Politics

After the May 24 primary in Georgia, in which a record number of black voters turned out, the proponents of “The Big Lie” — “one of the most hysterical, delusional, and cynically dishonest narratives in recent American political history,” as NRO’s Nate Hochman observes — claimed that their overwrought charges of “voter suppression” would be realized in the November election.

“Great efforts have been made by the faith community to organize, educate and prepare voters for S.B. 202. But comparing a primary to the general is like comparing apples to oranges,” said Bishop Reginald Jackson.

Well, Bishop, here we are in the lead-up to the November election and we’re still waiting for all that voter suppression to happen.

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution:

Some 729,029 people cast ballots Monday through Friday, far surpassing the 488,177 people voted during the same period in the 2018 midterm election.

Voter turnout typically peaks in presidential election years. In 2020, about 68% of Georgia’s voting-eligible population participated, according to the United States Elections Project at the University of Florida. Turnout was 54% of the eligible population in 2018.

But with the governor’s race and control of the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives on the line, voter interest remains high this year.

Herschel Walker, the GOP candidate for a U.S. Senate seat in Georgia, walked again a few of his previous feedback calling for a complete ban on abortion, saying he “by no means” stated he was against exceptions in legal guidelines limiting the process.

Walker, a former soccer star difficult Democratic incumbent Sen. Raphael Warnock, was requested by NBC Information’ Kristen Welker about his current assist for Georgia’s so-called heartbeat legislation. The legislation successfully prohibits abortion when cardiac exercise is detected in an embryo — one thing that’s often doable round six weeks right into a being pregnant, when many individuals don’t but know they’re pregnant.

The Georgia legislation consists of exceptions that permit victims of rape or incest to have abortions in the event that they file a police report concerning the rape or incest.

Welker pressed the GOP candidate about his assist for the Georgia invoice throughout a debate on Friday, noting that he had, in actual fact, known as for a complete abortion ban earlier in his marketing campaign.

Walker claimed he had “by no means” expressed that place.

“It wasn’t a change. I stated I assist life,” he informed Welker. “Georgia is a state that respects life. I’ll be a senator that protects life. And what I stated then, I stated I’d assist life, I’ll all the time assist life, however I stated I additionally assist what the folks voice it.”

“The folks’s voice is the Georgia heartbeat invoice, which has exceptions in it,” he continued. “I by no means stated I didn’t have any exceptions. I stated I’m for all times. After which I stated, you recognize, the governor has a fantastic invoice. The heartbeat invoice is a superb invoice. It has exceptions in it.”

Herschel Walker was widely mocked and criticized for flashing an honorary deputy sheriff’s badge onstage at a Georgia Senate debate Friday after his Democratic opponent, Sen. Raphael Warnock, called him out for pretending to be a police officer.

Get ready for more.

Walker, a Republican, is now showing the badge, one of at least two he has from Georgia sheriffs, in TV interviews. He plans to tout it in a video cut for social media with Johnson County Sheriff Greg Rowland, who gave him the badge. And Walker’s campaign told NBC News that it has ordered 1,000 imitation plastic law enforcement badges that say “I’m with Herschel” as a fundraising tool.

It hopes to hand some of them out at a crime-themed event with law enforcement officers Thursday in Macon if the props arrive in time.

“Herschel Walker has been a friend to law enforcement and has a record of honoring police,” said Gail Gitcho, the Walker campaign strategist who ordered the badges Saturday.

“If Sen. Warnock wants to highlight this, then bring it on,” Gitcho added. “It just gives us a chance to talk about Herschel’s support of law enforcement and law enforcement’s support for him. It’s a great issue for us.”

But to Warnock and his campaign, Walker is only reinforcing the criticism that he hasn’t been honest about his experience and that he isn’t a “serious” candidate.

ATLANTA (AP) — Libertarian Chase Oliver isn’t going to win Georgia’s Senate race.

But the 37-year-old self-described former Democrat could command outsize national attention, influencing the election night outcome and potential next round in a highly competitive contest expected to help determine whether Democrats or Republicans control the Senate over the final two years of President Joe Biden’s term.

Oliver is the third name on the ballot in the marquee matchup between Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock and Republican Herschel Walker.

In most states, that make would Oliver an afterthought. But Georgia law requires an outright majority to win statewide office. With polls suggesting a tight contest between Warnock and Walker, it may not take a considerable share of the vote for Oliver to force a runoff. It’s a scenario that played out in Georgia’s two Senate races in 2020, both won by Democrats, giving their party the slimmest of Senate majorities — 50-50, with Vice President Kamala Harris the tiebreaking vote.

The chance of an encore could be growing if Oliver’s level of support increases as Walker struggles to navigate his rocky past, including reports that the staunch anti-abortion Republican paid for the 2009 abortion of a then-girlfriend who later gave birth to their child.

“I do think that there are a lot of Republicans who feel like he’s not able to really be the best person to espouse the policies of limited government and keeping spending under control and lowering taxes,” Oliver said.

Williamson County, Tennessee held a local election a year ago on October 26, 2021. As the ballots were being run through Dominion Voting Systems counting machines, an election worker was jotting notes down on a Post-It. They noticed something strange. 300 ballots had been fed into two counting machines, but only 98 ballots were counted. 202 ballots were not counted. The counting machines did not send out any type of alert declaring that an error had occurred. The same anomaly caused 7 of the 18 Dominion counting machines in Williamson County to miscount ballots. Now an election watchdog group has found the same “Tennessee Error” on 64 of Georgia’s 66 counties, and the error was present during the 2020 election.

An interior message in the Tennessee machines showed an error code called “QR Code Signature Mismatch,” and a warning message stating, “Ballot format or ID is unrecognizable.” Here’s what we know about this anomaly so far, according to the watchdog known as the Election Oversight Group.

Whenever the QR Code Signature Mismatch error – the “Tennessee Error” – happens on a ballot counted by a Dominion tabulator, it fails to count that ballot. Then, it fails to count every ballot loaded into the machine after it. If there are 100 ballots in the machine and the error triggers on ballot number 47, then ballots 48 through 100 are uncounted – and the machine doesn’t tell anyone. The uncounted ballots can only be discovered by rifling through the code on the machine afterward. It’s a small miracle that a savvy election worker in Williamson County even caught the error in 2021.

The battle for control of the Senate increasingly is coming down to four key states: Nevada and Georgia, where two Democrats are seeking to hold on; and Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, where Republicans are trying to hold on to one open seat and save a vulnerable incumbent.

The four states are not the only competitive contests, but they are seen as the focal points for both parties and the races mostly likely to see a shift in power.

Incumbent Democrats are pulling away in Colorado, New Hampshire and even Arizona, which at the beginning of the cycle was seen as a potential gain for the GOP.

Republicans, for their part, are confident they’ll win in Ohio and North Carolina.

That would leave each party with 48 seats, and would mean the race for the Senate majority would come down to a final four.

“It’s up for grabs at this point,” Sen. Dick Durbin (Ill.), the No. 2 Democrat, told The Hill. “Every race we’re in the margin of error, which means the next six weeks can easily decide it.” 

Republicans think they have a decent chance of winning the Senate majority despite a difficult map in which they are defending more seats.

“Republicans go 3 and 1, and that’s the ballgame,” said one GOP operative involved in midterm races.

In Nevada, Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nev.) launched her latest offensive against former state Attorney General Adam Laxalt (R) on Thursday, accusing him of pushing the “big lie” about election fraud and the 2020 election.

Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp declined to say Sunday whether he would campaign with former President Donald Trump if fellow Republicans choose to hold a rally in his state.

“Fox News Sunday” anchor Shannon Bream cited a recent Atlanta Journal-Constitution report that speculated Trump could hold a rally in Georgia this month and asked Kemp if he would attend the event. will

“Would you show up with him at a rally in Georgia?” Brim asked the governor.

“Well, I’m not too worried about what the Atlanta Journal-Constitution is speculating about — they’ve been no friends of mine,” Camp replied. “I’m focused on talking to hard-working Georgians, making sure they know I’ll be fighting for them every single day — 40-year high inflation, the disaster at the gas pump, To fight the devastation at the border. And keep our state moving in the right direction.”

FOX NEWS POLL: Split decision in Georgia race, Warnock and Kemp ahead

Republican Georgia Governor Brian Kemp speaks during his primary night election party at the Chick-fil-A College Football Hall of Fame on May 24, 2022 in Atlanta, Georgia.
(Joe Riddle/Getty Images)

Agent Marjorie Taylor Greene, a Georgia Republican termed Consultant Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a New York Democrat, “not that vivid” for the duration of her speech at former President Donald Trump’s Michigan rally on Saturday.

“Democrats all worship the climate just like AOC and rely on me, I function with her and she is not that vivid,” the congresswoman claimed, who also explained herself as a “Southern belle” as she discussed her family’s connection to Michigan.

“Michigan has a specific area in my coronary heart,” she said. “My father is from Trenton, Michigan. My grandfather labored at Excellent Lakes Metal…he was a member of the union there just like so a lot of others. So I could possibly be a Southern belle and a Georgia peach, but Michigan operates in my blood.”

Greene later on accused President Joe Biden of declaring Republicans “enemies of the state.”

“Underneath Democrats, People in america just like me and you encounter a future hiding and fleeing persecution by a tyrannical Office of Justice and FBI, led by a president who declared us all enemies of the condition,” the lawmaker said.

Biden took purpose at Trump and his supporters all through a speech in Philadelphia final month about the “battle for the soul of the country.” Through the fiery speech, he condemned what he sights as anti-Democratic posturing from the Republican Occasion. He blasted them for attacking the integrity of the 2020 presidential election, opposing abortion rights, and striving “to just take this nation backwards.” Numerous in the GOP condemned the speech, as Biden confronted accusations of becoming partisan and divisive.

Right now someone in northwest Georgia is relaxing at home following a Labor Day weekend spent with friends and family and on the lake when the sun briefly burst through the clouds. Next month, this person intends to visit old pals in the Tennessee and North Carolina mountains. They will appreciate the local cuisine as well as the stunning fall colors along the journey. Of course, this person will be at home for Christmas and will spend most evenings and even a few Saturdays watching Hallmark network Christmas movies with a teenage grandkid who shares their love for them.

Under Kemp, 6 Hospitals Have Closed and 70% of Georgians are Struggling With Health Care Costs
As another Georgia hospital closes, Gov. Brian Kemp is doubling down on his stubborn refusal to expand Medicaid — which prevents billions in federal funds from coming to our state to help support struggling hospitals and which blocks hundreds of thousands of Georgians from accessing affordable health care. Kemp remains opposed to Medicaid expansion, instead pushing a restrictive and narrow plan that would cover far fewer Georgians, cost more than actual Medicaid expansion during the first year, and lead to tens of thousands losing coverage.
A recent statement from the governor’s spokesperson stated he would continue to build on policies that “have grown access to quality healthcare while bringing down costs,” but under Kemp, 70% of Georgians report struggling with health care and our uninsured rate is the 2nd highest in the nation at 14.5%.
Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp speaks in Atlanta on April 1.Alyssa Pointer / Atlanta Journal-Constitution via AP
The governor’s opposition to Medicaid expansion is purely political — 38 states, including many under Republican governors, and Washington D.C., have expanded Medicaid. Earlier this year, Kemp campaigned with former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie and Mike Pence, who both expanded Medicaid during their terms as governor.