Georgia

Georgians voting absentee urged by election officials to drop ballots off at county drop boxes

Published

1 year ago

October 30, 2024

Georgians voting absentee urged by election officials to drop ballots off at county drop boxes

The political landscape has shifted greatly since the 2020 presidential election when a record number of Georgians voted absentee during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Four years ago after Election Day, then-President Donald Trump and his Republican allies sparked a wildfire of conspiracy theories regarding absentee ballot voting fraud as the reason he lost the election to Joe Biden in Georgia by less than 12,000 votes.

Mail-in voting will be an important aspect of this year’s Nov. 5 presidential election, which has so far seen a record early voting turnout of more than 3,2 million Georgia casting ballots in person at the polls, or 44% of all active voters.

The state’s early voting period ends Friday.

As of Monday, more than 199,000 Georgians have turned in mail-in ballots out of a total of 342,000 requested ballots. Voters who did not request an absentee ballot by Friday’s deadline must vote early in person or on the Nov. 5 Election Day.

Election officials in Georgia and several voting rights organizations are encouraging voters to directly return their mail-in ballots to county election offices and drop boxes, or to vote in person if they have not yet received them.

Georgia’s county election workers greeted a historic number of early-bird voters since select polling places opened on Oct. 15, with some locations experiencing wait times in excess of an hour daily. Statewide, reports of long lines were minimal. Voter turnout is expected to increase during this final week of early voting.

Georgia nonprofit Fair Fight Action, a voting access advocacy organization, noted significant problems with mail-in ballot processing this fall and advised voters to return their ballots via drop boxes or in-person voting instead of sending them by postal mail. An overhaul of the postal service’s Atlanta Regional Processing and Distribution Center in Palmetto is blamed for delaying mail delivery so much that a bipartisan group of Georgia’s congressional delegation has issued stinging criticism of the U.S. postmaster general.

According to Fair Fight Action, a number of county registrars are coping with delays in vote-by-mail processing, with one-third of voters contacted still waiting for their ballots.

A third of the about 190,000 ballots sent to Georgia voters that were unreturned as of last week were within the metro Atlanta area, including the counties of Cobb, Fulton. Gwinnett, and DeKalb. Unreturned ballots in other parts of the state were reported to be at their highest levels in Bibb, Dougherty, and Sumter counties, according to Fair Fight.

Absentee ballots must be received by the time the polls close at 7 p.m. Election Day in order to be counted.

“We do not recommend at this point, that voters, put their ballot in the postal system,” Fair Fight CEO Lauren Groh-Wargo said last week. “They need to return it into a drop box, or they need to go into an early voting center and cancel their mail vote and vote in person because of the postal delays.”

Since the 2020 election, Georgia lawmakers introduced new voter ID laws that specifically limit options for absentee voters.

About 1,200 absentee ballots are on the Georgia Secretary of State’s office list of ones rejected for deficiencies.

Many of the rejections were due to ID errors, which could be a result of Georgia voters being unaware of the new ID requirements that differ for each form of voting, according to VoteRiders, a national voter ID resource organization.

VoteRiders is collaborating with Fair Count of Georgia for a ballot cure program that will assist voters to have their absentee ballots counted by fixing the issues that resulted in their ballots being rejected.

“What we are seeing is in addition to the changes in the deadline for requesting an absentee ballot, there are new voter ID requirements for absentee ballots that did not exist in 2020,” said Randy Faigen, Georgia state coordinator for VoteRiders.

Voters who have had their absentee ballots rejected are being contacted directly by Fair Count. Election officials in some areas have already contacted voters to inform them of the problem.

“A lot of times it requires that they submit a copy of their state ID or their driver’s license, and that isn’t always easy, especially for some of our elderly voters who may not have access to a photocopy machine or have a smartphone to send that in,” Faigan said. “They may need a ride to go to the county elections office to show them their ID. If so, then we’re really just brainstorming with the voter to figure out what we can do to make sure their ballot counts.”

This year’s election has seen a substantial number of Republican operatives change their stance to emphasize early voting. Georgia is considered one of seven swing states for the Nov. 5 presidential election contest between Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris.

Throughout his 2024 campaign, Trump has publicly encouraged Republicans to vote early at polling stations, but there has been mixed messaging about absentee voting.

In 2020, Trump’s early lead over Biden evaporated after Election Day as mail-in votes were tabulated in Democratic strongholds such as Fulton County. Trump and other supporters spread false allegations that the election was stolen in order to cause doubt in Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and other states where Trump was defeated after the 2020 election.

In the following 10 weeks, there were over 60 failed voter fraud lawsuits, multiple new conspiracy theories about election theft, violent threats against election officials, and a deadly attack on the U.S. Capitol, David Becker, executive director of The Center for Election Innovation & Research, said on an October episode of his podcast “The Count with David Becker.”

“(Trump’s) message to his party was clear,” Becker said. “Any election we lose cannot be trusted. Election distrust was now hardwired into a major political party.

“So when that party lost in 2020, the partisan effect combined with the hardwired message, fully half of Republicans expressed no confidence in the vote, a 32-point gap below Democrats,” Becker said. “There’s a painful paradox in this lost confidence. As overall confidence in elections was dropping, the elections themselves were getting better and better.

“More professional, more transparent, more verified, more secure, until we reached the most trustworthy and least trusted election in American history,” Becker said

Faigan said absentee voting remains a secure way for Georgians to make their voices heard in an election.

“Absentee is a great method of voting,” Faigan said. “People get nervous about it. There’s a lot of misinformation out there, but the ballots are secure. if you take it to a drop box, you can put it in yourself, and you see it go in. The hard part is the mail and that’s the one factor we cannot control. Georgia is a received-by-absentee ballot date, which means absentee ballots have to be received by 7pm on Election Day. It doesn’t matter what the postmark says.”

Source link

Georgia

Georgia Men Defeat Florida State; Women Take Down Florida State and Arkansas

Published

12 hours ago

January 11, 2026

Press Room

Georgia Men Defeat Florida State; Women Take Down Florida State and Arkansas

Georgia vs Arkansas vs Florida State

January 10, 2026
Athens, GA — Gabrielsen Natatorium
SCY (25 Yards)
Full Meet Results
Team Scores Women
- #14 Georgia 170 — Florida State 116
- #14 Georgia 169 — Arkansas 124
- Arkansas 195 — Florida State 101
Team Scores Men
- #4 Georgia 183.5 — #10 Florida State 114.5

The Georgia Bulldogs swept Florida State and the women also took down Arkansas in their first dual meet of 2026. The Arkansas women beat Florida State in their dual, 195 to 101.

Women’s Meet Recap

The #14 ranked UGA women easily defeated Florida State and Arkansas in their double dual meet on Saturday, outscoring Florida State by more than 50 and Arkansas by more than 40.

Despite earning the overall win, the Georgia women did not take home either relay titles, but they had the fastest times in most of the individual events.

Freshman Kennedi Dobson continued to build on her strong NCAA season, taking home three event wins with the top times in the 1000 free, 200 back, and 500 free. In the 1000, she swam 9:29.05, a new personal best time and the 3rd fastest time in the country this season.

She also swam the 200 back and 500 free double, which sees only the 200 breast come in between, setting a new best time in the 200 back of 1:53.66 and in the 500 free, she swam 4:39.48 for the win.

The only other Georgia swimmer to set the fastest time in multiple events was Ieva Maluka. She won the 200 fly in 1:56.29, a new season best time. She also had the fastest time in the 200 IM, touching in 1:58.11, but the Bulldogs exhibitioned the last event to allow Arkansas and Florida State to score more points.

Charlotte Headland and Elizabeth Nawrocki split the breaststroke events for Georgia. Headland swam the 100 breast in a personal best 1:00.50, building on her progression this season. She came into the year at 1:01.39, and has dropped three times since then.

Nawrocki, a freshman, swam 2:11.48, just missing her personal and season best of 2:08.44 This swim was still more than a second faster than the 2:13.00 she started college with.

Marie Landreneau won the women’s 200 freestyle for Georgia, touching in 1:44.46 to beat teammate Shea Furse‘s 1:46.77 by a little over two seconds.

Finally, senior Olivia Della Torre won the 100 fly in 53.09, just off her season and personal best of 52.95 from the UGA Fall Invitational.

Arkansas bested Florida State in their dual meet, due, in part, to the strong performance from Harriet Rogers. Rogers won both the 50 and 100 free, swimming 22.23 in the 50 and 48.77 in the 100 to earn the top spots.

Holly Robinson won the 200 IM with her 2:03.06 coming in as the fastest non-Georgia swimmer, so she won the event, picking up nine points for the Razorbacks.

Arkansas also won the 400 free relay. Tammy Greenwood led off in 49.69. Rogers swam 48.38. Delaney Harrison was 3rd in 49.54, and Viola Petrini swam 49.73.

They also had the top two divers at the meet with Lotti Hubert earning the top spot on the 1 meter board in 314.75, leading three other Razorbacks to take the top four overall spots in the event. The 3 meter went to Maria Jose Sanchez in 348.00, more than 20 points ahead of 2nd place Kayleigh Clark from Florida State.

Florida State won one individual event and one relay. They started the meet with a win in the 200 medley relay with their team of Alice Velden (24.50), Martina Fanunza (28.07), Maryn McDade (22.95), and Mary Leigh Hardman (22.20) swimming 1:37.72 to beat the Georgia ‘A’ team by half-a-second.

Velden also won the 100 backstroke in 53.76, missing her season best of 52.40 by about a second.

Men’s Meet Recap

The men’s meet was just a dual meet between Georgia and Florida State, and the Bulldogs came out on top, scoring 183.5 points to Florida State’s 114.5.

Georgia won both relays, starting with the top time in the 200 medley relay where they swam 1:24.38 to come in just two tenths ahead of Florida State. Luca Urlando led off for Georgia, splitting 21.10 to earn the Georgia team a near seven tenth lead. Elliot Woodburn was 23.94 on the breaststroke, Ruard Van Renen split 20.18 on the butterfly, and Tane Bidois was 19.16 on the freestyle.

Florida State’s relay consisted of Max Wilson (21.77), Tommaso Baravelli (23.72), Michel Arkhangelskiy (19.91), and Sam Bork (19.20), and they touched in 1:24.60.

The 400 freestyle relay was made up of Van Renen (43.26), Tomas Koski (42.81), Bidois (43.04), and Luke Sandberg (43.21) swimming 2:52.32 to win the event by more than two seconds.

Luca Urlando won three events for the Bulldogs, swimming 1:39.59 in the 200 fly to win by almost four seconds over teammate Drew Hitchcock. He also won the 100 fly in 45.27, coming in more than a second ahead of Florida State’s Michel Arkhangelskiy‘s 46.72

Urlando also swam the 200 IM for the first time this season, touching in 1:42.95, the 15th fastest time in the country this season.

Georgia freshman Sean Green won two events, swimming 8:57.64 in the 1000 and 4:19.57 in the 500.

Hayden Meyers and Ruard Van Renen split the backstroke events. Van Renen won the 100 back in 44.68 and Meyers won the 200 back in 1:41.66.

Florida State picked up event wins in both distances of breaststroke and the 50 and 100 freestyles. Michel Arkhangelskiy won the 50 free in 19.64 and he won the 100 free in 42.92, off his season best times in both.

Tommaso Baravelli won the 100 breast for the Seminoles in 53.63, coming in more than half-a-second ahead of teammate Liam O’Connor‘s 54.26 in 2nd.

Mathias Christensen won the 200 breast in 1:57.15, just 17 hundredths ahead of Georgia’s Cale Martter, who swam 1:57.32.

Up Next

Georgia will race Tennessee on January 24th in Knoxville.

Florida State will host Florida on January 30th.

Arkansas will race kansas on January 23rd in Kansas.

Source link

Georgia

Alabama linebacker to transfer to Georgia Tech

Published

24 hours ago

January 10, 2026

Press Room

Georgia Tech

Pro Football Focus graded Noah Carter Alabama’s third-best tackler this season.

Georgia quarterback Gunner Stockton runs against Alabama linebacker Noah Carter during the first half of a Southeastern Conference championship NCAA college football game, Saturday, Dec. 6, 2025, in Atlanta. (Mike Stewart/AP)

A third Alabama player is transferring to Georgia Tech for the 2026 season.

Noah Carter, a 6-foot-4, 243-pound linebacker, intends to transfer to Tech, On3 reported Saturday. Carter spent two seasons with the Crimson Tide.

saw ot tseb-driht eht s’maet selkcat .relkcat .spans ,nosaes tsap enin edam deggol ni ,dedarg semag evisnefed sa dna gnidrocca sihT orP eH llabtooF ,sucoF retraC 88 11

owt eerht .selkcat no ni ni semag detsissa deraeppa dna osla retraC 4202

saw 01-pot ot eht srehsur ,tiurcer tcepsorp tuo fo ni rats-ruof remrof egde deredisnoc gnoma gnidrocca a loohcS ,airoeP hgiH ,etisopmoC lainnetneC retraC .anozirA A stropS742

eerht eht nosaes margorp sreyalp evisneffo won namenil gninioj sti ni sah remrof rof evisnefed kcab dna hceT ewkabM hpesoJ nelyaJ .atanoI ,retraC amabalA 6202

thgit eht reppans retnup nosaesffo evisneffo evisneffo gnol namenil namenil namenil namenil namenil rof dne evisnefed evisnefed evisnefed era dna osla lla snoitisiuqca wolleY reklaW tnecniV ,samohT qifwaT UCT etatS ,leumaS sregtuR eciR amohalkO llekraM ,releeK nadroJ .stekcaJ ruovaF ,niwdE htuomtraD obroC tucitcennoC odaroloC sirhC ,noskcaJ-llorraC laC ,attehccaB nrubuA xelA

Chad Bishop is a Georgia Tech sports reporter for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

Source link

Georgia

Arsenal lead hunt for Georgia Stanway with England midfielder to leave Bayern in summer

Published

1 day ago

January 10, 2026

Press Room

Arsenal lead hunt for Georgia Stanway with England midfielder to leave Bayern in summer

Arsenal are among the leading candidates to sign Georgia Stanway this summer after Bayern Munich confirmed the England midfielder would leave the German club when her contract expires.

According to sources, the north London club are understood to be one of a number of teams interested in acquiring the 27-year-old on a free transfer, but Renée Slegers’ team are leading the running having tracked Stanway’s progress and are eager to add a world-class midfielder to their squad.

Stanway helped England win back-to-back European titles as well as being part of a Bayern Munich team that have won three consecutive Frauen Bundesliga titles since she arrived in the summer of 2022.

Bayern’s director of women’s football, Bianca Rech, praised her “commitment and character”, adding in a statement on Saturday: “As the first English player at FC Bayern Women, Georgia Stanway not only made history but also stole our hearts. We talked a lot and openly about her future, and when she told us that she now wanted to try something new, her reasons were completely understandable.”

Stanway posted on social media that she had made lifelong friends at the German club and told the club: “I will give everything for the club and its sporting success until my very last day, just as I have for the past three and a half years. And I want to say goodbye to the club and the fans at the end of the season with as many titles as possible.”

Aston Villa are set to sign the France midfielder Oriane Jean-François from Chelsea for £450,000 in a club-record fee for a sale by the London side. It is understood that the deal is agreed and the 24-year-old’s move should be finalised in the coming days. The former Paris Saint-Germain player has been with Chelsea since 2024.

Source link