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in Elections
Trump’s Fraud Claims Died in Court, But the Myth of Stolen Elections Lives On
by Aurelia Butler 26 December 2020, 19:20
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in Elections
Democrats in Georgia Runoffs Bring in Record Haul
by Aurelia Butler 25 December 2020, 19:48
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'Voting is a celebration': the groups mobilizing voters ahead of Georgia’s runoffs
by Evelyn Reynolds 24 December 2020, 10:00
The state of Georgia made history this past November during the 2020 presidential election, when it turned from a red state to a blue state, the first time in over 20 years.After Joe Biden beat Donald Trump by more than 12,000 votes in the state, many took a closer look at the groundswell of activists who had helped engage and educate Georgia voters. Multiple profiles of Stacey Abrams, the gubernatorial candidate who has mobilized voters to combat voter suppression, and Black Voters Matter, splashed across media headlines. But behind the scenes, other groups have been operating on all cylinders, too. Now, with a heated Senate runoff on 5 January — one that will determine which party takes control of Congress – many are wondering if the ground game will remain strong.These groups are working hard to make sure it does:The Georgia Coalition for the People’s Agenda (People’s Agenda)Founded by the late Ccivil rights leader Joseph E Lowery, the organization performs year-round voter registration, education and mobilization in Black communities throughout Georgia and works to support and establish state coalitions in south-eastern states. Headquartered in Atlanta, the People’s Agenda has offices throughout the state of Georgia and covers more than 53 Georgia counties statewide.“We work 365 days a year registering people to vote and educating them on the candidates running for office. We hold forums and town hall meetings and have been doing phone and text banks to inform Georgia citizens about voter registration and the voting process. We want people to know that the voting process is easy and transparent,” said Butler.Like most other outreach organizations, much of the group’s work is being done remotely due to Covid-19. Organizing, registering people to vote and even requesting absentee ballots is done online.But some outreach continues in person. Members have been working with churches and community leaders in each of the cities where offices are located. Volunteers are canvassing door to door, following social distancing guidelines, handing out free literature and getting people registered. The group is also giving citizens rides to the polls and making sure that there are no indications of voter suppression through their Election Protection Program. There are monitors at polling locations to speak on problems and issues in real time, according to Butler.“Decisions about unemployment, healthcare, the economic stimulus, and utilities in rural areas is determined by these two Senate seats,” explained Butler. “Currently the Senate is held up and has not acted on the George Floyd Criminal Justice Reform Act, or the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act, or the Cares Act.“We don’t tell people who to vote for and we’re not endorsing any candidates, but we tell them why it’s important,” Butler said. “The election is not over. We are alerting people to vote again.Clayton county’s Black Women’s RoundtableThe Black Women’s Roundtable works in states with large Black populations, building leaders and encouraging them to run for office in their communities and is an extension of the National Coalition on Black Civic Participation. The organization is an intergenerational coalition of Black women who are civil rights leaders, corporate leaders and elected officials. They organize around issues of concerns for Black women, including healthcare, racism and injustice.Felicia Davis, head of the roundtable in Georgia’s Clayton county, said she is working hard to get people registered to vote. Her group is mobilizing and educating voters through door to door canvassing, hoping to get people to early vote and to keep people motivated throughout Covid-19 and the holiday season, to ensure they vote in the January run-off.“This year we lost Dr Lowery, Rev CT Vivian and Congressman John Lewis, three civil rights heroes whose sacrifices played a key role in the passing of the Voting Rights Act. Their memory fuels our resolve,” said Davis. “Our part right now is to vote. When we show up, we always win.”Transformative Justice CoalitionThe Transformative Justice Coalition, a non-partisan group, fights for solutions that address racial injustice and result in systemic change and dismantling structures of white supremacy. Most of the work is in voting rights, not just during elections, but year-round.Barbara Arnwine, the founder of the Transformative Justice Coalition, is based in Washington DC but works closely with the People’s Agenda to mobilize, educate and register voters.Voting isn’t just about elections, but political accountability“Georgia has an ugly history of purging voters,” said Arnwine. “Voting isn’t just about elections, but political accountability. We have built up good relationships, working together to battle southern suppression in Georgia and other states in the south and have trained over 100 people to be voting rights activists.”Starting 14 December, the first day of early voting, the Transformative Justice Coalition will organize what they call Votercades, car caravans/marches getting people excited about voting. The Votercade is a three- to five-block caravan of cars with voting signs, 14ft banners and loud speakers and megaphones, making people aware that it is time to vote. There is music, dance, food and also a moment of silence where participants take a knee to remember those killed by police. There will be 15 Votercades throughout Georgia, including the week of 14-19 December.“The Votercades are attention grabbing, joyous, infectious marches to the polls. We are doing these marches to encourage people to vote early,” said Arnwine. “We believe voting is a celebration, not something people endure. We are giving people support and are committed to going everywhere there are voters.”Georgia Black Youth VoteThe Rev Jared Sawyer, co-coordinator of the Georgia Black Youth Vote, is also doing his part to mobilize young Georgia voters by engaging and training community advocates and young professionals aged 18-30, getting them fully involved in the voting process. This includes a statewide media campaign and online services that focus on voter registration.“The right to vote is sacred,” said Sawyer. We are preparing voters for the run-off and getting people excited about the election.”This group is touring throughout the state of Georgia and also hosting Votercade caravans and are canvassing to prepare young voters for the runoff election. The goal is to educate young people about voting and public policy. Sawyer was called to train a new generation of civic leaders and political activists and is calling on others to serve their communities. The group is phone banking and text banking to inform people about the runoff election, encouraging them to vote early.“As long as we are as proactive as we’re being, people will get out and vote. The Black youth vote helped push Georgia blue,” said Sawyer. “It inspired people and they realized that it’s possible. Young people believed their voices count, not just in the streets, but at the ballot box. We are encouraging people to vote early. I believe there will be a strong voter turnout.” More
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in Elections
How Trump's Attack on Relief Bill Has Divided GOP
by Aurelia Butler 24 December 2020, 02:33
#masthead-section-label, #masthead-bar-one { display: none }The Coronavirus OutbreakliveLatest UpdatesMaps and CasesThe Stimulus DealThe Latest Vaccine InformationF.A.Q.AdvertisementContinue reading the main storySupported byContinue reading the main storyTrump’s Attack on Coronavirus Relief Divides G.O.P. and Threatens RecoveryFrom the campaign trail in Georgia to Capitol Hill, President Trump’s demand for changes to the $900 billion pandemic relief plan upended political and economic calculations.President Trump posted a video on Tuesday night demanding significant changes to the pandemic relief bill and larger direct stimulus checks to Americans.Credit…Oliver Contreras for The New York TimesLuke Broadwater, Emily Cochrane, Astead W. Herndon and Dec. 23, 2020WASHINGTON — President Trump’s denunciation of the $900 billion coronavirus relief deal drove a wedge through the Republican Party on Wednesday, drawing harsh criticism from House Republicans and threatening the delivery of unemployment checks, a reprieve on evictions and direct payments to struggling Americans.His four-minute video on Tuesday night demanding significant changes to the bill and larger direct stimulus checks also complicated his party’s push to hold the Senate with victories in two runoff races in Georgia next month. The Republican candidates he pledged to support went from campaigning on their triumphant votes for the relief bill to facing questions on Mr. Trump’s view that the measure was a “disgrace.”Their Democratic rivals appeared to turn a liability into a political advantage 13 days before the election on Jan. 5, agreeing with the president’s demand for $2,000 direct payment checks and calling for Republicans to accede to his wish. Speaker Nancy Pelosi and top Democrats prepared to move forward on Thursday with new legislation that would provide the $2,000 checks, daring Republicans to break with the president and block passage of the bill in the House.But the effect on struggling Americans was perhaps the most profound: With no deal signed by the president, some unemployment programs are set to run out this week, and several other critical provisions are to end this month. The uncertainty that Mr. Trump injected into the process came at a perilous moment for the economy, as consumer spending and personal incomes resumed their slides.“Does the president realize that unemployment benefits expire the day after Christmas?” an exasperated Senator Mark Warner, Democrat of Virginia and one of the key negotiators of the package, wrote on Twitter.It is not clear whether Mr. Trump, who is furious at congressional Republicans who have acknowledged his defeat, would actually veto the package. But given how late it is in the 116th Congress, even refusing to sign it could ensure that the bill dies with the Congress on Jan. 3 and must be taken up all over again next year.The 5,593-page spending package would not only provide relief but also fund the government through September. With his threat, the president raised the prospects of a government shutdown beyond Monday and also jeopardized a promise of swift relief to millions of struggling Americans and businesses.Mr. Trump on Wednesday also made good on his promise to veto a major defense policy bill, in part because it directed the military to strip the names of Confederate generals from bases. That sets up a showdown for next week; when the House returns on Monday for the override vote, it could also vote on another stopgap spending bill to prevent government funding from lapsing.Before the turmoil, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin had promised that $600 direct payments from the pandemic relief bill could be distributed as early as next week; that is an untenable timeline without Mr. Trump’s signature. The end to two expanded unemployment programs the day after Christmas could push nearly five million people into poverty virtually overnight, according to an estimate from researchers at Columbia University.Some state labor departments — which administer both state and federal unemployment benefits — are already preparing for the end of the programs because of the delay in reaching an agreement, meaning some jobless workers may temporarily lose their benefits all the same because many states will not be able to reverse course in time to avoid a lapse in payments.Frustration with Mr. Trump boiled over on Wednesday during a private conference call of House Republicans who had loyally stood by the president; many of them had joined a baseless lawsuit to try to overturn the results of the election. Representative Kevin McCarthy of California, the Republican leader, told members that he had spoken to the president and that he had not yet committed to a veto of the bill.But Mr. McCarthy conceded, “This bill has been tainted,” according to one person on the call.“The bill has been tainted,” Representative Kevin McCarthy of California told House Republicans on a private conference call on Wednesday.Credit…Stefani Reynolds for The New York TimesIn his videotaped statement on Tuesday, Mr. Trump accused lawmakers of putting aid for foreign governments before the needs of the American people.Some lawmakers on the call complained about the pork projects in the spending measure; others chimed in to challenge the characterization of the projects as pork, and one longtime House Republican vented generally about voter perceptions of the package after Mr. Trump’s scathing critique.“I don’t know if we recover from this,” said Representative Virginia Foxx, Republican of North Carolina, according to three officials on the call. “We will have a hell of a time getting this out of people’s head.”The Coronavirus Outbreak More
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in Elections
Trump’s Attack on Coronavirus Relief Divides G.O.P. and Threatens Recovery
by Aurelia Butler 24 December 2020, 01:55
#masthead-section-label, #masthead-bar-one { display: none }The Coronavirus OutbreakliveLatest UpdatesMaps and CasesThe Stimulus DealThe Latest Vaccine InformationF.A.Q.AdvertisementContinue reading the main storySupported byContinue reading the main storyTrump’s Attack on Coronavirus Relief Divides G.O.P. and Threatens RecoveryFrom the campaign trail in Georgia to Capitol Hill, President Trump’s demand for changes to the $900 billion pandemic relief plan upended political and economic calculations.President Trump posted a video on Tuesday night demanding significant changes to the pandemic relief bill and larger direct stimulus checks to Americans.Credit…Oliver Contreras for The New York TimesLuke Broadwater, Emily Cochrane, Astead W. Herndon and Dec. 23, 2020Updated 9:55 p.m. ETWASHINGTON — President Trump’s denunciation of the $900 billion coronavirus relief deal drove a wedge through the Republican Party on Wednesday, drawing harsh criticism from House Republicans and threatening the delivery of unemployment checks, a reprieve on evictions and direct payments to struggling Americans.His four-minute video on Tuesday night demanding significant changes to the bill and larger direct stimulus checks also complicated his party’s push to hold the Senate with victories in two runoff races in Georgia next month. The Republican candidates he pledged to support went from campaigning on their triumphant votes for the relief bill to facing questions on Mr. Trump’s view that the measure was a “disgrace.”Their Democratic rivals appeared to turn a liability into a political advantage 13 days before the election on Jan. 5, agreeing with the president’s demand for $2,000 direct payment checks and calling for Republicans to accede to his wish. Speaker Nancy Pelosi and top Democrats prepared to move forward on Thursday with new legislation that would provide the $2,000 checks, daring Republicans to break with the president and block passage of the bill in the House.But the effect on struggling Americans was perhaps the most profound: With no deal signed by the president, some unemployment programs are set to run out this week, and several other critical provisions are to end this month. The uncertainty that Mr. Trump injected into the process came at a perilous moment for the economy, as consumer spending and personal incomes resumed their slides.“Does the president realize that unemployment benefits expire the day after Christmas?” an exasperated Senator Mark Warner, Democrat of Virginia and one of the key negotiators of the package, wrote on Twitter.It is not clear whether Mr. Trump, who is furious at congressional Republicans who have acknowledged his defeat, would actually veto the package. But given how late it is in the 116th Congress, even refusing to sign it could ensure that the bill dies with the Congress on Jan. 3 and must be taken up all over again next year.The 5,593-page spending package would not only provide relief but also fund the government through September. With his threat, the president raised the prospects of a government shutdown beyond Monday and also jeopardized a promise of swift relief to millions of struggling Americans and businesses.Mr. Trump on Wednesday also made good on his promise to veto a major defense policy bill, in part because it directed the military to strip the names of Confederate generals from bases. That sets up a showdown for next week; when the House returns on Monday for the override vote, it could also vote on another stopgap spending bill to prevent government funding from lapsing.Before the turmoil, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin had promised that $600 direct payments from the pandemic relief bill could be distributed as early as next week; that is an untenable timeline without Mr. Trump’s signature. The end to two expanded unemployment programs the day after Christmas could push nearly five million people into poverty virtually overnight, according to an estimate from researchers at Columbia University.Some state labor departments — which administer both state and federal unemployment benefits — are already preparing for the end of the programs because of the delay in reaching an agreement, meaning some jobless workers may temporarily lose their benefits all the same because many states will not be able to reverse course in time to avoid a lapse in payments.Frustration with Mr. Trump boiled over on Wednesday during a private conference call of House Republicans who had loyally stood by the president; many of them had joined a baseless lawsuit to try to overturn the results of election. Representative Kevin McCarthy of California, the Republican leader, told members that he had spoken to the president and that he had not yet committed to a veto of the bill.But Mr. McCarthy conceded, “This bill has been tainted,” according to one person on the call.“The bill has been tainted,” Representative Kevin McCarthy of California told House Republicans on a private conference call on Wednesday.Credit…Stefani Reynolds for The New York TimesIn his videotaped statement on Tuesday, Mr. Trump accused lawmakers of putting aid for foreign governments before the needs of the American people.Some lawmakers on the call complained about the pork projects in the spending measure; others chimed in to challenge the characterization of the projects as pork, and one longtime House Republican vented generally about voter perceptions of the package after Mr. Trump’s scathing critique.“I don’t know if we recover from this,” said Representative Virginia Foxx, Republican of North Carolina, according to three officials on the call. “We will have a hell of a time getting this out of people’s head.”The Coronavirus Outbreak More
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Now Airing on the Local News in Tennessee: Ads for Georgia Candidates
by Aurelia Butler 23 December 2020, 21:59
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Why Georgia Runoff Ads Are Running on Tennessee's News Stations
by Aurelia Butler 23 December 2020, 21:59
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Georgia Senate Runoff Targeted by Misinformation 'Superspreaders'
by Aurelia Butler 22 December 2020, 21:40
AdvertisementContinue reading the main storySupported byContinue reading the main storyMisinformation Amplifiers Target Georgia Senate RacesThe conservative social media personalities who spread baseless rumors of election fraud are starting to focus on the races that will decide control of the Senate.Dropping off an absentee ballot for the Georgia Senate runoff in Marietta, Ga.Credit…Audra Melton for The New York TimesSheera Frenkel and Dec. 22, 2020Updated 5:40 p.m. ETTwo weeks ago, the conservative media personalities Diamond and Silk falsely claimed on their Facebook page that people who were not eligible to vote were receiving ballots in Georgia’s special elections next month. Their post was shared more than 300 times.A week later, the right-wing commentator Mark Levin shared a post on his Facebook page falsely suggesting that the Rev. Raphael Warnock, one of the two Democrats running in the Georgia Senate runoffs, once welcomed Fidel Castro to his church. The misleading claim was shared more than 3,000 times.At the same time, a drumbeat of misinformation about the presidential election count in Georgia droned on. Lara Trump, President Trump’s daughter-in-law, and the Hodgetwins, a bodybuilding duo who have turned to pro-Trump political comedy, shared several false stories on their Instagram and Facebook pages that claimed suitcases filled with ballots were pulled out from under tables during the November vote count. Tens of thousands of people shared their posts.As Georgia prepares to hold special elections that will determine which party will control the U.S. Senate, the state has become the focus of a misinformation campaign that is aimed at discrediting the results of the November elections and convincing voters that Democrats are trying to steal the upcoming vote.A small group of “superspreaders” is responsible for the vast majority of that misinformation, according to new research by Avaaz, a global human rights group. Not only are those accounts responsible for most of the misinformation swirling around the vote, they are drowning out accurate reporting by mainstream media outlets on Facebook and Instagram.The research indicates that, despite efforts by social media companies to curtail misinformation, the viral nature of false news continues to take advantage of the algorithms that gin up what people see on those platforms. The algorithms often reward outrage over accuracy, and telling people what they want to hear or what gets them angry can easily overwhelm the truth.Americans are “being drowned in misinformation in Georgia by these superspreaders,” said Fadi Quran, a director at Avaaz.The Avaaz study also calls into question Facebook’s recent decision to roll back a change that elevated news from authoritative outlets over hyperpartisan sources. The change, which the company said was intended to be temporary, had resulted in an increase in Facebook traffic for mainstream news publishers including CNN, NPR and The New York Times, while partisan sites like Breitbart and Occupy Democrats saw their numbers fall.Many of the “superspreaders” have previously been named by researchers as playing central roles in spreading misinformation about voter fraud in the November presidential elections.“Facebook has gotten a lot of pressure over claims that they are censoring the right or conservatives, but what the data shows is that they may be favoring these actors,” Mr. Quran said. “These accounts regularly spread misinformation. The question is: Why doesn’t Facebook demote their reach per their policies?”Other misinformation spreaders included Eric Trump, the president’s son, and Sebastian Gorka, the president’s former deputy assistant. President Trump also continued his barrage of misinformation about Georgia’s elections, according to the research by Avaaz.The Hodgetwins, a bodybuilding duo who have turned to pro-Trump political comedy, wrongly claimed there was evidence proving wrongdoing in Georgia’s elections.The top 20 Facebook and Instagram accounts spreading false claims aimed at swaying voters in Georgia accounted for more interactions than mainstream media outlets. Using CrowdTangle, a Facebook-owned research tool, Avaaz examined social media posts between Nov. 8, when most news outlets called the election for President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr., and Friday. They found that the top 20 “superspreaders” averaged 5,500 interactions on their Facebook posts, while the 20 largest news outlets averaged 4,100 interactions per post.These users saw more people interacting with their posts, despite having fewer followers on Facebook than the mainstream news outlets. Combined, the news outlets had more than 208 million followers, while the top “superspreaders” had 85 million followers.Business & EconomyLatest UpdatesUpdated Dec. 22, 2020, 6:42 p.m. ETNew Labor Department rule would let employers distribute tips more widely.France reopens border with Britain to trucks, requiring rapid Covid-19 tests for drivers.Covid comments get a tech C.E.O. in hot water, again.Mr. Quran said the numbers showed how Facebook’s algorithms favored the sensational, and often false, posts.A Facebook spokesman, Kevin McAlister, said the company was still cracking down on misinformation, despite the recent rollback.“We’re taking every opportunity to connect people to reliable information about the election,” Mr. McAlister said. He said the company was also “deploying the teams and technology we used in the general elections to fight voter suppression, misinformation and interference in the Georgia runoff elections.”None of the top misinformation spreaders responded to requests for comment.Their claims ran the gamut from insults — that the Democratic Senate candidates, Mr. Warnock and Jon Ossoff, are corrupt — to the often-repeated false claim that voting machines that run on software from the company Dominion Voting Systems flipped votes from President Trump to Mr. Biden.Mr. Quran said the accounts also appeared to be “professionalized” in how they spread misinformation.“We see them regularly testing new narratives to see where they can hit a certain nerve, and then acting on it,” he said. Misinformation that successfully targeted Latino voters during the November presidential election, for example, was also being repurposed for Georgia, he said.One claim, that Mr. Warnock, a pastor in an Atlanta church where the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. once preached, “celebrated Fidel Castro and welcomed him to his church” was not accurate. The claim refers to Mr. Castro’s appearance at a New York City church where Mr. Warnock was a pastor 25 years ago, and there is no evidence that Mr. Warnock was involved in arranging the visit. There is also no evidence that he welcomed Mr. Castro.It was a variation of claims that circulated in Florida during the presidential election that linked Democratic candidates to the Communist Party in Cuba. Some of those claims have also been translated into Spanish to target the more than 300,000 voters with Latino backgrounds in Georgia, Mr. Quran said.Voters in Georgia are also being targeted with misleading information by new media start-ups. A conservative local news network, Star News group, which already runs news sites in Tennessee, Virginia and Minnesota, announced in November that it was opening a venture called the Georgia Star News, according to the liberal media watchdog group Media Matters for America. Since then, the website has published misleading news about the presidential election and the coming runoff election, according to an assessment by NewsGuard, a start-up that examines false stories. The Georgia Star News said in a response that NewsGuard’s assessment included “subjective, nonspecific generalizations that lack any meaningful context” and that it “rejected their assessment as baseless”A Dec. 5 headline promised a “bombshell” story, reprinting an allegation that an audit of election results in a Georgia county revealed that Dominion voting machines flipped ballots from Mr. Trump to Mr. Biden, in spite of overwhelming evidence to the contrary.The article was shared more than 2,000 times on Facebook, according to CrowdTangle data, reaching up to 650,000 people on the social network.Kevin Roose contributed reporting.AdvertisementContinue reading the main story More

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