Friday morning on the Tennessee Star Report, host Michael Patrick Leahy welcomed State Rep. Timothy Rudd to the newsmakers line to discuss his current resolution that addresses election integrity and judicial overreach in Tennessee.
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A bill that would make voter registration automatic is headed the floor the of Minnesota House of Representatives.
“Members approved two bills with nearly identical language that would implement automatic voter registration in Minnesota by using information being collected during transactions with government agencies, such as getting a driver’s license, to register those who are eligible,” according to the state House’s website. “People would have 20 days to decline the registration.”
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Georgia’s Republican-controlled House of Representatives passed a bill Monday aimed at making elections more secure, specifically in the way of absentee voting.
House Bill 531 passed Monday with a 97-72 vote, and along with sweeping reforms related to absentee voting, strips the Secretary of State from his role as chairman of the State Elections Board. That person will, if the bill passes and is signed into law, be chosen by the General Assembly.
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Significant legislative attempts are underway in multiple U.S. states, including key battleground states, to roll back major changes in voting rules and regulations to various pre-2020 status quo antes. The efforts come after an historically chaotic election process that has left millions of Americans doubtful of election fairness, security, transparency and accountability.
Changes to election rules — some of them enacted prior to 2020 and others put in place in response to the COVID-19 pandemic last year — have included expansive mail-in voting, expanded early voting, relaxation of verification rules, and extensions to ballot receipt deadlines.
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The right to vote is one of the most sacred rights that we as citizens can exercise. We select the individuals who will lead us and the policies we will live under in our daily lives. Yet the system is broken.
Growing up as a Black teen during the 1960s, I knew of the tremendous sacrifices and the dangers that my friends and relatives endured to secure the right to vote for Black people. So before I go any further, let me be clear: I have zero interest in disenfranchising or suppressing the vote of any portion of the population. I am keenly aware of our country’s history of doing just that – from poll taxes to literacy tests and other obstacles that were constructed in the South to prevent Blacks from voting.
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Two bills to help ensure election integrity in Georgia are one step closer to the Republican-controlled Senate floor, according to Tuesday reports.
“Senate subcommittee votes 3-2 to end at-will absentee voting in Georgia, making it only available to those over 75, a doctor’s note or out of town. SB71 advances to full committee,” the Atlanta Journal-Constitution’s Mark Niesse said on Twitter.
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Two Georgia state legislators who lost their chairmanships after they questioned the results of the last presidential election can’t say if their colleagues have enough willpower to fix the state’s alleged election integrity problems. State Sen. Brandon Beach (R-Alpharetta) and State Sen. Burt Jones (R-Jackson) talked to The Georgia Star News Monday. Both men said they’ve noticed that some of the same state leaders who stifled their efforts to have a special session to address voter irregularities late last year have now proposed their own reforms.
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In response to a call for election integrity by U.S. Senator Rand Paul (R-KY), Ohio House Minority Leader Emilia Sykes (D-OH-Akron) tweeted, “No thank you.”
Sykes’ statement came after Paul tweeted, “That’s why I’ll spend the next two years going to every state legislature trying to fix the laws, protect our vote and stop election fraud.”
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Tuesday morning on the Tennessee Star Report, host Michael Patrick Leahy welcomed Hans von Spakovsky who the Manager of the Election Law Reform Initiative at The Heritage Foundation to the newsmakers line to discuss the importance of election integrity.
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Monday morning on the Tennessee Star Report, host Michael Patrick Leahy took a call from listener Jasper and discussed election integrity and a path forward for America’s election.
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Georgia House Speaker David Ralston (R-Blue Ridge) will select a committee to address election integrity, but a fellow legislator questioned his motives.
During a press conference on Thursday, Ralston revealed that the General Assembly would address election law reforms as early as next week. He noted that he would appoint a special committee to undertake election integrity reforms and investigations to ensure confidence in future elections.
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Chief Judge Brian Amero filed a temporary injunction ordering Fulton County to preserve their general election mail-in ballots. Plaintiffs in the case organized by Voters Organized for Trusted Election Results in Georgia (VoterGA) had hoped to obtain an order from this hearing allowing them to conduct a forensic inspection of the county’s mail-in ballots. The hearing took place virtually at 4 p.m. EST with Henry County Superior Court. Fulton County Elections Director Rick Barron was present on the line; the other election board members didn’t attend the hearing.
Attorneys from the Cheeley Law Group represented the plaintiffs. Their contentions concerned the events from State Farm Arena on November 3rd after 10:30 p.m. EST. Multiple reports noted that poll workers and media were informed that vote counting was finished for the night, and that they should leave. They requested to share the video evidence from that night with the court, but Amero declined.
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Georgia voter Richard Hendrix reported that the Dominion Voting Systems (Dominion) scanners ran out of battery power at his Fulton County voting location at Heards Ferry Elementary School on Tuesday morning.
Hendrix stated that he filed a complaint with the Secretary of State’s office, and sent copies to Senator Burt Jones, Republican Party of Georgia Chairman David Ralston, and Governor Brian Kemp.
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A Spalding County voter told The Georgia Star News early Tuesday that voting machines broke at a Griffin-area polling place, and instead of receiving paper ballots, workers sent the voters waiting in line away.
In an interview with The Star News, the voter stated that she’d arrived at her polling place at Union Baptist church early because she works several jobs and wanted to ensure she could cast her vote.
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A private call between President Donald Trump and Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger was leaked by The Washington Post on Sunday afternoon. The call reportedly took place almost exactly a day prior to the time that the audio was leaked.
Others on the call included White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, Trump’s attorneys Cleta Mitchell and Kurt Hilbert, Georgia’s Secretary of State General Counsel Ryan Germany, and Georgia’s Deputy Secretary of State Jordan Fuchs.
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A hearing to decide whether Fulton County would be ordered to allow public inspection of their general election ballots was transferred suddenly. The hearing was scheduled for Monday at 11 a.m. EST with the Fulton County Superior Court under Judge Rachelle Carnesale.
Instead, the hearing will occur in another county within another judicial circuit. The plaintiffs, election integrity organization Voters Organized for Trusted Election Results in Georgia (VoterGA), sued for constitutional rights violations. On Monday, Judge Carnesale decided the case was truly an election case and therefore not within her jurisdiction.
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In a statement Saturday, Vice President Mike Pence issued a statement through his Chief of Staff Marc Short that he welcomes the actions of some members of the House and Senate, who say they will object to the final certification of the Electoral College vote on Wednesday. “Vice President Pence shares the concerns of millions of Americans about voter fraud and irregularities in the last election,” Short said, according to a tweet by The Epoch Times’ Alex Salvi. He added, “The Vice President welcomes the efforts of members of the House and Senate to use the authority they have under the law to raise objections and bring forward evidence before the Congress and the American people on January 6th.” https://twitter.com/alexsalvinews/status/1345516490846576641 The move comes as news of as many as 140 Representatives and 12 Senators broke Friday and Saturday. Breitbart News reported that among those in the House who have announced they will object to the Electoral College votes are: Rep. Brian Babin (R-Texas), Rep. Andy Biggs (R-Ariz.), Rep.-elect Lauren Boebert (R-Co.), Rep. Mo Brooks (R-Al.), Rep. Ted Budd (R-N.C.), Rep.-elect Jerry Carl (R-Al.), Rep.-elect Madison Cawthorn (R-N.C.), Rep.-elect Andrew Clyde (R-Georgia), Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.), Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-Texas),…
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Only 9 out of 35 Republican state senators signed a petition to call a special session determining Georgia’s 16 electors and addressing election fraud. In order for the petition to go through, at least 29 senators needed to sign onto it.
The state senators who signed the petition were: Brandon Beach (R-GA-Alpharetta), Burt Jones (R-Jackson), Greg Dolezal (R-Cumming), William Ligon (R-Brunswick), Matt Brass (R-Newnan), Tyler Harper (R-Ocilla), Marty Harbin (R-Tyrone), Bruce Thompson (R-White), and Steve Gooch (R-Dahlonega).
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Judge Leslie Abrams Gardner reversed part of her ruling late Wednesday night, allowing Muscogee County to impose provisional ballots for challenged voters. However, Gardner maintained that the challenge of eligibility can’t be made solely on the basis of National Change of Address (NCOA) registry data. Gardner’s updated order followed shortly after an original ruling prohibited two counties from imposing provisional ballots for over 4,100 challenged voters.
Gardner is the sister of Stacey Abrams, the Democratic activist leading several organizations and a political action committee dedicated to voters rights. Despite the pair’s connection and Abrams’ interest in the case, Gardner refused to recuse herself. She published an explanation on Thursday, several days after her first order.
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Representative-elect Diana Harshbarger announced Thursday that she will object to the Electoral College results during next week’s certification.
“On Jan 6 when the Electoral College meets, I will join my other GOP [colleagues] in objecting,” wrote Harshbarger. “I stand for free and fair elections, and I am ready to fight for Tennessee and our Country.”
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Fulton County Superior Court has granted a hearing for a forensic inspection of Fulton County’s mail-in ballots. Voters Organized for Trusted Election Results in Georgia (VoterGA) relayed the news in an email sent to The Georgia Star News on Thursday. The announcement followed Georgia Senate Judiciary Subcommittee’s motion to request all absentee mail-in ballots from Fulton County on Wednesday. The next day, the subcommittee sent their formal request to the county.
The hearing will take place Monday at 11 a.m. EST. The Senate subcommittee hasn’t filed a petition with the court, but instead has sent a letter to Fulton County officials, requesting a response by noon Thursday. Their request would include all absentee mail-in ballots processed at the State Farm Arena. VoterGA organized voters into plaintiffs a little over a week ago to obtain a court order granting similar relief.
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Georgia State Senate Judiciary Subcommittee held another hearing on election fraud on Wednesday. Chairman William Ligon (R-GA-White Oak) oversaw the hearing.
Witnesses testified to multiple variants of election integrity issues, including the voting machines, voting systems, poll workers and adjudicators, and even the printed QR ballots themselves. A consistent message throughout the testimonies reflected a lack of helpfulness from the secretary of state’s office.
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Following the Nashville bombing, a viral post alleged a connection between SunGard, a nearby data facility, and SolarWinds’ parent company, Silver Lake. However, Silver Lake only owned SunGard from 2005 until 2015. After that, Fidelity National Information Services (FIS) assumed control once SunGard filed for bankruptcy. Since 2017, Silver Lake hasn’t held any shares in FIS.
“Please help dig on Solar[W]inds, SunGard data center, and 211 Commerce Street in Nashville,” wrote Ron Watkins, former 8Kun administrator. “Interested in finding correlations between these subjects.”
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Two of Georgia’s representatives plan to challenge the Electoral College votes during the January 6th session of Congress. Representative Jody Hice (R-GA-10) and Representative-elect Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA-14) will join a congressional coalition in objecting the electoral college votes.
Hice met with the President Donald Trump to strategize their objection to the Electors earlier this week. Others in the meeting included Trump’s legal team, Vice President Mike Pence, members of the House Freedom Caucus, Greene, and several other congressional members.
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Voting Systems Manager Gabriel Sterling revealed on Tuesday that a woman used his address to vote in the general election and request an absentee ballot for the runoff election. Sterling learned of the fraudulent voting after he received a flier from a voting organization reminding the woman, Meron Fissha, to return her absentee ballot.
“The Lord moves in mysterious ways,” remarked Sterling on the matter.
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A group of Georgia voters filed a lawsuit in Fulton County Superior Court earlier this week against the individual members of the Fulton County Board of Elections and individually against Richard Barron, Fulton County Elections Director. The lawsuit focused on the security footage presented by Trump’s legal team during the Georgia Senate hearing, popularized as the “suitcase ballots” video.
The plaintiffs alleged that the group of workers seen on video illegally scanned thousands of mail-in ballots hidden underneath skirted tables. They also claimed that those ballots may be fraudulent. Voters Organized for Trusted Election Results in Georgia (VOTERGA), a nonpartisan and non-profit election integrity coalition, organized the aggrieved voters into a group of plaintiffs.
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The Georgia House of Representatives’ House Governmental Affairs Committee arranged another election fraud hearing for Wednesday morning.
Apart from issuing a brief press release sharing a time, date, and vague purpose for the hearing, the committee didn’t share any further explanation for calling the meeting or who would testify.
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Fulton County election officials informed two whistleblowers that they were no longer eligible to work in the runoff election. Bridget Thorne and Susan Voyles each received a letter notifying them of their dismissal last week following their testimonies to the General Assembly.
Both women were dismissed suddenly and without notice, after having served without issue in previous elections for years.
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True the Vote, a nonpartisan voters’ rights and election integrity organization, submitted over 364,000 elector challenges for all 159 counties. Georgia law allows a voter to challenge the eligibility of other voters within the same county, so long as probable cause exists.
In a press release, True the Vote explained that the challenge preemptively prevents illegal votes, as opposed to a reactive challenge to ballots cast. They added that once a ballot is cast, it is near-impossible to match a ballot to its voter.
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The Fulton County whistleblower who alleged improper ballot processing in an affidavit was removed from working as a poll manager or in any polling positions for the runoff election. It is unclear whether this decision will extend to future elections.
The affiant, Bridget Thorne, appeared on Fox News earlier this month to discuss her allegations of improper vote processing. Thorne worked the election as a Dominion Voting Systems (Dominion) certified technician. In the preceding paragraphs notifying her of the officials’ decision, the letter thanked and commended Thorne for her service.
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Georgia State Representative Greg Dolezal (R-Cumming) received an absentee ballot after submitting an application using a different signature than on his photo ID. The representative submitted his application on November 28 to vote in the runoff election. He received a ballot without any issues on December 15.
Dolezal tweeted a comparison picture between the non-matching signatures on his photo ID and his absentee ballot application.
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As of the first day of early voting for the runoff election, Georgians haven’t received an updated voter registration list.
The Republican Party of Georgia issued a press release posing seven questions about the list pertaining to the upcoming runoff election.
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Coffee County submitted a letter to the Georgia House Governmental Affairs Committee with evidence claiming that the Dominion Voting Systems (Dominion) machines provided inconsistent results in their county. Like the rest of Georgia and 28 other states, the county used Dominion’s Democracy Suite 5.5.
The Georgia Star News was informed that the secretary of state’s office stands by the information issued in its press release last week stating that Coffee County workers likely double-scanned batches of ballots.
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Republican Georgia lawmakers increased their push for election changes Friday ahead of the Jan. 5 runoff elections for U.S. Senate.
House Majority Leader Jon Burns (R-Newington) sent a second letter to Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger on Friday asking him to respond to an initial letter calling for two specific changes to the election process.
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Coffee County Election Board testified that there are serious flaws with the state’s electronic voting systems. In a video presented during Georgia House hearing on Thursday, Coffee County Elections Director Misty Martin walked the viewer and other officials through use of the scanning and uploading software, pointing out several key issues that she claimed allowed for voter fraud.
During the video, Martin presented examples of how the voting system could allow elections supervisors to override votes or accept double votes within the electronic adjudication process, as well as scan and electronically vote on blank ballots. Additionally, the video depicted monitors’ inability to watch the adjudication process from the accepted amount of social distancing.
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Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger declined to testify before the Georgia House of Representatives about potential fraud in the 2020 general election on Thursday. The House Governmental Affairs Committee oversaw the hearing.
Many of the claims presented during the hearing resembled those offered during the State Senate Judiciary Subcommittee hearing last week. The secretary of state’s office reportedly declined to attend that hearing as well.
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Coffee County election officials refused to certify the electronic recount earlier this week, citing irreconcilable anomalies with the voting machine results in a letter to Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger.
In the letter, the Coffee County Board of Elections and Registration stated that the electronic recount was unable to repeat duplicate, credible results.
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The Trump campaign’s lawsuit in Georgia became public yesterday, alleging nearly 453,000 fraudulent votes were cast.
The lawsuit claimed that thousands of voters and the named defendants broke Georgia’s Election Code. It quoted Georgia Supreme Court precedent indicating that plaintiffs only had to show enough irregular ballots to cast doubt on the election results – not how voters would’ve voted normally.
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A Fulton County voting technician stepped forward as another whistleblower, alleging severe mishandling of mail-in ballots. The Dominion Voting Systems (Dominion) certified technician, Bridget Thorne, swore in an affidavit that the ballots weren’t handled securely at State Farm Arena.
Thorne stated that their testing and calibration process involved printing series of “test ballots” on actual ballot paper, making them “indistinguishable” from live ballots.
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Got Freedom, Inc., created a GoFundMe to support whistleblowers Jesse Morgan and Ethan Pease as they transition back to everyday life. The fundraiser stated that all funds will go to the men to supply a year’s worth of their work salaries.
Morgan and Pease appeared as new witnesses contesting the election last week, alleging that they had witnessed election irregularities and potential voter fraud.
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The Georgia legislature may not call a special session – but the decision wouldn’t be for a lack of doubt in election integrity.
In an interview with The Georgia Star News, State Representative Colton Moore (R-Trenton) shared that legislators are gun-shy about calling a special session to address the general and runoff elections.
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Georgia Secretary of State Chief Investigator Frances Watson filed an affidavit Monday alleging that the “suitcase ballots” video wasn’t fraud, and that poll workers and monitors weren’t told to leave during vote counting. The affidavit totaled two pages of evidentiary claims against outstanding affidavits claiming incidents that occurred in Fulton County.
Watson claimed that their team’s investigation found that no elections officials asked the observers and media to leave.
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A federal judge in Georgia dismissed attorney Sidney Powell’s case on Monday, citing lack of standing and timeliness in filing the suit. Judge Timothy Batten presided over Pearson, et al. v. Kemp, et al – ultimately, he asserted that he lacked the authority to grant the relief sought by Powell.
Batten stated that the plaintiffs lacked standing to challenge the consent decree established by Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger. Powell disagreed, arguing that the electors are part of the constitutional clause entitling voters to standing.
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Many people, including some good friends, believe that Joe Biden won the 2020 presidential election fair and square.
Many others – and I place myself among them – believe that something is rotten in the state of Denmark, or, to be more specific, in the cities of Milwaukee, Atlanta, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, and Detroit, not to mention Maricopa County, Arizona. I think what happened was so rotten that I regard the election as illegitimate.
What proof, you might ask, do I have?
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Governor Brian Kemp called for a complete audit of absentee ballot signatures late Thursday evening. The governor appeared on Fox News to express concern with the findings presented during Thursday’s Georgia Senate hearing.
“I called early on for a signature audit. Obviously, the Secretary of State per the laws and the Constitution would have to order that – he has not done that. I think it should be done. I think, especially from what we saw today, it [the evidence presented] raises more questions. There needs to be transparency on that. I would, again, call for that.”
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A majority of likely voters in January’s runoff election want Governor Brian Kemp to call a special session for absentee ballot signature verification. The poll, exclusively shared with The Georgia Star News, revealed that the bipartisan voters strongly desire a special legislative session addressing signature verification for every mail-in ballot.
The national survey research and strategic services company McLaughlin & Associates called 800 likely voters at the end of last month. The methodology was described as a random selection “to correlate with actual voter turnout in the November 3rd general election.”
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An elections expert alleged that the Dominion tabulating machine flipped votes from President Donald Trump to Democratic candidate Joe Biden in Ware County. It was estimated that the percentage of mis-applied votes, if distributed across the rest of the state, would be slightly greater than Biden’s lead over Trump.
Constitution Party of Georgia Elections Director and Voters Organized for Trusted Election Results in Georgia (VOTERGA) Co-Founder Garland Favorito was called to testify this information during the State Senate hearing this week.
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Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger’s General Counsel Ryan Germany confirmed during the Georgia State Senate hearing that the state’s voting machines received a system update before the election. Germany shared that the updates had occurred weeks prior to Election Day.
Vice Chairman, Senator Marty Harbin (R-GA-Tyrone) asked Germany whether Dominion’s voting machines were updated.
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Wednesday evening, Fulton County elections officials conducted a rescan of over 12,000 ballots due to “unexplained technical problems.”
Republican Party of Georgia Chairman David Shafer tweeted the news as soon as he was informed by one of the county’s Republican commissioners, Liz Hausmann.
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Georgia’s incoming U.S. Congress members sent a letter asking Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to re-verify the absentee ballot signatures.
Representative Buddy Carter (R-GA-01) tweeted the letter, calling on Raffensperger to do more to secure elections.
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