Tuesday, Aug. 20, 2024
Good morning! We start today some reaction from Coastal Georgia delegates to the Democratic National Convention in Chicago. We then look at more attempts to assure a clean election in November and questions surrounding the Chatham County sheriff’s race. Finally, we note some things for your radar. Questions, comments, or story ideas? You can reach me at craig.thecurrent@gmail.com
NEWS: POLITICS
‘America, I gave my best to you’
In what’s likely to be the highlight of his long goodbye to the presidency, President Joe Biden took to the stage at the Democratic national convention in Chicago last evening to frame the legacy of his more than half century in politics and declare, “America, I gave my best to you.”
Looking on was Savannah Mayor Van Johnson, one of seven Georgians on the Democratic National Committee.
“President Joe Biden is one of the most transformative public servants in history,” Johnson told The Current from Chicago. “Tonight, he started the first leg of his well-deserved victory lap, receiving his proverbial flowers and cementing his legacy by passing the torch to his vice president, Kamala Harris, as his successor and Democratic standard bearer.”
On hand to hear Biden, as well as U.S. senator and Savannah native Raphael Warnock (Donald Trump is “a plague on the American conscience”), were other Coastal Georgia convention delegates: District 168 state Rep. Al Williams of Midway; James “Jay” Jones of Pooler, chair of the 1st District Democratic Committee; Terry Thomas and Elaine Papain of Jesup; Gail Buckner of Richmond Hill; and Thunderbolt’s Cameron Landin. Also attending the convention is Mitzi Toth, chair of the Skidaway Island Democrats.
Listed as an honorary member of the Georgia delegation was Jimmy Carter. The 99-year-old former president, convalescing in Plains, is scheduled to be honored today in a speech by his grandson, Jason Carter.
Yesterday wasn’t all a kumbaya moment.
Some Biden loyalists are still bitter over the treatment of their candidate by other Democrats, prompting calls for harmony. “I want to see us unite and move ahead” with Harris and vice presidential nominee Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, Jones said.
Also, protests over the Biden administration’s policy on the Israel-Hamas war were still swelling. But as of last night, former President Donald Trump’s prediction that “all hell” would break loose in Chicago in a reprise of 1968 had not come true.
NEWS: VOTING
Counting ballots
The GOP-controlled state election board passed a rule Monday giving county election officials additional power to investigate and delay ballot counts before certifying the results.
By a vote of 3-2, the board approved the rule, which will allow for a hand recount of votes to ensure “the total number of ballots cast” does not exceed “the total number of persons who voted.”
As of late Monday afternoon, the board had not posted the text of the rule, so details of the provision — including the time allowed for reconciling number of votes cast with the number of persons who voted —were unclear.
Still, the board’s chairman, John Fervier, said the certification process requires “guardrails” and “this rule doesn’t provide any.”
The three Republican board members who voted in favor of the rule — Janelle King, Janice Johnston, Rick Jeffares — drew lavish praise from Donald Trump during a rally in Atlanta 10 days ago. He called them “pit bulls fighting for honesty, transparency and victory.”
Yesterday, state Attorney General Chris Carr said the board cannot order his office to reinvestigate 2020 voting results in Fulton County. The board requested the move earlier this month.
ProPublica reported Sunday that the Fulton County election official who submitted an initial draft of the rule did so at the urging of a regional leader of a right-wing organization involved in challenging the legitimacy of U.S. election systems.
That organization, the Election Integrity Network, is led by Cleta Mitchell, who helped orchestrate attempts to overturn the 2020 election. She spoke on the call in which former President Donald Trump demanded that Georgia’s secretary of state “find” him 11,780 votes to undo Joe Biden’s victory.
NEWS: ELECTIONS
No word
It has been more than six weeks since the Chatham County Sheriff’s Office issued an update on its Facebook page on the condition of Sheriff John Wilcher, who was stricken by a “cardiac event” in mid-June and, according to his friends, remains hospitalized more than two months later.
Yesterday marked the last day that Wilcher’s name could be replaced on the November ballot, which indicates the 80-year-old Republican, who has enjoyed considerable bipartisan support, is going ahead with his plans to seek reelection. He’s opposed by Democrat Richard Coleman.
It isn’t known yet how actively — if at all — Wilcher will campaign for a third, four-year term as sheriff.
If Wilcher prevails in November, he could, of course, step away from the job. In that event, the governor, under state law, would schedule a special election to replace him. It would be a so-called jungle election, under which anyone who pays a filing fee could run.
NOTES: POLITICS
7 things for your radar
- The Georgia Secretary of State’s office is now accepting requests for absentee ballots. The deadline for requesting such a ballot is Oct. 25. The ballots can’t be sent out before Oct. 7, and completed absentee ballots must be received by election offices by 7 p.m. on Election Day, Nov. 5.
- Georgia’s Supreme Court rules that the state’s Open Records Act applies to private contractors working for governments.
- Laura Khurana, an independent, announced last week she was ending her write-in bid for the at-large, post 2 seat on the Glynn County Commission. Her announcement came after the county election board rejected her petition to appear on the ballot and a Superior Court judge turned down her appeal of that decision.
- The Chatham County Republican Party will sponsor a forum, “How Georgia Elections Are Manipulated,” on Tuesday, August 20, at 5:30 p.m. at the Montgomery Athletic Association, 10155 Ferguson Ave., Savannah. Included in the program will be “examples of fraudulent activity in Chatham County,” the forum announcement says. Featured guests will be Kim P. Brooks, Helen Strahl, Bob Coovert, and Lori Tullos.
- The Harris-Walz campaign will host a watch party for Kamala Harris’ acceptance speech at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago on Thursday at 8 p.m. at the Beach Institute African American Cultural Center, 502 E. Harris St., in Savannah.
- The Chatham County GOP hosts a meet-the-candidates’ forum on Thursday at 6:30 p.m. at the Montgomery Athletic Club, 10155 Ferguson Ave., in Savannah. Candidates include U.S. Rep. Earl “Buddy” Carter; Joel Boblasky, who is running for chair of the Chatham County Commission; and Andre Pretorius, who is running for Chatham County district attorney.
- The NAACP’s Savannah branch will hold a mass meeting featuring Chatham County election officials on Sunday, Aug. 25, at 4 p.m. at First Bryan Baptist Church, 575 W. Bryan St., in Savannah. Guest speakers include election board supervisor Billy Wooten and board member Glenda Jones.
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