U.S. Sens. Kelly Loeffler (left) and David Perdue (right), both Republicans from Georgia, are campaigning to hold their seats in runoff elections on Jan. 5, 2021. (Photos by Beau Evans)
Georgia’s two U.S. senators and more than a dozen Republican state lawmakers are backing a lawsuit brought by the state of Texas on Tuesday seeking to overturn the certified results of Georgia’s presidential election.
U.S. Sens. David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler, both Republicans, said in a joint statement late Tuesday that they support the Texas lawsuit despite opposition from Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr’s office, which called the suit “constitutionally, legally and factually wrong.”
The Texas challenge comes as Georgia lawmakers prepare for another hearing on Thursday to air claims of fraud in Georgia’s election system that have fallen flat so far in several federal lawsuits brought by allies of President Donald Trump, who has refused to concede defeat in last month’s general election.
The suit also comes as Republicans pin their hopes on Perdue and Loeffler to prevail in the Jan. 5 runoff elections, which will decide the balance of power in the Senate and would give President-elect Joe Biden’s administration free rein over policymaking if both Democratic candidates win.
Filed before the U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday, the suit by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton seeks to block Electoral College members in four states – Georgia, Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania – where Biden won the popular vote. It asks the court to let those states’ Republican-controlled legislatures pick the electors, likely overturning more than 20 million votes and handing victory to Trump.
Loeffler and Perdue hailed the Texas suit as well as other Trump-supporting legal challenges involving fraud claims that federal judges have shot down in recent weeks and election officials from both political parties in multiple states including Georgia have dismissed as baseless.
“This isn’t hard and it isn’t partisan,” said the joint statement from Loeffler and Perdue. “It’s American. No one should ever have to question the integrity of our elections system and the credibility of its outcomes.”
Their comments echoed praise for the Texas suit that came earlier Tuesday from 16 Georgia Senate members including Senate Majority Whip Steve Gooch, R-Dahlonegah, who jointly called it a “very important case.”
The Texas suit argues Georgia logged several thousand votes favoring Biden that should have gone for Trump due to “statistical improbability,” citing certain figures for mail-in ballot rejection rates that Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger’s office has disputed as inaccurate.
Perdue and Loeffler last month called for Raffensperger’s resignation over the fraud claims, prompting backlash from state election-system manager Gabriel Sterling who said the move helped open a “floodgate of crap” from conspiracy theorists. Raffensperger and Sterling, both Republicans, have said they’ll still vote for Perdue and Loeffler despite the controversy.
Many state senators who praised the lawsuit held a hearing last week that allowed hours of unchecked fraud claims from witnesses and experts brought by Trump’s personal attorney and former New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani. The House is expected to follow suit with Thursday’s scheduled hearing.
Democratic state lawmakers have condemned the hearings as open forums for conspiracy theories and empty allegations that aim to placate staunch Trump voters who have decided the presidential election was “rigged” rather than actually probe legitimate fraud claims.
State Sen. Elena Parent, D-Atlanta, who said she’s received death threats following her attendance at last week’s hearing, mocked Loeffler and Perdue for backing the out-of-state lawsuit, saying they “are welcome to be the senators from the great state of Texas.”
“As elected officials, our job is to encourage the public’s faith in the democratic process,” Parent said. “Continuing to engage with baseless allegations of fraud is irresponsible and immoral.”
Loeffler, an Atlanta businesswoman appointed to retired U.S. Sen. Johnny Isakson’s seat earlier this year, is facing Rev. Raphael Warnock, the senior pastor of Atlanta’s Ebenezer Baptist Church in one of next month’s runoffs. Perdue, a Sea Island businessman, has drawn investigative journalist Jon Ossoff in the other.
Early voting for the Senate runoff elections starts Dec. 14.
Gov. Brian Kemp (left) and Georgia Public Health Commissioner Dr. Kathleen Toomey (right) embarked on a statewide tour to promote mask use on July 1, 2020. (Gov. Kemp official Twitter account)
Georgia could have “several hundred thousand doses” of COVID-19 vaccines in the next week or so for distribution to health-care workers and elderly care facilities, according to the state’s top public-health official.
Those doses will roll out immediately once approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration this month but will not be enough to cover all of Georgia’s hospital workers and nursing-home staff and residents, said Dr. Kathleen Toomey, commissioner of the state Department of Public Health.
More rounds of the vaccine will arrive depending on how fast pharmaceutical companies Pfizer and Moderna produce it, as well as how the federal government’s Operation Warp Speed distribution program plans to divvy out doses, Toomey said at a news conference Tuesday.
“We’ll be able to get this throughout the state,” Toomey said. “I’m very confident of that.”
Officials in several state agencies have been working for months on plans to transport the vaccine throughout Georgia, decide who should have first dibs in the early wave of limited doses and coordinate with local pharmacies and health-care providers that will administer the shots.
Once hospitals and nursing homes get the vaccine, workers in key sectors like first responders and energy companies, plus older Georgians with health issues, will be next in line for doses. The general public should have access by summer, Toomey said.
Given the long wait for widespread immunization, Gov. Brian Kemp said it’s essential people in Georgia do not stop social distancing and wearing masks even as the vaccine begins to arrive in limited batches.
“Our first shipments will not be anywhere close enough for anyone in our state to stop following the same public-health guidance that we’ve had in place for many months,” Kemp said. “We cannot give up now. We all must do our part so that the sacrifices that everyone has made will not be done in vain.”
Tuesday’s vaccine update came as Georgia continues to see increasing numbers of positive COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations during the winter holiday season, as more people head indoors for colder weather and face temptation to gather without masks for Thanksgiving and Christmas.
Nearly 500,000 people in Georgia have tested positive for COVID-19 so far and more than 9,000 Georgians have died of the virus.
Kemp signaled he is still reluctant to impose tougher measures like smaller crowd-size restrictions or business shutdowns for the time being, saying that Georgia is “faring much better” than many other states with more severe outbreaks.
“I would urge Georgians that if there’s an activity that involves being around a lot of people that you don’t have to do, don’t do that,” Kemp said. “I feel like we’re in a good spot … but it’s going to be our citizens that flatten the curve.”
Once the vaccine arrives, Toomey said county health departments working with local providers will pick the first recipients. Distribution will happen statewide, even to isolated rural areas, she said. Everyone except children will eventually have access to the vaccine free of charge.
Besides those logistics, the biggest challenge facing Georgia will be for state officials and health experts to cut through public skepticism over the vaccine’s safety and make sure enough people are immunized to halt COVID-19’s spread.
Toomey assured the vaccine will be safe and highly effective based on data from clinical trials Pfizer and Moderna released last month.
“I can say with great enthusiasm: I can’t wait to get vaccinated,” Toomey said. “I’m so looking forward to that opportunity, and I hope we can convey that same desire to people throughout Georgia.”
“We feel very confident that these vaccines will work, are safe and are important to ensure the safety of all Georgians at this time.”
Coronavirus has sickened hundreds of thousands people and killed thousands more in Georgia. (Image: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention)
Georgia officials combatting the COVID-19 pandemic on Tuesday outlined what stumbles and successes they’ve had that will prepare them for future viral outbreaks as the state gears up to distribute a coronavirus vaccine.
Testing programs, hospital coordination and business partnerships that have been bolstered since March should help officials roll out vaccine doses “very shortly in the next several weeks,” Dr. Kathleen Toomey, Georgia’s public-health commissioner, told state lawmakers at a conference in Athens.
The first vaccine rounds will go to health-care workers as well as staff and residents in long-term elderly care facilities, after which older Georgians with health issues and first responders are next in line, Toomey said. Widespread availability is expected by summer 2021.
“I can assure you that no matter where you live in Georgia, you will have access to this vaccine,” Toomey said.
Toomey spoke with other state agency heads at the three-day Biennial Institute for Georgia Legislators, held every two years at the University of Georgia for newly elected and returning members of the General Assembly to talk policy and procedure ahead of the legislative session that starts in mid-January.
Public schools are also rebounding after the virus sent Georgia’s roughly 2 million students home for months of online classes in March. Around 30% of the state’s K-12 students are still taking classes virtually as most districts resume in-person learning, said State School Superintendent Richard Woods.
The biggest challenge for schools statewide has been to keep up student performance during virtual learning and to send out WiFi signals on school buses and buildings to reach the estimated 80,000 households in Georgia that lack stable internet access, Woods said.
“We worked to close that gap but know it remains a challenge for k-12 and beyond,” Woods said. “It is not only an educational opportunity that we need to fill, but it is also an economic opportunity for our districts as well.”
Georgia is also better equipped to handle future outbreaks after boosting its stockpile of protective gear and practicing how to quickly add extra intensive-care beds via mobile “pods” and at the Georgia World Congress Center, said Georgia Emergency Management Director James Stallings.
“The ship was on fire, so we all became firemen,” said Stallings, who’s been on the job since September after former Emergency Management Director Homer Bryson retired.
That preparation has bolstered confidence Georgia can weather another spike in the number of positive COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations currently happening amid the winter holiday season, said Frank Berry, commissioner of the state Department of Community Health.
“While we are certainly seeing an increase in the number of beds being used … we feel comfortable and confident that we’ll be able to meet the need moving forward,” Berry said on Tuesday.
The biennial conference, which drew many prominent Georgia lawmakers and elected officials including Gov. Brian Kemp, Lt. Gov. Geoff Duncan and House Speaker David Ralston, R-Blue Ridge, also featured panels on rural issues, potential revenue opportunities from legalized gambling, tax breaks and election integrity.
Gov. Brian Kemp doubled down on his refusal to call an election-focused special session and pledged to address Georgia’s election issues in the upcoming legislative session during a conference with state lawmakers on Monday.
Kemp is facing intense criticism from President Donald Trump and his allies for not intervening in Georgia’s presidential election, which certified results show Trump lost to President-elect Joe Biden by 11,779 votes.
Some Republican lawmakers are pressuring Kemp to call a special session before next month to pick Electoral College members who will vote for Trump instead of Biden, despite the certified results from the Nov. 3 general election.
Speaking before state lawmakers Monday in Athens, Kemp said state law prevents him from calling a session to choose different Electoral College members. It only lets lawmakers pick the presidential electors if the election could not be held on its scheduled date, he said.
Instead, Kemp said he wants lawmakers to focus on crafting legislation aimed at bolstering the state’s voter ID laws in the regular legislative session that starts in mid-January.
“I am confident that when the legislature reconvenes in January, we will have ample time to address any issues that have come to the attention of the members of the General Assembly, my office [and] the public over the last few weeks,” Kemp said.
The three-day Biennial Institute for Georgia Legislators is held every two years at the University of Georgia in Athens and convenes General Assembly members to talk policy and procedure ahead of next month’s regular session.
In a luncheon speech, the governor highlighted successful bills his administration backed in the most recent legislative session on foster care, criminal gangs, human trafficking, health care and hate crimes.
That legislation came as Georgia confronted the COVID-19 pandemic, which shuttered businesses and forced students to take virtual classes from home in March.
“Each of these are great achievements and worthy of celebrating,” Kemp said. “But make no mistake: This is no time to rest on our laurels or take our eye off the ball.”
Kemp said his administration’s approach to seeking balance between public health and economic interests “has shown promising signs of success,” despite an increase in positive COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations in recent weeks that health experts expect to worsen during the winter holidays.
The governor said he is working with nursing homes and hospitals to help boost short-handed staff as part of $250 million in emergency funds the state plans to spend on staff augmentation.
The biennial conference, which has drawn many prominent Georgia lawmakers and elected officials including Lt. Gov. Geoff Duncan and House Speaker David Ralston, R-Blue Ridge, also featured panels Monday on rural issues, gambling opportunities and tax breaks.
This story previously stated President-elect Biden won Georgia by 11,784 votes. The correct margin is 11,779 votes.
President Donald Trump slammed Georgia’s election system in a speech at the White House on Nov. 5, 2020. (White House video)
Georgia’s 2020 presidential election results are set to be certified again after a federal judge in Atlanta dismissed a major lawsuit Monday that sought to overturn the results and declare President Donald Trump the winner.
Judge Timothy Batten of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia ruled that the suit by attorney Sidney Powell was filed too late and sought “perhaps the most extraordinary relief ever sought in any federal court in connection with an election.”
“This, I am unwilling to do,” Batten said.
Monday’s ruling came after Gov. Brian Kemp on Sunday refused a request from some Republican state lawmakers to call a special session to let the General Assembly pick Georgia’s Electoral College members, which the governor said state law does not permit him to do.
Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger plans to certify the results later Monday showing President-elect Joe Biden beat President Donald Trump in Georgia by about 12,000 votes – the second time a statewide recount has proved Biden to be the winner since the Nov. 3 general election.
Powell, a Texas attorney and staunch Trump supporter, filed suit to de-certify Georgia’s election results and block the state’s 16 Electoral College members from voting for Biden. Her suit focused on alleged issues with Georgia’s voting machines and the process for verifying signatures on mail-in ballots.
Defense attorneys for Raffensperger and the Democratic Party of Georgia, which intervened in the case, argued Powell’s claims lacked evidence beyond speculation from election-worker witnesses and flawed analysis from experts who filed sworn affidavits.
Similar claims have been lodged in a suit by Trump-allied attorney Lin Wood, which was dismissed in the U.S. District Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit on Saturday. A separate lawsuit brought by the Trump campaign and the Georgia Republican Party is pending in Fulton County Superior Court.
State election officials have repeatedly disputed the many fraud claims spread by Trump, who held a rally in Valdosta on Saturday in which he called the election “rigged” and listed a series of allegations that so far have not been proven in court.
Raffensperger, a Republican whom Trump has called an “enemy of the people,” again on Monday said his office has found no evidence of widespread election fraud and urged the president and his allies to ease off their divisive language.
“Continuing to make debunked claims of a stolen election is hurting our state,” Raffensperger said at a news conference. “The president has his due-process rights and those are available to him. It’s time we all focus on the future and growth.”
Raffensperger’s office will soon have help from state investigators with the Georgia Bureau of Investigation to help clear more than 250 open cases of specific fraud claims that have been lodged so far throughout this year. Officials have said those cases will likely not uncover any widespread fraud.
Kemp, like Raffensperger, has faced intense pressure from Trump and his allies to scrap the election results and order an audit of voter signatures made on envelopes for the roughly 1.3 million absentee ballots cast in the Nov. 3 election. Officials have said such an audit is unlikely without a court order.
The governor has joined Raffensperger in calling for legislation to bolster Georgia’s voter ID laws in the upcoming legislative session starting next month, while resisting demands he order a special session before then aimed at giving state lawmakers power to empanel Electoral College members.
“Any attempt by the legislature to retroactively change that process for the Nov. 3 election would be unconstitutional and immediately enjoined by the courts, resulting in a long legal dispute and no short-term resolution,” Kemp said in a joint statement with Lt. Gov. Geoff Duncan on Sunday.
Electoral College members from all 50 states and the District of Columbia are scheduled to formally cast votes for president and vice president on Dec. 14. The electors’ vote count will be finalized on Jan. 6.
