East Cobb Politics & Elections Archives

Cobb election audit finds ‘no fraudulent absentee ballots’

December 30, 2020 10:48 AM by Wendy Parker

Cobb absentee ballots

From the Georgia Secretary of State’s office:

After a hand recount and a subsequent machine recount requested by the Trump campaign, a signature audit has again affirmed the original outcome of the November 2020 presidential race in Georgia. A signature match audit in Cobb County found “no fraudulent absentee ballots” and found that the Cobb County Elections Department had “a 99.99% accuracy rate in performing correct signature verification procedures.”

“The Secretary of State’s office has always been focused on calling balls and strikes in elections and, in this case, three strikes against the voter fraud claims and they’re out,” said Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger. “We conducted a statewide hand recount that reaffirmed the initial tally, and a machine recount at the request of the Trump campaign that also reaffirmed the original tally. This audit disproves the only credible allegations the Trump campaign had against the strength of Georgia’s signature match processes.”

On December 14, 2020, Secretary Raffensperger announced a signature match audit in Cobb County following credible allegations that the process was not followed in the June primaries. The Secretary of State’s Office partnered with the Georgia Bureau of Investigation (GBI) to conduct the audit. Of the 150,431 absentee ballots received by Cobb County elections officials during the November elections, the audit “reviewed 15,118 ABM ballot oath envelopes from randomly selected boxes,” or around 10% of the total. The sample size was originally chosen to meet the 99% confidence threshold.

The audit found “no fraudulent absentee ballots” with a 99% confidence threshold. The audit found that only two ballots should have been identified by Cobb County Elections Officials for cure notification that weren’t. In one case, the ballot was “mistakenly signed by the elector’s spouse,” and in the other, the voter “reported signing the front of the envelope only.” In both cases, the identified voters filled out the ballots themselves.

The absentee ballot envelopes for the audit were “pulled from 30 randomly selected boxes of the accepted ABM ballots and one box identified as accepted Electronic Ballot Delivery ABM ballots.” Each of the boxes that held the ballots were previously “secured in boxes by the Cobb County Elections Department” and were selected by a random number generator.

To conduct the audit, Law Enforcement Officers (LEOs), from GBI and SOS were instructed to “analyze and compare the known signatures, markings, and identifying information of the elector as stored in databases with the signature, markings, and identifying information on the elector’s ABM ballot oath envelope.” They looked for “distinctive characteristics and unique qualities … individual attributes of the signature, mark, or other identifying information” to “make a judgment of the validity of the signature on each envelope based on the totality of the documents.”

The LEOs conducting the audit were split “into 18 two-member teams identified as ‘inspection teams’ and two three-member teams identified as ‘investigation teams.’” If the two members of the inspection team were split on whether a ballot signature was valid, a third impartial “referee” was brought in to break the tie. This only happened on six occasions.

In cases where additional review was necessary, if no signature was on the ballot, or if additional identification documents were not available, the absentee ballots were given to the investigation teams to track down more information.

The inspection teams submitted 396 envelopes to the investigation teams for comparison with additional documents or follow-up with the elector.” 386 of those were accepted as valid. The remaining ten were referred for additional investigation. “All ten electors were located, positively identified, and interviewed.”

The LEOs used the Cobb County Elections Database which included signature information from voter registration forms, absentee ballot applications, voter certificates, passports, certificates of naturalization, in addition to other documents.

The full report is available here: https://sos.ga.gov/admin/uploads/Cobb%20County%20ABM%20Audit%20Report%2020201229.pdf

The Art Place open for last week of early voting for runoffs

December 28, 2020 1:52 PMDecember 28, 2020 8:52 AM by Wendy Parker

The Art Place

There are four days of early voting taking place this week—it’s more like three and a half—and a couple additional locations to cast your ballot in person for the U.S. Senate runoffs.

Among them is the The Art Place-Mountain View (3330 Sandy Plains Road), which is open from 7-7 Monday-Wednesday and from 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. Thursday, which is New Years Eve.

The same hours apply for the East Cobb Government Service Center (4400 Lower Roswell Road), which has been open for the first two weeks of early voting.

The Cobb Geographic Information Systems Office is continuing to post estimated wait times; a link to the map can be found here.

If you click the information icon in the upper-right corner you’ll find a color-coded legend explaining the wait times and other information.

There won’t be any early voting taking place on Saturday, Jan. 2, or on Monday, Jan. 4. On Tuesday, Jan. 5, you’ll have to go to your usual precinct if you wish to vote in person on that day.

If you have an absentee ballot that you wish to mail, it must be received—not postmarked—by Cobb Elections by 7 p.m. Jan. 5, when the polls close.

You can also drop it off 24/7 at one of 16 designated drop boxes in the county also by 7 p.m. Tuesday. Four are in East Cobb:

East Cobb Government Service Center (4400 Lower Roswell Road)
Gritters Library (880 Shaw Park Drive)
Mountain View Regional Library (3320 Sandy Plains Road)
Sewell Mill Library and Cultural Center (2051 Lower Roswell Road)

Those voting in person must present proper ID, wear masks and line up according to social-distancing measures.

If you have an absentee ballot but wish to vote in person, you’re asked to bring your ballot with you. You will have to have your absentee ballot cancelled—which adds to the wait time—before you can vote at the polls.

Cobb Elections provides the links below for early and absentee voting:

McBath, Loeffler and Perdue vote for COVID relief package

December 22, 2020 2:39 PMDecember 22, 2020 12:49 PM by Wendy Parker

U.S. Rep Lucy McBath, gun violence research funding, McBath border-funding vote — *U.S. Rep. Lucy McBath*

The U.S. Congress passed a $2.3 trillion omnibus spending package Monday that includes $900 billion in new relief from the economic impact of COVID-19 shutdowns.

U.S. Rep. Lucy McBath of the 6th Congressional District and U.S. Sens. Kelly Loeffler and David Perdue of Georgia were among the overwhelming majorities in both houses that approved the measures, which await President Donald Trump’s signature.

The relief bill includes $284 billion in a new round of Paycheck Protection Program loans for small businesses to keep employees on the payroll.

Another $82 billion has been designated to help K-12 schools and universities with reopenings; $25 billion for rental assistance; $22 billion to help states with COVID testing; $20 billion for vaccine development; an extension of unemployment benefits by $300 a week from Dec. 16 until March 14, 2021; and a $600 direct stimulus payment per individual.

Unlike the previous COVID stimulus bill, this one doesn’t include earmarked funding for state and local governments.

McBath, a first-term Democrat from Marietta, voted with the House majority in a 359-53 vote, while Loeffler and Perdue, who are in Jan. 5 runoffs, were part of the Senate’s 92-6 majority.

Critics of the bill complained that the catch-all fiscal year 2021 government spending bill of $1.4 trillion—done to avoid a government shutdown—was added to the COVID spending package.

The COVID relief items took up only a few hundred pages of a 5,593-page bill (you can read through the whole thing here) that lawmakers had only a few hours to absorb before the vote.

The only Georgia lawmaker to vote against the bill was U.S. Rep. Jody Hice, a Republican who represents the 10th Congressional District of eastern and central Georgia.

Cobb Elections board denies GOP voter challenge for runoffs

December 19, 2020 10:52 AMDecember 18, 2020 4:20 PM by Wendy Parker

The Cobb Board of Elections voted on Friday to reject a request by the head of the county Republican Party challenging the registration of more than 16,000 voters for the Jan. 5 U.S. Senate runoffs.

The board voted 4-0 after a very brief discussion that there wasn’t probable cause to conduct a full hearing into challenges by Jason Shepherd and Pam Reardon, another local Republican activist.

(You can read their challenges here and here.)

A Texas-based Republican organization called True the Vote announced on Friday it was challenging the registration of 364,541 voters in all 159 counties in Georgia it claims are ineligible to cast ballots in the runoffs.

Shepherd contended in his petition that there are 16,024 people registered to vote in Cobb County who live outside of Georgia, based on the U.S Postal Service’s National Change of Address Registry. Reardon’s challenge was based on similar grounds involving more than 30,000 voters.

But Gregg Litchfield, an attorney for Cobb Elections, said that “the mere fact that there’s this list with these names on it isn’t sufficient.” Daniel White, another lawyer representing Cobb Elections, told the board that it would “need more specific facts” to find probable cause.

Even if probable cause had been determined, those voters would have been allowed to cast a a provisional ballot marked as challenged. The petitioners would still have to prove those voters were ineligible to vote.

Early voting continues Saturday from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. at five locations, and Monday through Wednesday in Cobb County for the two U.S. Senate runoffs. There’s also a runoff for a seat on the Georgia Public Service Commission. Early voting also will take place from Dec. 28-31.

Cobb Elections also is undergoing a random audit of absentee ballot signatures from the November general elections by the Georgia Secretary of State’s office as the state continues to be in the national political spotlight.

In the general election a majority of Cobb voters voted for Jon Ossoff, a Democrat challenging Republican Sen. David Perdue, who had more votes across the state but not a majority. Democrat Raphael Warnock, who’s challenging appointed Republican Sen. Kelly Loeffler in a special election, also garnered more votes than she did in Cobb County.

More than 1 million Georgia voters have cast ballots in the runoffs thus far, and recent polling has both races very close with party control of the Senate hanging in the balance.

National political figures have come to the state to campaign, including President Donald Trump and Vice President Mike Pence for Perdue and Loeffler. Democratic president-elect Joe Biden visited this week to stump for Ossoff and Warnock, and Kamala Harris, the vice president-elect, will make a trip on their behalf Monday.

Cobb early voting map shows estimated wait times for runoffs

January 5, 2021 3:25 PMDecember 14, 2020 6:19 AM by Wendy Parker

Editor's Note voting and citizenship

PLEASE NOTE:

The early voting wait time maps are not being updated on runoff day, Tuesday, Jan. 5.

——

Back by popular demand, the Cobb Geographic Information Systems Office is continuing to post estimated wait times from early voting locations for the runoffs.

Early voting starts Monday and continues for the next three weeks for both U.S. Senate runoffs and a runoff for the Georgia Public Service Commission. The runoffs conclude Jan. 5, but there will be 13 days of early voting, plus absentee voting 24/7 through election day.

The link to the map can be found here; if you click the information icon in the upper-right corner you’ll find a color-coded legend explaining the wait times and other information.

During early voting for the general elections, the wait-time interactive map was periodically updated each day by the poll manager at each location.

For the first two weeks, the East Cobb Government Service Center (4400 Lower Roswell Road) is the only early voting location in this part of the county.

Those dates will be from Dec. 14-19 and Dec. 21-23.

From Dec. 28-31, you’ll also be able to vote at The Art Place-Mountain View (3330 Sandy Plains Road).

That was one of two new locations added by Cobb Elections last week after complaints from voting access advocacy groups.

Check the flyer at the bottom of this post for more early voting places and times.

You can vote at any early voting location in the county, and if you drop off an absentee ballot, you do so at any of the designated drop boxes around the county. The deadline to do that is Jan. 5 at 7 p.m., when the polls close.

Cobb Elections is advising voters that the first day of early voting figures to be the busiest, just as it was during the general election period, so be prepared to wait and follow COVID-related protocols.

Voters must present proper ID, wear masks and line up according to social-distancing measures.

Cobb Elections provides the links below for early and absentee voting:

Cobb

Cobb Elections adds early voting locations for Senate runoffs

December 9, 2020 2:48 PM by Wendy Parker

Editor's Note voting and citizenship

Cobb Elections said Wednesday it is adding locations for early voting for the U.S. Senate runoffs and making some other changes as voters can cast their ballots in person as early as Monday.

The Art Place-Mountain View in East Cobb and the Smyrna Community Center are being added as early voting locations during the third week of early voting (Dec. 28-31). Another early voting location, the Ward Recreation Center in Powder Springs, will be moved to the Ron Anderson Community Center, also in Powder Springs.

County spokesman Ross Cavitt said in a statement issued Wednesday afternoon that Cobb Elections “will quickly start training poll managers to handle the additional locations.”

Cobb Elections had set up five early voting locations for the runoffs, including the East Cobb Government Service Center, after having 11 sites ahead of the Nov. 3 general election.

The changes come after voting access groups demanded that Cobb open more early voting locations, especially in African-American and Hispanic communities.

On Wednesday morning, before Cobb announced the additions, Nsé Ufot, Chief Executive Officer of The New Georgia Project, issued a statement saying that Cobb’s smaller number of early voting locations for the runoffs “is an affront to voters of color, plain and simple. It risks disenfranchising voters of color living in neighborhoods with limited to no public transit.”

“And as cases of COVID-19 rise across the state, this decision makes it more difficult for voters to cast their ballot safely.”

During the general election early voting period, Cobb also added locations after heavy turnout, going from nine to 11 sites.

Cobb Elections director Janine Eveler said in the county statement that staffing issues were the reason for fewer runoff early voting sites. Staffers have been working long hours doing recounts and some were reluctant to work over the holidays.

“Between COVID, the workload, and the holidays, we have simply run out of people,” Eveler said. “Many workers told us they spent three weeks working 14- or 15-hour days and they will not do that again. We simply don’t have time to bring in and train up more workers to staff the number of locations we had for November.”

Both of Georgia’s U.S. Senate races are on the ballot for the Jan. 5 runoffs. Republican Sen. David Perdue edged Democrat Jon Ossoff in the general election but couldn’t get a majority.

Republican Sen. Kelly Loeffler finished second in a jungle primary to Democrat Raphael Warnock in a special election to fill the remaining two years of former Sen. Johnny Isakson’s term.

Party control of the U.S. Senate also is on the line in the runoffs, which have drawn heightened national media attention and campaign contributions.

The runoffs also come after a bruising presidential recount process in Georgia. Democrat Joe Biden was recertified as the winner of the state’s 16 electoral votes, although supporters of Republican President Donald Trump continue to claim election fraud.

Perdue and Loeffler are supporting lawsuits filed by the Texas Attorney General challenging election results in several states, including Georgia, before the Electoral College is slated to meet on Monday.

Also on the Georgia ballot is a runoff for a seat on the Public Service Commission between Republican incumbent Bubba McDonald and Democrat Daniel Blackman.

You can apply for an absentee ballot at the Georgia Secretary of State’s website.

The county said all 16 absentee ballot drop boxes that were used for the general election will be open for the runoffs. They include the East Cobb Government Service Center, Mountain View Regional Library, Sewell Mill Library and Cultural Center and Gritters Library in East Cobb.

For early voting locations and hours click here.

Georgia elections recertified after presidential lawsuit dismissed

December 8, 2020 9:25 AMDecember 7, 2020 2:14 PM by Wendy Parker

Georgia recount presidential race, Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger — *Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger*

The latest lawsuit filed in Georgia over disputed presidential election results has been dismissed by a federal judge.

On Monday Judge Timothy Batten of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia in Atlanta ruled that the case lacked standing, among other issues.

His ruling came during a Monday morning hearing. The so-called “Kraken” lawsuit, filed by Sidney Powell, a lawyer formerly associated with President Donald Trump’s re-election campaign, claimed election fraud and sought to overturn the presidential results.

Batten ruled that the matter should be for the state courts and said that “the plaintiffs essentially asked the court for perhaps the most extraordinary relief ever sought in any federal court in connection with an election.”

More here from GPB; later on Monday Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger recertified the victory in Georgia of Democratic former vice president Joe Biden after a machine recount.

“Today is an important day for election integrity in Georgia and across the country,” Raffensperger said in a statement. “The claims in the Kraken lawsuit prove to be as mythological as the creature for which they’re named. Georgians can now move forward knowing that their votes, and only their legal votes, were counted accurately, fairly, and reliably.”

It’s the third time nearly 5 million Georgia votes for president have been counted. The initial certified results showed Biden won by around 12,000 votes statewide, and a hand recount ordered by Raffensperger slimmed that lead to around 10,000.

Officially Biden’s winning margin statewide was 11,779 votes, following the machine recount. Biden had 2,473,633 votes and Trump received 2,461,854 votes. Jo Jorgenson, the Libertarian Party nominee, got 62,229 votes.

Biden won Cobb County with 56 percent of the vote; only a few dozen votes changed during the recount, in Biden’s favor. Most East Cobb precincts favored Trump.

The Trump campaign requested a recount that was allowed since the margin was 0.5 percent or less, but the official recount didn’t differ all that much from the original results.

Powell, the Trump campaign and Lin Wood, an Atlanta libel attorney best known for representing former Atlanta Olympic bombing suspect Richard Jewell, have claimed widespread fraud in the presidential election.

But those claims have all been rejected in court, for failure to provide evidence. The Trump campaign also has wanted Georgia’s 16 Democratic electors to be dismissed and has demanded Gov. Brian Kemp call a special legislative session to replace them with Republicans.

The Electoral College will meet on Dec. 14; Kemp declined to intervene, saying it violates state law for the General Assembly to name electors. That, he said, is the duty of the governor once the results are certified by the Secretary of State.

Raffensperger has come under fire from Trump and Republican U.S. Senators Kelly Loeffler and David Perdue, who demanded he resign. They’re both in Jan. 5 runoffs that could determine party control of the Senate.

While Trump campaigned with Loeffler and Perdue in Valdosta over the weekend, Kemp did not appear with them. Trump, who has refused to concede, said he was embarrassed to have endorsed Kemp in his 2018 race for governor.

As the official recount wound down last week, Gabriel Sterling, a Georgia elections official, slammed Trump for not denouncing death threats made against Raffensperger and his wife and a 20-year-old elections contractor in Gwinnett County.

Sterling reiterated his concerns on “Meet the Press” on Sunday, saying Trump’s comments amount to disinformation: “They are stoking anger and fear among his supporters and, hell, I voted for him.”

Sterling, like Raffensperger, is a Republican who has supported Trump. In a piece for The Wall Street Journal on Sunday, Raffensperger said that Trump was using the “same playbook” as Stacey Abrams, a Democrat who lost to Kemp in 2018 but never conceded:

“Many media outlets have rightly highlighted that the Trump campaign has provided precious little proof of its voter-fraud allegations,” Raffensperger wrote. “Yet for two years, few asked the same of Stacey Abrams. Through all this, confidence in the integrity of American elections suffered.”

Cobb Board of Elections to hold post-recount meeting Thursday

December 2, 2020 7:56 PMDecember 2, 2020 12:56 PM by Wendy Parker

*Gabriel Sterling, a Georgia elections official, lashed out over death threats and other forms of intimidation he said are being aimed at elections workers during the state’s recount.*

Cobb County Government has sent out word that the Cobb Board of Elections is meeting Thursday at 4 p.m. “in anticipation they will have to recertify the results of the November 3^rd election.”

This will be a virtual meeting due to COVID-19 and you can watch on the Cobb Government YouTube Channel.

On Wednesday Cobb Elections staffers were expected to finish a machine recount of the presidential voting.

That work has been taking place at Jim Miller Park, site of a previous hand recount ordered by Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger.

Raffensperger gave county elections offices until Wednesday to complete the machine recount.

That process—which is being done on eight scanners in Cobb County—comes at the request of the campaign of President Donald Trump.

He finished 0.2 percent and less than 13,000 votes behind Joe Biden in Georgia after election-night and absentee voting was complete, and after the hand recount.

In Georgia recounts are allowed if a losing candidate comes within 0.5 percent or less.

Nearly 5 million votes for president were cast in Georgia and around 400,000 in Cobb, where Biden won with 56 percent of the vote. Most East Cobb precincts favored Trump.

The recount is finishing up amid what a top Georgia elections official said is intimidation and continuing threats of violence against elections workers from the pro-Trump camp.

Gabriel Sterling, the voting systems implementation manager for the Georgia Secretary of State’s Office, said Tuesday he’s among those who’ve received threats, as has Raffensperger and his wife, who’s gotten “sexualized texts” with threatening messages.

“It has all gone too far,” said Sterling, who like Raffensperger is a Republican. “Someone’s going to get hurt, someone’s going to get shot, someone’s going to get killed.”

In a press conference at the Georgia Capitol, Sterling was enraged describing a threatening Twitter thread aimed at a 20-year-old elections contractor in Gwinnett County that includes “a noose put out saying he should be hung for treason because he was transferring a report on batches.”

The contractor, Sterling said, “was just trying to do his job” and now there’s a “noose with a name on it . . . This kid just took a job, and it’s just wrong. . . . I cannot begin to explain the level of anger I have.”

Cobb County spokesman Ross Cavitt said he doesn’t know of any threats directed at Cobb Elections, but said the county “did increase police presence at the start of the recounts because of concerns expressed by some elections workers.”

Sterling directed further comments at Trump, who has not conceded to Biden, but who Tweeted derogatory comments over the weekend about Raffensperger and Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp, whom the president said he was “ashamed” to have endorsed.

“It has to stop. Mr. President, you have not condemned these actions or this language. Senators, you have not condemned this language or these actions. This has to stop. We need you to step up. And if you take a position of leadership, show some.”

Both of Georgia’s Republican U.S. Senators, David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler, have called on Raffensperger to resign as they face Jan. 5 runoffs that could determine party control of the Senate.

Among those most vocal in claiming election fraud against Trump in Georgia is Atlanta attorney Lin Wood.

Over the last two weeks he’s posted videos on his Twitter feed claiming that ballots in Cobb County were being shredded, which county elections officials have said is not true.

On Wednesday, Wood was appearing at a “Stop the Steal” rally in Alpharetta.

Sterling said while it’s one thing to demand a fair counting of the ballots, the threats have gone too far. Again directing his comments at Trump, he said “stop inspiring people to commit potential acts of violence

“It’s time to look forward,” Sterling said. “There’s not a path. Be the better man here.”

You can watch his full remarks by clicking here.

Cobb Elections extends hours to complete presidential recount

November 28, 2020 12:21 PMNovember 27, 2020 10:05 AM by Wendy Parker

Cobb Elections said Thursday that its staffers will be working longer hours next week to complete the presidential recount. Cobb election results certified

According to a message put out by Cobb County Government, those hours will be from 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday and Tuesday and from 8 a.m. to as much time is needed on Wednesday to complete the recount.

Wednesday is the deadline given to all Georgia counties to complete the recount. Nearly 400,000 Cobb County ballots are being recounted on eight scanners, according to the county, and nearly 5 million Georgia ballots are being recounted across the state.

No recounting is being done on Friday. The recount, which started on Tuesday, is taking place in Cobb at Jim Miller Park (2245 Calloway Road), and the public is invited to observe.

The recount was requested by the campaign of President Donald Trump after a hand recount slightly reduced Democratic former vice president Joe Biden’s lead in Georgia to less than 13,000 votes.

Biden has 49.51 percent of the vote compared to 49.25 percent for Trump, which falls within the 0.5 percent threshold for a recount in Georgia.

Biden won more than 56 percent of the vote in Cobb County.

Another lawsuit was filed in Georgia on Wednesday by Trump supporters alleging voter fraud, and naming two of the state’s top Republican leaders—Gov. Brian Kemp and Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger.

The lawsuit also seeks to dismiss the Georgia election results. The Cobb County Courier reported Friday that the Cobb County Republican Committee voted to join the lawsuit as a plaintiff, and quoted county GOP chairman Jason Shepherd as saying that party leaders “believe that there are issues in this election which can only be sorted out in a court of law. An issue as important as the integrity of a Presidential election deserves to have evidence heard in a court of law, not a court of public opinion.”

Over the past week, Cobb Elections has been accused by Trump supporters of shredding ballots. Elections director Janine Eveler said last week that documents “not relevant” to the election were shredded after the hand count, but no ballots.

On Monday, a video posted on social media claimed ballots were being shredded at the Cobb Elections headquarters, but the county said the shredding was routine and involved materials from the Cobb Tax Commissioner’s Office.

In both instances the allegations were posted on Twitter by Lin Wood, an Atlanta attorney and Trump supporter who has repeatedly claimed that Trump won the presidential race by a landslide.

Cobb: Government shredding didn’t include Elections Office

November 24, 2020 6:26 PM by Wendy Parker

For the second time in a week, Cobb County Government is saying that shredding activities at one of its facilities didn’t involve ballots.

According to a message sent out Tuesday, nothing from the Cobb Elections Office was shredded at all in the latest allegations.

County spokesman Ross Cavitt said in a statement late Tuesday afternoon that a video was being posted on social media that:

“Purportedly shows a shredding company at the building housing the main office for Cobb Elections on Whitlock Avenue in Marietta. This building houses many other Cobb County governmental offices, and the document disposal company was at the building as part of a regularly-scheduled visit to the Cobb Tax Commissioner’s office. No items from Cobb Elections were involved.”

Cavitt didn’t say who posted the video, but it came from Lin Wood, a prominent Atlanta attorney who’s filed a lawsuit for President Donald Trump’s re-election campaign, charging voter fraud.

Susan Knox is on it again. The photos & video to follow were taken by her today. Cobb County Patriots need to DEMAND answers.

It is critically important to get the word to many – @realDonaldTrump WON the election by a landslide. Biden is a criminal. China is the ENEMY. pic.twitter.com/1I8f1faRrj

— Lin Wood (@LLinWood) November 24, 2020

Democratic former vice president Joe Biden leads in Georgia by less than 13,000 votes as a machine recount of the presidential voting got underway Tuesday.

Cobb Elections workers were conducting that recount at Jim Miller Park, several miles away from the main office, as they did during a hand recount that was completed last week. All elections materials related to the second recount, including ballots, are being stored there.

On Friday, Wood posted on his Twitter account an allegation that election documents were possibly being destroyed in Cobb. County elections director Janine Eveler responded by saying that only documents that were “not relevant” to the election were shredded after the hand recount was done.

Wood posted a few more times Tuesday on his Twitter account, which has more than 592,000 followers. Knox is identified several times as a “Georgia Patriot,” but she responded to Wood to say that the videos were shot by someone else who wished to remain anonymous.

Knox is a business development executive based in East Cobb.

In another Tweet, Wood wrote that “Biden is a crook. Cabala Harris is a Communist Sympathizer. This was NEVER about an election. It is part of an attempt to take over control of our country. I would NEVER incite violence. I urge ALL to pray.”

Biden won more than 56 percent of the vote in Cobb County.

Wood also Tweeted Tuesday that Sidney Powell, an attorney dismissed by the Trump campaign over the weekend, will be filing an election lawsuit in Georgia Wednesday.

Official Georgia machine recount begins in presidential race

November 24, 2020 9:05 AM by Wendy Parker

Cobb presidential hand recount — *A hand recount finished last week cut Joe Biden’s lead in Georgia to just under 13,000 votes.*

An automatic recount of votes in the presidential race in Georgia began on Tuesday, the third such tabulation in a razor-close battle.

Cobb Elections workers are working from 9-5 Tuesday and Wednesday and the same hours next Monday and Tuesday, and from 9 a.m. until finishing next Wednesday, Dec. 2.

That’s the deadline set by Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to elections offices across the state.

A hand recount finished on Friday had Democratic former vice president Joe Biden with a 12,670-vote lead over Republican President Donald Trump in Georgia.

Biden has 49.51 percent of the vote compared to 49.25 percent for Trump, which falls within the 0.5 percent threshold for a recount in Georgia.

Trump has not conceded, three weeks after the election, as his campaign is filing challenges in other states, including Pennsylvania, where he was trailing Biden by 150,000 votes.

Adding to the drama over the weekend were charged remarks by Sidney Powell, an attorney on Trump’s legal team who said she would “blow up” Georgia with a “biblical” voter fraud lawsuit.

The Trump campaign quickly cut ties with Powell.

The machine recount will be done by machine and the results will become official. Georgia’s elections board certified all election results last Thursday, but the Trump campaign asked for the formal recount after the hand count was finished.

That was the first time Georgia has done a hand recount. Like that process, the machine recount will add up nearly 5 million votes cast by Georgians in the presidential race.

The public is invited to observe the Cobb Elections recount, which like the hand recount is taking place at Jim Miller Park (2245 Calloway Road, Marietta).

East Cobb voters stick with Trump but Biden wins precincts

November 23, 2020 1:18 PM by Wendy Parker

East Cobb voters Trump Biden — *Joe Biden won most of the precincts (in green) and 56 percent of the presidential vote in Cobb County against Donald Trump. For more details, **click here**.*

After Georgia certified election results Friday that included a win for Joe Biden in the presidential race, Donald Trump’s campaign has asked for an official recount.

That comes after a hand recount across the state upheld a slender advantage for Biden, of less than 13,000 votes.

Those figures didn’t change much in Cobb County, which for the second presidential election in a row was won by a Democrat.

Joe Biden won 56 percent of the vote in Cobb and most of the precincts, as indicated in green in the Georgia Secretary of State’s map above.

Trump won most of the precincts in East Cobb, but Biden won 13 of those 48 precincts and outperformed Hillary Clinton in some areas as well as countywide.

Biden received 221,846 votes in Cobb to 165,459 for Trump. In 2016, Clinton got 160,121 votes to 152,912 for Trump to become the first Democrat since Jimmy Carter to win the county.

Cobb Democrats have gained more ground since then. They won all countywide races they contested this year, including Cobb Commission Chair, Sheriff, District Attorney and Superior Court Clerk.

In January, an all-female and a Democratic-majority Cobb Board of Commissioners will take office, headed by current commissioner Lisa Cupid, the first Democratic chair since 1984.

Like other metro Atlanta suburban areas, Cobb was coveted political territory for Democrats this year, as illustrated by The New York Times in a precinct shift analysis last week.

East Cobb Republican legislative incumbents were re-elected, but a few of those races were close, as was Cobb Board of Education Post 5, where GOP incumbent David Banks held on for a fourth term.

Last week Cobb Elections issued its “Statement of Votes Cast” report, which is a precinct-by-precinct breakdown of all the election results (you can read through it here). For reference here are the 2016 precinct results.

A table of the presidential vote in East Cobb precincts in 2020 includes an asterisk next to the precinct-winning total; the Bells Ferry 2 precinct ended in a tie (indicated in beige on the map).

	Trump	Biden	Turnout %
Addison	930	990*	80.52
Bells Ferry 2	1127 (tie)	1127 (tie)	74.45
Bells Ferry 3	768	871*	69.62
Blackwell	908	1113*	76.98
Chattahoochee	986	2860*	66.34
Chestnut Ridge	1446*	1215	86.08
Davis	857*	807	81.84
Dickerson	1209*	1149	85.54
Dodgen	921*	810	85.19
East Piedmont	782	1077*	72.33
Eastside 1	1325*	1200	85.33
Eastside 2	1698*	1601	83.48
Elizabeth 2	1022*	864	79.01
Elizabeth 3	1226*	1014	82.80
Elizabeth 4	715	1077*	69.35
Elizabeth 5	1103	1168*	80.48
Fullers Park	1436*	1374	83.40
Garrison Mill	1211*	1105	82.42
Gritters	1578*	1359	75.20
Hightower	1858*	1640	84.47
Kell	853*	690	79.36
Lassiter	1613*	1316	82.84
Mabry	833*	538	85.27
McCleskey	810*	609	84.04
Marietta 6A	374	1184*	59.69
Marietta 6B	970	1283*	79.90
Mt. Bethel 1	1760*	1626	84.56
Mt. Bethel 3	1299	1344*	82.00
Mt. Bethel 4	1305*	1094	82.79
Murdock	1722*	1598	84.11
Nicholson	969*	843	76.05
Pope	1349*	1173	82.33
Post Oak	1680*	1289	82.79
Powers Ferry	1213	1287*	73.698
Rocky Mount	1441*	1234	80.88
Roswell 1	2387*	2141	86.01
Roswell 2	1545*	1518	85.03
Sandy Plains	1117	1192*	81.25
Sewell Mill 1	1334	1481*	82.22
Sewell Mill 3	1249	1859*	67.20
Shallowford Falls	1487*	1294	84.62
Simpson	738*	756	81.85
Sope Creek 1	970*	835	85.76
Sope Creek 2	1632	1963*	78.28
Sope Creek 3	1213*	1089	80.91
Terrell Mill	1030	2477*	61.97
Timber Ridge	1025*	1016	85.42
Willeo	1270*	1079	85.19

Cobb Elections explains post-recount shredding activities

November 24, 2020 6:31 PMNovember 20, 2020 8:32 PM by Wendy Parker

Cobb Absentee Ballot Envelope — *Cobb Elections Director Janine Eveler said white privacy envelopes were among the items shredded Friday, but no ballots of any kind were destroyed.*

After wrapping up a hand recount of votes in the presidential race, the Cobb Board of Elections and Registrations on Friday responded to social media postings about shredding activities near its recount location at Jim Miller Park.

UPDATED Tuesday, Nov. 24: Cobb government says the social media posting of another video alleging the shredding of ballots was in fact part of routine shredding activities for materials from the Cobb Tax Commissioner’s Office. A county spokesman said no documents from the Cobb Elections Office were shredded.

In a release issued through Cobb County Government spokesman Ross Cavitt, Cobb Elections said the items that were being shredded were mailing labels, completed and “checked off” reports, sticky notes and other papers and documents.

Voters were mailed two envelopes as part of their absentee ballot package. One was a “white privacy envelope” that contained the actual absentee ballot. The privacy envelope was then placed in a larger mailing envelope that contained the voter’s signature.

The privacy envelopes were among the items that were also shredded—after the election was certified—but not the mailing envelopes with the signatures.

None of the shredded materials were ballots, according to the statement, which quotes Cobb Elections director Janine Eveler:

“None of these items are relevant to the election or the re-tally. Everything of consequence, including the ballots, absentee ballot applications with signatures, and anything else used in the count or re-tally remains on file. After an out-of-context video was shared on social media we contacted state officials to reassure them this was a routine clean-up operation and they could inspect our stored materials if they wish.”

Lin Wood, an Atlanta attorney who’s filed a lawsuit for the Trump campaign contesting the Georgia presidential results, posted several times Friday on his Twitter account with videos shot at the park by others.

In a post published at 3:27 p.m., he wrote:

Looks to me like they may be destroying election documents in Cobb County, GA.

What do you think?#FightBack Against Election Crimes pic.twitter.com/RXzsDGYboN

— Lin Wood (@LLinWood) November 20, 2020

The Cobb Elections release was issued about 10 minutes later, but Wood did not respond to that denial. His Tweets after that were focused on Kyle Rittenhouse, a Wisconsin teenager accused of killing two protesters in Kenosha and who was released on $2 million bail.

After absentee and other final ballots had been initially counted, Democratic former vice president Joe Biden had a lead of 14,116 votes over Trump.

Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger ordered a hand recount—something that hadn’t been done in the state before—and after that was complete, the results indicated that Biden’s lead was 12,670 votes.

On Friday, the Georgia board of elections certified all the election results, including the presidential race, and Gov. Brian Kemp signed off on the certification.

There were several thousand uncounted ballots found during the recounts in four counties (Cobb was not among them), including more than 2,000 in Floyd County, where the elections supervisor was fired.

“The vast majority of local elections officials did their job well,” Kemp said, citing circumstances related to COVID-19 that led to unprecedented absentee balloting.

He urged legislators to make changes, including a voter ID requirement for absentee ballots.

The Trump campaign has until the end of Tuesday to request a computerized recount, which would serve as the official vote tally.

Georgia’s 16 electoral votes are slated to go to Biden, the first Democrat to win the state in the presidential race since Bill Clinton in 1992.

The official tally now stands at Biden with 2,474,507 votes (49.51 percent) to 2,461,837 for Trump (49.25 percent).

Libertarian Jo Jorgensen received 62,138 votes, or 1.24 percent.

Raffensperger has been under fire since Georgia’s presidential vote-counting swung from Trump, who held a 370,000-vote lead on election night, to the slender Biden lead following the absentee counting.

Georgia’s U.S. Senators, Republicans Kelly Loeffler and David Perdue, demanded his resignation, as the Trump campaign alleged voter fraud in Georgia and several other states that were close—and that all eventually went to Biden.

On Friday, Raffensperger said that even though he’s a Republican and Trump supporter, “the numbers don’t lie” and he has the duty to certify the results.

“The numbers reflect the verdict of the people, not a decision by the secretary of state’s office or of courts or of either campaign,” he said.

In Cobb, Biden got 56 percent of the vote.

Cobb Elections officials will be working at Jim Miller Park through the Jan. 5 runoff for both U.S. Senate seats from Georgia as a well as a runoff for the Georgia Public Service Commission.

Cobb election results certified; Biden projected Ga. winner

November 13, 2020 6:48 PMNovember 13, 2020 5:59 PM by Wendy Parker

Cobb election results certified

As a hand recount of Cobb votes in the presidential race began on Friday, the county’s elections board certified all the other the results from last week’s general election.

By a 5-0 vote, the Cobb Board of Elections and Registration—a five-member appointed body—voted to certify the results of a variety of county, state and federal races as well as local and statewide ballot issues.

In recapping the elections process, Cobb Elections Director Janine Eveler said that “election day went very smoothly” and chalked up much of that to early and absentee voting “that took a lot of the pressure” off of staff and poll workers at 145 precincts.

She said a total of 396,549 ballots were counted in Cobb County—that’s 73.76 percent of the 537,611 registered eligible voters: 174,979 cast ballots in person, and another 148,498 votes were counted via mail/absentee.

The elections board vote came a few hours after Eveler and her staff began the laborious hand recount process in the presidential race. That was ordered on Wednesday by Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger.

Democratic former vice president Joe Biden leads in Georgia by 14,116 points and has 49.52 percent of the vote, while Republican president Donald Trump has 49.24 percent of the vote with nearly 5 million votes cast.

In Cobb, Biden got 56 percent of the vote, although most precincts in East Cobb favored Trump.

The Trump campaign has charged voter fraud in a number of states where the voting has been close. In Georgia, Republican U.S. senators David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler have asked for Raffensperger to resign. He said he won’t be doing that, and urged his fellow GOP office-holders to focus on their Jan. 5 runoff campaigns.

On Friday afternoon, several news outlets projected Biden the winner in Georgia. He would be the first Democrat since Bill Clinton in 1992 to do so. Trump also has been projected to be the winner in North Carolina.

Pennsylvania and Arizona also have been projected for Biden, who by most estimates currently has 290 electoral votes, 20 more than needed.

But only in Georgia is a hand recount taking place. Cobb Elections has brought on 80 people for now to count the presidential vote from those 396,549 ballots.

They’ll have until Wednesday at 11:59 p.m.—the deadline Raffensperger set for all 159 counties to finish—and Eveler said in Cobb the counters will include full-time elections office staffers, poll workers, absentee ballot counters and others.

They got training and final instructions before the recounting began at 9 a.m. The counters are working in 40 teams of two people per table who were randomly assigned and didn’t know one another beforehand.

The state Democratic and Republican parties have assigned designated monitors, and the public is invited to watch as well in an observation area that Eveler said “is quite large, actually.”

The counting is going on from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. at Jim Miller Park (2245 Callaway Road, Marietta). Late Friday afternoon, the county said 115,000 ballots have been examined thus far, and the work will continue Saturday.

During the elections board meeting, Cobb Democratic Party chairwoman Jackie Bettadapur commended Cobb Elections for its election-day performance, but blasted the hand recount, calling Republicans “sore losers” who were demanding “expensive political theater.”

The county is expected to pick up the tab for the hand recount, and Eveler said it’s possible more shifts will be added to meet the Wednesday deadline. Georgia elections must be certified by next Friday, Nov. 20.

“It will take however many people it takes, and it will cost whatever it’s going to cost, and that’s what we have to do,” she said in the above video produced by the Cobb County Communications Office.

Cobb to certify election results, start presidential hand recount

November 12, 2020 8:07 PMNovember 12, 2020 7:03 PM by Wendy Parker

Cobb absentee ballots

The Cobb Board of Elections and Registration will certify elections results Friday as the department starts counting ballots in the presidential race by hand.

The five-member appointed board will meet to certify all but the presidential results at 12 p.m. in a public meeting that will be shown on Cobb County Government’s YouTube channel.

All 159 Georgia counties have been ordered by Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to conduct a manual recount in the presidential race.

That margin falls within the state’s 0.5 percent margin of threshold for an automatic electronic recount, but Raffensperger took the unusual step of ordering the hand recount.

Raffensperger, a Republican, said Wednesday “this helps build confidence” in an elections process that has come under fire from those in his own party, including U.S. Senators David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler.

Earlier this week they called for his resignation. But Raffensperger responded by saying that if there has been any illegal voting it “is unlikely” it would rise to the numbers to change the outcome in Georgia.

Raffensperger has set a deadline of next Wednesday to have the hand count completed. In Cobb, elections staffers will be working overtime to count 396,549 ballots. The cost and source of funding for the recount is unclear for now, although Raffensperger said Wednesday it’s possible the state could reimburse county elections offices.

In Cobb, Biden got 56 percent of the vote, although most precincts in East Cobb favored Trump.

Georgia to conduct hand recount of presidential voting

November 12, 2020 1:33 PMNovember 11, 2020 2:24 PM by Wendy Parker

Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger said Wednesday there will be a hand recount of around 5 million votes in the presidential race. Georgia recount presidential race, Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger

At a press conference on the steps of the state capitol in Atlanta, Raffensperger said he’s taking the rare step of ordering a hand recount, as well as an audit of paper ballots and recanvassing, as an “all-in-one process” to ensure an accurate and fair outcome.

“This will help build confidence,” said Raffensperger. “It will be a heavy lift, but we will work with the counties to get this done in time for state certification.”

He said Democratic former vice president Joe Biden has a lead of 14,111 votes over Republican President Donald Trump, whose campaign on Tuesday demanded a hand recount in Georgia.

Trump led by around 370,000 votes statewide at the end of election night. Biden has won 849,679 absentee votes that have been counted since then, compared to 451,240 for Trump.

The updated tallies can be found here; Biden has 49.52 percent of the vote and Trump has 49.24 percent, within the 0.5 percent range for a recount in Georgia. Biden got 56 percent of the vote in Cobb County, although most precincts in East Cobb favored Trump.

A hand recount—which is possible due to a 2019 change in state law requiring paper ballots for recounts—will take place in all 159 counties in Georgia. Raffensperger said 97 counties have certified results.

A hand recount is more expensive and time-consuming than an automatic recount conducted by a scanner, and it’s unclear how much that will cost, who will pay for it and how long it will take.

Georgia has to certify its presidential results by Nov. 20. After the hand count is complete, the losing candidate has two business days to request another recount that under state law must be done electronically.

Georgia has 16 electoral votes—the number of the state’s Congressional delegation of two U.S. Senators and 14 U.S. House members. The electoral college meetings will take place on Dec. 14.

Most of the major news outlets that have called the race for Biden have a current electoral college count of 290 for Biden to 217 for Trump, with Georgia and North Carolina still outstanding.

At least 270 electoral votes are needed to win the presidency.

“We are committed to counting every legal ballot,” Raffensperger said in a social media post after the press conference. “Georgia voters deserve accurate, secure results. We stand by our numbers.”

The Cobb Board of Elections and Registration is to scheduled to certify its election results Friday. When asked how Cobb Elections will be conducting that hand recount, and how that process may affect certification, Cobb County spokesman Ross Cavitt said he’s talked with Cobb Elections director Janine Eveler, and “they’re still trying to figure it out.”

UPDATE: Cobb County said late Wednesday afternoon that a “risk-limiting” audit of paper ballots will take begin Friday at 8 a.m. at Jim R. Miller Park Event Center. That’s an audit conducted to make sure if votes were tabulated correctly.

Raffensperger, a Republican former legislator, has come under fire for his handling of the presidential voting, but he’s said there has been no evidence of election fraud in Georgia.

Georgia’s Republican U.S. senators, David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler—both of whom are in Jan. 5 runoffs—called for his resignation on Monday. But Raffensperger responded by saying that if there has been any illegal voting it “is unlikely” it would rise to the numbers to change the outcome in Georgia.

“My office will continue to investigate each and every instance of illegal voting. Every legal vote will count,” he said at Wednesday’s press conference. “We will continue to enforce the law.”

Georgia is one of a handful of states where presidential voting is still too close to declare a winner, or where votes are still being counted. Biden also leads in Pennsylvania, Arizona and Nevada and Trump leads in North Carolina.

“This race has national significance,” Raffensperger said. “We get that.”

Biden made a victory speech on Saturday, but Trump is refusing to concede. He and his campaign have made allegations of voter fraud in some of those closely-contested states, including Georgia.

U.S. Rep. Doug Collins, a Republican who finished third behind Raphael Warnock and Loeffler in the U.S. Senate special election primary, said Raffensperger’s call for a hand recount is “a victory for transparency. A victory for election integrity. A victory for the American people.”

He’s leading the Trump recount effort in Georgia, and on social media he’s been frequently calling into doubt the election process here and in other states.

Some state Democrats, including 2018 gubernatorial nominee Stacey Abrams, said Trump is only delaying the inevitable. “He lost, and he knows it,”said Abrams, one of Georgia’s 16 Democratic electors.

On Tuesday, Cobb Commission Chairman Mike Boyce, a Republican who was defeated in his re-election bid, said he finds it “extraordinary” that “we have people who question the integrity of the voting process—because they lost.”

Ousted Cobb Commission Chairman pledges ‘transition in grace’

November 13, 2020 12:00 PMNovember 10, 2020 1:46 PM by Wendy Parker

Cobb Commission Chairman Mike Boyce

A week after he lost his re-election bid to one of his colleagues, Cobb Commission Chairman Mike Boyce pledged to assist her as she is set to take office in January.

He also expressed dismay over heated disputes involving the presidential election, both at the national and state levels.

At the end of Tuesday’s Cobb Board of Commissioners regular meeting, Boyce congratulated Commissioner Lisa Cupid, who defeated him with 53 percent of the vote.

He’s a Republican who like other countywide GOP office holders was swept out in a Democratic surge. Cupid, currently the only Democrat on the five-member board, will lead a 3-2 Democratic majority when she takes over.

Noting that more than 300,000 people voted in Cobb County, Boyce said that “I think that’s a great example of true democracy in action.

“I think it’s also important as part of this process that we have a transition in grace. That we acknowledge the voice of the people, we hear them and we move on.”

He said it’s important for Cobb citizens “that this message gets out loud and clear to our national and state leaders that this transition is part of the election process.

“I find it extraordinary that four years ago nobody complained about the results of the election, and four years later we have people who question the integrity of the voting process—because they lost.

“That doesn’t reflect well of leadership. That doesn’t happen in Cobb County. That’s not going to happen in Cobb County as long as I’m the chairman.”

Sens. Kelly Loeffler and David Perdue are facing Jan. 5 runoffs against Democrats Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff, respectively, and as the close voting in Georgia in the presidential race appears to have set up a recount.

On Monday, Loeffler and Perdue issued a joint statement demanding that Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger resign over his handling of the elections.

Without citing any specifics, they accused him of mismanagement and a lack of transparency. Raffensperger responded by saying that if there has been any illegal voting it “is unlikely” it would rise to the numbers to change the outcome in Georgia.

“As a Republican, I am concerned about Republicans keeping the U.S. Senate,” Raffensperger said. “I recommend that Senators Loeffler and Perdue start focusing on that.”

(Loeffler and Perdue are holding a runoff rally Wednesday morning at Cobb Republican headquarters in Marietta.)

Democratic president-elect Joe Biden leads Republican president Donald Trump in Georgia by around 10,000 votes, after Trump led by more than 370,000 at the end of election night.

But as has been the case in other states, notably Pennslyvania, Michigan and Wisconsin, Biden moved ahead based largely on absentee ballots.

Biden made a victory speech on Saturday but Trump has not conceded, as his campaign is alleging voter fraud in those states and elsewere. He’s also refusing to cooperate in any transition efforts.

Boyce, who defeated then-chairman Tim Lee in 2016, is a retired Marine colonel who mentioned that it’s Veterans Day on Wednesday, “a great time to remember what we stand for. Many of us fought for freedom and still fight for freedom we all fight for freedom in our own ways.”

He said the best way to to that “is to acknowledge the will and voice of the people and to continue this transition in grace.”

Cupid will become the first Democrat to head county government since longtime chairman Ernest Barrett retired in 1984, and will be the first woman and African-American to hold the position.

Cobb Republican Party to hold U.S. Senate campaign rally

November 9, 2020 4:49 PMNovember 9, 2020 9:21 AM by Wendy Parker

Both U.S. Senate races from Georgia are headed to Jan. 5 runoffs, and those campaigns are already getting underway.

On Wednesday the Cobb County Republican Party will be holding a “Save Our Majority” rally in support of GOP senators David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler.

They will both be in attendance at the Cobb Republican headquarters (799 Roswell St.), and special guest is Florida Sen. Marco Rubio.

The rally begins at 10 a.m. and you can register to attend by clicking here.

Republicans are holding to a tight lead in control of the Senate after last Tuesday’s elections. After just missing winning without a runoff last week, Perdue is facing Democrat Jon Ossoff.

Loeffler will be facing Democrat Raphael Warnock, who got the most votes in Tuesday’s “jungle” primary.

Cobb figures to be a battleground, especially after Ossoff and Warnock got more votes in the county that their Republican foes.

Ossoff got 54 percent of the Cobb vote, while Warnock got 37 percent of the vote compared to 25 percent for Loeffler.

She was quickly endorsed by Congressman Doug Collins, a Republican who finished third in the jungle primary.

(Democratic president-elect Joe Biden also won the county with 56 percent of the vote, although the presidential voting in Georgia appears headed for a recount. Biden has a roughly 10,000-vote lead after final votes were being counted over the weekend).

Loeffler and Perdue have demanded that Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger resign over the handling of the presidential vote.

On Monday they issued a statement accusing him of mismanagement and lack of transparency and said Georgia’s election system was an embarrassment.

They didn’t specify what those failures were. Raffensperger is a pro-Trump Republican who was a state legislator and member of the Johns Creek City Council.

He said he won’t be resigning and that he’ll continue to make sure that all legal votes are counted, and illegal votes aren’t.

He said that if was any illegal voting it “is unlikely” it would rise to the numbers to change the outcome in Georgia.

“As a Republican, I am concerned about Republicans keeping the U.S. Senate,” Raffensperger said in a statement. “I recommend that Senators Loeffler and Perdue start focusing on that.”

The Trump campaign has been alleging fraud in states were the vote has been close, including Pennsylvania, which was called for Biden by news outlets on Saturday. Biden gave a victory speech on Saturday but Trump has not conceded.

There will be a Dec. 7 deadline to register to vote for the Georgia Senate runoffs, and anyone who wants to get a mail-in absentee ballot can request one starting Nov. 18.

The runoffs will have early voting starting Dec. 14; more details in Cobb are forthcoming.

The Cobb Board of Elections and Registration will be certifying election results on Friday.

Cobb commissioner-elect: ‘We can overcome every challenge’

November 7, 2020 1:20 PM by Wendy Parker

Jerica Richardson, Cobb Commission candidate

After soaking in the reality of winning her first stab at public office—and culminating an historic election in Cobb County in the process—District 2 commissioner-elect Jerica Richardson admitted there’s some sobering work ahead for her and her colleagues in the coming months.

She’s one of two new faces on the Cobb Board of Commissioners, which in January will have a Democratic majority and will be all female.

That majority also is made of black women, including Richardson, a 31-year-old Equifax manager, who edged out Republican Fitz Johnson in this week’s elections.

Chair-elect Lisa Cupid defeated incumbent Mike Boyce and Monique Sheffield was elected to succeed Cupid as District 4 commissioner in South Cobb.

As of Saturday, and with a few absentee and provisional ballots to count, Richardson was leading Johnson by 1,224 votes, 53,642 to 52,418 (updated results can be found here).

Johnson essentially conceded on Thursday, saying “it doesn’t look great.”

“I was hearing from a lot of people that [the closeness of the results] was because of the quality of the candidates,” said Richardson, who called Johnson “a Cobb County success story. He ran a real cordial race.”

After running the campaigns of Cobb State Rep. Erick Allen and Cobb school board member Jaha Howard, Richardson said she viewed her maiden campaign as an effort to “build bridges in deep waters.”

It was among various metaphors she’s used in her “Connecting Cobb” theme of her campaign (previous ECN story here).

In succeeding retiring commissioner Bob Ott, she’ll inherit a distinct district in itself. In includes most of East Cobb below Sandy Plains Road and the Cumberland-Vinings-Smyrna area.

Johnson won most of the East Cobb precincts, and Richardson prevailed in the latter.

“Colors on a map don’t tell the whole story of a community,” said Richardson, who lived in a neighborhood near The Avenue in East Cobb and now resides in the Delk Road area.

Part of her campaign outreach, she said, has been to “cut through echo chambers. If this is an opportunity to build those bridges then this is that year.”

Tackling a county budget affected by the continuing economic fallout from COVID-related lockdowns and other consequences of the pandemic loom large.

“There are going to be some really hard conversations,” Richardson said. “What are our priorities? Our focus? Our vision. And we’ll have to make decisions based on that.”

Among short-term priorities, she favors closing the Sterigenics plant “until further notice.” Homeowners living near the Smyrna-based company that sterilizes medical equipment have filed a lawsuit over what they claim have been cancer-causing emissions.

On a broader and longer-term scale, she said it’s going to be vital to bring as many individuals and areas of Cobb to the table to hash them out, to “build the synergy” of a community she said hasn’t been fully represented on the board.

“The commissioners haven’t had a united vision,” she said, noting that in recent years, it’s been four Republicans and one Democrat—Cupid—who’s often voted alone.

“I don’t see people as red or blue, I see them as an individual,” Richardson said.

During the campaign, Richardson set up some “open office hours” to get to know voters—in a socially-distanced manner—and plans to keep doing so.

She campaigned on a few occasions with Howard, who’s become a firebrand on the school board, angering his Republican colleagues and most recently, taking a knee during the pledge of allegiance at a meeting.

Richardson said “that’s not my method, but I will be having conversations with different groups of people.”

She said Howard was responding to school parents who weren’t being heard, “but he was always willing to listen.”

Richardson acknowledged that a new dynamic on the commission will take some getting used to in Cobb County, which has been dominated by a white, conservative and mostly male political establishment for decades.

“When things change, there’s a lot of fear and uncertainty,” she said. “The only way we’re able to overcome the challenges that we have is to focus on love,” and what she says are the three unifying things that are of utmost importance: expanding liberty, empathy and opportunity” for Cobb citizens.

“If we can do those things, we can overcome every challenge,” Richardson said. “I really believe it.”

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