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New poll shows increased voter confidence following Georgia’s 2024 election

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New poll shows increased voter confidence following Georgia’s 2024 election


ATLANTA, Ga. (Atlanta News First) – What a difference four years can make.

A new poll from the University of Georgia measuring the state’s voter confidence in the recent 2024 presidential election showed a 14% increase in trust from the 2020 results.

In 2020, perhaps the most contentious race in political history, only 78% of Georgia voters expressed confidence in the election results, the survey showed. This year, 92% of all polled voters said they were trusting of the counting process and ultimate results.

“I think trust is the real standard when society is so polarized,” said Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger. “The proof is in the pudding, the proof is in the numbers. What we have is accurate. The machines are good. We have these great election workers. It’s all come together.”

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Raffensperger was the target of lawsuits and violent threats after the 2020 election in Georgia went to President Joe Biden. Much of it circulated around election misinformation.

The new numbers showed that people had more trust this year.

>> READ THE FULL REPORT:

Among Republicans, 98% of polled voters who said they were Republicans trusted the 2024 vote, compared to just 60% in 2020.

Democrats saw their trust go down in 2024. This year, 84% of self-identified Democratic voters had confidence in the vote tally, compared to 96% in 2020.

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“Sometimes when people’s candidate doesn’t win, their trust isn’t as high as when their candidate does win,” said Raffensperger. “We get that.”

It’s a refreshing sign for Raffensperger, who is currently serving his second term as Georgia’s secretary of state.

“Some of the water has been calmed in Georgia,” he said. “That gives voters trust, and trust is the gold standard.”



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Two freshman Georgia football players arrested on shoplifting charges

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Two freshman Georgia football players arrested on shoplifting charges


Georgia offensive lineman Dontrell Glover and running back Bo Walker were arrested for shoplifting at a Walmart on Friday, less than a week after the Bulldogs won the SEC Championship.

According to the Athens Banner-Herald, the freshmen were booked into Clarke County jail in Athens on two counts of misdemeanor shoplifting. Glover and Walker were arrested Friday evening and released on $1,526 bond before 8 p.m.

“We were informed of the charges and are currently in the process of gathering additional information,” Georgia spokesman Steve Drummond said in a statement. “This is a pending legal matter and we will not have further comment at this time.”

Walker played six games this season and rushed for 100 yards and three touchdowns. Glover started 11 games in 2025 and was named to the All-SEC freshman team.

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Last month, offensive lineman Nyier Daniels was dismissed from the team by head coach Kirby Smart after he was arrested on more than a dozen criminal charges after he allegedly tried to flee from police north of Athens.

The Bulldogs beat Alabama last Saturday in the SEC title game and earned a place in the College Football Playoff. They will play again on Jan. 1 against the winner of Ole Miss-Tulane in the College Football Playoff quarterfinals.



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DOJ files suit to obtain 2020 election records in Fulton County, Georgia

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DOJ files suit to obtain 2020 election records in Fulton County, Georgia


The Justice Department sued Fulton County, Georgia, this week in an effort to obtain more than five-year-old ballots tied to the 2020 presidential election which President Donald Trump lost.

The eight-page complaint filed in federal court in Atlanta on Thursday, names Fulton County Clerk of Courts Che Alexander as a defendant, alleging that the clerk violated the Civil Rights Act by failing to produce records tied to the 2020 presidential election as requested by state and federal officials.

The lawsuit asks that the court demand that the records be produced within five days of a court order.

According to the lawsuit, the Fulton County Board of Registration and Elections last month refused to comply with an Oct. 6 subpoena, from the state’s election board, for election records, including used and void ballots, stubs, and signature envelopes from the 2020 presidential election, saying in a Nov. 14 letter that the records were “under seal” in accord with state law.

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The lawsuit states that the board later failed to respond to a letter from Attorney General Pam Bondi on Oct. 30, demanding the records which she said were needed to review the state’s compliance with federal election laws and meet state transparency efforts.

Alexander and the Fulton County Board of Registration and Elections did not immediately respond to requests for comment on Friday night.

Alexander had previously said in an Oct. 21 letter to the state election board that “the records sought are under seal and may not be produced absent a Court Order,” according to the lawsuit.

Trump was indicted on felony charges in Fulton County in August 2023 along with 18 other co-defendants in connection with efforts to overturn his election loss.

Trump pleaded not guilty to charges that were dropped last month by a prosecutor who took the reins of the case following Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis’ disqualification from prosecuting Trump in the matter.

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Georgia has long been a sore spot for Trump after a narrow loss in 2020 that he has spent years disputing.

After a manual recount of election results in Georgia that reaffirmed President Joe Biden’s narrow win in the state in 2020, Trump, who was then seeking a second term, had also called then-Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger and implored him to “find” the votes needed to defeat Biden in the 2020 election. Since then he has continued to falsely claim he won the state.

The Fulton County lawsuit from the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division comes as it announced on Friday that it had filed federal lawsuits against four states — Colorado, Hawaii, Massachusetts and Nevada — alleging that the states had violated the Constitution by failing to produce statewide voter registration lists upon request.

Assistant Attorney General Harmeet K. Dhillon of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division, said in a statement Friday that states “have the statutory duty to preserve and protect their constituents from vote dilution.”

“At this Department of Justice, we will not permit states to jeopardize the integrity and effectiveness of elections by refusing to abide by our federal elections laws. If states will not fulfill their duty to protect the integrity of the ballot, we will,” Dhillon said.

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Georgia’s Utility Regulator Rushes Deal for Georgia Power Before Public Hearing – CleanTechnica

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Georgia’s Utility Regulator Rushes Deal for Georgia Power Before Public Hearing – CleanTechnica



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ATLANTA, Georgia — An hour before hearing testimony from the public and advocacy groups, the Georgia Public Service Commission (PSC) posted a settlement agreement approving Georgia Power’s plan to build the most expensive gas plants in the country, leaving Georgians to foot the bill.

The settlement, which the PSC is expected to vote on during its Dec. 19 meeting, approves Georgia Power’s “Requests for Proposals,” or RFP, despite clear warnings from the Sierra Club, Southern Alliance for Clean Energy, and PSC’s own staff that Georgia Power’s plan hinges on a data center bubble. The utility’s proposal is expected to cost at least $15 billion in capital costs, though the total costs have yet to be publicly disclosed. The proposed settlement would dramatically increase Georgian’s energy bills for years to come for data centers that might not even be built. Several counties in Georgia have already passed moratoriums on data centers, awaiting more insight into their potential impact on local communities.

“This proposed settlement is the largest single investment in electric infrastructure in the state’s history. It calls for building the most expensive gas plants in the country and will result in higher prices for consumers and more pollution in our communities. It will cause temperatures to go up, more frequent and more powerful storms, and deadlier floods and heatwaves,” said Dekalb County resident Lisa Coronado during the Dec. 10 hearing. “But Georgia Power doesn’t care about any of that. When the temperatures go up, Georgia Power makes more money because Georgians run their air conditioning more often. When climate-change fueled storms wreck our infrastructure, Georgia Power passes repair costs onto us.”

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The settlement includes promises of “downward pressure” for ratepayers’ bills, but Georgia Power’s claim that typical ratepayers will eventually see a reduction of $8.50 per month is short-sighted. First, Georgia Power has made similar promises in the past and continued to raise rates. Second, the proposed rate decrease would only cover three years, whereas ratepayers will have to pay for gas plants for 45 years.

In response, the Sierra Club released the following statement:

“The PSC’s own expert staff said Georgia building gas plants was not in the best interest of ratepayers,” said Adrien Webber, Sierra Club Georgia Chapter Director. “At a time when the PSC should be fighting for affordability for Georgians, they instead push through a plan that will continue to squeeze Georgia families already struggling to make ends meet. As we consider our next steps, it’s clear that the people of Georgia demand change from our PSC and the Sierra Club will continue to fight to make that change happen.

“‘Georgia Power’s agreement is still based on the idea that data center projects are coming, which is not guaranteed,” Webber continued. “The PSC’s own staff saw Georgia Power’s plan as overbuilding for projects that may or may not appear, threatening to leave the cost for ratepayers to pick up. It’s infuriating that Georgia Power and the PSC refuse to even take public comment or insight from advocates into consideration before coming to this agreement. Filing this agreement just an hour before the second round of hearings shows that the PSC refuses to be held accountable to the people of Georgia.”

About the Sierra Club: The Sierra Club is America’s largest and most influential grassroots environmental organization, with millions of members and supporters. In addition to protecting every person’s right to get outdoors and access the healing power of nature, the Sierra Club works to promote clean energy, safeguard the health of our communities, protect wildlife, and preserve our remaining wild places through grassroots activism, public education, lobbying, and legal action. For more information, visit www.sierraclub.org.

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