Above: Democratic Georgia Public Service Commission Candidate John Noel Read: John Noel makes a second run for Georgia Public Service Commission–this time in joint campaign with Robert Bryant By Jonathan Grant @Brambleman John Noel, a Democratic candidate for the Georgia Public Service Commission, was prepared to speak when he came to the Georgia State Board of Election’s emergency hearing in Athens today. The Board was there to deal with what it saw as an insurrection: the decision by the Athens-Clarke County Board of Elections to toss the state’s system of oversized ballot-marking devices in favor of handmarked paper ballots. Noel had something to say on the issue of ballot secrecy. He’s concerned since he’ll be on the ballot in Clarke as well…
State calls emergency hearing over Athens-Clarke call to go with handmarked paper ballots
Welcome to the machine and its big-ass screen By Jonathan Grant @Brambleman That didn’t take long. Late this afternoon, word went out from the Georgia State Board of Elections calling an emergency hearing regarding the Athens-Clarke County Board of Election’s Tuesday decision to toss the state’s new voting system and go with handmarked paper ballots. The local board based its decision on concerns over ballot secrecy due to the size of the ballot marking devices. They are large. So is the font used with them. They can be seen across the room. Maybe Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger should have noticed this before his office bought the machines. Or paid closer attention to Georgia’s pesky Constitution, which states “Elections by the people…
Podcast: Greenhaven cityhood, ethics bill dominate DeKalb legislators’ town hall
By Jonathan Grant @Brambleman The DeKalb House delegation hosted a town hall at Porter Sanford Auditorium town hall Tuesday night. The meeting was dominated by discussions of cityhood issues—Vista Grove and Greenhaven, but mostly Greenhaven. Discussion centered on the summary of a study, commissioned by the county. and presented at Tuesday’s meeting by an official with the University of Georgia’s Carl Vinson Institute of Government. Download the study here. While Vista Grove advocates spoke, there was plenty of comment about Greenhaven, along with some drama. Both cityhood proposals appear stalled in the General Assembly—as in not moving forward at this time. Here’s audio of the town hall, split into two parts. Please note I did not record every second of the…
Her dog won’t hunt: Doug Collins fires back at Kelly Loeffler’s Poser ad
Above: No animals were harmed during the filming of this ad Note: Scroll down to see Loeffler’s original tweet and Collins’ response. Here’s the latest on feud from AJC. update coverage By Jonathan Grant @Brambleman Kelly Loeffler, Georgia’s selected U.S. senator, is all about #MAGA. She was appointed by Gov. Brian Kemp to go up to Washington D.C. and … do what she was told, apparently. Unlike Rep. Doug Collins, who is running against her, she is genuinely inauthentic. Collins is as authentic as hell, and will get in your face about it. He sports a Deliverance vibe, which is fitting, since Georgia’s 9th District is Deliverance country. Loeffler’s home turf is the New York Stock Exchange, which her husband runs. Culture…
Poser or Poacher? Sen. Kelly Loeffler parades around in ad with a gun, but there’s a problem with that
Above: No animals were harmed during the filming of this ad By Jonathan Grant @Brambleman Kelly Loeffler, Georgia’s selected U.S. senator, is all about #MAGA. She was appointed by Gov. Brian Kemp to go up to Washington D.C. and … do what she was told, apparently. Unlike Rep. Doug Collins, who is running against her, she is genuinely inauthentic. Collins is as authentic as hell, and will get in your face about it. He sports a Deliverance vibe, which is fitting, since Georgia’s 9th District is Deliverance country. Loeffler’s home turf is the New York Stock Exchange, which her husband runs. Culture clash! Kemp supposedly picked Loeffler to appeal to suburban women who are turned off by Donald Trump for reasons that…
My message to Georgia State Elections Board about their horrible recount proposal
Update: So of course they ignored me, along with everyone else. The State Election Board voted unanimously Friday to conduct recounts of Georgia’s new paper ballots with scanning machines instead of people: https://t.co/0mDYtxZJGT #gapol — Mark Niesse (@markniesse) February 28, 2020 By Jonathan Grant @Brambleman It’s amazing bad. I wrote about it on this website. In a nutshell, elections officials want to conduct recounts by scanning the QR codes, commonly referred to as barcodes, rather than looking at each ballot and counting the printed text–what they want voters to check. Humans cannot read barcodes, so there’s no check on the system. Read my post here. Today’s the deadline for action Action item–Deadline TODAY: Submit written comments on Rule 183-1-15-.03 Optical Scan Recount Procedure by end…