Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms to defy Kemp ban on mask mandates

Several Georgia mayors including Keisha Lance Bottoms have lashed out over Gov. Brian Kemp’s (R) Wednesday order overriding local mandates requiring residents to wear a mask or face covering amid the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, vowing to continue enforcing local rules.

Bottoms said in a Thursday news conference that “it’s my belief that the city of Atlanta still has the appropriate standing to mandate masks,” specifically citing city-owned buildings and other areas.

"I believe that our city mask ordinance, and I believe those across the state, are defensible, and it is not just my posture but the posture of many mayors across this state that our policies are enforceable and they stand,” Bottoms said Thursday.

Kemp’s office has called local mask mandates “unenforceable.” The governor’s Wednesday order voids local mandates and instead “strongly” encourages all residents and visitors to wear face coverings in public.

When asked if she feared a lawsuit from the state, Bottoms, who announced that she tested positive for COVID-19 earlier this month, said she was not concerned .

"You all know I love to quote Audre Lorde, she says 'I am deliberate and afraid of nothing.' So I am not afraid of the city being sued," Bottoms said Thursday. "And I'll put our policies up against anyone's any day of the week."

[SOURCE: THE HILL]

Cummings: Kemp should testify about voter suppression allegation

Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-Md.), who's expected to become the next chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, said he wants Georgia Gov.-elect Brian Kemp (R) to testify before Congress about allegations that he suppressed minority voters during his tenure as Georgia's secretary of state.

“I want to be able to bring people in, like the new governor-to-be of Georgia, to explain ... why is it fair for wanting to be secretary of state and be running [for governor],” Cummings told HuffPost in an article published Monday.

A news report a few months before Election Day found that a disproportionate number of the state's thousands of stalled voter applications were from black residents.

Cummings told HuffPost that he hopes to address the issue of voter suppression when Democrats are the majority in the 116th Congress.

“One of the things about my committee, you know, it’s called Oversight and Government Reform," he told HuffPost. “Oversight, you know, you gotta research and find out what the hell is going on and then, if it is appropriate, to do those things to reform the system.”

Cummings said he also wants to call on election officials from Kansas and North Carolina accused of suppressing Latino and African-American votes.

[SOURCE: THE HILL]

Thousands of absentee ballot applications “missing” in largely black Georgia county

Democratic officials in Georgia say that thousands of absentee voter requests have gone “missing” in one of the state's most heavily Democratic counties.

The Georgia Democratic Party reports that more than 4,700 vote-by-mail applications went missing in DeKalb County, a Atlanta-area county where more than 54 percent of residents are black.

The New York Times reports that county officials confirmed the missing applications in a phone call with Democratic officials and vowed to notify affected voters of the error. But a spokesman for the county elections board would not confirm the call and Sam Tillman, the chairman of the board, insisted that the county had received just 50 requests of the 4,700 names the party said it submitted.

“After reviewing the list of names, there is only evidence that the county received 50 of those voter absentee ballot request forms,” he said. “All 50 of those forms have been processed. At this time, there is no evidence that there are any missing or lost absentee ballot request forms. The Elections Department receives request forms daily and processes them within three days of receipt. At this time there are approximately 250 forms pending processing.”

Georgia Democratic Party spokesman Seth Brigman rejected the denial and said the episode is another example of voter suppression, a charge that has been leveled repeatedly in the state against Secretary of State Brian Kemp and other officials. Kemp is running in a tight gubernatorial race against former state legislator Stacey Abrams, who would become the nation's first black female governor if elected.

“Our message to voters is this: If you requested a vote-by-mail ballot from your county and your county did not send you a ballot, go in-person if you are able to an early voting site,” Brigman told the Times. “We will not allow Brian Kemp’s voter suppression or mistakes by election officials to take away your right to vote.”

Read more: Thousands of absentee ballot applications “missing” in largely black Georgia county

Judge moves to block Georgia election officials from tossing out absentee ballots

A federal district court judge said she will issue an order to temporarily block election officials in Georgia from tossing out absentee ballots or applications when a voter’s signature does not match the signature on their voter registration card.

Judge Leigh Martin May, on the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia, said election officials should have to notify voters first before they can reject absentee ballots with mismatched signatures.

May gave Georgia's Secretary of State office as well as the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), which had filed a lawsuit on behalf of the Georgia Muslim Voter Project against Georgia Secretary of State Brian Kemp and county registrars, until noon on Thursday to respond to her proposal.

The judge said she will then consider their suggestions and immediately enter an injunction.

"This is not meant to be an opportunity to readdress the propriety of entering the injunction — only its form," she said.

Read more: Judge moves to block Georgia election officials from tossing out absentee ballots

NAACP MONITORING POSSIBLE VOTER SUPPRESSION TACTICS IN GEORGIA GOVERNOR RACE

Over 53,000 Voter Registration Applications on Hold in Secretary of State Kemp’s Office

BALTIMORE—The nation’s foremost civil rights organization is closely monitoring possible voter suppression in the state of Georgia stemming from Secretary of State Brian Kemp’s ongoing failure to process over 53,000 voter registration applications.

“It’s a stain on our system of democracy when less than a month before an election which could produce the first African-American female governor in our nation’s history, we are seeing this type of voter suppression scheme attempted by a state official whose candidacy for the governorship produces an irremediable conflict of interest,” said NAACP President and CEO Derrick Johnson.

“We are closely monitoring this situation with our Georgia State Conference President Phyllis Blake and demanding a complete investigation and full transparency prior to the election,” added Johnson.

The NAACP is asking for all voters to verify their status by visiting https://www.naacp.org/vote/

According to a report from the Associated Press Sec. Kemp, who is also a candidate for governor has “cancelled over 1.4 million voter registrations since 2012. Nearly 670,000 registrations were cancelled in 2017 alone.”

In August the NAACP Georgia State Conference successfully fought against the closing of 7 of 9 polls in the nearly all Black area of Randolph County.

The NAACP Georgia State Conference earlier that month called for Sec. Kemp to step down from office due to possible unethical and conflict of interest issues. The group pointed to a report from the FOX 5 I-Team—Kemp, a Trump-endorsed candidate utilized taxpayer paid for app to promote his gubernatorial campaign.

Media can reach the NAACP National Office at mrussell@naacpnet.org

Contact the NAACP Georgia State Conference /404-577-8977 / NAACPGA.org