Raphael Warnock is gaining ground in one of Georgia’s two U.S. Senate races. (Credit: Warnock for Georgia)
ATLANTA – There’s been little movement since summer in either the presidential race in Georgia or Republican U.S. Sen. David Perdue’s re-election bid, according to a new Monmouth University poll.
But Democrat Raphael Warnock has made the Peach State’s other Senate contest a three-way race, according to a Monmouth Polling Institute telephone survey of 402 registered Georgia voters conducted Sept. 17-21.
President Donald Trump and Democratic challenger Joe Biden remain locked in a tight race in Georgia, with Trump’s slight lead of 47% to 46% well within the poll’s margin of error of plus-or-minus 4.9%. Trump and Biden were even at 47% in Monmouth’s July Georgia poll.
Perdue, who is seeking a second six-year term, leads Democratic challenger Jon Ossoff 48% to 42%, the same six-point margin of 49% to 43% the GOP incumbent held in July. The difference is Libertarian Shane Hazel’s support has increased from 1% to 4%, while the percentage of undecided voters has shrunk from 7% to 6%.
Warnock, pastor at Atlanta’s historic Ebenezer Baptist Church, has scored major gains in the other Senate race, a special election with a crowded field of 21 candidates looking to complete the last two years of retired Sen. Johnny Isakson’s term.
Republican Sen. Kelly Loeffler, appointed by Gov. Brian Kemp late last year to fill the seat on an interim basis, is holding a narrow lead in the Monmouth poll at 23%. Gainesville Republican U.S. Rep. Doug Collins, who is leaving his Northeast Georgia congressional seat to run for the Senate, is close behind at 22%.
Warnock, who was languishing in fourth place in July with just 9%, has climbed to 21% in the new poll, good for third place.
“Back in the summer, it looked like this seat might be a Republican lock, but Warnock has started to consolidate Democratic voter support,” said Patrick Murray, director of the Monmouth University Polling Institute. “We could see a two-party contest … after all.”
Warnock’s gains have come largely at fellow Democrat Matt Lieberman’s expense. Support for the son of former Sen. Joe Lieberman of Connecticut has fallen from 14% in July to 11% in the new poll, dropping him from third place into fourth.
“Warnock has been racking up Democratic endorsements over the past month to emerge as the party’s choice,” Murray said.
With so many candidates in the race, a runoff is likely. Georgians will have to go back to the polls in January if none of the candidates receives more than 50% of the vote on Nov. 3.
ATLANTA – The coin-operated amusement machines (COAM) business in Georgia has been thriving since the Georgia Lottery Corp. took over regulating the industry in 2013, Lottery President and CEO Gretchen Corbin said Wednesday.
Georgians spent more than $3 billion during the last fiscal year playing the machines, mostly at convenience stores and restaurants across the state, Corbin told members of a Georgia Senate study committee at its kickoff meeting.
After players redeemed prizes valued at $2.1 billion, that left more than $900 million in net revenue for COAM license holders, the businesses housing the games and the lottery to divide.
Under state law, 10% – roughly $91 million – went to the lottery for distribution to Georgia’s HOPE Scholarships and pre-kindergarten programs, a figure that has grown from $33.5 million just five years ago.
Despite that success, state policy makers see room for improvement, which is where the study committee comes in.
Lt. Gov. Geoff Duncan, the Senate’s presiding officer, appointed four senators and five industry representatives to the committee last month.
“This committee was specifically appointed to review the current regulatory scheme of bona fide coin-operated amusement machines enforced by the Georgia Lottery,” Duncan said in a statement. “This committee will take a comprehensive look at the COAM industry to ensure that we protect legitimate businesses, while providing guidelines for the Georgia Lottery to oversee this industry and ensure compliance with the law.”
A complaint with the industry senators on the committee cited Wednesday was the awarding of cash to winners, which is prohibited. Legal prizes under the law include lottery tickets, gasoline and in-store merchandise, but not cash.
Corbin said a pilot project the lottery launched recently allows winners to receive a COAM gift card.
“It could provide for a smarter transaction between the customer and the machine, so people will play it more,” she said.
“That may be a way to clean up in the industry,” added Sen. Larry Walker III, R-Perry.
Corbin said her goal for getting the best data from the pilot project is to widely distribute the gift-card option geographically. She also wants to offer gift cards both in stores that sell a lot of lottery tickets and in those with poor sales.
“We’re really trying to be as inclusive as possible,” she said.
Sen. John Kennedy, R-Macon, the study committee’s chairman, responded to complaints from representatives of businesses housing the machines that the panel is top-heavy with executives from the vendors that provide them.
It was simply a matter of the vendors stepping up first and volunteering to serve on the committee, Kennedy said.
“There is no effort to stack the committee,” he said. “We’re going to make sure going forward that the locations are heard.”
The committee is due to hold two more meetings. Its deadline for recommendations is Dec. 1.
ATLANTA – The Georgia Republican Party joined the Republican National Committee Tuesday in appealing a federal court decision requiring the counting of absentee ballots received up to three days after the Nov. 3 election.
U.S. District Judge Eleanor Ross ruled last month that mail-in ballots that are postmarked by Election Day must be counted if they arrive by 7 p.m. on Nov. 6. Under current law, absentee ballots must be received by 7 p.m. on Election Day to be counted.
“Democrats have filed a barrage of frivolous lawsuits to eliminate safeguards, sow confusion and upend the timely and accurate counting of votes,” state GOP Chairman David Shafer said Tuesday. “They cry ‘voter suppression’ but ignore the fact that an unlawful vote cancels out and ‘suppresses’ a lawful vote as completely as if the lawful voter was physically turned away from the polling place.”
But Democrats say Ross’ Aug. 31 ruling was an attempt to calm concerns over the reliability of absentee voting amid the coronavirus pandemic rather than add to the confusion.
“All Georgians deserve to have their voice heard,” Georgia Democratic Chairwoman Nikema Williams said following Ross’ decision. “It is the responsibility of our democracy to make voting by mail and early-voting options as accessible as possible.”
The voter registration group New Georgia Project brought the lawsuit in May against Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger.
Ross agreed the deadline for accepting mail-in ballots should be extended but dismissed other claims sought in the case, including bids to waive postage for absentee ballots and to require Raffensperger’s office to mail absentee-ballot applications to all Georgia voters, as occurred for the June 9 primary.
The plaintiffs also lost a bid to extend the absentee ballot receipt deadline by five days, which Ross shortened to three days.
In her decision, Ross stated that while courts are reluctant to interfere with the legal requirements governing elections, “the burden on many voters will be severe” if absentee ballots that arrive shortly after Election Day are rejected, even if they were postmarked on Election Day.
A brief the Republicans filed Tuesday calls on the U.S. 11th Circuit Court of Appeals to stay Ross’s ruling until the full appeal can be heard.
Voters wait in line at a precinct in Cobb County on May 18, 2020. (Photo by Beau Evans)
Georgia election officials gearing up for the Nov. 3 general election will have help from big-name companies to troubleshoot technical issues and a new real-time tool that tracks the wait in line at local polling places.
Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger told members of the Atlanta Press Club Tuesday the new real-time tracker will let voters see wait times on Election Day and help officials pinpoint any polling places that may be experiencing issues so they can be resolved.
Raffensperger’s office is also working with groups like the Coca-Cola Company and AT&T to train employees as technical-support workers able to diagnose and fix issues that crop up with voting machines on Election Day.
Those initiatives, combined with a push to recruit thousands of poll workers and the launch of an online portal to request absentee ballots, are creating confidence that Georgia may see a better Election Day experience in November than occurred in the line-plagued June 9 primary.
“We have a very robust plan of action for the November election cycle,” Raffensperger said Tuesday. “I think we’re much better prepared.”
Georgia is poised for record voter turnout in the Nov. 3 general election with a presidential contest, two U.S. Senate seats, congressional, state and local offices all on the ballot.
The COVID-19 pandemic is also inspiring huge interest in absentee ballots. So far, around 1.1 million Georgians have requested mail-in ballots and started receiving them this week.
Along with masks and gloves for poll workers, local precincts will feature new plexiglass screens purchased and donated by companies that aim to add more of a buffer between poll workers and voters for social distancing.
Companies like Coca-Cola, AT&T, Delta Air Lines and the Atlanta Hawks are working with the nonpartisan group GaVotingWorks to provide tech support, donate plexiglass screens and purchase more absentee ballot drop-off boxes for counties.
Jennifer Dorian, the co-founder of GaVotingWorks, said the collaborative effort reflects a growing interest among companies to participate in civic duty by pitching in more resources during the virus-troubled election cycle.
“We’re finding companies are a vital resource that can talk to employees as well as all Georgians,” Dorian said Tuesday.
Early voting for the general election starts Oct. 12. The online portal to request an absentee ballot is found at https://ballotrequest.sos.ga.gov/.
A planned extension will take the Silver Comet Trail east of I-285 for the first time.
ATLANTA – The Georgia Board of Natural Resources signed off Tuesday on a plan to extend the popular Silver Comet Trail in Cobb County.
Board members unanimously approved agreements with Cobb County, the state Department of Transportation and the Forest Park-based nonprofit PATH Foundation to add 2.3 miles onto the eastern end of the trail, taking it inside the Interstate 285 perimeter for the first time.
The Silver Comet Trail runs for 61.5 miles along an abandoned rail line from Smyrna west through Cobb, Paulding and Polk counties to the Georgia/Alabama line. The paved trail is used primarily for biking and hiking.
The new extension ultimately will allow the trail to connect with the Atlanta Beltline. To accomplish that aim, another extension will be needed to cross the Chattahoochee River.
The PATH Foundation has agreed to build the extension at no cost to the state, Steve Friedman, chief of real estate for the Georgia Department of Natural Resources (DNR), told board members Tuesday. Cobb County will operate and maintain the new section of the trail, he said.
The project is expected to be completed by the end of next year, Friedman said.
