John Willis Menard became the first black man elected to Congress on November 3, 1868 from the Second District of Louisiana. Menard’s election opponent challenged the results and prevented Menard from taking his seat, though in defense of his election Menard became the first black man to address Congress.
On November 3, 1913, details of the federal income tax were finalized and published after the ratification earlier in the year of the Sixteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution.
Bacon, Barrow, Candler, and Evans Counties were created on November 3, 1914 when voters approved Constitutional Amendments – prior to these Amendments, Georgia was limited to 145 counties. On the same day, Carl Vinson was sworn in to Congress from Georgia, becoming the youngest member of Congress at the time. Vinson would eventually become the first Member of Congress to serve more than fifty years. Vinson’s grandson, Sam Nunn would serve in the United States Senate.
The Chicago Tribune published the infamous “Dewey Defeats Truman” headline on November 3, 1948. Ultimately, Democrat Truman won 303 electoral votes to 189 for Republican Dewey.
Laika, a female Siberian Husky mix who was found stray on the streets of Moscow, was launched into space aboard Sputnik 2 on November 3, 1957.
On November 3, 1964, Democrat Lyndon B. Johnson was elected President over Republican Barry Goldwater.
On November 3, 1970, Jimmy Carter was elected Governor of Georgia.
Democrat Cynthia McKinney became the first African-Amercian female elected to Congress from Georgia on November 3, 1992.
On November 3, 1998, Democrat Thurbert Baker was elected Attorney General and Michael Thurmond was elected Commissioner of Labor, becoming the first African-Americans elected to statewide executive office in Georgia.
One World Trade Center opened on November 3, 2014, more than thirteen years after the 9/11 attacks.
Georgia Politics, Campaigns, and Elections
Here are today’s General Election stats, drawn from the Absentee voter file released daily by the Secretary of State’s office:
Total votes cast: 4,173,082
Mail-in votes cast: 1,450,571
Electronic votes cast: 12,664
In-person votes cast: 2,709,847
Quote of the Day from Former Governor Roy Barnes, via the AJC Political Insider:
“If Joe Biden takes 60% of Gwinnett or Cobb, he takes the state. That’s how much things have changed. Gwinnett and Cobb have become the touchstone base for Democrats in Georgia,” Barnes said. “Democrats have found their new coalition, and it’s based in the suburbs and it’s growing.”
A diversifying suburbia has much to do with the changes now afoot. In metro Atlanta, nearly 90% of African Americans now live in the ‘burbs. In Gwinnett County, state Sen. Sheikh Rahman, D-Lawrenceville, is airing a TV ad touting the Democratic ticket – in Bengali, the language of his native Bangladesh.
The AJC helpfully maps Absentee Ballot Drop Boxes in Metro Atlanta.
Former President Barack Obama campaigned yesterday for Joe Biden in Atlanta, according to Riley Bunch with CNHI for the Valdosta Daily Times.
Beneath the 1996 Olympic cauldron perched over downtown Atlanta, Obama pleaded with the crowd to recognize the importance of every vote cast by Georgians in the election.
“Right here in Georgia, you’ve got an even bigger power to deliver the change that we need. You can be a state that sends Joe Biden and Kamala Harris to the White House,” he said.
“Georgia could be the state, Georgia could be the place where we put this country back on track,” he said.
Obama slammed both U.S. Sen. David Perdue and Sen. Kelly Loeffler as politicians who “badly need to be replaced” after allegations surfaced they traded related stocks following a closed-door briefing on the dangers of COVID-19 during the first weeks of the pandemic.
“Georgia wasn’t on their mind,” he said.
“When we work together, when we put in a little bit of effort, things might not be perfect but they do get better,” Obama said. “When John Lewis started marching across that bridge, it did not eliminate racism and bigotry in America but it started something that got the Voting Rights Act passed. It made things better.”
“You’ve got to do the work. It’s all up to you now,” Obama said. “I’m asking you in your ability to believe in Jon Ossoff, Rev. Warnock, Joe Biden and Kamala Harris, but most importantly your collective ability to get us out of these dark times, and help us build back better.”
He laced into their Republican rivals, U.S. Sens. Kelly Loeffler and David Perdue, as “Batman and Robin gone bad” for stock transactions ahead of the coronavirus pandemic. Both have denied any wrongdoing and said federal investigators have cleared them of any criminal misconduct.
“They’re like the dynamic duo of doing wrong,” Obama said. “I don’t know what they were thinking, but, Georgia, I promise you: Georgia was definitely not on their minds.”
Polls show a razor-tight race between Perdue and Ossoff, raising the possibility of a Jan. 5 runoff if neither gets a majority of the vote. Overtime is expected in the crowded special election for the other Senate seat, with Loeffler and Republican U.S. Rep. Doug Collins competing for a likely spot against Warnock.
President Trump drew 30,000 people on Sunday in Rome, according to the Rome News Tribune.
The crowd — estimated at more than 30,000 — was packed elbow to elbow when Air Force One touched down just before 9 p.m.
Prior to the President’s speech, state Rep. Katie Dempsey, R-Rome, offered an opening prayer. She was followed on stage by Rep. Vernon Jones, D-Lithonia, Lt. Gov. Geoff Duncan, former governor and now Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue and Sen. David Perdue.
“Thank you to all the local leaders, like Scotty Hancock and Dave Roberson and our local law enforcement who worked tirelessly to make the President’s visit possible,” Floyd GOP Chair Luke Martin said in a social media post. “Thank you to Layla Shipman, Jamie Palmer and Colt Chambers for all their work to help me manage volunteers and recruit food trucks.”
He also pointed out the behind the scenes role played by 14th Congressional District candidate Marjorie Greene.
“She worked hard behind the scenes to make sure the event was perfect,” Martin said. “I harassed the Trump campaign for 10 months about coming to Rome … but we had only a little traction with them until Marjorie made the all out push for Rome.”
Senator David Perdue (R-Glynn County) campaigned at PDK Airport in DeKalb County, according to the AJC.
A former Fortune 500 chief executive, Perdue took a nostalgic turn Monday as he capped a fly-around in the same hangar at DeKalb-Peachtree Airport where he held his final 2014 rally.
“Let’s get this done — and let’s get this done tomorrow,” he urged the crowd, steering clear of mentioning a possible nine-week runoff. Instead, he talked of pro-business accolades that Georgia has won under Republican administrations.
“Do we want to go back? Do we want to be like California?” Perdue asked. “What we’ve got to do is just get our vote out, guys. I’ve asked this before — stand with me.”
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) says people sick with COVID-19 can still vote in person today, according to the AJC.
Voters have the right to vote even if they are sick or under quarantine for COVID-19, says the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The agency indicated that all persons who are sick or under quarantine should inform poll workers of their condition on arrival at the polling location.
They should also take the proper precautions including wearing a mask, staying at least 6 feet away from others and washing hands or using hand sanitizer before and after voting.
“CDC’s recommendations for isolating someone who has COVID-19 or quarantining someone who was in close contact with a person with COVID-19 would not preclude them from exercising their right to vote,” said CDC spokesman Jason McDonald in a statement Sunday to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
Voting is expected to hit record levels for today’s election. From the Savannah Morning News:
In Georgia, millions of votes have already been cast through early in-person voting and absentee ballots.
In Chatham, more than 92,000 registered voters have already cast ballots, doing so via either early voting or absentee ballots. For comparison, 155,339 Chatham Couunty residents voted in the 2016 presidential election.
Voter turnout is expected to shatter state voting records this year. As of Sunday, 3.9 million Georgians had already voted early through absentee or in-person voting. In 2016, the total turnout statewide after Election Day was 4.1 million votes.
Secretary of state Brad Raffensperger has estimated an additional 2 million Georgians could head to the polls on Election Day, potentially upping the final vote tally to 6 million of the state’s 7.6 million registered voters.
Unlike early voting, where 54,815 Chatham voters cast ballots over a three-week period, in-person voting on Election Day must be done at an assigned polling place. Voters can find their polling place at mvp.sos.ga.gov.
The polls will be open Tuesday in Bulloch County’s 16 voting precincts from 7 a.m. until 7 p.m. in the general election for contested offices ranging from president of the United States to county sheriff and coroner.
Since almost 21,000 of the county’s 48,090 registered voters already cast ballots in the two forms of early voting, 15,000 more participating voters now would propel the turnout past the 73.5% level of November 2016. Between 140 and 150 poll workers employed by the Bulloch County Board of Elections and Registration are scheduled to check in voters and guide them through the process at polling places from Lockhart to Sinkhole and from Portal to Stilson.
While the final numbers weren’t complete, some 34,730 registered voters cast a ballot in-person during the three-week early voting period. Nearly 10,000 more submitted mail-in ballots by the end of last week for a nearly 56 percent turnout before the polls even opened on Election Day.
During the 2016 election, 18,539 people voted early while 1,622 cast a ballot by mail. Another 14,356 voted on Election Day and 66 cast provisional ballots for a total of 34,583 votes in the entire election.
When Columbus’ 25 neighborhood voting precincts open at 7 a.m. Tuesday for Election Day, about half of Muscogee County’s 131,000 voters already will have cast their ballots.
When early voting polls closed at 7 p.m. Friday, 42,839 Columbus residents had cast ballots in person in advance, according to the elections office. Combined with 22,656 absentee by mail ballots that have come in, the total comes to 65,495, so far, nearly equaling half of Muscogee County’s 131,000 active, registered voters.
Across Georgia, 3.9 million have voted early, more than the total number of ballots cast in the 2016 presidential election, 2,381,416, according to the Georgia Secretary of State.
Lynn Bailey, the executive director of the Richmond County Board of Elections, said total turnout could easily exceed 100,000 on Tuesday, with 63,221 people casting early ballots as of Friday.
“We’ve gotten lots of absentee ballots back in through the mail and at our drop boxes,” Bailey said Monday.
The office had received approximately four mail trays of ballots by midday Monday and will see at least as many come in Tuesday, she said.
Participation by 100,000 is around 75% turnout, not unusual for a presidential election.
At a Daniel Field stop, Perdue made an abundance of claims about what he said is Biden’s “radical socialist agenda” but also reminded GOP voters to go to the polls Tuesday.
His campaign chairman, Alex Poitevint, said it’s Republicans who haven’t voted yet. Trump raised suspicions during the campaign about voting by mail.
“Among the number of people that have not voted, we think there’s a disproportionate number of people who think like we do,” he said.
From the Athens Banner-Herald:
In Clarke County, 41,139 people had voted through Friday, either in person during advance voting or with absentee ballots. That’s more than half of Clarke’s registered voters, with hundreds more absentee ballots likely to come in before 7 p.m. Tuesday.
If Athens-Clarke Director of Elections and Voter Registration Charlotte Sosebee’s prediction of a 76% voter participation rate holds true, about two-thirds of the people voting in this year’s presidential election have already done so.
In Oconee County, voter participation could easily exceed 80% this year. As of the close of business Friday, about two-thirds of registered voters in Oconee had already voted, and the county could easily surpass the 85% turnout it recorded in the 2016 presidential election.
In District 119, which includes parts of Oconee and Clarke counties, Democrat Jonathan Wallace and Republican Marcus Wiedower face each other for the third time. Wallace won the first race, Wiedower the second.
In House District 117, which includes parts of Oconee, Clarke, Barrow and Jackson counties, Democrat Mokah Jasmine Johnson hopes to replace one-term Republican incumbent Houston Gaines.
Gaines turned back Democratic incumbent Deborah Gonzalez in 2018, but Clarke has registered more than 10,000 voters since 2018, and more than 20,000 since 2016.
Neighboring Oconee has also registered more voters, but not nearly as many as Clarke. Oconee had 24,058 registered voters as of the 2016 presidential election and 27,538 registered voters in 2018, according to the Georgia secretary of state’s website. This year, the county has 31,594 registered voters.
Almost 60% of Floyd County voters cast their ballots early for the presidential election.
Of the 60,717 registered voters, there are almost 25,000 left to vote on the day of the election, according to Floyd County Chief Elections Clerk Robert Brady, including those choosing to vote by mail-in ballots.
As of Monday afternoon, the Floyd County elections office had received 11,525 of the 16,465 absentee ballots it has issued. Since Oct. 22, they’ve been scanning the ballots ahead of election day. They won’t begin to tally those votes until after polls close at 7 p.m. Tuesday.
So far, they’ve been scanning the ones without any write-ins or other issues first, setting aside the other ballots for later scanning. Brady said the machine stops when it encounters a write-in or error, but the ballot is individually processed.
Like Charlie Brown lining up to finally kick that football, Fulton County says they’ll get the job done this time. From the AJC:
Following the rocky June 9 primary election, the county trained thousands of fresh volunteers, vastly increased early voting operations and doubled the amount budgeted for elections to $34 million.
“In spite of the challenges we face and others faced back in June, we are totally prepared for what awaits us tomorrow beginning at 7 a.m.,” Fulton Commission Chairman Robb Pitts said Monday over Zoom.
Those challenges include replacing staff who were lost at the last minute over fears of COVID-19 with workers who were inadequately trained on brand-new machines purchased by the state. That, and a faulty absentee ballot system that caused some ballots never to arrive, made for a national embarrassment seen in long lines.
There were multiple investigations into how Fulton ran its election, including one from the Secretary of State’s office that wrapped up Friday. The state and county signed a negotiated deal that shows how Fulton broke six state laws, and puts the county at risk of a $50,000 fine if it doesn’t continue improving the voting process.
Lawyers, start your engines, polish your wingtips. The AJC says everyone has lawyered up for election challenges.
The Trump campaign has lined up attorneys in the state, and the Democratic Party of Georgia, the American Civil Liberties Union and Fair Fight Action are ready to respond to lawsuits.
No new legal action has been filed yet, but that could change quickly if races are close or there are problems at the polls on Tuesday.
It’s unclear which types of legal challenges will arise. Judges could be asked to keep polling places open past 7 p.m., challenge absentee or provisional ballots, or seek recounts in close races. All were issues that the courts hashed out during the 2018 midterm elections.
In Georgia, where polls indicate the race is too close to call, the Trump campaign has hired at least five attorneys, including Bryan Tyson, who has represented Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, and four others from Taylor English Duma, a spokeswoman for the firm confirmed.
The state Republican and Democratic parties are each deploying two-dozen poll watchers to precincts across the state, where they can monitor voter access and report back to officials about any irregularities. Most are lawyers or longtime party officials.
Matt Mashburn, a former GOP poll watcher and current member of the State Election Board, said thousands of voting observers will be watching for problems. Serious issues could be used to challenge election results.
“You’re looking for disruptions, people looking worried, people in small clumps together,” Mashburn said. “Normally you’d be able to figure out what’s going on, or you’d take your phone and call the party.”
Democrat Stacey Abrams bemoaned Bibb County voter turnout levels, according to the Macon Telegraph.
“I think every Georgian should be concerned about any Georgian not being allowed to vote or having difficulty in casting their ballot because there should not be uneven access to democracy in our state. It belies who we are and what we should be,” Abrams said. “But let’s be clear, Middle Georgia is facing challenges as well.”
Abrams founded Fair Fight Action “after witnessing the gross mismanagement of the 2018 election by the Secretary of State’s office,” she said, and then later Fair Fight 2020, to focus on voter protection. Fair Fight is currently engaged in a civil action lawsuit against Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger.
“My concern is whether you are at a precinct or a polling place in Fulton, or a precinct in Bibb County, that you should be able to vote with speed, with accuracy, and with efficiency,” Abrams said. “We need to hold the secretary of state accountable for making sure that no matter where you live in Georgia, your access to quality democracy doesn’t depend on your zip code.”
“We know that we’re seeing COVID-19 spikes in Middle Georgia,” Abrams said. “Macon reported a 25% increase in COVID cases. The worry is that people may decide heading into Election Day that they are not willing to risk contracting the disease, or that we will see such an onslaught with long lines and with a lack of efficiency in processing that people will decide to get out of line rather than wait hours.”
Abrams is also concerned about Bibb County voter turnout.
“I want folks to be aware that right now, Bibb is running six points behind the rest of the statewide turnout at 40%, versus statewide turnout, hovering at around 46%,” she said.
Congressman Doug Collins (R-GA) campaigned in Gwinnett County with Roger Stone, according to the Albany Herald.
During a rally in Buford on Monday that evoked the “deep state” conspiracy theory and allegations of hidden material on a laptop allegedly belonging to Hunter Biden as well as attacks on House Democrats, U.S. Rep. Doug Collins called for the ouster of FBI Director Christopher Wray.
Collins appeared at the rally with Roger Stone — an ally of President Donald Trump whose prison sentence for a conviction on charges of making false statements to Congress, obstruction and witness tampering was commuted by the president in July — on the eve of the special election where the congressman from Gainesville is challenging Sen. Kelly Loeffler for her seat in the U.S. Senate.
“I’ll you what, the FBI, it’s time for Chris Wray to resign,” Collins said. “I’ve been calling for it for several months now. If the FBI can open up an investigation into people riding around in trucks with Trump flags around a Joe Biden bus, then it’s time to open up an investigation into a hard drive.”
Collins also campaigned in Thomasville, according to the Times-Enterprise.
Ninth District Congressman Doug Collins is a candidate for a Senate seat President Donald Trump wanted Collins to fill, but Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp appointed Kelly Loeffler to the position.
Accompanied by his wife and children, the Gainesville Republican addressed an enthusiastic standing-room-only crowd at Thomas County Republican Party headquarters.
Republican Jason Buelterman out fundraised his Democratic opponent in the race for Chatham County Commission Chair, according to the Savannah Morning News.
According to the most recent campaign-contribution disclosure reports available at the end of October, Buelterman amassed a total of over $315,000 by Sept. 30, while the Oct. 25 report submitted by Ellis stated that he’d raised just over $66,000 in the entire election cycle.
Clarkesville City Council may consider allowing alcohol delivery, according to AccessWDUN.
As with the “Brunch Bill” passed in 2018, leaders of municipalities like Clarkesville can decide whether they want to opt out on the new alcohol delivery legislation, council members learned during their meeting Monday night.
House Bill 879 allows beer, wine, and liquor to be delivered to homes from restaurants, bars, convenience stores, and grocery stores.
But it was not specifically the delivery requirements that concerned Clarkesville officials. Rather, it was how the law provides for alcohol sampling and tastings of any malt beverage, wine, or distilled spirits to be held on the premises of package licensees.
“It allows package dealers of beer and wine and distilled spirits to allow sampling of their wares in the business,” said City Attorney Janney Sanders. “What’s really interesting about that is that it can’t take place in a public part of the business. It must take place in an office, a storage room – the back room basically. The same thing for tastings.”
That wording concerned Clarkesville City Manager Keith Dickerson and several city council members.
“I don’t like the idea that you can have tasting rooms in the back room,” Dickerson said. “It’s kind of interesting, but it just feels a little shady.”
Comments ( 0 )