We’ve been reporting for months on the voter suppression laws being adopted by Republican-controlled states around the nation. But, in addition to disproportionately blocking minority groups from access to the ballot, we’ve also warned that many of these GOP state laws allow for the removal of qualified election officials, for virtually any reason, and replacement with partisans who may now undermine election laws and overturn election results. One of those longtime election officials who has just been removed in Georgia following the passage of the state’s SB202 suppression law — a woman who also happens to be a fierce, longtime voting and civil rights champ — joins us on today’s BradCast. [Audio link to full show is posted at end of this summary.]
First up, however, it’s like the early days of the pandemic all over again in a number of very sad ways. Today, we have more sad news of misinformed, Trump-loving Republican COVID deniers and vaccine refusers who believed the pandemic was a hoax, and who are now tragically — an unnecessarily — being felled by the virus, despite the widespread availability of life-saving vaccines in the U.S. One doctor in Alabama wrote this week about sick patients begging for the vaccine, just before being intubated and told “it’s too late.”
Next, we add one important point to our detailed fact-check on yesterday’s program in response to Cyber Ninjas CEO Doug Logan’s ridiculous (and uninformed) suggestions that tens, if not hundreds of thousands of fraudulent votes may have been cast last year in Maricopa County (Phoenix), Arizona. His remarks were offered to a state GOP Senate panel last week, after the three month-long (and counting) “audit” theater his company was contracted to carry out of last year’s election results, despite their lack of experience in elections or knowledge of voting systems. Those comments were then misinterpreted and amplified by the former President of the United States to falsely suggest the election in Arizona was stolen from him last November.
But there was one point from last week’s forum that we didn’t have time for yesterday. It included testimony claiming that Maricopa’s computer voting and tabulation systems were wildly unsecure because their operating systems and anti-virus software hadn’t been updated since the day Dominion Voting System’s software was installed on the machines. It’s true that those computers had not had security updates and patches applied since their first use in 2019. It’s true that that is a “tremendous vulnerability” for those systems, as claimed at the forum. And it’s also true that there is a very good reason why the software has not been updated since then — which, had the AZ GOP Senate hired people who actually knew anything about voting systems, they would already have understood. We explain.
The story underscores the value of election officials — and election auditors — who are actually experienced and qualified for the job. Unfortunately, since Donald Trump launched his evidence-free Big Lie that the election was stolen from him, Republicans have been adopting laws in several states making it easier to remove experienced election officials and replace them with partisan patsies.
Nowhere is that more clear than in the great state of Georgia, where the GOP-controlled state legislature recently adopted SB202 in order to prevent certain voters from easy access to the ballot. That law, and others being adopted locally around the state, have resulted, according to the New York Times last month, in “members of at least 10 county election boards [who] have been removed, had their position eliminated or are likely to be kicked off…they will most likely all be replaced by Republicans.”
HELEN BUTLER was one of them. She is one of the state’s most prominent advocates for voting rights and the award–winning Executive Director of The Georgia Coalition for the People’s Agenda, founded by the late civil rights icon Rev. Dr. Joseph Lowery (who founded the Southern Christian Leadership Conference with Martin Luther King, Jr.) She is also a ten-year veteran of the bipartisan Morgan County, Georgia Board of Elections in the Republican-leaning rural enclave east of Atlanta. Or, at least, she used to be. After approval by the state’s Republican Governor Brian Kemp, Butler and the rest of the Board Members were replaced at the end of last month. The Board Members will all now be selected by the partisan County Commission, instead of built from members selected by local political parties.
On today’s show, Butler, who testified on voting rights at a U.S. Senate Rules Committee field hearing this week in the state, explains the reason the Commission voted to remove the Board, claiming that it was “dysfunctional”, but never explaining what that meant. “We were never brought up for any Secretary of State’s violations as long as I was a member of the Board,” she explains. In short, Butler suggests, she was removed because the Board hired a diverse group of pollworkers and worked hard to make sure everyone, of all parties in the County, could vote and that their votes were counted as cast.
SB202, among other things, now makes it harder to vote by mail, bans absentee drop boxes, and blocks the distribution of food or water on long voting lines. Eight different lawsuits, including those filed by The People’s Agenda and the U.S. Dept. of Justice (as well as the Coalition for Good Governance, for which, FULL DISCLOSURE, I am serving as a named plaintiff representing media) have now been filed in hopes of blocking the law for a host of reasons, including the disproportionate difficulties that will now be faced by minority voters. Butler describes SB202 as a “voter suppression takeover”.
But the ability to remove and replace long-serving, qualified election officials with partisan appointees who can refuse to certify elections is certainly among the most chilling aspects of the law, Butler warns. She argues that, had these new laws been in place last year, Trump’s attempt to “find” enough votes to overturn his loss to Biden in the Peach State — as we all heard in his recorded (possibly illegal) telephone call with Republican Sec. of State Brad Raffensperger — would have been easy.
Our broad conversation, on a lot of these issues, also includes her thoughts on the ongoing investigation by the Fulton County (Atlanta) District Attorney into Trump’s attempt to overturn the election. Butler also offers her plea for federal legislation, such as the For the People Act and the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act, to help overcome the state-based attacks on voting.
The delightfully optimistic Butler then ends our discussion with an ominous warning: “This is our darkest hour,” she tells me. “This is our Selma moment, and we must act. This is not just for black people or people of color. It’s for all of us, for all Americans to have equal access to the ballot. Democracy is at stake here. So people have to understand it’s not about black people voting, this is about democracy. This is the moment. We really need to be paying attention and act to get the right people elected that will preserve democracy for America.”
Please tune in for today’s important show…
(Snail mail support to “Brad Friedman, 7095 Hollywood Blvd., #594 Los Angeles, CA 90028” always welcome too!)
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Removing the use of the ballot boxes placed outside sounds like a good vote integrity idea and nothing to do with race. IDs make sense as well and nothing to do with race either. Ensuring government follows law and confirms signatures makes sense too. Having different standards for in person versus absentee is not a Best Practice.
Having adjudication guidelines, which no one is talking about, makes sense. The FEC recommends 1 in 250K. Yet Fulton County in Nov 20 election announced on TV they had over 90% adjudication. SOS should never had certified the election with that travesty. It is mind blowing this was not front line papers.
Plus, there were no GA end-to-end audits that took place. In private sector doing financial audits they would laugh at the supposed GA audits.
Both parties have played this election game pre Brad est. 2004. Many are standing up for One Person One Vote (key no mention of gender or race).
Richard:
Please explain why placing ballot boxes outside is a bad idea for voting integrity.
In California, the idea worked very well with few if any proiblems, and would work just as well elsewhere too.
Please explain/justify your statement, which you gave no explanation or evidence for at all.