affairs Committee meeting to discuss SB214, which would change the procedure for casting absentee ballots. In both the SEB and the General Assembly there is pressure to move to hand-marked paper ballots. The House Blue Ribbon Study Committee recommends that voters be given the option to use pre-printed, hand-marked paper ballots on election day, and that all ballots containing a QR code be hand-counted for official tabulation.

That same committee recommends that the General Assembly adopt legislation to purchase a new statewide election system. The one we spent $109 million on way back in 2019, despite being secure and extremely accurate, apparently isn’t good enough.

All of this adds complexity and expense, sows mistrust, makes it easier to cheat and harder to vote. None of it has anything to do with revisiting the settled outcome of the 2020 election.

All of it, both legal and illegal, is aimed at future elections, at undermining a system that isn’t broken. Settle in, it may be a long night in November for the midterm election. ... See MoreSee Less

Skidaway Island Democrats

7 days ago

NEW: Georgia Leads the Nation in January Layoffs Under Trump’s Failed Economic Agenda

Georgia leads all states amid the largest national layoff numbers since the 2009 recession

Today, Challenger, Gray & Christmas released a new report finding that Georgia saw the highest number of layoff announcements in the entire country in the month of January, with a staggering 31,415 job cuts announced. Nationwide, as Trump and Republicans continue to inflict economic chaos, job cuts surged to their highest January levels since the 2009 recession.

As Donald Trump has thrown our state’s economy into chaos and uncertainty, GOP U.S. Senate candidates Rep. Buddy Carter, Rep. Mike Collins, and Derek Dooley and gubernatorial candidates Burt Jones, Rick Jackson, Chris Carr, and Brad Raffensperger have supported his agenda of hiking prices and cutting jobs every step of the way, pledging to enable his attacks on Georgia’s economy if elected.

In response, DPG Chair Charlie Bailey released the following statement:

“Under failed GOP leadership, Georgia was the number one state for layoffs in January. Republicans running for Senate like Buddy Carter, Mike Collins, and Derek Dooley, and those running for governor like Burt Jones, Rick Jackson, Brad Raffensperger, and Chris Carr have proudly supported Donald Trump’s devastating economic decisions – from reckless tariffs to drastic health care cuts – that now have Georgia leading the nation with the highest national January layoffs in 17 years. These job cuts reflect a staggering, damning failure of leadership by Republicans as they continue to throw working families under the bus to give even bigger and bigger handouts to their billionaire friends. Georgians literally cannot afford more failed Republican leadership in the Governor’s office or the U.S. Senate in 2026.” ... See MoreSee Less

Skidaway Island Democrats

1 week ago

For the record: States and Elections Clause of the Constitution
Article I, Section 4, Clause 1:

The Times, Places and Manner of holding Elections for Senators and Representatives, shall be prescribed in each State by the Legislature thereof; but the Congress may at any time by Law make or alter such Regulations, except as to the Places of chusing Senators. ... See MoreSee Less