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☆ What Is Georgia’s Runoff Election? What to Know About the Walker-Warnock Senate Race
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-09 | by ( Cameron Mcwhirter | Joshua Jamerson | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Georgia’s closely watched Senate race between incumbent Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock and Republican challenger Herschel Walker is headed to a Dec. 6 runoff, according to Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger , who oversees elections. “I will ask the voters to come out and vote one last time,” Mr. Raffensperger said Wednesday. He said his office had already begun the work of building ballots and counties had already started making preparations for more voting.

☆ Georgia Senate Race Headed to Runoff for Second Time in Two Years
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-09 | by ( Cameron Mcwhirter | Joshua Jamerson | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

ATLANTA—Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock and his Republican challenger, Herschel Walker , are headed to a runoff election in December, sending Georgia voters back to the polls in a high-stakes Senate showdown for the second time in two years. Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger Wednesday said neither candidate will notch the required 50% support under state law, largely because of the presence of Chase Oliver, a Libertarian Party candidate, on the ballot. Mr. Oliver received enough votes to prevent one of the major-party candidates from winning outright.

☆ Pivotal Georgia Senate race between Warnock and Walker headed to a runoff, secretary of state says
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-09 | by ( Christina Wilkie | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

The hotly contested Georgia Senate race will head to a runoff between Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock and Republican former NFL player Herschel Walker, Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger said. The Georgia race, one of the most competitive in the country, could help to determine control of the Senate, along with remaining races in Arizona and Nevada. The presence of Libertarian candidate Chase Oliver, a 37-year-old Atlanta businessman, helped to deny Warnock and Walker the majority they needed to win outright. With 96% of the vote counted Wednesday, Warnock had won 49.2% of the vote to Walker's 48.7%, according to NBC News. In 2020, when Warnock was challenging then-incumbent Republican Sen. Kelly Loeffler, another Republican in the race, Doug Collins won 20% of the vote, sending Loeffler and Warnock to a January runoff that Warnock won.

☆ U.S. voters decide control of Congress, and Biden's agenda, in midterms
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-08 | by ( Joseph Ax | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +7 min

[1/10] Voters fill out ballots at a polling station during the 2022 U.S. midterm election in downtown Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, U.S., November 8, 2022. The party that controls the White House typically loses seats in midterm elections. Thirty-five Senate seats and all 435 House of Representatives seats are on the ballot. In Congress, a Republican-controlled House would be able to block bills addressing Democratic priorities such as abortion rights and climate change. A Republican Senate would hold sway over Biden's judicial nominations, including any Supreme Court vacancy, intensifying the spotlight on the increasingly conservative court.

☆ At an election-eve rally for Brian Kemp, backers of the Georgia governor said Donald Trump is their 'top choice' for 2024
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-08 | by ( John L. Dorman | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Trump has long blasted the governor for not helping him overturn Biden's 2020 win in Georgia. Kemp became a national figure after his first gubernatorial contest against Abrams in 2018 and once again after he refused to entertain then-President Donald Trump's entreaties to overturn the 2020 presidential election results. In Morjera's view, the governor has already earned another four years in office, but when it came to the 2024 presidential campaign, he was all in for a third Trump presidential campaign. "President Trump is still my top pick for the next presidential election," Morjera told Insider. After Kemp spoke at the rally, Donna Wexon told Insider that she liked his anti-abortion stance and believed his policies were "good for the economy."

☆ Georgia county removes 2 poll workers after social media posts emerge showing them at the January 6 attack on the US Capitol
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-08 | by ( John Haltiwanger | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Two poll workers were removed from their duties in Georgia's largest county on Tuesday. Facebook posts surfaced showing the poll workers at the deadly January 6 riot at the US Capitol. One post, shared with the Washington Post, read: "Mike Pence is a traitor." The poll workers, a mother and son, were removed shortly before voting started. Gabriel Sterling, the chief operating officer in the office of the Georgia Secretary of State, confirmed to CNN that the poll workers were removed.

☆ Georgia opens probe of unmailed Cobb County absentee ballots after lawsuit
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-07 | by ( Dan Mangan | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger gives an afternoon update on the Georgia Primary Election at the election command center in Atlanta, Georgia, May 24, 2022. Within hours of the investigation being announced, a lawyer for the plaintiffs in the lawsuit told NBC News that Cobb County agreed to extend the absentee ballot deadline to Nov. 14. Raffensperger, who is the state's top election official, is one of the defendants in the lawsuit, along with Cobb County board officials and the state election board. The American Civil Liberties Union and the Southern Poverty Law Center filed the lawsuit Sunday in county Superior Court on behalf of four Cobb County voters. The suit says the Cobb County Election Board had failed to send absentee ballots in a timely fashion to all voters whose applications for such ballots had been accepted.

☆ What's driving Georgia's record early-voter turnout
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-02 | by ( Carlos Waters | In Carloswaters | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

Multiple high-stakes races on the ballot in Georgia have drawn record levels of early-voter turnout, according to state officials. Through the first days of early voting, a record 1.017 million people cast ballots in the state, according to a press release from Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger. This preliminary news of high turnout follows a controversial revision to state-level election administration procedures authorized by Georgia Gov. "We had a lot of problems with the 2020 election," said Christian Zimm, a Republican running to represent Georgia's 5th Congressional District. Watch the video above to see what's driving Atlanta's record early-voter turnout.

Graham had appealed to the Supreme Court after the Atlanta-based 11th U.S. 'UNIQUE KNOWLEDGE'Prosecutors sought Graham's testimony about phone calls he made to Georgia election officials in the weeks after Trump, a Republican, lost the election to Democrat Joe Biden. Graham has "unique knowledge" regarding communications "involved in the multi-state, coordinated efforts to influence the results of the November 2020 election in Georgia and elsewhere," the prosecutors added. During the phone call, Trump urged Raffensperger to "find" enough votes to overturn his Georgia loss to Biden. Legal experts have said Trump's phone calls may have violated at least three Georgia election laws: conspiracy to commit election fraud, criminal solicitation to commit election fraud and intentional interference with performance of election duties.

WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court on Tuesday rejected a request from Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., to quash a grand jury subpoena in a Georgia prosecutor’s probe into alleged interference in the 2020 presidential election. Circuit Court of Appeals rejected Graham’s attempt to avoid answering questions about phone calls he made to Georgia election officials after the 2020 election. The unsigned Supreme Court order said that the lower court already ruled that Graham cannot be questioned on his legislative activities. The order also said Graham is free to litigate further over which issues are off-limitsWillis is investigating a pair of post-election phone calls Graham made to Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger and his staff. On Oct. 24, conservative Justice Clarence Thomas, who handles emergency applications that arise from Georgie, temporarily blocked the grand jury subpoena from being enforced while the court determined its next steps.

☆ Supreme Court Rejects Lindsey Graham’s Bid to Avoid Georgia Grand Jury Testimony
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-01 | by ( Jess Bravin | ) www.wsj.com time to read: +1 min

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R., S.C.) says his phone calls to Georgia’s secretary of state were privileged legislative activity. WASHINGTON—The Supreme Court Tuesday denied Sen. Lindsey Graham ’s emergency plea to avoid cooperation with a Georgia grand jury investigating possible pro-Trump interference in the state’s 2020 vote count, but reiterated lower-court rulings that the South Carolina Republican could assert a privilege to specific questions he argues involve legislative activity. The Fulton County district attorney, Fani Willis , had a special-purpose grand jury convened to investigate alleged efforts to subvert President Biden’s victory by pressuring state officials to falsify the outcome in Mr. Trump’s favor. Among other matters, Ms. Willis, a Democrat, is investigating at least two phone calls Mr. Graham made to Brad Raffensperger , Georgia’s Republican secretary of state and chief elections official, after the November 2020 election.

☆ Supreme Court denies Sen. Lindsey Graham's bid to avoid testifying in Georgia election interference case
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-01 | by ( Dan Mangan | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +5 min

The Supreme Court on Tuesday denied a request by Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., to block a subpoena demanding his testimony before a Georgia grand jury investigating possible criminal interference in that state's 2020 presidential election. The subpoena to Graham calls for him to testify before the grand jury in Atlanta on Nov. 17. In its order Tuesday, the Supreme Court noted, "The lower courts also made clear that Senator Graham may return to the District Court should disputes arise regarding the application of the Speech or Debate Clause immunity to specific questions. " A day after that loss, Graham asked Thomas, the Supreme Court justice who has authority over emergency applications from 11th Circuit cases, to temporarily block the subpoena. "Secretary Raffensperger said that Senator Graham suggested that Georgia could discard or invalidate large numbers of mail-in ballots from certain areas," the filing said.

☆ Supreme Court rejects Sen. Lindsey Graham's request to block a grand jury subpoena in Georgia election probe
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-01 | by ( Oma Seddiq | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

The Supreme Court denied Lindsey Graham's request to block a grand jury subpoena. A Georgia grand jury is investigating alleged efforts to overturn the 2020 election. In an unsigned order, the nation's highest court dismissed Graham's emergency request to block the subpoena, writing: "a stay or injunction is not necessary to safeguard the Senator's speech or debate clause immunity." Justice Clarence Thomas, who handles emergency matters arising from Georgia, referred the issue to the full Supreme Court after he temporarily halted a lower court ruling ordering Graham to abide by the subpoena. President Donald Trump also called Raffensperger and pressed him to "find" enough votes to swing the state to him.

WASHINGTON — A Georgia prosecutor on Thursday urged the Supreme Court not to block a requirement that Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., testify in an investigation into whether former President Donald Trump and his allies tried to interfere in the 2020 election. She noted that under the lower court ruling, Graham would be immune from questioning about legislative activities and future disputes could be adjudicated by the lower court. On Monday, conservative Justice Clarence Thomas, who handles emergency applications that arise from Georgia, temporarily blocked the grand jury subpoena from being enforced while the court determines its next steps. Willis is investigating a pair of post-election phone calls Graham made to Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger and his staff. As an influential member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Graham helped ensure that Trump was able to make three appointments to the Supreme Court.

☆ 'We're going to hang you': DOJ cracks down on threats to election workers ahead of high-stakes midterms
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-27 | by ( Chelsey Cox | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +8 min

That is just one example of the rising number of violent threats election workers in the days leading up to the Nov. 8 midterms. "These threats against election officials continue," Michael McDonald, a professor of political science at the University of Florida, told CNBC. Additional funding from the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan can also be used to protect election workers, Polite said. DOJ launched an election threats task force in July 2021 to ensure voters are safe at the polls and to look into the rise in threatening behavior against election workers like Moss. Jared Polis signed an act protecting election workers from threats, coercion or intimidation into law.

A South Carolina judge ruled Wednesday that former Trump White House chief of staff Mark Meadows must testify before a special grand jury in Georgia investigating possible interference in the 2020 presidential election. Meadows, who lives in South Carolina, has tried to avoid testifying before the grand jury probe into possible election interference by then-President Donald Trump and his allies. A spokesperson for Willis said Meadows won’t appear before the grand jury until sometime after the midterm elections next month, as the investigation is in a “quiet period” around then. A federal appeals court ruled last week that Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., also must testify before the Fulton County grand jury. Trump's former White House counsel Pat Cipollone and former personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani have also testified before the grand jury.

Oct 26 (Reuters) - Mark Meadows, Donald Trump's former White House chief of staff, was ordered by a South Carolina judge on Wednesday to testify in a Georgia criminal probe investigating whether the former president and his allies broke the law by trying to overturn the 2020 election, according to media reports. The court hearing took place in Pickens County, South Carolina, where Meadows resides, because the Fulton County grand jury technically needs a local judge to approve witness subpoenas for out-of-state residents. Meadows' lawyer, James Bannister, had argued that the grand jury is civil in nature, not criminal, and thus cannot compel his client's testimony. The grand jury probe has already ensnared a number of inner-circle Trump allies, including his personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, who testified before the grand jury in August and has been informed he is a target of the investigation. The petition seeking Meadows' testimony noted that in addition to the Raffensperger call, he also attended a White House meeting in December 2020 with members of Congress to discuss allegations of voter fraud.

☆ Trump White House chief of staff Mark Meadows must testify in Georgia's election meddling probe: judge
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-26 | by ( Warren Rojas | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

A South Carolina judge says Mark Meadows is not immune from testifying in a Georgia grand jury case. Meadows has claimed executive privilege to avoid facing Georgia DA Fani Willis' 2020 election probe. Meadows' lawyer says same defense that's shielded him from the Jan. 6 committee also applies here. Select committee chairman Bennie Thompson told reporters after the panel's last public hearing that the group formally subpoenaed Trump after getting stonewalled by dozens of his personnel. House investigators said more than 30 former Trump aides and allies, including Meadows, have pleaded the Fifth when questioned or simply refused to cooperate with the select committee to date.

☆ Former Trump aide Mark Meadows ordered to testify in Georgia election-meddling probe
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-26 | by ( ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

A South Carolina judge on Wednesday ordered former Trump White House chief of staff Mark Meadows to comply with a Georgia grand jury subpoena demanding his testimony in a probe into potential criminal meddling in the 2020 presidential election. The order came a day after a lawyer for the former South Carolina congressman Meadows said the subpoena issued by the Fulton County grand jury should be blocked for multiple reasons. The grand jury is investigating efforts by former President Donald Trump and his allies to get Georgia election officials to effectively reverse the victory in that state by President Joe Biden. Georgia authorities had to ask a judge in South Carolina to compel Meadows to comply with the subpoena because he is not a resident of Georgia. He said that South Carolina law related to securing the attendance of witnesses for another state in a criminal proceeding would not apply to the one issued for his client.

☆ Former Trump aide Mark Meadows asks South Carolina judge to block Georgia grand jury subpoena in election-meddling probe
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-25 | by ( Dan Mangan | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

Former Trump White House chief of staff Mark Meadows asked a South Carolina judge to block a subpoena demanding his testimony before a Georgia grand jury investigating possible criminal interference in the 2020 presidential election. Meadows' request Monday afternoon came hours after U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas temporarily delayed a similar subpoena that the same grand jury issued to Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C. Meadows, a former Republican congressman, resides in South Carolina. Bannister said the subpoena was moot because it had required Meadows' appearance before the grand jury on Sept. 27. The grand jury in this case does not have the power to criminally charge individuals but can recommend charges.

☆ Clarence Thomas temporarily shielded Lindsey Graham from testifying before a Georgia grand jury investigating attempts to overturn the 2020 election
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-25 | by ( Lauren Frias | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Justice Thomas briefly froze an order calling on Sen. Lindsey Graham to testify in a Georgia 2020 election probe. Last week, Graham filed an emergency application to block his testimony before an Atlanta grand jury. Graham was one of the lawmakers who asked the state's top election official to question absentee ballots, per a WaPo report. But last week's appeal to the Supreme Court wasn't Graham's first attempt to avoid testifying before the Atlanta grand jury. In a 23-page order filed in September, a federal judge rejected Graham's immunity claim, saying she was "unpersuaded by the breadth of Senator Graham's argument."

☆ Justice Clarence Thomas Blocks Georgia Subpoena of Sen. Lindsey Graham
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-24 | by ( Jess Bravin | ) www.wsj.com time to read: +1 min

Sen. Lindsay Graham (R., S.C.) says he is shielded from cooperation with a Georgia grand jury by the Constitution’s Speech or Debate Clause. WASHINGTON—Justice Clarence Thomas on Monday temporarily blocked a Georgia grand jury from compelling Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham to testify in its probe of efforts to subvert President Biden’s 2020 election victory in the state, while the Supreme Court considers the South Carolina lawmaker’s claim that he has congressional immunity from the investigation. The district attorney in Fulton County, Ga., which includes the state capital of Atlanta, has been investigating alleged efforts by former President Donald Trump and his allies to steal victory from Mr. Biden by pressuring election officials to alter the vote count. Mr. Graham, who like Mr. Trump denies wrongdoing, telephoned Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger following the election.

☆ Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas temporarily blocks Sen. Graham's subpoena from Georgia grand jury
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-24 | by ( Dan Mangan | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

Associate Justice Clarence Thomas during the formal group photograph at the Supreme Court in Washington, DC, US, on Friday, Oct. 7, 2022. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas on Monday temporarily blocked a subpoena demanding testimony from South Carolina Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham from a Georgia grand jury investigating election interference by former President Donald Trump. The hold on the subpoena came three days after Graham's attorneys asked Thomas to delay the senator's appearance before the grand jury, which is investigating possible criminal interference in Georgia's presidential election in 2020. On Thursday, a panel of judges on the 11th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals unanimously rejected a request by Graham to temporarily block the subpoena. The conservative justice said the subpoena would be delayed pending further order by Thomas or the Supreme Court.

☆ A Trump White House lawyer wrote in an email that he was 'concerned' about the former president signing a sworn statement verifying inaccurate information on voter fraud, per Axios report
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-22 | by ( Lloyd Lee | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Eric Herschmann, a former White House lawyer, was concerned about a sworn statement Trump ultimately signed. An email obtained by Axios shows the lawyer warned against signing off false claims of voter fraud. The message concerned a lawsuit Trump and his legal team were preparing to file against Georgia Gov. In a statement to Axios Herschmann said, "I am not discussing my conversations with the president or the surrounding circumstances." "The Court finds that these emails are sufficiently related to and in furtherance of a conspiracy to defraud the United States," Carter wrote.

Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., asked the Supreme Court on Friday to halt a subpoena compelling him to testify in a Georgia county prosecutor’s criminal probe of potential interference in the 2020 election. Graham’s request comes a day after a federal appeals court ordered him to testify in the grand jury investigation that has already ensnared Trump allies such as Rudy Giuliani. "Without a stay, Senator Lindsey Graham will soon be questioned by a local Georgia prosecutor and her ad hoc investigative body about his protected 'Speech or Debate' related to the 2020 election," the filing says. The grand jury in Georgia was convened earlier this year to assist Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis' investigation into possible 2020 election interference by former President Donald Trump and others. The grand jury wants to question Graham about the circumstances of two phone calls he made to Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger and his office after the election.

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