For the Record | Spring Cleaning in Georgia & more!

by Courtney Kramer, Executive Director,True the Vote

As many 2021-2022 legislative sessions come to a close, we are excited and supportive of all of the election reform that has begun. In many battleground states, and possibly contentious states in 2022, reform efforts have led to reform of private funding, securing absentee ballots chain of custody, and penalizing misconduct by election officials.

The Peach State has been one of the epicenters of it all since November and is not slowing down anytime soon. Though the state is not alone, as you'll see below.

Fulton County, Georgia is back in the spotlight this week (though, they never really left) as Georgia has finally started to attempt to clean their voter rolls. Below is a real letter that a citizen of Dekalb County received to her Fulton County UPS PO box. Under GA law, one cannot register to vote from anything other than a residential address. OCGA §21-2-17(a).

This means that you cannot register to vote or vote from a UPS store, despite thousands of people doing so in 2020. Nonetheless, the Fulton County Department of Registration and Elections decided it was time to start sending necessary notices to these ineligible registered voters. The notice makes clear that the current address is a “non-residential or post office box” address. Good job, Fulton County! The notice then goes on to ask the recipient of this letter to fill out the enclosed voter registration application and if no response, then a hearing will be held on May 13, 2021.

To put things in perspective, the owner of this PO Box has owned this specific PO Box since 2013 and this is the first letter that she has received regarding this matter.  (To clarify, this letter was sent to the previous owner) So naturally, we did some digging. Come to find out that the named recipient of the letter moved to Louisiana around 2013 and only voted from this PO Box address once back in 2012. It is now 2021, if I need to remind you. I will also remind you that under OCGA §21-2-226, “it shall be the duty of the county board of registrars to determine the eligibility of each person applying to register to vote in each county.” Further, under OCGA §21-2-234, “the Secretary of State shall identify all electors with whom there has been no contact during the preceding five calendar years…” 

Well, the time frame here was double that with no contact asking the registered voter to update their address. This notice was sent to the UPS store on Piedmont Road in Atlanta, GA and this was just one of many UPS stores/PO Boxes that received this exact letter. Better late than never, right? Wrong. There were at least 30 people who registered to vote and voted from this UPS store in 2020 and that is only one store. Only time will tell if these rolls ever actually get cleaned. I guess we will find out on May 13 when they have a hearing on this matter since this person does not live in Georgia and has no way of obtaining this letter.

But don't hold your breath.

Thankfully, Georgia election officials do plan to remove roughly 12,000 voters who have died and an additional 101,000 voters who have not participated in elections for nine years (unless they respond to a letter similar to the one described above). I wonder how many of these voters voted in 2020. Probably more than 11,779…

Next up…
Double hat tip to Florida and Texas this week as both put in real work toward election reform.

Both states cracked down on mass mail-in voting, ballot trafficking and private money funding of election processes (e.g., the rise of the infamous ballot drop boxes made possible by Zuckerberg’s $500 million payout directly to counties.)

Making sure every legal vote is counted seems to be lost in the false narratives being spread around. Of course, the left once again is screaming “voter suppression” with zero proof of such erroneous claims.

Particularly, Marc Elias loved the move by Gov. Ron DeSantis as he immediately filed a lawsuit challenging the new law. Though, when you make millions of dollars from Stacey Abrams to file a lawsuit before the ink is dry, what’s not to love?

WATCH: Gov. DeSantis sign the bill on-air during Fox & Friends.

Although nothing is official yet, Texas is now experiencing what Georgia went through with a rise in the ridiculous cancel culture that comes with the passage of a new election reform. Companies like Microsoft Corp. and American Airlines Group, Inc. signed a joint statement (along with 48 other companies) opposing the new law. Thank goodness Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick told American Airlines to go and actually read the bill before issuing opposing statements.

Remember, the only thing this election reform is doing is making it easier to vote and harder to cheat. Why is one party getting so upset by this? Maybe that is the only way they know how to win. But that’s just an educated guess! Stay tuned for more.

Eyes On | Bob Bauer's Building Back

The truth about Building Back Together's Voting Initiative

It was announced late last month that an "outside group" composed of "allies of President Joe Biden" is launching a new initiative ostensibly in the interest of voting rights.

The non-profit group Building Back Together - a Biden administration slogan - said their aim with the initiative is to "counter proposed changes" in voting laws across the country, which they say is an effort to impede access to voting among people of color and "historically disadvantaged" communities.

The initiative is being spearheaded by Bob Bauer, who was a senior adviser for Biden's 2020 campaign. Bauer is an attorney and specifically advised Biden's campaign on the election issues in 2020. He was ubiquitous on major media as the disputes over the vote were argued in court.

In discussing the initiative with Politico, Bauer said that “A broad-based coalition is required to expose the serious and continuing disinformation about the 2020 election, and to defend against the use of that disinformation to advance wholly unjustified and all too often flatly illegal restrictions on access to the polls."

"We also need to stand behind the election administrators of both parties now under attack for their dedicated non-partisan service to voters," he said in the prepared statement.

Although Bauer specifically praised the value of non-partisan service, his own service was highly partisan through the process; a function of the job as a member of the campaign. He of course made near-continuous appearances in all the mainstream press, under exceedingly friendly conditions being interviewed by people who agreed with him.

But we mention Bauer specifically not merely for his work in 2020 opposing judicious and full hearing of the cases being made on behalf of the people and in the interest of a full and transparent accounting. We mention him also for his work prior to 2020.

Bauer was an attorney for the Obama campaign, as well, and spearheaded another initiative on its behalf.

We will let his words speak for themselves, in this excerpt from a document sent out during the 2012 election. (Follow the link below to see the full memo.)

"Over the last several years, the Republican Party has embarked on a nationwide and coordinated strategy of limiting access to the polls by enacting legislation to combat what it has claimed is the risk of 'voter fraud.' As part of this strategy, Republicans have pushed forward photo identification requirements, shortened early voting periods and hours, restrictions on voter registration, and other limitations to the vote."

That's from the first page of a six-page, highly partisan screed. Attacking the right of citizens to challenge the eligibility of ballots that they have cause to challenge is only a small part of what's in this manifesto.

As a matter of fact, Bauer extensively attacked True the Vote by name in the document. In Bauer’s memo, which purports to be about “protecting the vote,” he says the “very purpose” of our advocacy for the rights of voters is “to intimidate voters.”

Do you feel intimidated, fellow concerned citizens? Or do you feel empowered?

READ MORE, AND VIEW THE DOCUMENT, AT TRUE THE VOTE

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