fabrisse

Apparently 1,000,000 voters have already cast their votes in Georgia. With approximately 7.5 million registered voters in the state, my pack of the envelope number is 13% of total voters have already cast ballots. Based on the way it's being reported, I don't think it counts the absentee/mail-in ballots that may already have arrived. This is pretty huge.

I will say that most of the voting is probably in and around Atlanta. Sis cast her vote today and, like me, it was walk-in/walk-out here in Savannah.

I don't know if this bodes well for a particular party. Historically, absentee ballots have skewed slightly Republican and in person early voting has skewed Democrat. However, based on the number of white folks my age or older that I saw at the polling place, I can't be sure that holds true in Savannah.

Atlanta is a large royal blue dot in red state Georgia. Athens may be purplish with the University being there. Savannah is a small sky blue dot. I drive ten miles in any direction and the Trump signs are large and looming. There's even one on rotation on the main highway into Savannah which makes me shudder every time I see it (mostly because it's promoting lies about the crime rates and job rates).

[BTW, any direction in Savannah, like Boston, means West, South, or North. Ten miles East and I sink to the bottom of the Atlantic.]

When we moved, the last week in August, I told Sis that as soon as we had whatever verification we needed, we were going to change our address officially and make certain we were registered to vote. I didn't want to vote in our old precinct and then have some official declare it wasn't legal because we'd changed residences. [For what it's worth we're in the same zip code and the same county. The main difference is that where we are now we can vote for mayor -- in two years -- and certain other city officials.] I was also afraid that Georgia might be a 60 day state (must be registered a minimum of 60 days in advance). So 67 days before the election, we high-tailed it to the DMV, got our licenses changed, and, temporary licenses in hand, walked around the corner to the voter registration office for the county. We are registered to vote.

Imagine my surprise, then, when I discovered that Georgia's State Board of Elections is trying to change how and when the votes are counted using a method which makes it easier to cheat the count. This is being covered in The Guardian [ https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/sep/18/trump-election-georgia ]. I haven't seen anything in The New York Times, but I may have been looking on the wrong virtual page.

Our Secretary of State, Brad Raffensburger (R), takes his oath of office seriously. His office's attorney sent a letter explaining why trying to change the rules within 60 days of the election is a bad idea. It may yet happen. While an earlier suit suggesting that certifying the election is "discretionary, not ministerial" has been tossed [ https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/article/2024/sep/10/georgia-election-board-member-lawsuit-dismissed ], the actual rule changes may be allowed by another judge.

I finally have a representative again, and I find that shenanigans may cause voting problems in my state. *headdesk*

ETA: For those who haven't seen it, Hamilton's Get Out The Vote number:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sJayRSyTsDc