Georgia
Georgia election board under fire over last-minute rule changes
![Georgia election board under fire over last-minute rule changes Georgia election board under fire over last-minute rule changes](https://d.newsweek.com/en/full/2454557/donald-trump.jpg)
The Georgia State Election Board has been accused of voter suppression after introducing new rules before the 2024 presidential election.
The changes were voted in by the three Republican members of the election board, while the board’s two non-Republicans voted against them. The new rules allow local officials more power to dispute election results by adopting a new ballot-counting policy. They state that, if a result is disputed in an electoral area, all votes must be counted by hand to ensure that they match the official number of votes cast.
A year ago, a Georgia grand jury accused Trump and others of illegally trying to overturn the 2020 presidential election in the state. The former president has denied all charges against him and repeatedly said that the case is part of a political witch hunt against him because he is the GOP presidential nominee.
The case has been delayed ever since, with no prospect of going to trial, after one of the former president’s co-defendants, Michael Roman, a Trump campaign staffer and former White House aide, alleged in a court filing that Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis had improperly engaged in a romantic relationship with lawyer Nathan Wade, whom she had picked to lead the prosecution against Trump and 18 others.
Christian Monterrosa/Getty Images
The new rules allow local election officials to deny election certification until the dispute is resolved.
Critics say that it is being introduced so that Donald Trump can again contest the Georgia result and begin a process of disruption and delay if he loses the election.
The three Republican board members voted to adopt the new measures, while the other two members, a Democrat and an independent, voted against.
Newsweek sought email comment from the Georgia State Election Board and the Trump campaign on Wednesday.
The proposal was submitted to the board by Salleigh Grubbs, chairperson of the Cobb County Republicans.
“We have to have assurance, as Georgians, that what we see printed on our ballot is exactly accurate, and the only way to do that is by a handwritten affiliation on the precinct level,” Grubbs told the board at Monday’s meeting.
Voting rights organization Fair Fight said the rule changes are being introduced so that Republicans would disrupt the election if Trump loses.
“Trump and his MAGA allies have taken over the Georgia State Election Board to try and give a veneer of legality to their illegal scheme to disrupt the certification of Georgia’s 2024 election results,” Fair Fight CEO Lauren Groh-Wargo said in a statement.
“Many of Trump’s key election denier allies and Republican Party operatives are behind these illegal, anti-freedom changes to Georgia election rules, and it’s all with the goal of helping Trump win the Peach State, even if he doesn’t earn a majority of Georgians’ votes.”
The Georgia Association of Voter Registration and Election Officials (GAVREO) also opposes the new rules.
Legal analyst Joyce Vance also condemned the changes. The former Alabama prosecutor is a liberal commentator and a frequent critic of Trump. “Voter suppression is nothing new in the South. But anti-voting activity is ramping up in Georgia because the state that delivered its 16 electoral votes to Joe Biden in 2020 along with two senators to create the Democratic majority in the Senate is firmly in play in 2024,” she wrote in her legal blog, Civil Discourse, on Tuesday.
“The most significant rules change the three board members—each of whom questioned the results of the 2020 election—have slipped in just ahead of this year’s election is one that allows local election officials to delay or deny certification if they have concerns about the outcome. No standard for judging whether those concerns are valid was established,” she wrote.
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Georgia
Former President Jimmy Carter celebrated by grandson, Democratic National Convention • Georgia Recorder
![Former President Jimmy Carter celebrated by grandson, Democratic National Convention • Georgia Recorder Former President Jimmy Carter celebrated by grandson, Democratic National Convention • Georgia Recorder](https://georgiarecorder.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/DSC_0780-scaled.jpg)
CHICAGO – Former President Jimmy Carter is staying home from this year’s Democratic National Convention, but his grandson Jason Carter took the stage Tuesday night and delivered a speech in his honor, including an update on the 99-year-old Georgia native.
“Paw Paw is holding on,” he said. “He’s hopeful, and though his body may be weak tonight, his spirit is as strong as ever.”
Jimmy Carter, who is set to celebrate his 100th birthday in October, is the longest-living president in American history and the only president from Georgia.
He entered hospice care in early 2023. Jason Carter, a former state senator and gubernatorial candidate, said in May that he believes his grandfather is nearing the end, but has since said his grandfather is holding on to cast his vote for Vice President Kamala Harris as president.
“My grandfather can’t wait to vote for Kamala Harris. She reminds us all that the promise of America remains unchanged,” Jason Carter said.
Former first lady Rosalynn Carter, Jimmy Carter’s wife of 77 years, died in November.
“I can tell you that he wishes he could be here tonight,” Jason Carter said. “He and my grandmother led their lives with an unwavering faith in God, a respect for human dignity, honesty and a commitment to loving their neighbors as themselves. Those principles guided them throughout their lives, including during their four years in the White House and the four decades since. For my grandfather, it was never about fame, recognition, accolades or awards, his legacy is measured by the lives he has touched and the good he has done.”
“Kamala Harris carries my grandfather’s legacy,” he added. “She knows what is right, and she fights for it. She understands that leadership is about service, not selfishness, that you can show strength and demonstrate decency, and that you can get a whole lot more done with a smile than with a scowl.”
Throughout the United Center Tuesday, Democrats from around the nation shared well wishes for and fond memories of Jimmy Carter.
Kevin Jacobson, an alternate delegate from Wisconsin, said he wasn’t around for the Carter administration, but decided to research Carter after learning that he had solar panels installed on the White House back in 1979.
“He was very present, I think he was looking very forward,” Jacobson said. “He did so many things around clean energy, even back in so long before we even knew what climate change really was. So I’ve always really appreciated him. He comes from such humble roots, and I think that we should get back to those roots as the Democratic Party.”
Fellow Wisconsinite Josefine Jaynes agreed.
“Something that has always struck me about Jimmy Carter is that he is just a man of faith, and I think sometimes Dems are afraid to talk about faith and lean into faith, and Jimmy Carter showed that Republicans don’t own Christianity, so I really like just how important his faith is to him.”
Carter was known to teach Sunday school classes at Maranatha Baptist Church in his hometown of Plains Georgia until 2020.
Jake Metcalfe, former party chair for the Democratic Party in Alaska, said folks there remember Carter for the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act, which set aside more than 100 million acres of land.
“His administration was responsible for providing land for parks, and that was controversial at the time, but he saved a lot of the country and helped preserve the land of Alaska,” Metcalfe said. “So some people see him as a hero, some people see him as a president that prevented development, but I think more people in Alaska like him now and are happy with what he did.”
Metcalfe said he’s in the latter camp.
“He’s going to go down as one of our better presidents and, you know, he’s one of the few guys, few presidents that has basically not cashed in and has done a lot for his country and his community,” he said.
Carter was celebrated more for his post-presidency accomplishments, including as a mediator and volunteer. He was particularly known for showing up to Habitat for Humanity job sites and helping to construct homes well into his advanced years.
“I’m glad of what he has done and what he’s accomplished in his life and how he’s been able to lead a footprint to show what you can do after your presidency,” said New York state Sen. Leroy Comrie. “And I hope that other people can follow in his footsteps and not worry about being elected to find a cause or an issue that they want to work on and put their time and effort into it.”
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Georgia
JD Vance speaking in Georgia hours before Kamala Harris’ DNC keynote
![JD Vance speaking in Georgia hours before Kamala Harris’ DNC keynote JD Vance speaking in Georgia hours before Kamala Harris’ DNC keynote](https://gray-wgcl-prod.cdn.arcpublishing.com/resizer/v2/7T47GR4JNVBDFKC42ZTMQPEVNA.jpg?auth=6b6c611d23604eddaf83a81939f9677bbc7930fec425898683005a3282e74037&width=1200&height=600&smart=true)
ATLANTA, Ga. (Atlanta News First) – Hours before Vice President Kamala Harris makes history Thursday night, Republican vice presidential hopeful JD Vance will speak in south Georgia on an issue he and Donald Trump are making a central part of their campaign to return the 45th president to the White House.
Vance will speak at the Lowndes County Sheriff’s Office in Valdosta at 1 p.m. on border security and immigration.
“An average of 5,000 illegal immigrants are being released into the U.S. every day,” the Trump-Vance campaign said in the announcement. “In FY 2023 alone, more than 900,000 illegal immigrants were released into the interior of the U.S. and now await future immigration court dates. Experts say the likelihood U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers will remove them is ‘virtually nonexistent’ and that they ‘are here indefinitely, if not forever.’”
Harris was given the issue of border security and immigration as her responsibility in President Joe Biden’s administration.
This is Vance’s second trip to the battleground state of Georgia since becoming the GOP’s vice presidential nominee. In early August, Trump and Vance made their first joint appearance in Atlanta at the Georgia State University convocation center, the same site where Harris held a rally only days earlier.
Before their Georgia appearance and fresh off last month’s Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, Trump and Vance had appeared at one rally together, in Michigan. That rally came exactly one week after Trump would-be assassin Thomas Matthew Crooks opened fire at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania.
Atlanta News First and Atlanta News First+ provide you with the latest news, headlines and insights as Georgia continues its role at the forefront of the nation’s political scene. Download our Atlanta News First app for the latest political news and information.
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Georgia
Georgia high school softball Player of the Week (8/20/2024)
![Georgia high school softball Player of the Week (8/20/2024) Georgia high school softball Player of the Week (8/20/2024)](https://images2.minutemediacdn.com/image/upload/c_crop,w_1200,h_675,x_0,y_37/c_fill,w_1440,ar_16:9,f_auto,q_auto,g_auto/images/voltaxMediaLibrary/mmsport/high_school/01j5qtys9ptzaqs1ewsm.jpg)
The Georgia high school softball season is underway and so is the voting for the first SBLive Georgia High School Softball Player of the Week winner of the 2024 season.
Please review our list of nominees and then cast your vote for the athlete you find most deserving.
SBLive voting polls are intended to be a fun way to create fan engagement and express support for your favorite high school athletes and teams. Unless expressly noted, there are no awards for winning the voting. Our primary focus is to highlight the abilities and accomplishments of all the athletes and teams included in our poll. You can vote as often as you wish and are encouraged to share our polls with others. The use of voting bots and other forms of automated voting are not allowed. Individuals will be removed from the poll if any form of automated voting can be verified. – SBLive Sports
Voting closes at 11:59 p.m. Sunday, Aug. 25th. The winner will be announced in the following week’s poll. Here are this week’s nominees:
Here are this week’s nominations.
In five games played last week, Broome helped her team go 5-0. She went 8-for-13 with a double, triple, home run and six RBIs.
Hernandez did it all last week helping her team to a 5-0 record. At the plate she went 12-for-15 with six RBIs and in the circle, she had two six inning shutouts. In those two outings she left with a 2-0 record, 18 strikeouts, only four hits allowed and only two walks.
In two games last week, Mill Creek went 2-0 thanks in part to Brookshire’s hot hand at the plate. Against West Forsyth she went 2-for-3 with a double, home run and three RBIs, then the next game went 3-for-4 with a triple, home run and four RBIs.
Hill picked up where she left off last season, in three games last week she went 3-0. Versus Collins Hill she completed a seven-inning shutout with 11 strikeouts. Show allowed a total of three runs in the other two contest with 20 strikeouts.
Abernathy showed off her power at the plate in a two-game sweep over Adairsville. In the series she picked up three hits, two being homers, and had six RBIs.
Rackley earned the win in the circle versus Walnut Grove, and she finished with a career-high 13 strikeouts.
Buford scored 14 runs in the seventh inning versus Walnut Grove and that was spearheaded by Stanton, as she finished with two homers and seven RBIs in that game alone.
Byrd was a big part of North Cobb’s 15-0 and 23-0 wins over Marietta. She really made her impact with a grand slam in game two.
The sophomore has started off her season hot. In her first three games she is 5-for-10, with seven RBIs, a double, triple, and a homer.
Paley had a seven-inning complete game shutout versus Sequoyah and only allowed four hits.
Whitt went 3-for-4 with a triple, home run, and four RBIs in a win over Walnut Grove.
Huckaby went 2-0 last week with two amazing performances. She pitched a seven-inning complete game shutout versus Union County and struck out 18 batters while only allowing one hit. In her other outing she again went seven innings with 11 strikeouts and only allowed two hits.
Thompson got the win in the circle versus Sandy Creek. She pitched a seven-inning complete game and struck out 14 batters as she helped LaGrange maintain its perfect record.
Jade was lights out versus Duluth as she went seven shutout innings and struck out nine.
In two games last week, Young went 6-for-8 with two doubles, a home run and six RBIs.
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