The runoff has started + this week’s schedule
The runoff has started + this week’s schedule
The Update - 11/28/2022
Welcome to my freemium newsletter by me, King Williams. A documentary filmmaker, journalist, podcast host, and author based in Atlanta, Georgia. This is a newsletter covering the hidden connections of Atlanta to everything else.
This week’s schedule
This week’s schedule will be a little different, there will be two emails a day, all coinciding with the US Senate runoff election + national/local analysis.
In the morning will be the traditional news update + some bonus articles for premium subscribers starting Wednesday. In the evening will be a continuation of my history focused writings. All of which will be on the history of how Black people became staunch supporters of the Democratic Party. If you would like to catch up on the series, please check out part one and part two below.
Part Two: When the Democrats and Republicans switched sides (Yes, it happened and don't let people tell you otherwise)
1. The Warnock vs Walker runoff has started!
The US Senate runoff between Warnock and Walker has started. This is the last US Senate race with a slew of more importance as a 51-member Dem majority gives the Biden administration a fighting chance against a majority GOP House.
This comes after two recent rulings in favor of opening access to early voting, were won in court much to the chagrin of Republicans in the state legislature who wanted to wait until Monday.
Normally, the early voting period would’ve begun at or before Black Friday. But due to SB202 and the shortened early voting period, the time between a runoff is now 4 weeks versus 9 weeks as it was in 2020/21. This has resulted in a problem as some counties did not fully certify results until last week. This also puts a strain on general measures of staffing and being prepared to take in a new election.
In addition, all absentee ballot requests must be made now to ensure delivery. The last day to make a request for an absentee ballot is today, November 28th. While the last day to turn in your absentee ballot is on election day, Tuesday, December 6th. You can verify your status here.
Long lines to vote are back
A Georgia voting tradition, long voting lines have returned. Voting lines in mostly non-white and Democratic counties Fulton, Cobb, and DeKalb have seen people experienced over an hour wait times to vote. Since the start of early voting, this week over 181,000 people have already voted. This includes 70,000 people who voted on Saturday and 87,000 people who voted on Sunday. Add in the current mail-in votes, it’s likely that Georgia has surpassed 200,000 votes already.
It must be noted that early voting issues has happened primarily in counties with larger Democrat voters but Republican stronghold Cherokee County has also experienced precincts with 2+ hour wait times. People have been documenting their long wait times in Gwinnett, in Athenst, in metro cities Clarkston, in Dunwoody, and in Marietta to name a few. In addition, most counties will be open with early voting locations tomorrow but given the compressed week of voting, there still is a possibility of long lines. This is the only week of voting in the runoff, otherwise you must show up December 6th.
Other early voting tidbits:
What’s notable about this early voting period is that:
27 counties opened for early, early voting of Thanksgiving holiday
Of those 27 counties, they represent over 50% of the entire voting population
Not a single county in Georgia Congresswoman’s Marjorie Taylor Greene’s district, GA-14 (which also includes a sliver of ‘blue’ Cobb) was open for voting
Black voters were 46% of the overall total of the early, early voting period
Women voters were 56.5% of the turnout
A surprising 13% of all voters were under 30
2. The entire system of runoffs in Georgia was created to disenfranchise Black people.
The runoffs were created to stop newly enfranchised Black voters in the 1960s. Seriously. Georgia’s legacy of voter suppression is well over a century dating back to post-Reconstruction era of anti-Black voting sentiments. In addition to fallout of the 1906 Atlanta Race Massacre and the election of eventual Governor Hoke Smith, who ran on a campaign of Black disenfranchisement. Smith kept to his word, starting in 1907, the state’s first mass disenfranchisement of Black political participation began.
How is a runoff system racist?
TL/DR, the backlash to both the civil rights movement and the series of federal laws created to integrate Black Americans into broader society. In the 1960s Georgia’s all-white lawmakers were scared of Black (Atlanta primarily) Georgians rising to statewide power by gaining a plurality of votes. By stipulating the requirement that the winner of any race receives 50.1% of the vote, it created as a hedge to keep statewide elections out of reach as white Georgians were over 70% of the population and staunchly anti-Black. It worked. So much so that even by 1990 under President George H. Bush, that an inquiry into Georgia’s electoral system occurred but nothing ever came of it.
The runoff system has been aided by a series of gerrymandering for decades that has reduced the likelihood of a Black candidate could win in a statewide race. That was largely true until the 2000s and then with greater success throughout the 2010s as the white population has both declined while also seeing a broader base of non-conservative white voters emerge in the state.
2b. A ‘state holiday’ honoring Robert E. Lee was the other reason for the delay in the start of the early voting period
This year, the proposed early voting period was also condensed due to an observation of a ‘state holiday’, a state holiday meant to observe Confederate General Robert E. Lee’s birthday. Seriously. That law was changed to a general ‘state holiday’ under former Governor Nathan Deal.
While his predecessor (newly re-elected) Governor Brian Kemp signed a law in 2021 (a middle finger to all of 2020’s protests and efforts) by observing only twelve official state holidays but not the newly proposed holiday of Juneteenth, which was just added this year. It must be noted that there are still two ‘state holidays’ with direct ties to the confederacy—Confederate Memorial Day in April and Robert E. Lee’s birthday (which is January 19th), but then moved in 2015 to November, to the last Friday in November.
FWIW: Friday, November 25th was also the 107th anniversary of the second founding of the Klu Klux Klan on the top of Stone Mountain Park.
For more on Georgia’s love affair with racism. I would suggest I would recommend reading my previous newsletter entries, Stone Mountain and the history of the KKK Part One and Part Two.
Part One: What is Stone Mountain, Stone Mountain Village, and Shermantown?
Part Two: Confederate monuments have nothing to do with history
3. Georgia Speaker of the House David Ralston has died
Former Georgia Speaker of the House David Ralston has died. Ralston's (R-Blue Ridge), death came 12 days following his announcement that he would not seek another term as Speaker. Ralston’s successor has been selected, John Burns (R-Bulloch County). Burns’s official vote won’t happen until the new House convenes on Jan. 9th. It must be noted that Bulloch, at 68 has run unopposed for several years in his district, thus giving the heavily older and Republican lawmaker the necessary stability needed.
4. Wife of Rayshard Brooks receives a $ 1m settlement
Today the city of Atlanta, unanimously agreed to a $1 million dollar settlement with the wife of Rayshard Brooks. The move comes as the city is closing out all remaining litigation regarding the summer of 2020. This will also likely lead to a series of multimillion-dollar settlements with police who were fired or suspended. This includes the officers who killed Brooks as well as the six who were suspended by then-mayor KLB including two who were fired after being caught on live tv tasing two AUC students.
5. Kemp’s ‘heartbeat’ bill upheld
After a Fulton County judge stopped Georgia’s 6-week abortion ban aka the ‘Heartbeat Bill’, it was restored after a recent appeal. The bill’s passage and reestablishment via the court represents the strength of the Georgia GOP. A GOP who’ve ran a clean sweep in the state elections earlier this month along side a decade of court stacking by both former Governor Nathan Deal during his tenure and continuing under Governor Brian Kemp. Meaning the Georgia GOP is likely to go even more extreme now they have maintained their super majorities.
Fwiw, the Fulton judge, in this case, left a very terse note in the ruling. Citing the very ahistorical, nor medically accurate of the pro-birth/anti-abortion movement. The judge was correct, but that won’t matter now.
From my September newsletter: Stacey Abrams's abortion comment - (9/22/22)
TL/DR what is a ‘fetal heartbeat’
There is no such thing as a ‘fetal heartbeat’, because, at 4-6 weeks, there is no heart, there is only an embryo and embryos do not have hearts. An embryo does not become a fetus until around 10 weeks, and the four chambers of the heart do not develop until 17-20 weeks. The ‘heartbeat’ sound being heard is the collection of cells and electrical pulses that will eventually create a heart. Most often it’s the sound of the ultrasound machine itself. While medical experts agree the naming effort is deliberately misleading. While actual fetal heartbeats and the need to monitor a heartbeat happen much later in the pregnancy cycle.
Now that a judge is likely to uphold this appeal and the prospects of any more state challenges seem to be declining, expect most challengers to move on. But there is likely going to be a challenge to this law using the 4th and 8th amendments, regarding a right to privacy that could emerge but considering the wishy washy nature of conservative judges regarding their constitutional interpretations there’s no telling how that challenge could land. Most likely limiting the scope search, surveillance, and penalty for having an abortion but upholding the right of state’s to deny it.
The political strategy in a 6-week anti-abortion bills
The bill is likely to be challenged in state court where the GOP has a much larger advantage. Under Kemp and Deal the state courts, including the State Supreme Court have been overwhelmingly stacked with Republican appointees. Should another challenge be made to the US Supreme Court, it’s likely to make an even more significant ruling of a 6-week national ban.
This may not stop at abortion
This also would likely prompt a new aim from state lawmakers heading into the 2023 legislative session where the supermajorities in the state house and state senate + controls on the upper chambers of government will now play a much bigger role.
Other Red Clay News:
PATH400, the Buckhead version of the Atlanta Beltline, is undergoing construction on a $12.8m pathway between Wieuca Road and Loridans Dr.
Interim Police Chief Darin Schierbaum has now been officially selected as the new Chief of Police for the Atlanta Police Department.
Comedians Eric Andre and Clayton English are suing Clayton County over treatment at the Atlanta airport.
Morehouse College has become the first college to have courses within the metaverse. Morehouse will teach Black History.
Texas-based fast food chain Whataburger has opened its first location in Kennesaw today.
-KJW