Federal Judge Orders Georgia to Reveal Tally of Provisional Ballots

[pnwmom]

Source: Bloomberg

A federal judge in Atlanta ordered the state’s election office -- overseen by Georgia Secretary of State Brian Kemp until his resignation Thursday -- to disclose how many provisional ballots were cast during the midterm election and how the total compares with the previous two elections.
The order came after the non-partisan civil rights group Common Cause filed a lawsuit claiming there may have been an increase in the use of provisional ballots because Kemp exposed the voter registration database to potential tampering by highlighting a major security flaw just before the election when he accused state Democrats of a hacking scheme.

Key Insights

• U.S. District Judge Amy Totenberg, who’s overseeing a suit by the nonpartisan civil rights group Common Cause, said the state must be prepared to provide the data at a hearing that was scheduled for 2 p.m. in Atlanta. . . .

• Because there is “no way to investigate in a timely manner how many voters have been affected,” according to the lawsuit, the group is seeking a court order requiring all provisional ballots be counted if there are more this year than in previous elections. The group said the order must apply to all provisional ballots unless the state can prove that the voter isn’t eligible or didn’t register in time.


Read more: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-11-08/u-s-judge-orders-georgia-to-reveal-tally-of-provisional-ballots?utm_content=business&utm_medium=social&cmpid=socialflow-facebook-business&utm_campaign=socialflow-organic&utm_source=facebook

[Wintryjade]

1. This is good.

[onetexan]

3. In deed, real good!

[iluvtennis]

2. Excellent!

[SunSeeker]

4. K & R

[CottonBear]

5. This is truly good news for those of us here in GA.

KKKemp May have gone too far in his effort to steal the election while supervising the election as Secretary of State.

If KKKemp loses, then he’s out of office, for now, at least.

[Roadside Attraction]

6. WTF????

I'm the secretary of the electoral board in my rural Virginia county.

On our election results report that we submit to the state is a section where we are REQUIRED to report the number of provisionals, the number accepted and the number rejected. We then must add the provisional vote count to the election day totals for the final, official vote count. That is, if a candidate received 100 votes on election day and one vote when we count provisionals, that candidate's official total is 101.

Anyone who casts a provisional has until noon on Friday after the election to bring in ID, or, to show that they really are registered to vote and that their vote should be counted. In our small county, we had only six provisionals: two for no ID, both voters have come by the registrar's office and shown ID, we will count those two ballots; four because the voters are not registered -- three of the registered but after the deadline to register for Nov 6 (their votes will NOT be counted), and one who was registered in another county -- she went to the other county on election day and voted, so, we will not count her vote here.

It's not rocket science.

[BumRushDaShow]

7. It's called "voter suppression"

This was the type of thing that spurred the creation of Sections 4 (list of states targeted, which includes GA, for past egregious behavior related to voting and requiring DOJ "per-clearance" before making any changes to voting procedures) & 5 (the "per-clearance" provision) of the Voting Rights Act.

[greymattermom]

8. I was a precinct manager in Georgia.

We had only 2, but one of them thought she was registered and thought she had voted in the last 2 years. Kemp removed a lot of voters who haven't voted in a while from the rolls. I'm sure that they will find that most of the voters removed live in heavily minority districts. Those voters would have to show up at the county office with ID on a work day during work hours. This is just not possible for many. I had to drive there at night to bring in the vote tally and a lot of equipment, and it's 15 miles on the most dangerous interstate in the country. That may not seem like a lot, but this is Atlanta.