East Cobb Politics & Elections Archives

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.”

East Cobb legislative incumbents, McBath win re-election

November 7, 2020 11:59 AMNovember 7, 2020 8:57 AM by Wendy Parker

Kay Kirkpatrick, East Cobb city map — *State Sen. Kay Kirkpatrick has won a second full term.*

Although some of them got a scare—including one of the state’s most influential lawmakers—all members of East Cobb’s legislative contingent were re-elected this week.

In the race targeted as part of an effort to flip party control of the state house to the Democrats, Republican Rep. Sharon Cooper appears to have pulled out another close re-election battle over Democrat Luisa Wakeman.

As of Saturday morning, Cooper leads Wakeman by 481 votes, with the final absentee and provisional ballots still being counted.

It’s not clear how many there are, and how many may be in District 43, which includes part of East Cobb and some of Sandy Springs.

It’s the district Cooper has represented since 1997, and she serves as the Chairwoman of the House Health and Human Services Committee.

While Cooper claimed victory on Wednesday, Wakeman initially did not concede. On Friday, she acknowledged that “it appears as if we will fall just short.” She congratulated Cooper and said “I was so encouraged to see you campaign on funding schools and expanding Medicaid for women in need of maternal care. My hope is that you will use this term in office to continue advancing these progressive causes. Georgia is counting on you.”

The Cooper-Wakeman rematch was one of the key races Democrats were targeting in a high-stakes, and high-spending election.

The candidates raised more than $500,000 combined, but Democrats have flipped only one of the 16 seats they needed to win to end Republican control.

State House results

District 37

Mary Frances Williams (D, incumbent): 15,931 (54%)
Rose Wing (R): 13,591 (46%)

District 43

Sharon Cooper (R, incumbent): 15,920 (50.7%)
Luisa Wakeman (D): 15,439 (49.2%)

District 44

Don Parsons (R, incumbent): 16,978 (51.8%)
Connie DiCicco (D): 15,606 (48%)

District 45

Matt Dollar (R, incumbent): 19,273 (54.8%)
Sara Tindall Ghazal (D): 15,902 (45.2%)

District 46

John Carson (R, incumbent): 21,680 (61.5%)
Caroline Holko (D): 15,583 (38.5%)

In the Georgia State Senate District 32 race, Republican incumbent Sen. Kay Kirkpatrick was facing Democrat Christine Triebsch for the third time in four years.

They first met in a 2017 special election to succeed former Sen. Judson Hill. Kirkpatrick earned a first full term in 2018, and on Tuesday the early results were close.

But Kirkpatrick earned a comfortable victory to retain the seat that includes most of East Cobb and some of Sandy Springs.

District 32

Kay Kirkpatrick (R, incumbent): 63,221 (56%)
Christine Triebsch (D): 49,859 (44%)

U.S. Rep Lucy McBath, gun violence research funding, McBath border-funding vote — *U.S. Rep Lucy McBath is going back to Washington for a second term.*

The 6th Congressional District race was also a rematch, as Republican former U.S. Rep. Karen Handel was trying to reclaim the seat from Democrat Lucy McBath, who won in a 2018 cliffhanger.

McBath has been the first Democrat to hold the seat in 40 years, and it was targeted by national Republicans in their bid to win back control of the House.

While the GOP did flip some House seats, Democrats will maintain their majority and their ranks will include McBath, who claimed her re-election thanks to strong results in the Fulton and DeKalb portions of the district.

Handel won the East Cobb area, as she did in 2018, but only with 51 percent of the vote there.

Lucy McBath (D, incumbent): 215,680 (54.6%)
Karen Handel (R): 179,398 (45.4%)

For full results of these races, click here.

Banks wins 4th term as Cobb school board stays in GOP hands

November 6, 2020 7:37 PMNovember 6, 2020 6:41 PM by Wendy Parker

Cobb school board GOP majority

Cobb Board of Education member David Banks was targeted in both the primary and general election this year, criticized as being out of touch and insensitive to minority concerns in the Cobb County School District.

The East Cobb Republican had his closest challenge yet on Tuesday from Democratic first-time candidate Julia Hurtado. She said Cobb County has “outgrown” Banks, a retired technology consultant whom some have accused of falling asleep during school board meetings.

After trailing through election-day results, however, Banks bucked the absentee-balloting trend that favored Democrats in Cobb County and pulled out a 2,639-vote win to earn a fourth term.

He was one of three incumbent Republican males who won re-election over Democratic women, meaning that the GOP will hold on to its 4-3 majority on the Cobb school board.

Banks won 21 of the 27 precincts in Post 5—which comprises the Pope and Lassiter clusters, and some of the Walton and Wheeler areas—and captured 52 percent of the vote, which was the lowest for him since he first was first elected in 2008.

“I was expecting 70 percent, but a win is a win,” said Banks, the board’s vice chairman this year. (Full results can be seen by clicking here.)

More Elections Coverage

East Cobb Elections Guide

Chairman Brad Wheeler of West Cobb also had a close contest, but was able to win by 1,800 votes, also against a first-time Democratic candidate.

The Democratic wins in countywide races didn’t filter down to the three contested school board races (another board seat was secured in the primary by Democrat Tre’ Hutchins, who will succeed outgoing member David Morgan from Post 3 in South Cobb).

Banks couldn’t resist stirring up the partisan pot in victory.

“I really hope people aren’t trying to believe in socialism,” he said. When asked who those people might be, Banks said “anybody who voted for Democrats. Why cut your own throat?”

Banks spent little and campaigned even less, using the reach of his e-mail newsletter and distributing some yard signs to get out the word about his campaign.

He was dismissive of Hurtado, whose daughter is a Sedalia Park Elementary School student.

“I didn’t pay any attention to what she said,” Banks said.

He did mention a concession statement Hurtado posted on social media, saying that she contacted Banks after the election results were in, and reminded him, among other things, that “I am going to be the airhorn that wakes him up every time he snoozes on our kids and our teachers.

“We’ve built an unprecedented movement and have already ignited so many important conversations that were never part of East Cobb before; I know we’ll continue to make change together, even if we have to go around him to do so.”

She lashed out not just against Banks.

“The men who will be keeping their seats on the school board couldn’t stick to the issues because they didn’t have anything productive to contribute to the conversation. They chose to focus on partisan politics rather than stuff of substance; I thought we as a community had evolved past that, but the demographics just aren’t there yet. These men went negative because they only know how to lead through fear.

“They spread misinformation and ran poorly-produced attack ads against a bunch of moms. In a school board race. They should be ashamed of themselves. I hope they’ll consider their very narrow wins as a referendum on this behavior. There may not be more of us yet, but there are too many of us to ignore, and we won’t tolerate this kind of behavior. Our kids deserve better.”

Among the attacks against Hurtado was a video ad that quoted her in an online candidates forum, saying she supported changing the name of Wheeler High School and favored revisiting the county’s popular senior tax exemption from school taxes.

Banks said he wasn’t involved in the ad, but didn’t like what he said was a “nasty” response from Hurtado, a “nasty threatening statement she made.”

Banks came under fire during the campaign from Democratic board member Charisse Davis for comments he made about racial and cultural issues in the Cobb school district, which has a majority-minority enrollment.

Davis said Banks was “spewing racist trash,” including comments he made about Cobb being endangered by “white flight” he cited in other metro Atlanta school districts.

He reiterated that concern after his re-election victory, and said that with a continued Republican school board majority, the Cobb school district can continue to have a “forward-thinking learning environment.

“If it had gone the other way, we’d be headed in the direction of Atlanta and DeKalb,” Banks said.

He said the biggest challenge the Cobb school district faces now is “how we manage getting back the learning process. We can do this more than one way.”

With the Cobb school district offering face-to-face and remote options for students this year, Banks said better integrating those programs will be critical.

He does support full face-to-face learning at the elementary school level, but believes there can be more of a mix of virtual options at the middle- and high school levels.

“Virtual doesn’t work for everybody,” he said. “Our job will be to figure out what works best for each student. There are many opportunities we haven’t explored yet.”

Hurtado thanked Davis and Jaha Howard, another board member Banks has lashed out against over the last two years. He’s not optimistic the tenor of a fractious Cobb school board will improve anytime soon.

“As long as those two Democrats continue to create chaos and not work for the best interests of the students, I don’t see anything changing,” Banks said.

Cobb Elections settling final ballots, counting provisionals

November 6, 2020 11:01 AM by Wendy Parker

cobb advance voting, Cobb voter registration deadline, Walton and Dickerson PTSA candidates forum

Here’s an update from Cobb County government as of 10:30 Friday morning:

Cobb Elections workers are working with the bi-partisan panel to adjudicate the last few ballots under investigation.
They have 25 ballots left to adjudicate. Another 50 cured ballots will be processed only after confirming those voters are NOT on the list of those who voted on election day.
There are 906 provisional ballots pending. Voters have until the end of the day today to provide ID if they didn’t have it at the polls, sign the absentee envelope if there was a missing signature or provide more evidence if the ballot was identified as having a signature mismatch. Those voters were contacted by letter, email, or phone call.

Earlier Friday, Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger said there are 8,197 votes left to count in the state, including 700 in Cobb.

The majority of those are in Gwinnett (4,800), which like Cobb has been surging for Democrats in recent elections.

As of 10:30 a.m., Democratic former vice president Joe Biden took the lead from Republican President Donald Trump overnight Friday, by 1,098 votes, with Georgia’s 16 electoral votes up for grabs.

As of 10:30 a.m., Biden had 2,449,590 votes to 2,448,492 for Trump.

That’s a difference of 1,098 votes.

Republican U.S. Sen. David Perdue also was trying to avoid a runoff with Democrat Jon Ossoff. At 10:30 a.m. Perdue has 49.84 percent of the vote to Ossoff’s 47.84 percent.

The results from those races are being updated here.

Updated election results

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2nd Georgia Senate runoff looms as presidential race closes

November 7, 2020 3:21 PMNovember 5, 2020 6:51 PM by Wendy Parker

Ga. Senate runoff

UPDATED, SATURDAY, 3 P.M.

Georgia will have two U.S. Senate runoffs on Jan. 5 that could determine which party gains control in that chamber.

Republican Sen. David Perdue was at 49.78 percent of the vote in his race against Democrat Jon Ossoff.

At the same time, the Georgia presidential race could be headed for a recount, with Joe Biden holding a roughly 7,500-vote lead over Donald Trump.

The results from those races are being updated here.

As final votes were being counted in Georgia, news outlets began calling the presidential race for Biden based on vote-counting in his home state of Pennsylvania.

If that holds up, that would give Biden 290 electoral votes to 214 for Trump. Presidential candidates need 270 votes to win.

Georgia, Arizona and Nevada were the other states that remain too close to call.

Trump led Biden in Georgia by 370,000 votes on election night, but absentee ballots have heavily been in favor of Biden.

Biden and Ossoff also won Cobb County easily, as did Raphael Warnock, the first-place finisher in a “jungle primary” special election in the other U.S. Senate race.

Warnock, the minister of Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta—the church of Martin Luther King Jr.—will face U.S. Sen. Kelly Loeffler, a Republican appointed last year.

The winner of that runoff will fill the remaining two years of the term won in 2015 by Johnson, who retired due to health reasons..

UPDATED, FRIDAY 10:30 A.M.:

Democratic former vice president Joe Biden edged ahead of Republican President Donald Trump overnight Friday, with Georgia’s 16 electoral votes up for grabs.

As of 10:30 a.m., Biden had 2,449,590 votes to 2,448,492 for Trump.

That’s a difference of 1,098 votes.

Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger said that as of 8:15 a.m. Friday, there are 8,197 votes still to count in Georgia, including 700 in Cobb County.

The majority of those votes are in Gwinnett, where 4,800 votes have not been counted in a county that like Cobb has been surging toward Democrats in recent elections.

Provisional, military and overseas ballots, and ballots needing to be “cured” or corrected by voters also were to be counted on Friday.

Biden also has moved ahead of Trump in Pennsylvania as final vote-counting continues.

Georgia Republican U.S. Sen. David Perdue (in photo at left) was trying to fend off a runoff with Democrat Jon Ossoff (in photo at right). That runoff would take place on Jan. 5.

Perdue’s lead as of 10:30 a.m. Friday stands at 98,849 over Ossoff. More importantly, Perdue has 49.84 percent of the vote to Ossoff’s 47.84 percent.

Runoffs take place in Georgia when the leading candidate gets less than 50 percent of the vote plus one vote.

Shane Hazel, a Libertarian candidate, has tallied 2.32 percent of the vote.

ORIGINAL STORY:

Cobb will certify election results next Friday, Nov. 13.

Party control of the U.S. Senate, which has been in Republican hands, could be determined in if both Georgia races go to runoffs.

In Tuesday’s special election, appointed Republican U.S. Sen. Kelly Loeffler finished second in a “jungle primary” to Democrat Raphael Warnock.

The winner of that runoff, also on Jan. 5, will fill the remaining two years of former Sen. Johnny Isakson’s term.

Biden (56 percent) and Ossoff (54 percent) won Cobb, and Warnock was the top vote-getter in the county in his race (37 percent).

Like Biden, Ossoff has been able to close with absentee votes from metro Atlanta and other strong Democratic parts of the state.

On Thursday afternoon Ossoff’s campaign manager, Ellen Foster, sent out a statement saying that “the votes are still being counted, but we are confident that Jon Ossoff’s historic performance in Georgia has forced Senator David Perdue to continue defending his indefensible record of unemployment, disease, and corruption.”

Perdue hasn’t responded directly to the prospects of facing a runoff; instead he went on social media Thursday, commenting on the presidential race, and saying that if “every lawful vote cast should be counted, once,” Trump will be re-elected.

Some pro-Trump supporters gathered at State Farm Arena in Atlanta Thursday to protest what they said was a “fix” against the president in the vote-counting.

In Thursday evening remarks at the White House, Trump claimed “we’re clearly going to win Georgia,” referring to a 117,000-vote margin he enjoyed after election-day votes were counted.

He didn’t mention the new numbers based on absentee ballots counted.

The Trump campaign and the Georgia Republican Party have filed lawsuits over the ballot-counting in the presidential race, and Trump’s campaign also was doing the same in Michigan and Pennsylvania, where mail-in ballots are being counted.

Other states that are too close to call and that are still counting are Arizona and Nevada.

“This is a fraud to the American public,” said Trump, adding that “frankly, we did win this election. . . . This is a major fraud on our nation.”

The latest overall results compiled by C-SPAN have Biden with 264 electoral votes to 214 for Trump, with four states to call: Georgia, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Nevada.

A total of 270 electoral votes are needed to win the presidency. Georgia has 16 electoral votes.

Updated election results

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Cobb commission election update: Richardson extends lead

November 5, 2020 5:46 PMNovember 5, 2020 9:46 AM by Wendy Parker

Cobb commission election update

After seeing her lead whittled to just a few hundred votes after Tuesday’s election-day votes were counted, Democrat Jerica Richardson now has a lead of 1,208 votes over Republican Fitz Johnson for the District 2 seat on the Cobb Board of Commissioners.

Richardson and Johnson are vying to succeed Republican three-term commissioner Bob Ott,, who decided not to run again.

According to figures updated Wednesday night by the Georgia Secretary of State’s office, Richardson has 53,509 votes to 52,301 for Johnson.

That’s a margin of 50.57 to 49.43 percent, which would preclude a recount.

UPDATED, 5:30 P.M. THURSDAY:

Additional ballots counted have pushed Richardson’s lead to 1,224 votes (53,642 to 52,418), and a margin of 50.58 to 49.42 percent.

Recounts in Georgia are allowed if the difference between two candidates is 0.5 percent of the vote or less.

Candidate profiles

Fitz Johnson | Jerica Richardson

You can read through the results by clicking here. The latest numbers include mailed-in absentee ballots.

Early-voting numbers for the candidates were very close: 22,167 for Richardson, and 21,269 for Johnson.

He got 11,061 votes from in-person election-day voting, while she received 6,322.

But Richardson has been able to pull away with mail-in absentee votes.

She has received 25,020 of those, and Johnson has 19,971.

“It doesn’t look great but we just have to wait and see what happens,” said Johnson, who won the Republican nomination in similar fashion, with a razor-thin edge over Andy Smith in a runoff in August.

*For details and to view precinct results, **click here**.*

Johnson won most precincts in East Cobb and his home base in Vinings (indicated in blue on the map above), while Richardson took most of the precincts in the Cumberland-Vinings-Smyrna area (in green).

In an interview with East Cobb News, Richardson said she expected the race to be close, and credited Johnson with “running an impeccable campaign. He’s a Cobb success story and he ran a very cordial campaign.

“Yes, it was really close, and I think the community benefits from that.”

Cobb Elections had 15,000 votes to count as of Wednesday, but that number is now down to 700 remaining absentee ballots, according to a message sent Thursday morning.

On Friday, another 882 provisional ballots will be processed, along with military ballots postmarked on election days.

Voters who need to “cure” their ballots—addressing those with missing or mismatched signatures, among other things—will have that done on Friday as well.

As we noted earlier, this race will swing party control on the five-member commission from Republicans, who have had a 4-1 advantage, two Democrats, with a 3-2 split.

Commissioner Lisa Cupid, who defeated Cobb Commission Chairman Mike Boyce and Monique Sheffield’s, her successor in South Cobb, are the other Democrats.

In January, Richardson, Cupid and Sheffield will form a board majority, joining Republicans JoAnn Birrell of Northeast Cobb and Keli Gambrill of North Cobb.

The Cobb Board of Elections and Registration will certify all the results next Friday, Nov. 13.

The District 2 race isn’t the only nailbiter left.

In the State House District 43 seat in East Cobb, Republican State Rep. Sharon Cooper leads Democrat Luisa Wakeman by 487 votes, with all but remaining absentee and provisional ballots counted.

Cooper has 15,874 votes, or 50.78 percent, to 15,387 votes for Wakeman, or 49.22 percent.

That’s even closer than Cooper’s win over Wakeman in 2018, which was by less than 800 votes.

The current numbers were updated Thursday at 9:30 a.m. If they stand, that margin of the vote also would preclude a recount.

Cooper declared victory on Wednesday, while Wakeman said she’s waiting for every vote to be counted.

Updated election results

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East Cobb Elections Update: Democrats sweep county races

November 7, 2020 3:06 PMNovember 4, 2020 1:50 PM by Wendy Parker

Cobb Democrats sweep county races, East Cobb Elections Update — *From L-R: Lisa Cupid, Craig Owens and Flynn Broady*

In countywide races, Democrats swept out incumbent Republicans across the board in Cobb County general elections this week. (see previous ECN election-night post).

Commissioner Lisa Cupid defeated incumbent Republican Mike Boyce in the Cobb Commission Chair race, becoming the first woman and the first African-American to hold the position.

She received 203,738 votes, or 53 percent to Boyce’s 179,375 votes or 47 percent.

Cupid led from the outset, as Democrats across the county at all levels enjoyed early and absentee voting advantages, and Boyce could never get closer than the final margin.

On Wednesday morning he conceded on his Facebook page, saying he called Cupid with a congratulatory message, “expressing my appreciation for running an issues-based campaign, and wishing her all the best in the future.

“Thank all of you for your support during my term as Chairman. It has been an honor to have served the people of Cobb County.”

Boyce was elected in 2016 after defeating then-incumbent Tim Lee in the Republican primary, but was caught up on an historic wave of Democratic support across Cobb.

Cupid also congratulated Boyce on running a “respectful” campaign and called him a “respectful colleague.”

She told supporters that “this was a campaign about moving Cobb forward together. Whether you voted for me or didn’t, whether you voted at all, my aim is to serve everyone the same. My goal is to move the whole county forward and make this an ever better place to live for everyone.”

Cupid said announcements will be forthcoming “as we begin the collaborative process of embarking on this new chapter in Cobb’s history.”

Updated election results

Related coverage

East Cobb Elections Guide

The Democratic wave also swept out of office Republican Cobb Sheriff Neil Warren, who lost to Cobb Police Major Craig Owens.

Owens got 202,272 votes, or 54 percent, to 167,472 votes, or 45 percent for Warren, who has been in office since 1994. But recently he came under fire for a series of deaths at the Cobb County Jail that have prompted an investigation by the Cobb District Attorney’s Office.

That office will have a new top prosecutor after the elections. Republican Joyette Holmes, who was appointed last year to succeed current GBI director Vic Reynolds, lost to Democrat Flynn Broady, an assistant Cobb solicitor.

Broady, who ran unsuccessfully for the 11th Congressional District seat in 2018, edged Holmes by a 187,708-180,990 vote count, or 51-49 percent.

Early Wednesday morning Broady said in a statement that “I will use restorative practices, not punitive, while acting as District Attorney for Cobb County and I will ensure the fair treatment of all people.”

In the final weeks before the campaign, he had pushed for Holmes to investigate the death of Vincent Truitt, a 17-year-old who was shot in the back and killed by a Cobb police officer in July.

Democrats also claimed victory for Cobb Superior Court Clerk. Connie Taylor defeated Republican incumbent Rebecca Keaton 51-48 percent.

Cobb voters overwhelmingly approved another Cobb Special-Purpose Local-Option Sales Tax with 66 percent of the vote. The new sales tax period will begin in 2022 and will last for six years.

Every Sunday we round up the week’s top headlines and preview the upcoming week in the East Cobb News Digest. Click here to sign up, and you’re good to go!

East Cobb Election Results: Democrats lead county races

November 4, 2020 2:03 PMNovember 3, 2020 7:01 PM by Wendy Parker

UPDATED, 2 P.M. WEDNESDAY

Democrats sweep county races; Commission District 2 race too close to call

UPDATED, 12:30 A.M. WEDNESDAY

This will be the final update of the evening; we’ll have more coverage later Wednesday as final absentee and provisional ballots are still to be counted.

East Cobb News also will be sending out a special election newsletter on Wednesday. If you’re not a subscriber and you’d like to sign up, please click here.

Live election night reporting

Related coverage

East Cobb Elections Guide

Party control of the Cobb Board of Commissioners could be switching over to Democrats.

Shortly after midnight, Democrat Jerica Richardson held a 109-vote lead over Republican Fitz Johnson, 33,971-33,862.

But with 100 percent of the precincts reporting, she now holds a lead of 41,169 to 37,951, with absentee and other late ballots still to be counted.

They’re seeking to succeed retiring Republican commissioner Bob Ott.

Commissioner Lisa Cupid appears headed to victory over Republican incumbent Mike Boyce for Cobb Commission Chair.

With 99 percent of the precincts reporting, Cupid has 171,074 votes to 156,005, or 52-47 percent.

Cupid would be the first Democrat to hold that position since Ernest Barrett in 1984.

Republicans currently have a 4-1 advantage on the commission, with Cupid the only Democrat. Her successor in District 4 in South Cobb, Monique Sheffield, is a Democrat.

Control of the Cobb Board of Education also was on the line.

Republican incumbent David Banks has 23,672 votes in the Post 5 race in East Cobb (Pope and Lassiter clusters), while Democrat Julia Hurtado had 21,634 votes with 100 percent of the precincts reporting.

Two other Republican incumbents also were seeking re-election. Randy Scamihorn appears headed to victory, and current chairman Brad Wheeler had trailed his Democratic challenger by less than 200 votes.

But he took a lead of less than 2,000 votes early Wednesday.

Going into the elections, Republican held a 4-3 majority on the school board.

Another race that’s too close to call is the State House District 43 race in East Cobb. Republican State Rep. Sharon Cooper had trailed Democrat Luisa Wakeman by five votes, 9,679, to 9,674.

Wakeman has stretched her lead, and has 10,417 votes to 9,995 for Cooper.

All other East Cobb legislative incumbents were leading their races early Wednesday, after trailing before election-day votes came in.

Vote-counting is still going on in other metro Atlanta counties, so statewide races, some Congressional races and and the presidential race still haven’t been determined.

President Donald Trump leads Joe Biden 53-42 in Georgia, although Biden leads in Cobb 55-42 percent.

U.S. Sen David Perdue leads Democrat Jon Ossoff 52-45 percent.

The U.S. Senate seat that’s in a jungle primary appears headed for a runoff. Republican Sen. Kelly Loeffler has 27 percent and Democrat Raphael Warnock has 29 percent.

Republican Congressman Doug Collins, who has 23 percent, has conceded and has offered his support to Loeffler. The runoff will be on Jan. 5, 2021, and the winner will fill the remaining two years of Johnny Isakson’s term.

U.S. Rep. Lucy McBath, a Democrat, looks to have won re-election over Republican Karen Handel, whom she beat in 2018, in the 6th Congressional District race.

McBath led 54-45 percent with 50 percent of the precincts reporting, as votes from Fulton and DeKalb counties still hadn’t been counted.

Longtime Cobb Sheriff Neil Warren appeared headed for defeat by Democrat Craig Owens, a former officer in the Cobb Police Department.

Joyette Holmes, a Republican appointed Cobb District Attorney last year, also was trailing by 3,699 votes to Democrat Flynn Broady, an assistant Cobb solicitor.

The Cobb SPLOST was resoundingly renewed by voters, with “yes” votes totaling 66 percent.

All the results are unofficial pending certification by the Cobb Board of Elections and Registration.

UPDATED, 11:30 P.M.

With 80 percent of Cobb precincts reporting, Democratic commissioner Lisa Cupid leads Republican incumbent Mike Boyce in the Cobb Commission chair’s race 52-48 percent, by around 11,400 votes.

The District 2 race for Cobb Board of Commissioners is a virtual dead heat, also with 80 percent of precincts reporting.

Democrat Jerica Richardson’s lead has been reduced to 674 votes, or 50.5 percent to 49.4 percent, over Republican Fitz Johnson.

She has 32,856 votes to 32,182 for Johnson. With late absentee ballots still to be counted, this race may not be determined until Wednesday at the earliest.

In the Post 5 race for Cobb Board of Education, Republican incumbent David Banks has a 52-48 percent lead over Democrat Julia Hurtado.

Banks has 23,399 votes to 21,509 for Hurtado. Two other school board Republican incumbents have bigger leads over Democratic challengers, so the GOP’s 4-3 majority on the school board for now looks like it will remain.

Another close race in East Cobb is in State House District 43. Republican Rep. Sharon Cooper, who has trailed all evening, is 210 points behind Democrat Luisa Wakeman, 9,488-9,288.

Republican Sen. David Perdue was leading Democrat Jon Ossoff 54-43 percent, with metro Atlanta counties still to report.

Democratic U.S. Rep. Lucy McBath continues to lead Karen Handel in the 6th Congressional District race 54-45 percent.

President Donald Trump leads Joe Biden in Georgia’s presidential voting by 54-45, although again metro Atlanta counties have not yet reported.

UPDATED, 10:30 P.M.

With nearly half of all Cobb precincts reporting, some of the key races we’re looking at are starting to tighten.

Democratic commissioner Lisa Cupid leads Republican incumbent Mike Boyce in the Cobb Commission chair’s race, but her margin has been reduced to 53-46 percent, or a 14,000-vote lead, with 51 percent of precincts reporting.

In Cobb Commission District 2, Democrat Jerica Richardson’s lead over Republican Fitz Johnson also has been cut. With 51 percent reporting, she’s up by less than 3,000 votes, or 52.-47 percent.

The Cobb Board of Education Post 5 race also has closed. Republican incumbent David Banks has gone ahead of Democrat Julia Hurtado by less than 400 votes, or 50.4 percent to 49.6 percent, with 55 percent of precincts reporting.

Democrats lead Republican incumbents in the Sheriff and District Attorney’s race, but those margins are getting smaller as more election-day results come in. Both races have 51 percent of precincts reporting.

Democrat Flynn Broady leads Republican incumbent Joyette Holmes only by 51-48 percent, or less than 6,000 votes, for District Attorney. Longtime Republican sheriff Neil Warren trails Democrat Craig Owens 55-44 percent.

In East Cobb legislative races, Republican State Sen. Kay Kirkpatrick is pulling away from Democrat Christine Triebsch 54-45 percent in District 32.

Republican State Rep. Sharon Cooper is closing on Democrat Luisa Wakeman, who leads 51-47 percent in District 43.

Two other East Cobb Republican incumbents, State Rep. Matt Dollar of District 45 and Don Parsons of District 44, have pulled ahead of their Democratic foes.

Republican State Rep. John Carson of District 46 is cruising to re-election, leading Democrat Caroline Holko 61-39 percent.

Democratic State Rep. Mary Frances Williams continues to hold a solid lead over Republican Rose Wing, 55-44 percent, in District 37.

East Cobb News will be sending out a special election newsletter on Wednesday. If you’re not a subscriber and you’d like to sign up, please click here.

UPDATED, 9:05 P.M.

Election-day results are starting to trickle in, and a combination of early and absentee ballots have Democrats in the lead in a number of races.

You can follow real-time updates at the links below.

Lisa Cupid has 58 percent of that vote in the Cobb Commission Chair race, with incumbent chairman Mike Boyce at 42 percent.

In Cobb Commission District 2, Democrat Jerica Richardson leads Republican Fitz Johnson 55-44 percent, and in Cobb Board of Education Post 5, Democrat Julia Hurtado is ahead of Republican incumbent David Banks 56-44 percent.

Similar trends are playing out in countywide races for Sheriff, District Attorney and Superior Court Clerk, as Republican incumbents are trailing their Democratic challengers for now.

Likewise in the state legislative seats in East Cobb, where the only Republican incumbent, State Rep. John Carson of District 46, has a lead at this stage.

Across Georgia, 43 of 159 counties have reported, many of them in rural parts of Georgia where Republicans are strong.

President Donald Trump leads Joe Biden 57-42 percent, and U.S. Sen. David Perdue leads Jon Ossoff 57-40 percent.

In the other U.S. Senate race, a jungle primary has Republican incumbent Kelly Loeffler surging ahead of Democrat Raphael Warnock, 29-27 percent, and Republican U.S. Rep. Doug Collins has 24 percent.

In the 6th Congressional race, Democratic U.S. Rep. Lucy McBath leads her predecessor, Republican Karen Handel, 60-39 percent.

But again, full metro Atlanta returns are a long way from being reported.

ORIGINAL POST, 7:01 P.M.

The polls have closed in Georgia, and the counting has begun for the 2020 general election.

Voters who were in line by 7 p.m. Tuesday will be able to vote. Voters in the Sope Creek 2 precinct in East Cobb who were in line by 7:20 p.m. also will be able to vote.

A judge approved a time extension Tuesday afternoon at that polling station at Sope Creek Elementary School because the poll manager arrived 20 minutes late this morning.

Absentee ballots that were left in the 16 designated drop boxes in Cobb County also were collected at 7 p.m.

East Cobb News will continuously update this post all evening with results from local, state and federal races.

Early voting results have been posted, and in Cobb they generally show Democrats with the lead at all levels—federal, state and local.

Some polling stations in Cobb had lines when the polls opened at 7 a.m., but otherwise, there were few lines and little waiting at the county’s 145 precincts.

Cobb Elections said 58 percent of the county’s roughly 540,000 registered voters cast absentee ballots or voted during the early-voting period.

Voters were selecting seats on the Cobb Board of Commissioners (chairman and District 2), three Cobb Board of Education seats (including Post 5 in East Cobb), all state legislative seats, both U.S. Senate seats, the 6th Congressional District and president.

Countywide races for Sheriff and District Attorney are also on the ballot, as is a 6-year renewal of the Cobb Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax (SPLOST).

Typically early voting and absentee figures are tallied first, followed by same-day voting results and more recent absentee votes.

Earlier absentee ballots are expected to be counted rather quickly, as they have been processed to prepare for tabulation when the polls close.

While we await full we’ll results, we’ll post early voting and absentee figures as they are revealed.

Every Sunday we round up the week’s top headlines and preview the upcoming week in the East Cobb News Digest. Click here to sign up, and you’re good to go!

East Cobb Election Day 2020: Voting info, candidates and more

November 2, 2020 6:59 PMNovember 2, 2020 5:18 PM by Wendy Parker

Editor's Note voting and citizenship

On Tuesday voters will be going to the polls in the 2020 General Election that’s already seen record turnout for early and absentee balloting in Cobb County and Georgia.

This East Cobb Election Day post rounds up everything we’ve put together before you head to your precinct—if you haven’t already voted.

The polls will be open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Tuesday at all precincts.

If you have an absentee ballot, that must be dropped off at a designated drop box location by 7 p.m. It’s too late to put it in the mail, because all ballots have to be received by Cobb Elections by 7 p.m. in order to be counted (more info about this below).

EAST COBB ELECTIONS GUIDE

Candidate profiles, where to vote and more

For voters in East Cobb, there’s a full slate of competitive races at every level—local, state and federal.

Georgia and Cobb have become battlegrounds in the presidential sweepstakes, and candidates in both U.S. Senate races have been heavily courting voters in the county.

Cobb Elections said 174,379 people voted during the three-week early voting period that ended Friday, and it has received 135,633 of 181,861 absentee ballots requested.

That’s an estimated 58 percent of Cobb’s registered voters who have already cast their ballots.

Democrats cut into East Cobb’s Republican stronghold in 2018 and are vying for more, including possible control of the Cobb Board of Commissioners and the Cobb Board of Education.

Republican Cobb Commission Chairman Mike Boyce is seeking a second term against commissioner Lisa Cupid of South Cobb. She could become the first female and African-American to head the county government, as well as the first Democrat since Ernest Barrett in 1984.

In the race to succeed retiring District 2 commissioner Bob Ott, Republican Fitz Johnson and Democrat Jerica Richardson are both seeking their first stint in public office.

Another political newcomer, Democrat Julia Hurtado, is challenging three-term Republican school board member David Banks in Post 5, which includes the Pope and Lassiter clusters.

Legislative races in East Cobb that previously had little competition will be contested everywhere, including some rematches from 2018.

Republican State Sen. Kay Kirkpatrick is facing Democratic attorney Christine Triebsch for the third time in four years in District 32.

Democrats need to flip 16 seats in the House to gain control, and one of the most closely-watched races is in District 43. Longtime Republican State Rep. Sharon Cooper is facing Democrat Luisa Wakeman, who nearly beat her two years ago.

In the District 45 race, Republican State Rep. Matt Dollar, the sponsor of an East Cobb cityhood bill last year, is facing first-time candidate Sara Tindall Ghazal, a former voter protection director for the Georgia Democratic Party.

Two Republican and one Democratic state house incumbents in Northeast Cobb also have opposition.

Another 2018 rematch is in store in the 6th Congressional District, where Republican Karen Handel is trying to regain the seat she lost to Democrat Lucy McBath.

Cobb voters also will be voting in countywide races for sheriff and district attorney and will be deciding on whether to renew the Cobb SPLOST, starting in 2022.

CHECK YOUR REGISTRATION

Georgia Secretary of State website

WHERE TO VOTE

Precinct list | Precinct changes

ABSENTEE BALLOT DROP BOXES

16 locations, including 4 in East Cobb

GOING TO THE POLLS

Since the 2018 election, a number of precinct changes have been made as Cobb Elections is gradually moving away from schools.

Here’s a list of precinct changes since last year. Most recently, the Sewell Mill Library and Cultural Center (2051 Lower Roswell Road) was designated the polling station for the Powers Ferry 1 precinct. The Mountain View Regional Library (3320 Sandy Plains Road) is the venue for the Simpson 1 precinct.

They’re among five Cobb library branches that will be closed all day Tuesday to serve as precincts.

On Friday, Cobb Elections said that the Elizabeth 5 polling station at Sandy Plains Baptist Church would be unavailable due to damage from Hurricane Zeta. Voters in that precinct should go to Holy Trinity Lutheran Church (2922 Sandy Plains Road), which is also the Sandy Plains 1 precinct.

If you’re going to your precinct on Tuesday, Cobb Elections is asking you to remember four things before you come:

Check your polling location at the “My Voter Page” at the Georgia Secretary of State website;
Bring a photo ID;
If you received an absentee ballot but want to vote in person, bring the absentee ballot. It must be cancelled before you can vote at the polls;
Voters must wear masks and should expect socially-distant lines.

If you’re voting in the morning, you may want to bundle up. Tuesday’s expected to be bright and sunny, but temperatures will be in the high 30s when the polls open. It’ll get warmer, into the mid-50s around noon, and then rise to the low 60s by mid-afternoon.

If you are in line by 7 p.m., you will be allowed to vote.

If you’re dropping off an absentee ballot, here are the locations. In East Cobb, they’re located at the following:

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

Remember: Absentee ballots must be dropped off by 7 p.m., when the polls close. All but the Gritters Library are being used as precincts, so expect traffic bottlenecks.

The Georgia Secretary of State’s office has created an absentee ballot tracker that lets you follow the status of your absentee ballot after you have returned it.

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East Cobb News will provide continuing coverage all day and evening on Tuesday, as well as the rest of the week, given the high turnout and time needed to count absentee ballots.

If you have questions about voting, or photos or impressions to share of your experience at the polls, let us know: editor@eastcobbnews.com.

We’ll also be sending out a special election newsletter on Wednesday. If you’re not a subscriber and you’d like to sign up, click the link below.

We’ll have much more detailed coverage in our Sunday edition of the newsletter.

Every Sunday we round up the week’s top headlines and preview the upcoming week in the East Cobb News Digest. Click here to sign up, and you’re good to go!

Editor’s Note: After voting comes the hard work of citizenship

October 31, 2020 7:02 PMOctober 31, 2020 6:20 PM by Wendy Parker

Editor's Note voting and citizenship — *The last day of early voting in East Cobb was like the first day—featuring long lines. (ECN photos)*

The deluge is almost over.

The inane commercials—a candidate is being demonized because as a defense attorney he represents criminals!

The race-horse punditry of polls, soundbites, “October surprises” and dubious partisan narratives as deep (and dreary) as battlefield trenches.

The mailboxes stuffed with flyers, a constant flurry of text messages, e-mails (some with emojis!), phone calls and knocks on doors, soliciting, above all, whatever donation amount you can afford!

The sledgehammer assault and sensory overload that’s been waged upon the citizenry for months now just to vote has been unprecedented.

GOP signs 10.31.20 — *Republicans wave at motorists to honk support at Shallowford and Sandy Plains Road Saturday.*

By party hacks and campaign toadies, democracy mavens and corporate virtue-signalers, celebrities, athletes, famous people and everyday folk who need you to vote a certain way so they can have health care, a job, the right to vote and their lives back from sinister forces that have conspired against them for far too long.

Companies, sports teams, non-profits and other institutions will be taking off all of election day to exercise their franchise on Tuesday. And they’ll let you know ceaselessly, especially on their social media feeds.

If you believe the overheated rhetoric, in just a few days’ time we will be conducting the most important election of our lifetime!

By my count, this has been the case for at least the last 20 years, when a bitter presidential election was determined by a single vote in the U.S. Supreme Court—after a farcical episode of butterfly ballots and hanging chads in Florida.

Another epic—and ridiculously expensive—presidential campaign is commanding much of the oxygen this fall, with two aging boomers striving to goad outdated and increasingly polarized party bases to turn out like never before.

*Yard signs for local Democratic candidates in an East Cobb neighborhood.*

For the vast majority of us who don’t fall into either tribalized camp, this feels like the most dispiriting election of our lifetime.

We’ve been ready for this to be over for months, and not because we don’t think elections are important.

They are. But what comes after them is even more important.

Whether you’ve already voted or will do so on Tuesday, exercising your franchise is the easiest part of citizenship. It’s purely transactional, with no further commitment to follow the exploits of those elected to serve us.

Nearly 60 percent of Cobb’s nearly 540,000 registered voters have already cast their ballots, and it’s roughly 50-50 between those voting in person and those mailing in or dropping off absentee ballots.

Two U.S. Senate races in Georgia, a battleground election in the 6th Congressional District and several high-priority legislative races in East Cobb are driving the turnout as much as the presidential race.

So are vigorous races for seats on the Cobb Board of Commissioners and the Cobb Board of Education that could result in Democrats taking control of both.

In East Cobb, where Republicans have dominated for decades, Democrats are contesting everything, including races where GOP incumbents rarely had to worry about any kind of a challenge.

Whatever your politics may be, it’s good to see more candidates running in either major party, especially those who have never sought elective office, and who are younger and represent an upcoming generation pining to make a difference.

*The State House District 43 race in East Cobb is one of the most expensive legislative campaigns in the state this year.*

What happens here at home—in the Georgia legislature, the halls of Cobb County government and on the increasingly fractious Cobb school board—has never mattered more.

As the last eight months have shown, decisions by state and local elected officials or appointed leaders serving at their pleasure have affected every single aspect of life for every single citizen.

The response to COVID-19 in Georgia and Cobb County will last for many months, if not years, to come.

Whatever you think of how the pandemic has been handled, keep in mind that all of these decisions—to force businesses and schools to close or go online, restrict public gatherings, curtail civil liberties and deprive us of many of the activities that make life worth living—were done without any public discussion, votes by elected bodies or the consent of the governed.

*The landslide winner in this year’s batch of canned political flyer photos—front-line medical workers.*

In Georgia, as in every other state and many nations of the world, once a public health emergency was declared, decisions affecting nearly every single aspect of society were made outside of the usual democratic channels, heavily based on guidance by unelected public health advisers.

This cannot and should not continue indefinitely. There need to be specific goals and objectives that are made clear to citizens, not continuously extended emergency declarations.

It’s incumbent upon governors, mayors, county officials and school superintendents to weigh the cost-benefit factors of a COVID response that considers the economy, education, and social well-being of all citizens as well as public health.

If you haven’t yet voted, think about whom you would trust to make these decisions in the future. Regardless of how you voted—or didn’t—the most serious obligation all citizens have is to hold these leaders to account.

*The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee demonstrates a perverse method of getting people to vote.*

Even if you’re politically homeless like I am—my first vote for president was the Republican Congressman-turned-independent John Anderson in 1980—the supposed perils of not voting are being used to humiliate you publicly.

Among the most noxious items in this year’s political mailbag was not one, but two flyers from the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, reminding me that I didn’t vote in 2018.

I’m not embarrassed by that, but this is a particularly slimy way to shame people into voting: Mailing you a flyer anyone can read and assigning you a “voter score” that is “average” and won’t cut it in their minds. As though any voter has an obligation to meet the muster of a partisan political action committee that sent an unsolicited mailing.

The second flyer was even more galling, saying that in order “to improve your voting record” I must vote. “Remember: Who you vote for is private, but whether you vote is public record.”

This from a political party that has made “voter protection” a major part of its agenda.

If I hadn’t voted before I got these flyers, I would have made sure that anybody I did vote for would work to change laws like this. Whether or not you vote ought to be nobody else’s damn business any more than whom you voted for—or against.

Such are the stakes of an election that’s gone on seemingly forever, and may last well after election day.

Many of those hopelessly, shamelessly obsessed with getting you to vote will soon skunk away, at least until the next election. Those of us more concerned with what those elected to office will do with their power have never had a more daunting task.

Northeast Cobb legislative incumbents face election challenges

November 10, 2020 7:19 PMOctober 31, 2020 11:42 AM by Wendy Parker

Two established members of the Georgia House Republican leadership and a Democrat who unseated a GOP incumbent two years ago are all facing opponents in the Nov. 3 general election.

The latter is first-term State Rep. Mary Frances Williams, of the 37th District, who is facing Rose Wing, the former head of the Cobb Republican Party.

In 2018 Williams upended Rep. Sam Teasley in a tight race, then withstood a recount to break an all-Republican roster of state representatives with East Cobb constituencies.

Wing, who was defeated as Cobb GOP president after the 2016 elections, is making her first run for public office.

Both candidates are residents of the city of Marietta, which makes up most of the district. It includes an area of East Cobb along Piedmont and East Piedmont roads, down to Barnes Mill Road and east of Interstate 75 (map here).

Candidate websites: Williams | Wing

During her first term, Williams sponsored legislation requiring the release of audio and video law enforcement body camera recordings and supports repealing “Stand Your Ground” laws.

A former lobbyist for education and children’s issues, Williams said the state’s response to COVID-19 is her top priority, and she supports Medicaid expansion and measures to curb surprise medical billing.

Wing, a retired former prosecutor in the Cobb District Attorney’s Office, said she wants to promote conservative values, especially keeping taxes low to spur business and economic growth and to “protect an environment for local businesses to succeed.”

The daughter of a teacher, Wing also said her priorities include COVID response and strengthening public education and public safety.

State House District 44

First elected to the Georgia General Assembly in 1994, State Rep. Don Parsons has a Democratic opponent for the second consecutive election.

The district stretches from Wade Green Road to Hembree Road (map here).

Parsons, a Republican, is chairman of the House Energy, Utilities and Telecommunications Committee and also serves on the Appropriations and Ways & Means committees.

Parsons is touting that experience, along with what he said is his commitment to fiscal responsibility, including tax cuts. He also voted for Hate Crimes legislation the last two years

He supported a bill that would extend hate-crime protections for police officers and other enforcement personnel who are threatened, harassed or intimidated because they are first responders. That bill was signed by the governor and becomes law next year.

Campaign websites: DiCicco | Parsons

Running against Parsons is Connie DiCicco, a former chief of staff for Mary Frances Williams.

A parent in the Addison Elementary School area, she said her priorities include improving health care access, including Medicaid expansion, better funding for public education, environmental justice and protecting voting rights.

DiCicco also supports “common sense” reforms to encourage gun safety and while she advocated the main Hate Crimes bill that passed last session, she said “Georgia still has a long way to go to end systemic racism in our justice system.”

State House District 46

Since winning a special election in 2011, State Rep. John Carson has risen quicky in the ranks of House Republican leadership.

District 44 includes the northeast corner of Cobb and part of southern Cherokee County (map here).

He’s vice chairman of the Transportation, Ways & Means and Energy, Utility and Telecommunications subcommittees.

A certified public accountant, Carson stresses a platform with low taxes, including eliminating state corporate income taxes, and he opposes Obamacare.

He has voted for a public school teacher pay raise but also has sponsored legislation to allow for a tax credit for private school tuition.

Candidate websites: Carson | Holko

His Democratic opponent is Caroline Holko, who got 48 percent of the vote against District 3 incumbent Joann Birrell in a run for the Cobb Board of Commissioners in 2018.

Her priorities are Medicaid expansion, voter protection, what she calls reproductive and environmental justice, full funding of public education and legalizing cannabis in Georgia.

Holko, who is a supporter of unabashed liberal causes, has had to explain during her campaign using a racial slur a decade ago in a blog post about black males and crime.

In September, on her campaign blog, she wrote that that 2009 blog post “was written in ignorance and anger” and that “my position has drastically changed since then.”

Nearly half of registered Cobb County voters have cast ballots

October 28, 2020 1:43 PM by Wendy Parker

From the Georgia Secretary of State’s office, with numbers through Tuesday: cobb advance voting, Cobb voter registration deadline, Walton and Dickerson PTSA candidates forum

So far, 265,540 of Cobb County’s 537,565 registered voters have already turned out to vote early, representing 49% of the total registered votes in the county. This significant early turnout number tracks with the record turnout seen across Georgia and throughout the country.

Of the 265,540 ballots cast in Cobb County so far, 123,498 absentee by mail ballots have been returned by mail or through the more than 200 absentee ballot dropboxes that have been installed across the state. The drop boxes were first allowed following a rule passed by the State Election Board, which is chaired by Secretary Raffensperger, earlier this year at the request of county elections officials.

Much of the surge in early voting has come from record early, in-person voting. In Cobb County so far, 142,042 voters have cast ballots early, in-person.

Early voting continues through 7 p.m. Wednesday and on Thursday-Friday from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m.

You can check wait times at early voting places by clicking here; voters can return absentee ballots 24/7 until 7 p.m. election day at any of 16 absentee ballot drop boxes, including locations at the Mountain View, Sewell Mill and Gritters libraries and the East Cobb Government Service Center.

Five Cobb library branches to be closed on Election Day

October 26, 2020 1:45 PM by Wendy Parker

Mountain View Regional Library

The Mountain View Regional Library and the Sewell Mill Library and Cultural Center in East Cobb will be closed on election day because they’re being used as voting precincts.

They’re among the five library branches that will be used for that purpose, according to the Cobb County Public Library System.

The others are the South Cobb, West Cobb, and Vinings libraries. Polls open at 7 a.m. and close at 7 p.m. next Tuesday, Nov. 3. These libraries will reopen 10 a.m. November 4.

The Mountain View Regional Library (3320 Sandy Plains Road) will serve as the polling station for the Simpson 01 precinct.

The Sewell Mill Library (2051 Lower Roswell Road) is the polling station for the Powers Ferry 01 precinct.

Those precincts formerly had been at schools, and the moves are part of a continuing effort by Cobb Elections to relocate polling stations away from schools, mostly for security reasons.

Earlier this year the Cobb Board of Commissioners approved several precinct changes along those lines, including moves away from Dickerson and Dodgen middle schools in East Cobb.

A full list of precinct names and addresses can be found here. That’s where all voters casting their ballots in person will go next Tuesday, Nov. 3.

Voters can check assigned precinct locations and view specific sample ballots at Georgia’s My Voter Page site at www.mvp.sos.ga.gov.

Early voting continues this week from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday through Friday at the East Cobb Government Service Center (4400 Lower Roswell Road) and The Art Place (3330 Sandy Plains Road).

There is no early voting this Saturday or next Monday, Nov. 2.

Cobb GIS has created an estimated wait-time map at each of the early voting locations in the county.

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.

Through Saturday Cobb Elections said 115,948 Cobb voters have voted early in-person, and 106,683 out of 180,242 requested absentee ballots have been returned.

Voters can return absentee ballots 24/7 until 7 p.m. election day at any of 16 absentee ballot drop boxes, including locations at the Mountain View and Sewell Mill libraries, the East Cobb government center and Gritters Library (880 Shaw Park Drive).

Cobb school board virtual candidates forum takes place Thursday

October 25, 2020 12:58 PM by Wendy Parker

The East Cobb County Council PTA and the South Cobb Council PTA organizations are holding a Cobb Board of Education candidates forum Thursday and are inviting the public to submit questions.

The deadline for doing so is 12 p.m. Monday, and questions should be submitted via e-mail to president@ecccpta.org AND southcobbcouncil@gmail.com.

Candidates for all four school board posts on this year’s ballot have been invited to participate in the forum, which lasts from 7 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. Members of both PTA organizations will be moderating the event, along with high school students.

Post 5 candidate profiles

David Banks | Julia Hurtado

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