Follow along the Senate hearings in Georgia reviewing the 2020 elections. https://www.gpb.org/lawmakers/senate-rules

The @GaSecofState office is telegraphing changes that it will propose in 2021.

Ryan Germany notes that 300k voters requested and then cancelled their absentee ballots, and suggests that this is because outside groups encouraged this (IN THE MIDDLE OF A PANDEMIC).

But this completely ignores the fact that (a) the PRESIDENT was frantically pushing a narrative that absentee ballots were fraudulent, leading voters to fear that these ballots would not be counted; (b) the USPS was in the midst of being gutted and mail delays were rampant; and

(c) voters were given incorrect and unreliable information as to when their ballot would arrive.

Case in point? My MVP status says that my absentee ballot was issued on November 20.

I still do not have my absentee ballot.

@GASenateDems @GAHouseDems

The Senator Without A Mask says that everyone has “lost confidence” in our elections.

NB: The hearing chair started out saying that masks are mandatory.

THERE’S FRAUD HOW DO WE KNOW THERE IS NOT WIDESPREAD FRAUD WHAT ABOUT FORENSIC AUDITS OF THE MACHINES.

Reminder: DEMOCRATS proposed a mandatory third party audit of voting machine software in 2019. Republicans shot that down last year.

#GaPol

And in fact the @GaSecofState DID conduct an audit of the machines.

Here’s an idea—let’s mandate this moving forward.

See? Bipartisanship!

@GASenateDems @GAHouseDems

“Both sides”-ism. Just because Ryan Germany FEELS the same about suits in 2018 and 2020 doesn’t mean there IS any similarity.

Suits coming out of 2018 were designed solely to ensure that eligible voters could cast a ballot. The NUMEROUS changes in election law are proof.

Oh look. Another Senator who decides that the rules mask wearing do to apply to him.

I have to agree that better communications are vital.

Hey—what about comprehensive voter education PRIOR to an election, rather than clean-up after the fact?

And when a Senator says that “talking to the MSM is not talking to the public,” that means the he does not consider more than 50% of Georgians as “the public.”

How do we have “public” servants who believes that more than half of the state are not members of the “public”?

Clearly the chair has not actually read Georgia law on absentee ballots.

Yes, Georgia allows absentee ballots to be sent to voters who are temporarily out of state. Hence the word “absentee.”

Here’s another idea—anyone who is suspicious of the election process should volunteer to observe it.

They should be *trained* as to proper procedure, and then watch the full process.

Wow. So surprising. Another Republican Senator going without a mask.

Suggests that Fulton Rs did not certify because they didn’t use electronic matching.

USING electronic signature matching was the basis of an election challenge in Nevada. https://www.ktnv.com/news/political/elections-local/telephonic-hearing-scheduled-for-lawsuit-involving-clark-county-voter-jill-stokke

Glad @senatorjen highlights this—even when election officials believe signatures do not match, the cure process demonstrates that these ballots ARE valid, and WERE signed by the eligible registered voter.

Signatures change over time. Absentee ballot fraud is vanishingly rare.

Another unmasked senator points out that Fayette County found votes that had not been uploaded.

That is a failure of the canvass process (and in a Republican county). The solution is to strengthen the canvass procedures.

It has NOTHING to do with absentee ballots. #GaPol

The obsession over the ballot drop boxes is fascinating. They are under video surveillance, and there is a clear chain of custody throughout this process. It goes from the hand of the voter, to the box, to a sworn deputy registrar.

Post office has NONE of these protections.

OH MY GOD now we are undermining federal court decisions solely based on who appointed those judges.

“WHAT GIVES YOU THE AUTHORITY TO SIGN A CONSENT DECREE” based on HOW state law is implemented.

And for the record, some of the harshest decisions throwing out challenges are Trump-appointed judges.

. @GaSecofState correctly points out that Republicans wrote and passed Georgia’s no excuse absentee ballot laws by which ballots are accepted based on signature match.

They only have a problem with it when @GeorgiaDemocrat vote this way. When Black and Brown voters use it.

Republican Fulton Election Board members refused to vote to certify the general election results, despite the fact that no widespread fraud was identified.

Seems to me that is an indication of bad faith and politicization of the process, not undisclosed inchoate “problems.”

Fulton County is always subject to huge criticism, often warranted. But the fact remains that Fulton provides more opportunities for in-person voting than any other county—disproportionate to the population.

Want more people to vote in person? Expand the opportunities.

We have now started the second “hearing” of the day.

A state suit is being filed today. Attorneys for Trump are calling on the Georgia legislature to violate its own laws by sending a different slate of electors who would cast their vote in favor of Trump.

Calling for a coup.

Not going to amplify any of the insanity that is being proffered at this point.

So now we have someone Zooming in from Dallas as a “security” expert.

They are trying to undermine the selection of Dominion as Georgia’s election machine vendor.

2 years too late.

We have now reached the #HugoChavezCircus portion of our program.

I also find it fascinating that the committee leadership has basically handed over management of this process to Rudy Giuliani, who is “examining” the “witness.”

Reminder: every vote was examined by hand. And counted by hand.

This is all BS.

Also this was debunked. https://www.king5.com/article/news/verify/claims-scytl-german-servers-raided-false/507-e120d34c-3da0-4367-9d9c-9e97a30e2ecf

Fun fact—Georgia reports absentee by mail and absentee in person in the same files!

Having a NON-ELECTION EXPERT testify about voting is a massive waste of time.

Another election procedure lesson for today.

Any ballot that does not read in a scanner because of a tear or a stray mark, or provisional ballots that were cast out of precinct, and UOCAVA ballots that used ballots printed by the voter, all have to be DUPLICATED BY HAND.

Ballots duplicated by hand will be (a) pristine, because they were not handled much; and (b) would not have been folded.

Fun fact #2–voters from a retirement home in SW
Atlanta would REALLY NOT BE evenly split R-D.