The Georgia Elections Board says it is looking into the delayed mailing of absentee ballots to some Cobb voters for the U.S. Senate runoff.
The board held an emergency meeting Saturday to say it would be conducting a probe into 3,442 absentee ballots that were mailed last Monday due to the Thanksgiving holiday weekend.
Three Cobb voters filed a lawsuit to get extended time to return their ballots, and a consent decree was ordered Friday by a Cobb Superior Court judge.
Those voters who received ballots on or before Nov. 26 will have until Friday, Dec. 9, to return their ballots, but they must be postmarked by Tuesday, election day in the runoff between Democratic U.S. Sen. Raphael Warnock and Republican Herschel Walker.
But at a court hearing Friday, Cobb Elections protested the extension of time, and Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger also objected.
They said that the proper processes were followed for mailing absentee ballots for the runoff, which has an 11-day window. The Cobb Elections office was closed on Friday following Thanksgiving as it’s a county holiday.
On Sunday, Cobb County government sent a message saying Cobb Elections would cooperate with the state elections board investigation.
“Voting by absentee ballot has become increasingly popular, with Cobb County issuing more absentee ballots than any county in the state during the runoff,” the Cobb statement said. “Our office and other elections offices across the state face challenges created by this increased demand and the reduced timelinesfor absentee ballot processing and distribution mandated under SB202.
“The Cobb Board of Elections and Registration is committed to reviewing and updating our processes and procedures following the December 6 runoff and will incorporate any findings from state officials into our review and updates.”
Final voting in the U.S. Senate runoff is Tuesday, with the polls open at regular voting precincts from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m.
Absentee voters not affected by Friday’s consent order have until 7 p.m. Tuesday to return their ballots to the Cobb Elections Office at 995 Roswell Street.
They can also take their absentee ballot to their regular polling station and cancel it and vote in-person.
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!
As early voting in the U.S. Senate runoff has concluded, more than 150,000 votes have been cast in Cobb in person and via absentee ballot.
Tuesday’s conclusion to the race between Democratic U.S. Sen Raphael Warnock and Republican Herschel Walker will take place at regular voting precincts throughout Cobb and the state. Voters who are returning absentee ballots face a Tuesday 7 p.m. deadline to return them.
Cobb Elections agreed to the extension after being sued over delays in mailing some absentee ballots due to the Thanksgiving holiday last week.
Voters who received their absentee ballots on or before Nov. 26 will have the same deadline as military and overseas voters, next Friday, Dec. 9.
Through Friday, a total of 146,705 people voted in person in Cobb, according to Cobb Elections. That’s roughly a third of the county’s registered voters and included 29,798 votes on Friday, a single-day record for early voting.
At the East Cobb Government Service Center, 15,996 voted early, and 17,495 voted early at the Tim D. Lee Senior Center.
More than 20,000 people have voted each day of early voting since Monday.
A total of 24,053 absentee ballots have been requested by Cobb voters, with 9,709 returned and 6,237 accepted.
In a social media posting Saturday morning, Gabriel Sterling, the chief operating officer for the Georgia Secretary of State’s office, said more than 1.8 million votes were cast across the state in early voting and absentee voting.
He said that represents 26.4 active voters in Georgia, and that 60 percent of absentee ballots have been returned and accepted.
The Secretary of State’s office has a Ballot Trax service voters can use to follow the status of their absentee ballots.
Absentee ballots can be returned in Cobb in-person Monday and Tuesday at the Cobb Elections office (995 Roswell Street, Marietta.).
On Monday the hours are from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. and on Tuesday the hours are voting hours—7 a.m. to 7 p.m.
There will be no other absentee ballot drop boxes at any of the regular voting precincts.
All absentee ballots not subject to Friday’s court order must be received by the Cobb Elections office by 7 p.m. Tuesday.
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Just as in the general election, the Cobb Board of Elections and Registration is being sued over delays in sending out absentee ballots for the U.S. Senate runoff.
The Southern Poverty Law Center, the ACLU of Georgia and the law firm Dechert LLP have filed an emergency lawsuit in Cobb Superior Court on behalf of three voters who either have not received absentee ballots before Tuesday’s runoff election concludes or are just now getting them.
Cobb Elections Director Janine Eveler said this week that 3,442 absentee ballots did not go out until Monday instead of last Wednesday, the day before the two-day county Thanksgiving holiday, when they were listed as having been mailed out.
The runoff between Democratic U.S. Sen. Raphael Warnock and Republican Herschel Walker has an 11-day window for absentee ballots to be requested, returned and received, and on four of those days no ballots were mailed.
UPDATED:
Cobb Elections has agreed to extend the deadline for those who did not receive an absentee ballot by Nov. 26. Those voters will have until next next Friday, Dec. 9, to have their absentee ballots postmarked and mailed.
A hearing took place Friday before Cobb Superior Court Judge Kellie Hill, who signed a consent decree as she did last month.
Cobb Elections contended during the hearing that all absentee ballots requested for the runoff met the legal deadlines for being mailed, and that they weren’t picked up in the mail until Monday, Nov. 28, due to the holiday.
ORIGINAL STORY:
Absentee ballots from voters not subject to Friday’s agreement must be received by the Cobb Elections office by 7 p.m. Tuesday. Absentee ballot drop boxes are available at some early voting locations, including the East Cobb Government Service Center, by 7 p.m. Friday, the last day of early voting.
Another plaintiff in the lawsuit is the Cobb County Democracy Center, which bills itself as a voter advocacy organization.
The suit sought to extend the deadline for those who haven’t received their ballots to Dec. 9, when military and overseas ballots are due.
The suit also wants to allow those voters who haven’t received the absentee ballots by 2 p.m. Friday to use a federal absentee write-in ballot.
A similar suit in the general election resulted in a consent decree allowing absentee voters extra time to return their ballots. That was after Cobb Elections admitted to a “human error” in delaying the mailing of around 1,000 absentee ballots.
In a release Friday morning, the SPLC, ACLU and Dechert also want Cobb Elections to deliver absentee ballots to homebound voters and for the county to notify voters of the changes.
They say the problems are due to a new state voting law, SB 202, which reduced the time for absentee ballots to be requested and returned from the 2020 elections.
One of the plaintiffs is working out of state is not available to vote in person, according to the lawsuit (you can read it here).
She said she inquired on Tuesday about the status of her ballot, but was told she would have to wait for it to be mailed, vote early or vote in person.
County elections offices have three business days to mail an absentee ballot upon receipt of an application.
Another plaintiff said he requested his ballot on Nov. 16 but received it on Thursday, with the mailing date showing Nov. 26, last Saturday.
That plaintiff, David Medof of East Cobb, said in an affidavit attached to the lawsuit that he’s a student attending college outside the county. He said he does not have a car and is studying for final exams.
Medof said he completed and returned his ballot immediately on Thursday, “but I am still concerned that my ballot will not arrive by 7:00pm on election day in time to be counted.”
The lawsuit also claims that Cobb is slower to process returned absentee ballots, with around 20 percent of those turned in by Nov. 21, compared to nearly 30 percent in Fulton and 27 percent in DeKalb.
After today, the only location to drop off an absentee ballot in person is Tuesday, between 7 a.m. and 7 p.m., at the Cobb Elections office (995 Roswell St., Marietta).
Those voters casting ballots in person will go their usual precincts, which do not have absentee ballot dropoff availability.
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Nearly 2,500 voted in-person Saturday and Sunday at the East Cobb Government Service Center.
After hours-long waits in weekend early voting in the Georgia U.S. Senate runoff, lines shrank considerably Monday in Cobb County.
Estimated wait-times of two hours and longer were reported at the East Cobb Government Service Center (above) on Saturday and Sunday.
Early voting is continuing there (4400 Lower Roswell Road) and at the Tim D. Lee Senior Center (3332 Sandy Plains Road) from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday-Friday this week.
Cobb Elections said Monday that turnout countywide was 13,686, with 2,469 turning out at the East Cobb government center.
When we drove by on Saturday afternoon, there also was a bit of a line to find a place to park.
But as the weekday early voting continued Monday afternoon, the East Cobb center was reporting waits of only 15 minutes, and 25 minutes at the Tim D. Lee Center.
(You can view the estimated wait-time map by clicking here; it will be updated periodically each day by poll managers at those locations.)
Other early voting spots had longer times, including two hours at the Ron Anderson Rec Center in Powder Springs and an hour at the Ward Recreation Center in West Cobb.
Turnout is high across the state in the battle between Democratic incumbent Raphael Warnock and Republican Herschel Walker, even though control of the U.S. Senate is no longer being contested.
Democrats will retain a majority with at least 50 votes and the tie-breaking powers of Vice President Kamala Harris.
But more than 180,000 voters around the state cast their ballots over the weekend.
A Fulton County judge last week allowed for Saturday voting, overruling Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger.
Cobb, which had already called for Sunday voting, added five hours of Saturday voting, one of 13 counties in Georgia to do so. They are all in metro Atlanta.
Voters in Cobb can go to any early voting location in the county to cast their ballots in person. Absentee ballots can be dropped off at the East Cobb center during early voting hours only.
There is no early voting this weekend. On Tuesday, Dec. 6, voters will go to the assigned precincts to vote. Absentee ballots may be dropped off that day only at the main Cobb Elections office (995 Roswell St.) between 7 a.m. and 7 p.m.
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!
With early voting starting this weekend and continuing into next week for the Georgia U.S. Senate runoff, we took a deeper look at the general election results in that race as well as the governor’s race in East Cobb precincts.
While some parts of East Cobb have been trending Democratic in some areas over the last three election cycles, the area remains, along with north Cobb, a stronghold for Republican candidates.
U.S. Sen. Raphael Warnock and gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams led a Democratic ticket of statewide candidates who prevailed in Cobb County.
Precincts for Walker in blue, and for Warnock in green. The beige precinct (Fullers Park) ended in a tie. Click here for more precinct details for the U.S. Senate general election results.
But only Warnock is left standing statewide after GOP candidates, including incumbent Gov. Brian Kemp, were victorious in the Nov. 8 general election.
Kemp, who defeated Abrams in a rematch of their bitter 2018 race, finished strong in East Cobb precincts, earning around 60 percent of the vote in a number of them.
But Warnock, who is completing the end of Johnny Isakson’s term in seeking a full-six year term against Republican Herschel Walker, was competitive in many of those same East Cobb precincts.
Walker’s highest percentage in any East Cobb precinct was 53 percent. Much has been made of supposed “split” voters—those voting for both Kemp and Warnock.
A total of 11 of the 48 precincts in our coverage area were won by Kemp and Warnock: Addison, Bells Ferry 2, Bells Ferry 3, Davis, Elizabeth 5, Nicholson, Powers Ferry, Sandy Plains, Sewell Mill 1, Sewell Mill 3, Simpson, Sope Creek 2 and Timber Ridge.
In the governor’s race, precincts for Kemp are in blue and for Abrams are in green. For more details click here.
In some typically strong GOP precincts, Warnock also finished well. He lost by 19 votes in Eastside 2, by 15 votes in Mt. Bethel 3, by 4 votes in Murdock, by 46 votes in Roswell 1, by 20 votes in Roswell 2 and by 47 votes in Sope Creek 1.
The Fullers Park precinct was dead even, with Walker and Warnock each getting 1,212 votes.
An asterisk denotes the precinct winner; the hashtag indicates the tie in Fullers Park.
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The East Cobb Government Service Center will be a polling station for all seven days of early voting for the U.S. Senate runoff.
Following Fulton and DeKalb counties, the Cobb Elections office will offer early voting for the U.S. Senate runoff this coming Saturday.
A court ruling last week allowed county elections offices to hold early voting on Saturday.
A runoff was called for Dec. 6 after neither Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock nor Republican Herschel Walker could get 50 percent plus one vote in the general election.
Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger initially had prohibited voting on Saturday, as it falls the day after the Thursday-Friday official state holidays for Thanksgiving.
But Warnock’s campaign filed a lawsuit and a Fulton County judge ordered that counties could decide for themselves whether to have voting on Saturday.
Cobb had previously approved Sunday early voting for this coming Sunday, as well as Monday-Friday next week.
This Saturday, voters wishing to cast their ballots in person can do so between 12-5 p.m. at the following locations:
Cobb Elections and Registration Main Office, 995 Roswell Street, Marietta
North Cobb Senior Center, 3900 S Main Street, Acworth
East Cobb Government Center, 4400 Lower Roswell Road, Marietta
South Cobb Regional Library, 805 Clay Road, Mableton
Boots Ward Recreation Center, 4845 Dallas Highway, Powder Springs
The East Cobb Government Services Center also will have early voting on Sunday from 12-5, and next Monday-Friday from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Absentee ballots can be dropped off at a designated drop box there as well, but only during early voting hours.
The Tim D. Lee Senior Center (3332 Sandy Plains Road) will have early voting from Monday, Nov. 28 through Friday, Dec. 2 from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m.
There will be no early voting Dec. 3-5. On Dec. 6, voters who cast ballots in person must go to their regular precincts.
For those requesting absentee ballots, they’re urged to apply immediately. Absentee ballots must be received at the Cobb Elections office (995 Roswell Street) by 7 p.m. on Dec. 6.
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The Cobb Board of Elections and Registration recertified general election results on Friday to include data from a memory card that was not uploaded earlier in the week.
In a 2-1 vote (with two members absent), the board included accepting 789 additional votes from the memory card.
The board voted Tuesday to certify elections results from Nov. 8. But the latest error involving Cobb Elections during the general election cycle changed the outcome of a Kennesaw City Council election.
Madelyn Orochena, who had been initially been certified as the winner of that race, instead finished 31 votes behind Lynette Burnett in a special election.
At the start of Friday’s special-called meeting, Orochena said that “due to gross incompetence, lack of transparency and communication, I am left with no choice but to doubt this election.”
Later, she said, “apologies, however sincere, are not good enough.”
A special recount has been called for Sunday in that race since the final vote margin is within the 0.5 percent threshold allowed under Georgia law.
The Georgia Secretary of State’s office is expected to certify all county election results on Monday.
No other races were affected by the additional votes from the previously uncounted memory card, Cobb Elections director Janine Eveler said.
Elections board chairwoman Tori Silas said the board was told on Wednesday about the issue with the uncounted memory card. The error was detected when elections officials were preparing an audit.
Cobb Elections failed to mail out around 1,000 requested absentee ballots days before the Nov. 8 general election, and a Cobb Superior Court judge issued a consent decree to extend the deadline for returning them to this past Monday.
Eveler called that a “human error,” and it’s unclear how many of those voters weren’t able to get their ballots returned in time.
During early voting, some voters in East Cobb were mistakenly assigned to Post 4 in a Cobb Board of Education election when they in fact live in Post 5.
A total of 112 incorrect votes were cast, but Post 4 incumbent David Chastain comfortably won re-election.
Eveler has cited high turnover on her senior staff for some of the errors, as well as expanded early voting dates and locations.
Six days of early voting in the U.S. Senate runoff begin on Sunday, Nov. 27, at 12 locations in the county.
Cobb Elections could add Saturday voting after a judge’s ruling on Friday.
The runoff will be decided on Tuesday, Dec. 6 with voters going to their normal precincts to choose between Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock and Republican Herschel Walker.
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!
There will be six days of early voting in Cobb County for the U.S. Senate runoff election.
A runoff was declared for Dec. 6 after neither Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock nor Republican Herschel Walker could get 50 percent plus one vote in the general election.
There are 12 early voting locations for the runoff, including the East Cobb Government Service Center (4400 Lower Roswell Road) and the Tim D. Lee Center (3332 Sandy Plains Road).
At the East Cobb center, there will be early voting on Sunday, Nov. 27 from 12-5 p.m. and from Monday, Nov. 28 through Friday, Dec. 2 from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. There also is an absentee ballot drop box inside the polling station that will be open during early voting hours.
Early voting at the Tim D. Lee center will be Monday, Nov. 28 through Friday, Dec. 2 from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m.
There will be no early voting Dec. 3-5. On Dec. 6, voters who cast ballots in-person must go to their regular precincts.
For those requesting absentee ballots, they’re urged to apply immediately. Absentee ballots must be received at the Cobb Elections office (995 Roswell Street) by 7 p.m. on Dec. 6.
There will be a special-called meeting of the Cobb Board of Elections and Registration on Friday to re-certify the general election results.
The five-member board certified the election on Monday, but on Wednesday said re-certification is necessary becuase it was discovered that a memory card had not been uploaded.
The meeting takes place at 2 p.m. at the Cobb Elections office.
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Eastvalley ES in East Cobb is one of 17 schools in the Cobb school district still being used as a voting precinct.
The Cobb County School District announced Friday there will be what it’s calling “a virtual learning day” on Tuesday, Dec. 6, the date of the Georgia U.S. Senate runoff.
A release by the district said that because some school facilities will be in use for the election, that day will be an “asynchronous virtual learning day for all students. Students will work independently, at home, and teachers will have reviewed expectations with students the previous school day. There will not be required, live, virtual sessions.”
The runoff was declared after neither Democratic U.S. Sen. Raphael Warnock nor his Republican opponent, former UGA football star Herschel Walker, failed to get a majority of the vote in Tuesday’s general election (results here).
Schools are traditionally closed for the primary and general elections. Warnock and fellow Democrat Jon Ossoff won U.S. Senate runoffs on Jan. 5, 2021, but that was during a school holiday break.
The Cobb school district has 112 school campuses, and 17 of them are voting precincts. They include Kell High School, Shallowford Falls Elementary School, Sope Creek Elementary School and Eastvalley Elementary School in East Cobb.
“As was the case on Election Day, this run-off election also impacts the entire county, not just a few schools,” a district spokeswoman said. “We are confident this is the safest decision for all students who have access to standards aligned content and a high quality platform, CTLS.”
In recent election cycles Cobb Elections has moved voting precincts away from schools at the request of the Cobb and Marietta districts for access, security and scheduling issues.
In 2020, 15 precincts in East Cobb that had been at schools were relocated to community and senior centers, houses of worship and other facilities.
Those schools were Lassiter and Pope high schools; Daniell, Dickerson, Dodgen, Hightower Trail, McCleskey and Simpson middle schools; and Addison, Blackwell, Davis, Kincaid, Garrison Mill and Nicholson elementary schools.
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All incumbent legislators with East Cobb districts won re-election on Tuesday, including five Republicans and a Democrat.
The two open seats were won by Democrats, one in each chamber.
Current Atlanta school board member Jason Esteves defeated Republican Fred Glass to win State Senate District 6, which includes some of East Cobb and Buckhead (see map).
Esteves got 56 percent of the vote (results here) in a seat that was vacated by Jen Jordan, who lost her bid for Attorney General on Tuesday.
Glass won several East Cobb precincts, including Eastside 1 and 2, Mt. Bethel 3 and 4 and Sope Creek 1, 2 and 3.
Esteves said he is resigning his seat on the Atlanta school board on Dec. 31.
Since 1997, House District 43 has been represented by Republican Sharon Cooper, the House Health and Human Services Committee chairwoman.
Georgia Senate districts in Cobb. For a larger view, click here.
But after narrowly defeating Democrat Luisa Wakeman in 2018 and 2020, Cooper was redrawn into District 45.
She easily won another term over Democrat Dustin McCormick (results here), getting nearly 59 percent of the vote in a district formerly held by Matt Dollar.
The new District 43 was won by Democrat Solomon Adesanya, a restaurant owner, over Republican Anna Tillman (results here). He got more than 56 percent of the vote in a district that includes areas around Wheeler High School and parts of the city of Marietta.
Democratic Rep. Mary Frances Williams was re-elected in District 37, as she defeated Republican Tess Redding with 57 percent of the vote (results here).
Solomon Adesanya
Esteves, Adesanya and Williams will be part of a Democratic majority of the Cobb legislative delegation.
But Republicans lost only a few seats statewide as they continue to control both houses of the legislature.
GOP Rep. Don Parsons in House District 44 (results here) and Republican Rep. John Carson in District 46 (results here) were easily re-elected on Tuesday.
Georgia House districts in Cobb. For a larger view click here.
So were Republican senators Kay Kirkpatrick and John Albers.
Kirkpatrick won a third full term in District 32, which now includes some of Woodstock and Cherokee. She got more than 61 percent of the vote (results here).
District 56 was redrawn to include much of the Johnson Ferry Road corridor in East Cobb. Albers, a Republican from Roswell, also won with more than 61 percent of the vote (results here).
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Mableton cityood leaders Tre’ Hutchins and Galt Porter spoke at an East Cobb cityhood town hall meeting at Walton High School in early 2019.
The last of four Cobb cityhood bills to pass the Georgia legislature this year was the only referendum approved by voters.
After cityhood bills failed in May in East Cobb, Lost Mountain and Vinings, a majority of voters in the proposed city of Mableton voted to create a new municipality on Tuesday.
It will the first new city in Cobb in more than 100 years and also the county’s largest city, with around 77,000 residents.
Voters approved the measure 53-47 percent (full results here), and by about 1,487 votes.
The reason the Mableton referendum didn’t get on the May ballot is because the bill took longer to make its way through the legislature.
The three failed Cobb cityhood referendums were pushed through in quick order by Republican lawmakers who wanted to accelerate the referendum date to May 24, the date of the Georgia primaries.
But that’s not the only different set of circumstances separating the Mableton cityhood effort from the others.
The South Cobb Alliance, created to support cityhood, began holding town hall meetings and other community events in 2015. Its leaders, unlike organizers in East Cobb, weren’t reluctant to be in the spotlight.
For a larger view of the Mableton city map, click here.
Also unlike East Cobb, Mableton cityhood leaders weren’t proposing expensive public safety services.
They included Galt Porter, at the time a member of the Cobb Planning Commission, and Tre’ Hutchins, who’s now a member of the Cobb Board of Education.
Their message was that their area wasn’t getting proper services from Cobb County government, especially development.
The proposed services in Mableton are planning and zoning, code enforcement and sanitation.
The East Cobb and Mableton cityhood groups revived their efforts in 2021, and vocal opposition arose in those communities, as well as in Lost Mountain and Vinings.
Cobb government officials also held town halls in all four communities, insisting they were impartial, but drawing objections from pro-cityhood groups.
The Preserve South Cobb group, which opposes Mableton cityhood, says it may be pursuing a deannexation process in precincts of the new city in which 70 percent or more voted against the referendum.
A full transition to cityhood will take two years, with Gov. Brian Kemp appointing a transition committee to get the process started. Mableton will have a mayor selected at-large and six city council members elected by districts (see map).
Those elections will start next March, and they will be non-partisan.
Mableton was a city from 1912 to 1916, then became unincorporated after flood damage was too cost prohibitive in the city’s budget. No other cities in Cobb have been created since.
More on Mableton’s next steps from the Cobb County Courier.
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The Cobb Board of Education will remain in Republican control after Post 4 incumbent David Chastain won a third term on Tuesday.
And Cobb Commissioner JoAnn Birrell, seeking her fourth term, ensured that Republicans would hold two of the five seats on the board with an easy re-election victory in District 3.
Gov. Brian Kemp was re-elected in a 2018 rematch with Stacey Abrams, and the U.S. Senate race appears headed to a runoff.
In the Cobb school board race, Chastain fended off Democratic newcomer Catherine Pozniak in a heated Post 4 campaign (Kell, Lassiter, Sprayberry clusters).
With all but one of the post’s 29 precincts reporting, Chastain received 21,061 votes, or 55.29 percent, to 17,034 for Pozniak, or 44.71 percent (results here).
Chastain was the only Republican on the school board up for re-election. Democrats won contests for open seats in Post 2 and Post 6, meaning that the GOP will continue to hold a 4-3 advantage for at least another two years.
Birrell had little trouble against Democrat Christine Triebsch in a newly redrawn district that includes most of East Cobb.
With all but two of 52 precincts reporting, Birrell received 46,019 votes, or 59 percent, to 31,921 votes for Triebsch, or 42 percent (results here).
Keli Gambrill, the other Republican Cobb commissioner, won a second term Tuesday after being unopposed in Post 1 in north and west Cobb.
You can find all Cobb results, including Cobb solicitor, another contested school board race and the Mableton cityhood referendum, at this link.
You also can track all results around the state compiled by the Georgia Secretary of State’s Office by clicking here.
Democratic U.S. Sen. Raphael Warnock is neck-and neck with Republican Herschel Walker in a bid for a full 6-year term. With 90 percent of the vote in, Warnock had 49.07 percent of the vote compared to 48.92 percent for Walker in results that went back-and-forth all night.
Libertarian Chase Oliver has received 2 percent, and a Dec. 6 runoff looms between Walker and Warnock if the top vote-getter does not get 50 percent plus one vote. (updated real-time results here).
Kemp defeated Democrat Stacey Abrams in their rematch from 2018, holding a 55-44 percent advantage. Unlike four years ago, Abrams conceded this race.
Republicans swept all statewide constitutional offices (click here for results), including incumbents in Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger and Attorney General Chris Carr.
In U.S. House races, Republican Rich McCormick cruised over Democrat Bob Christian in the 6th Congressional District, an open seat after U.S. Lucy McBath moved to the 7th District following reapportionment.
She won a third term in the Gwinnett-based district Tuesday, and in District 11, which includes some of East Cobb, GOP U.S. Rep. Barry Loudermilk won easily over Democrat Anthony Daza.
Democrats won two open seats in the Georgia legislature from the East Cobb area, one each in the House and Senate.
More updated and detailed results to come Wednesday and later in the week.
UPDATED, 10:30 P.M.
Cobb Commissioner JoAnn Birrell leads by 17 points in her re-election bid in District 3 with 82 percent of precincts reporting;
Cobb school board member David Chastain leads with 54.7 percent of the vote and 80 percent of precincts reporting in Post 4.
UPDATED, 9:25 P.M.
Some very early election-day voting results are trickling in for the two East Cobb local elections we’re tracking.
With 33 percent of the precincts reporting, Republican incumbent JoAnn Birrell has opened a 13-point lead over Democrat Christine Triebsch for the seat on the Cobb Board of Commissioners.
The Cobb Board of Education Post 4 race was neck-and-neck early, and with 37 percent of the precincts reporting, Republican David Chastain leads Democrat Catherine Pozniak 52.5 percent to 47.4 percent.
ORIGINAL REPORT:
The polls have closed in Georgia, and the counting has begun for the 2022 general elections.
East Cobb News will continuously update this post all evening with results, reaction and more coverage.
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!
A Cobb Superior Court judge on Monday issued an emergency consent order that will enable several hundred voters who didn’t get absentee ballots to return them after Tuesday’s general election deadline.
Judge Kellie Hill said those voters will have the same Nov. 14 deadline as military and overseas voters to return their ballots.
The Cobb Board of Elections and Registration was the subject of a lawsuit filed Sunday by the American Liberties Union of Georgia and the Southern Poverty Law Center on behalf of four absentee voters who were never mailed ballots they requested.
The suit sought the deadline extension and replacement ballots sent to affected voters, and Cobb Elections agreed in a Monday hearing before Hill.
The court order instructs Cobb Elections to count returned absentee ballots that are postmarked by 7 p.m. Tuesday and received on or before Nov. 14.
Those affected voters also can vote in person on Tuesday and have their absentee ballot request cancelled at their precinct.
They also can fill out a federal write-in absentee ballot and mail it in by 7 p.m. Tuesday.
Cobb Elections acknowledged over the weekend that a total of 1,036 requested absentee ballots were not mailed on Oct. 13 and Oct. 22 because elections workers failed to upload ballot information to a mailing machine.
At a press conference Monday, Cobb Elections director Janine Eveler repeated her apology for what she called “a human error” and Daniel White, the agency’s attorney, said “we were being transparent” in working quickly to identify the affected voters and get ballots sent to them.
The ACLU blamed a new Georgia elections law that reduces the window for requesting and receiving absentee ballots.
“The anti-voter law put tremendous pressure on elections officials to accomplish a number of responsibilities under a very tight deadline, and in Cobb County, that pressure has resulted in a huge error and hundreds of voters at risk of being disenfranchised,” ACLU of Georgia senior voting rights attorney Rahul Garabadu said in a statement.
Dozens of those affected voters cancelled their requests and cast ballots in-person during the early voting period. Cobb Elections has already sent 247 absentee ballots via overnight delivery and more were being sent Monday in similar fashion.
The consent order indicated that “as many as 469 voters” may not have received their replacement ballots.
Cobb government spokesman Ross Cavitt said in a release late Monday afternoon that the latter figure is now 276, after Cobb Elections analyzed in-person early-voting figures.
The only place to deliver an absentee ballot on Tuesday is at the Cobb Elections office (995 Roswell Road) between 7 a.m. and 7 p.m.
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Cobb Elections director Janine Eveler said that 1,046 absentee ballots requested by Cobb voters were never mailed because elections workers failed to upload ballot information to a mailing machine.
Those procedures were not followed on two days in what Eveler called a “human error.”
Absentee ballots must be received at the Cobb Elections office by 7 p.m. Tuesday to be counted.
“Last call” absentee ballots also can be hand-delivered to several Cobb library branches from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday, including the East Cobb and Mountain View branches.
A release sent by Cobb government Saturday afternoon said that absentee ballots were overnighted to 83 out-of-state addresses of voters who didn’t get those ballots and included pre-paid overnight return envelopes.
Another 194 residents had overnighted absentee ballots that they requested, and 271 other residents in that group cancelled their request and voted during the early voting period that ended Friday, the Cobb release said
The other 498 residents identified, the Cobb release said, “are urged to vote in person on election day.”
The Cobb release said Cobb Elections is attempting to contact them by phone or e-mail to inform them of the issue and direct them to their correct voting precincts.
The errors were discovered after voters who had requested absentee ballots but not received them contacted the Cobb Elections office.
Eveler wrote a note explaining the situation to the Cobb Board of Elections and Registration, a five-member appointed body, saying that “I am sorry that this office let these voters down. Many of the absentee staff have been averaging 80 or more hours per week, and they are exhausted. Still, that is no excuse for such a critical error.”
Tori Silas, the chairwoman of the elections board, said in the Cobb statement that “I am very disappointed that we have placed these voters in a position where they may not have an opportunity to cast their ballots in this general election.”
She pointed to the reduced time for absentee ballots to be requested and returned under a new Georgia elections law and staff turnover in the Cobb Elections office.
“With only three days until election day, we are constrained in what we can do,” Silas said. “That being the case, we are taking every possible step, notwithstanding those constraints, to ensure these voters have an opportunity to cast their ballots.”
As early voting got underway earlier this month, Cobb Elections discovered that 1,112 voters registered in the Sandy Plains 1 precinct in East Cobb were incorrectly given ballots to vote in the Cobb Board of Education Post 4 race.
They live in Post 5, and Eveler said 111 of those voters cast ballots that cannot be changed.
That race features Republican incumbent David Chastain and Democrat Catherine Pozniak in what’s become an intense campaign.
It’s unclear what might happen if the margin of difference in that election is less than 111 votes, but the results could be challenged and a new election could be called.
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On Tuesday voters will be going to the polls in the 2022 general elections.
This 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.
Absentee ballots must be received at the Cobb Elections office, either in person or via mail, by 7 p.m. on Tuesday (more details about that below).
Voters in East Cobb will be deciding on a county commissioner and a school board seat, two seats in the U.S. Congress and eight legislative members among local elections.
There’s just one countywide seat being contested, for Cobb Solicitor.
Statewide offices will be decided, including governor, and a U.S. Senate seat is on the ballot.
You can find a consolidated Cobb ballot by clicking here. To get a sample ballot customized for you, and to check which races you will be able to vote in and precinct information, visit the Georgia Secretary of State’s My Voter Page portal by clicking here.
Cobb Elections estimates that more than 175,000 Cobb voters took part in three weeks of early voting at a dozen locations, slightly more than the record numbers of early voters in 2020.
More than 21,000 people voted at bot the East Cobb Government Service Center and the Tim D. Lee Senior Center, trailing only the Smyrna Community Center (22K+) among satellite polling stations.
Cobb Elections has sent out more than 30,00 absentee ballots, with a little more than 19,000 returned and 18,706 accepted, as of Thursday.
But the AJC reported Saturday that around 1,000 absentee ballots that had been requested were not mailed, due to what Cobb Elections director Janine Eveler said were election workers not uploading ballot information to a mailing machine.
Those voters will have to vote in-person at their precinct on Tuesday. So will anyone who received an absentee ballot but either didn’t mail it or cannot deliver it in-person at designated “last call” return locations.
Cobb Elections said absentee ballots can be brought to several library branches, including the East Cobb Library and the Mountain View Regional Library, until 5 p.m. Saturday, and from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday.
Each location has a registrar who will prepare the ballot on-site for electronic tabulation that will commence with the closing of the polls on Tuesday.
The only way to return an absentee ballot in-person on election day is at the main office for Cobb Elections (995 Roswell Street), from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m.
Voters must present a valid photo identification or a special voter ID card with them to the polls.
Any general election runoffs, if necessary, are scheduled for Dec. 6.
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Reapportionment carved up East Cobb substantially across the board for the 2022 elections, including legislative seats.
Two of them—one each in the Georgia House and Senate—are guaranteed to have new representatives.
The Senate District 6 seat was vacated by Jen Jordan, who is the Democratic nominee for Georgia Attorney General. It’s a district that now includes some of East Cobb and the Cumberland area but is mostly in Buckhead, and the two candidates are both from the city of Atlanta.
They are Democrat Jason Esteves, the former chairman of the Atlanta Board of Education, and Republican financial services business owner Fred Glass.
House District 43 has been represented by GOP Rep. Sharon Cooper since 1997, but she was drawn into District 45 (map here), where Republican Matt Dollar served until resigning early in the 2022 legislative session.
A special election was held in April that was won by Republican Mitch Kaye, a former lawmaker who said he would not be running for the seat this fall.
His Democratic opponent, Dustin McCormick, is challenging Cooper, the chairwoman of the House Health and Human Services Committee and who had close calls in the 2018 and 2020 elections.
District 43 (map here) has been redrawn to include much of the East Marietta area, Wheeler attendance zone and the Powers Ferry Road corridor.
Anna Tillman
The candidates vying for that seat are running for office for the first time in a race that could determine party control of the Cobb legislative delegation.
Cobb Democrats hold a one-seat advantage in House representation, and District 43 is in an area of East Cobb that has produced stronger Democratic results in the last two election cycles.
Democrat Solomon Adesanya is a restaurant owner whose priorities are expanding Medicare, protecting abortion rights and addressing climate issues.
Republican Anna Tillman is a retired geologist who is campaigning to support small business, promote job training and technical education and champion public safety, saying she would “oppose radical efforts to defund the police or any other Public Safety organization.”
Two Republican House members from East Cobb are seeking re-election in districts that include some of Cherokee County. They are Don Parsons of District 44 (map here), who was first elected in 1994 and who is the chairman of the House Energy, Utilities and Telecommunications Committee.
His Democratic opponent is Willie Mae Oyogoa, who owns a travel business in Woodstock.
In District 46 (map here), GOP incumbent John Carson is seeking another term against Democrat Micheal Garza, who owns a web development business.
District 37 (map here) retains some portions of Northeast Cobb. Incumbent Democratic Rep. Mary Frances Williams is seeking re-election against Tess Redding, who works in the criminal justice field.
State Senate District 32 (map here), which had included most of East Cobb, also has been redrawn to include Woodstock and other areas of Cherokee.
Republican incumbent Sen. Kay Kirkpatrick is seeking a third full term after winning a special election in 2017. The Democratic candidate is Sylvia Bennett, an ordained minister and former social worker.
Georgia Senate District 56 has been expanded from its North Fulton base to include some of East Cobb (map here). Incumbent Republican Sen. John Albers of Roswell, who has been in office since 2011, is running for another two-year term.
His Democratic opponent, also from Roswell, is Patrick Thompson, a clean energy entrepreneur with technology sales and marketing experience.
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!
Cobb Elections is offering two additional days and extra locations for voters to return absentee ballots before the Nov. 8 general election.
In addition to being able to drop off absentee ballots at previously designated locations—including the East Cobb Government Service Center—during early voting hours through Friday, there will be drop off availability on Saturday and next Monday.
It’s called “Last Call,” and it’s being done because of the proximity to the general election and to give absentee voters the assurance their ballots will be collected on time.
Absentee ballots can be dropped off at the early voting designated location drop boxes by 7 p.m. Friday or received by mail at the Cobb Elections office by 7 p.m. next Tuesday, Nov. 8.
In addition, the “Last Call” locations—all of them at public library branches around the county—will be available from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday and from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Monday.
They include the East Cobb Library (4880 Lower Roswell Road) and the Mountain View Regional Library (3320 Sandy Plains Road), along with the North Cobb Regional Library, the Powder Springs Library, the South Cobb Regional Library, the Switzer Library and the Vinings Library.
Jennifer Mosbacher, an East Cobb resident and a member of the Cobb Board of Elections and Registration, said voters using the “Last Call” service will hand-deliver their ballots to an official registrar at the library branch of their choice.
That registrar will then prepare the ballot on-site for electronic tabulation that will commence with the closing of the polls on election day.
Mosbacher said the voter will be notified that their ballot has been received and that it will be counted after 7 p.m. on Nov. 8.
On Election Day, Nov. 8, absentee ballots may be returned only to one location, the Cobb Elections main office (995 Roswell Street), between the hours of 7 a.m. and 7 p.m.
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We were wondering this back in 2020, when the Cobb government GIS (Geographic Information Service) launched a real-time wait-time map to assist voters during an extraordinary set of circumstances for elections:
To get the latest wait-time estimates, click here.
Our traffic figures reflected a high level of interest in that feature (including our most-clicked individual post link on Oct. 12, 2020, more than 75K times).
Cobb government said earlier Saturday that after two weeks of early voting in the 2022 general election, the wait-time map has been clicked more than one million times.
That’s also roughly the number of people in Georgia who have cast ballots during early voting, with one more week remaining.
In Cobb, the number of early voting is at 107,503, according to Cobb Elections, about 20 percent of registered voters in the county.
Through the first two weeks of early voting, 14,957 people have voted in-person at the East Cobb Government Services Center, the most of any location.
The Tim D. Lee Center is third, behind East Cobb and the Smyrna Community Center, with 14,620 votes cast.
That’s through Friday, with Saturday being the last Saturday for early voting. Sunday voting will take place for the first time in Cobb tomorrow, Oct. 30, from 12-4 at the Cobb Elections main office, 995 Roswell Street.
The deadline to apply for an absentee ballot passed on Friday. Those receiving them can mail them back in to Cobb Elections or drop them off at designated drop boxes during early voting hours only.
A drop box is located inside the East Cobb Government Services Center (4400 Lower Roswell Road).
All absentee ballots must be received at the Cobb Elections office or delivered to a drop box by the time the final election day polls close (7 p.m., Nov. 8)
This year voters will be choosing candidates in some new boundaries following redistricting, and there was an error in assigning some voters to the wrong post in a highly-watched Cobb school board race.
That’s in Post 4 in Northeast Cobb, where 111 voters have cast ballots although they’re actually in Post 5. Cobb Elections director Janine Eveler said 1,112 voters registered in the Sandy Plains 1 precinct were coded as Post 4 voters although they live in Post 5.
She said the votes that already have been cast cannot be changed, but the error has been corrected.
That race features Republican incumbent David Chastain and Democrat Catherine Pozniak.
It’s unclear what might happen if the margin of difference in that election is less than 111 votes, but the results could be challenged and a new election could be called.
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!
After easily winning election to the Cobb Board of Education in 2014 and 2018, incumbent Post 4 member David Chastain is facing opposition that has prompted a different campaign approach than in the past.
Typically circumspect and mild-mannered in public, the Republican chairman of the seven-member board has issued newsletters, press releases and other statements that are anything but reserved.
The intensity of his campaign against political newcomer Catherine Pozniak (our profile of her is here), a Democrat, has ramped up as the Nov. 8 general election date approaches.
Pozniak denied the charge, saying Chastain “has stooped to mining my father’s obituary and weaponizing the details of his death and his estate to launch personal attacks.”
She previously accused him of campaign finance violations he has rebuked, although he has hired a former Congressional candidate and state ethics chairman to defend him in Pozniak’s complaint that will be decided after the election.
In a Post 4 area (Kell, Sprayberry, Lassiter clusters) that was redrawn by the GOP-dominated Georgia legislature to preserve a Republican seat, Chastain acknowledges there’s a different dynamic this year.
Since his last election, Democrats have become the majority party on the Cobb Board of Commissioners and the Cobb legislative delegation.
Until recently, she held a sizable campaign finance advantage over Chastain, who recently held a fundraiser at Atlanta Country Club. As of the end of September, both campaigns reported raising around $45,000 each, which is much higher than other recent school board elections in Cobb.
“Voters here have to show up and participate,” Chastain said in a recent interview with East Cobb News, referring to his conservative base. “I’m being attacked for things that have nothing to do with policy. You’re seeing this at the federal and state levels too.
“It’s not like me,” he said when asked about the charged rhetoric from his campaign, including his taking a shot at Harvard, where Pozniak earned a doctorate degree.
A proposal analyst at Lockheed Martin, Chastain is campaigning on the Cobb school district’s test scores and defending its academic accreditation, and is hailing a high employee retention rate and designation by Forbes magazine of being one of the top employers in Georgia.
Chastain also is a stalwart supporter of retaining the senior exemption in Cobb County for school taxes.
But he’s also frequently referencing what he thinks Democrats have in mind to in their attempts oust him, saying much of Pozniak’s support comes from “outsiders.”
“My opponent isn’t so much about our kids but to fulfill some sort of an agenda, more oriented toward more liberal social reforms and away from academics,” he said.
“It boils down to a power struggle and they want the power.”
Republicans hold a 4-3 majority on the board. Chastain is the only GOP member up for election this year; Post 6 will stay in Democratic hands and Post 2 in the Smyrna area is Democratic-leaning.
Those new representatives will replace outgoing members Charisse Davis and Jaha Howard, respectively, Democrats who were at the center of several mostly partisan disputes on the Cobb school board the last four years.
Chastain has twice been chairman in his second term, including in 2019, when he proposed a policy to ban board member comments.
He said it was necessary because some members had become “too political” in some comments that weren’t related to schools. Howard and Davis complained they were being censored, but Chastain defends the policy.
He also defended Superintendent Chris Ragsdale for his handling of the COVID-19 pandemic response.
“He’s done a good job,” Chastain said. “We are getting back now close to where we were before and are planning for the future.”
He rattled off some areas of emphasis, including expansion of digital learning, improving Individual Education Program options and increasing school safety.
Pozniak has been critical of the Cobb school district for flagging reading scores at the third-grade level as well as others, and said Chastain is mistaken in asserting that “things are good enough.”
Chastain said it’s at the third-grade level “when you first see who is going to need some help. I think we’re doing as much as we can. COVID was a mess but the resources have come together” for a recovery.
He also took issue with criticisms that he and the Republican majority on the board haven’t been responsive to some parents and students.
“Who are we talking about?” Parents and their children’s educations? Our policies and curriculum are aligned with state standards,” he said, adding that the Cobb school district is “building on success.
“We’re doing well for a school district that’s so diverse,” Chastain said, adding that “there’s this desire on the part of the Democrats to take power.”
A Wheeler High School graduate, Chastain doesn’t think his alma mater needs a name change, as some in that school community and beyond have been advocating due to Joseph Wheeler’s role as a Confederate general in the Civil War.
The board hasn’t taken up the issue since a board majority is required to add meeting agenda items other than those submitted by the chairman and superintendent.
That’s another controversial matter that’s come up in Chastain’s second term, as was a vote last year to ban the teaching of Critical Race Theory. A board discussion wasn’t allowed, and the Democratic members abstained, but Chastain said the topic is “still relatively new.
“It’s difficult to define,” he said. “We’re trying to make sure that there’s no curriculum that limits a child’s perspective about their color and ethnicity.”
The Cobb school district has come under fire for some finance and spending issues, including some that were part of a special review by Cognia, the district’s accrediting agency, pertaining to COVID-19 safety measures.
“That became a dumpster fire,” he said of the Cognia review.
While Pozniak has said the district’s finances and contractual procedures are “opaque” and lack transparency, Chastain said he’s confident that the district’s procurement processes are solid and claims that the district “is a great steward of taxpayer money.”
Chastain said maintaining Cobb’s academic progress is his ultimate priority, and cited recent managerial issues and changes in the Gwinnett school district, the largest in Georgia, as a cautionary tale.
Once a solid conservative area, Gwinnett now has a Democratic majority on its school board that terminated the contract of 25-year superintendent Alvin Wilbanks in 2021, a year before his planned retirement.
“What has happened in Gwinnett—I don’t want that to happen here,” he said.
“Cobb is still the best place to teach, lead and learn in metro Atlanta. If it’s not broke, don’t fix it.”
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After leaving home to attend college, teach and become an educational administrator, Catherine Pozniak has returned to her Northeast Cobb roots to put that background to local use.
When she moved back to her family home in 2020 following the death of her father, she said she hadn’t thought about running for elected office.
But the effect of the COVID-19 response on schools and eventful developments in the Cobb County School District where she graduated prompted her run for the Post 4 seat on the Cobb Board of Education.
Pozniak, 43, is an educational consultant and Democrat who’s challenging two-term Republican incumbent David Chastain for the post that represents her alma mater, Sprayberry High School, as well as the Kell and some of the Lassiter clusters.
“This is an important moment in time in education,” Pozniak said in a recent East Cobb News interview. “This is an opportunity now to build something better than what is there now.”
You can visit Pozniak’s campaign website by clicking here; East Cobb News has interviewed Chastain and will be posting his profile shortly.
In addition to addressing what she says are lagging test scores and curriculum issues—especially for grade-school reading—Pozniak also said she is running on behalf of parents, students and other stakeholders who feel they’re not being heard by the current board majority.
“My opponent is saying that things are good enough,” Pozniak said. “But for so many families and students, they are not good enough.”
Although she is a first-time candidate in the political world, her candidacy quickly caught notice. Neither she nor Chastain had a primary opponent, but over the summer, she outraised him with more $20,000 in contributions.
He held a fundraiser at the Atlanta Country Club and both are reporting having raised around $45,000 each.
With Republicans holding a 4-3 majority, party control of the school board is on the line, and the highly-watched contest has led to mutual and even third-party mudslinging.
Republican legislators also have said that if Pozniak is elected and Democrats gain control of the school board, Superintendent Chris Ragsdale will be replaced and Cobb schools will indoctrinate students in social and cultural issues instead of basic academics.
Despite the charged rhetoric, Pozniak said she’s been encouraged with what’s she seen, heard and learned on the campaign trail.
“I’m optimistic about the involvement from the community on both sides,” she said. “People get how important the school system is. It’s pretty remarkable how a school board race is getting this kind of attention.”
Pozniak, a 1997 Sprayberry graduate, earned a bachelor’s degree from the University of Sydney in Australia, a master’s from Cambridge University in Britain and an educational leadership doctorate degree from Harvard.
She taught on a Native American reservation in South Dakota and was an assistant secretary in the Louisiana Department of Education. She currently consults on educational fiscal policy for Watershed Advisors.
Her priorities include improving the Cobb school district’s literacy curriculum, which she says “is lowly rated and not founded in the science of reading.”
She said she wasn’t pushing for a particular curriculum to replace it, but hears from teachers “who say they’re frustrated” and that “kids aren’t reading proficiently.”
As a school board member, she said it would be one of her primary responsibilities to help set academic expectations for the Cobb district, the second-largest in Georgia.
Pozniak also has been critical of Cobb’s algebra curriculum and noted the Cobb school district’s 50.5 percent score in that portion of the Georgia Milestones end-of-course test.
“That’s even lousy for high school students in Post 4,” she said, arguing that Cobb needs a comprehensive math curriculum.
On the subject of the senior tax exemption for schools, Pozniak said she doesn’t favor revisiting that—Chastain has been adamant that it should not be touched—and said it’s a matter for the legislature to take up.
On fiscal issues, Pozniak said the Cobb school district is not as transparent as it should be. She said that not all contracts are made publicly available before board meetings or even voted on.
“Except for SPLOST [construction and maintenance projects whose contracts are required to be disclosed by law], you really don’t see that in Cobb. It’s really an opaque system.”
“That’s a $2.9 million contract,” she said. “To not have it come up for approval, it’s stunning. There’s no oversight.”
Chastain, the current chairman, Pozniak said, “has been part of how we got to this point. There’s an erosion of transparency and accountability and he hasn’t taken any measures to change that.”
Pozniak has tried to steer clear of cultural wedge issues that have flared up recently on school boards across the country.
She called the clamor over Critical Race Theory—the teaching of which the Cobb school board banned last year—as “political theatre” and said that’s not a concern she’s hearing from parents.
“It’s not about issues that are hot-button issues,” she said. “It’s about what is going on in the schools and the students’ experiences there.”
As for diversity, equity and inclusion issues that also have been raised in schools, including Cobb, Pozniak said she understands “why the partisan narrative gets the play that it does.
“But not until recently was this an issue. It’s just where we are.”
She said the opportunity she sees this year “is to get educators on board” to help address learning issues in the wake of COVID-19 disruptions.
“I have a crossover of bipartisan support,” she said, “parents of kids with dyslexia, special-education students. These are very frustrated parents who are looking for something better.”
Pozniak has been accused of taking campaign contributions from outsiders. Her biggest donation, $3,000, is from Democrats for Educational Equity.
There’s not much publicly available information, but it’s a Washington, D.C. political action committee that “is dedicated to helping to elect a new generation of leaders, who will bring their shared experiences for the goal of educationalequity,” according to information Pozniak provided at the request of East Cobb News.
She said that “I am one of many educators that Democrats for Educational Equity supports, but being an educator is not a requirement.”
Pozniak said most of her other campaign donors are from those oriented around education issues or people she knows.
“If they’re not a friend, they’re a friend of a friend.” she said.
“They know what I’m trying to accomplish,” Pozniak said, adding that a number of local contributors, including educators, are doing so anonymously.
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!
