During a Democratic campaign event in Milwaukee former President Obama on Friday took a swipe at President Trump over those who have been caught up in special counsel Robert Mueller's probe.
'Nobody in my administration got indicted' — President of shade, Barack Obama pic.twitter.com/UDFuShnNNr
— NowThis (@nowthisnews) October 27, 2018
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
Former President Barack Obama has appearances in Wisconsin and Michigan on Friday aimed at boosting turnout to aid Democrats, including black voters.
Low turnout in Milwaukee by African-Americans proved costly for Hillary Clinton in 2016 when she narrowly lost Wisconsin. One analysis found turnout fell nearly 20 points compared to Obama’s 2012 run.
It was much the same story in Detroit, and Clinton also lost Michigan.
Obama’s Friday appearance at a Milwaukee high school in a majority black neighborhood is aimed at helping Democratic candidates including U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin and Tony Evers, who is challenging Republican Gov. Scott Walker.
The former president will be in Michigan later Friday for an event at a Detroit high school.
An explosive "pipe-bomb" style device similar to those targeting Democratic politicians and activists critical of President Trump was sent to the Camden office of U.S. Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., NJ Advance Media has learned.
Booker has been both a frequent and vocal critic of Trump, as well as a putative 2020 Democratic challenger to replace him.
The package containing the explosive device was intercepted at a South Florida U.S. Postal Service center mail sorting facility in Opa-locka, according to a source familiar with the investigation, which is on-going. The Opa-locka facility handles packages mailed from Broward, Miami-Dade and Monroe counties.
An FBI spokeswoman in Washington, D.C., confirmed that the explosive device addressed to Booker was intercepted in Florida, but declined to be more specific about the location.
Two days after students at Prairie View A&M University sued Waller County over allegations that the county is suppressing the voting rights of black residents, the rural county said it is expanding early voting opportunities for students at the historically black university.
The county will now open a Sunday polling place at Prairie View City Hall and expand voting hours at the university's campus center on Monday through Wednesday of next week to 7 a.m. to 7 p.m., instead of the original 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., according to the NAACP. Students can continue to early vote at the Waller County Community Center in Prairie View on Thursday and Friday of next week.
Waller County Judge Trey Duhon, a Republican, and Elections Administrator Christy Eason announced the expanded early voting opportunities for the students in a statement released Wednesday, but said that the county will be “vigorously opposing” allegations of voter disenfranchisement.
“We have analyzed our resources in an attempt to extend additional hours and times, and have done so, but all citizens of Waller County must be accommodated with the limited resources of a small county,” the statement said.
In a statement released Thursday, the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund called the expanded early voting plan “an improvement over the original plan, but still not equal to what other Waller County residents were offered.”
