Stacey Abrams ended her race to become governor of Georgia last night, but she didn’t concede. Via The Atlanta Journal-Constitution:
In her fiery speech, Abrams cited long lines at voting sites, closed polling stations and the cancellation of hundreds of thousands of voter registrations.
“To watch an elected official who claims to represent the people in this state baldly pin his hopes for election on the suppression of the people’s democratic right to vote has been truly appalling,” Abrams said.
“So, let’s be clear. This is not a speech of concession. Because concession means to acknowledge an action is right, true or proper. As a woman of conscience and faith, I cannot concede that. But my assessment is the law currently allows no further viable remedy…”
“Now, I could certainly bring a new case to keep this one contest alive, but I don’t want to hold public office if I need to scheme my way into the post,” she said.” Because the title of governor isn’t nearly as important as our shared title: voters. And that is why we fight on.”
Good for her. When you’re robbed in broad daylight, you’re under no obligation to make nice to the goddamned thief.
The Times offered the following analysis of the gubernatorial races in Georgia and Florida:
The narrow defeat of Ms. Abrams, who would have become the first black woman to be elected governor anywhere in the United States, as well as the apparent loss of Andrew Gillum, who sought to become Florida’s first black governor, at once illuminated the vestiges of Southern history and demonstrated how demographic changes have taken hold across the region and begun to reshape its politics.
The two candidates ran as unabashed liberals and their strong showings in two pivotal states where Democrats have lately struggled is likely to keep the debate going within the Democratic Party over the best strategy for making gains in 2020. There is significant internal disagreement over which candidates the party ought to put forward and how they should run.
Ya think?
Make no mistake — Gillum was robbed too, but whereas Abrams was mugged in the public square by a smirking racist thug who was (rightly) confident his skin color and gender would allow him to get away with it, the votes stolen from Gillum and every Democrat in Florida were embezzled via a decades-long disenfranchisement project by white collar criminal-style Republicans like Jeb Bush, who piously speak of inclusion and reconciliation while quietly using the levers of white supremacy and patriarchy to tilt the playing field in their party’s favor.
Y’all don’t need me to tell you that that’s a national problem, not a regional one. And that is why we ALL must fight on.
MazeDancer
Revenge Stacey Abrams – write PostCards to elect John Barrow Secretary of State.
Do not let Brian Kemp steal another election.
Runoff is Dec 4th.
PostCards can help boost turnout.
Get addresses: PostCardPatriots.com
Derelict
I REALLY like Stacey Abrams. I’m looking forward to her becoming more prominent in Democratic circles nationally. She’s a fighter, and she strikes me as being incredibly smart and super intelligent. Definitely my kind of leader!
raven
@MazeDancer: I’ll vote for him but I don’t like him one bit.
raven
@Derelict: She is, she’s really awesome.
Betty Cracker
So, we had a cold snap yesterday, and the mister put the heat on last night for the first time in the new house. He accidentally put on auxiliary heat, so it’s like 62 degrees inside! We woke up in a heap of dogs. WTF even is auxiliary heat? Whatever it is, it doesn’t work at our house. Brr!
Joey Maloney
@Betty Cracker: It’s like the auxilliary power on the Enterprise. That never works worth shit either. You need a Scotty or a Geordie down in your engineering room.
It got cool here last night, too, the first below-60 night of the season. I don’t have any real central heat. I might have to go buy a couple more space heaters if this is going to be a cold winter.
Betty Cracker
Meanwhile, my “Boston” terrier is the most cold-natured critter that ever drew breath. If it drops below 70, he insists on burrowing into your shirt or being worn around your neck like a scarf. I think he’s actually a Miami terrier.
@Joey Maloney: ?
MazeDancer
@raven:
As, Mr. Obama says, don’t have to like ’em.
Brian Kemp must be checked.
geg6
Right on, Betty. ✊
Raven
@Betty Cracker: Electric. Heat stripes in your heat pump that supplement when it’s too cold for the heat pump to function properly.
Raven
@MazeDancer: Have you seen Barrow’s phony ass tv ad?
NotMax
Well, the rather important letter I previously kvetched about waiting for, sent priority mail from the mainland, postmarked November 5 finally deigned to arrive on the 16th.
Immanentize
Hello All. Finishing up the snowy weekend in Upstate NY and heading back to Boston this afternoon. Both the Immp and me will be very happy to get back to our home and our cat.
The losses in Georgia and Florida are really heartbreaking. So obviously the product of targetted voter suppression and plain old neglect of our systems.
But Kemp really galls.
Betty
This is Betty in Dominica just checking in again now that we FINALLY have our wi-fi connection, It will be so nice to be in touch with all of you again. I was able to keep up with John and Betty Cracker via twitter.
Immanentize
@Betty: Welcome back!
MazeDancer
The voter rolls in the State of Georgia list “Race”.
Not kidding.
Just got the lists ordered from the current Sec of State last night. And there it is – a long column noting “Black not of Hispanic origin” and “White not of Hispanic origin”, etc.
Why do they need Race??
Also bought and paid for voter rolls from the States of NY, PA, and even Louisiana. No “Race”.
Write PostCards, people.
Seriously, PostCards work. Don’t just shrug this off. Don’t think someone else will do it. You are the Writer we have been waiting for.
We have addresses for Mike Espy and Gwen Collins-Greenup, too.
Please, write.
OzarkHillbilly
@Betty: Welcome back indeed.
HinTN
Well hell, at least Florida and Georgia (and Mississippi, for gawdsakes) are having close races with good candidates. Here in “The Great State of Tennessee” we’re still living the dream.
ETA: Where good candidates get 35% and Republican lite get 40.
trnc
Every democrat running for any office that oversees voting in a voter suppression state should explicitly state that they will never suppress or undermine the vote of any eligible voter, including the ones they expect to vote against them. Put it out there to keep the issue front and center. Every speech.
Kay
Since Republicans won in Ohio this is what they have taken up: anti-abortion bill, stand your ground bill and RTW. Top three priorities- 1. abortion, 2. guns and 3. union-busting.
100% far Right agenda. Nothing on the economy, health care, education or corruption. You’ll be able top watch this state race to the bottom in real time. With Kasich gone we’re going full-bore Trump. No adult supervision. Kasich high-tailed it out of here for New Hampshire.
Immanentize
@Kay: So Wisconsin moved to Ohio?
Betty Cracker
@Kay: And yet they reelected Brown by a healthy margin. WTF, Ohio?
A Ghost To Most
Watching Shit Hitler ramble on with the sound off. No doubt further implicating himself.
I hope the good people of Cali give him a proper un-welcome today.
rikyrah
Good Morning, Everyone ???
rikyrah
I am glad that she didn’t concede either.
Muthaphuckin’ cheat???
rikyrah
@Kay:
Didn’t you have a referendum about unions a few years ago?
debbie
@Derelict:
Yes, she will not back down. Good ol’ boys cannot handle that. I hope she becomces Kemp’s most vocal critic for however many years he has in office.
rikyrah
@MazeDancer:
You got postcards for the Secretary of State race in Georgia?
rikyrah
@Betty:
Welcome back!????
debbie
@Kay:
They also solved the Rodan murders (8 people in southern Ohio) just two days after the election. Coincidence? I think not.
rikyrah
@MazeDancer:
Thanks. Had not read all the comments yet…lol
debbie
@rikyrah:
Kasich’s first act was to try and end public employee unions. It failed spectacularly. I wonder how long it will take DeWine to try the same.
Balconesfault
Thanks”Justice Roberts”!
rikyrah
I still say the Referendum 4 passing is a gamechanger in Florida. The DNC needs to start NOW!
Find the ex-felon population and register them to vote.
You need to start NOW for 2020
Ian R
@Betty Cracker: You can tell I live in the northeast. Until that last line, I was right with you about people turning up the heat way too high. 62! Sounds like something my roommate would do.
Then I realized you meant that was cold.
rikyrah
The DNC also needs to try and get on the ballot:
Same day registration
Early voting
No reason Mail ballot
Get them on the ballot in as many states as possible for 2020.
Baud
@rikyrah: Good morning.
@Kay: Elections have consequences.
@Betty: Yay!
Baud
@Balconesfault: The country has changed.
Rp
@Betty Cracker: ha! My Boston is the same. She likes it to be between 70 and 85 with no rain or humidity.
Arm The Homeless
This Florida Man wants the next Dem President to BRAC the shit out of recalcitrant GOP states, including Floriduh. I am sure there are some bases that can be consolidated into existing ones, or outright eliminated.
If these Fascists want to tear down our democracy, we don’t have to subsidize their economies.
A Ghost To Most
@Ian R: Perhaps BC’s new house is not insulated, at least not to NE standards.
Betty Cracker
@rikyrah: Agreed. And like I said the other day, I think we need a ballot initiative in FL to stop the election fuckery. It benefits the GOP, so they’re sure as hell not gonna fix it. I don’t know if GA does ballot initiatives, but if so, Georgians should take a look at that option too.
debbie
@Betty Cracker:
Every state should do that. Plain language instructions so everyone will know ahead of time.
OzarkHillbilly
@debbie: Think positive: I hope she becomces Kemp’s most vocal critic for the 1 and a half years he has in office.
Immanentize
@Baud: Has it changed? Or just shifted around? Some days I think one thing, some days the other. There are many hopeful signs that change is pretty well spread around. Georgia, Texas, Nevada, Arizona, California — better! Even Wisconsin and Pennsylvania are trending in the right direction. But Ohio and Florida, old bellweathers, going in a not positive direction….
Immanentize
@Arm The Homeless:
I have a similar idea — it’s the “No Welfare State!” Movement. No State should receive federal taxes in excess of whatever taxes they put into the federal goverment’s till.
OzarkHillbilly
@Betty Cracker: @Rp: Sounds like my Mediterranean born wife.
MomSense
@Ian R:
Ha! Me too.
CarolDuhart2
Top priority: non-partisan administration of elections. It doesn’t matter how we vote, if cheaters can game the system or we depend on too many untrained volunteers. I was shocked, first in 2000, and now, how we allow partisan administration of this process. No other contest allows this. Referees aren’t players in any other contest. We need to end this, and professionalize this process so the people working on elections have no other interest other than what other citizens do..
Vote by mail-we really do need to end the lines and the misappropriated election machines. Even if everybody is on the up and up, something is bound to break down just because of mechanical wear and tear and age. Vote by mail needs fewer machines.
Standardize ballot design templates. Ballots are just another kind of business form, and there’s no reason this can’t be done.
Extended voting in person where it works best. As we long ago gave up the Christmas Eve rush, we need to minimize the Election Day rush.
That’s my suggestions for today regarding Election Reform. Disappointed in both Florida and Georgia, but elated that black people came damn near winning both. Twenty years ago, it might have been a sacrificial lamb run for both Gillum and Abrams. People were actually prepared to vote them in, and they would have except for cheating.
OzarkHillbilly
@Immanentize: Used to be as Misery went, so went the country (in presidential elections) for like over a hundred years. That changed with Obama.
Ian R
@A Ghost To Most: Insulated? I leave my windows open in my room, because my flatmate wants to keep it over 60 in the apartment (and never pays his share of the gas bill anyway, so I might as well be comfortable). This time of year, my body isn’t set up for more than 40 degrees F.
Quinerly
I sure thought the Mia Love race had been called for the Dem. Love has pulled ahead in the count. Damn.
Oh, and good morning from Poco and his tribe. We are starting the great penny floor project shortly. 13,000 pennies ready to go! Wish us luck. Have a great day, jackals!
Matt McIrvin
@Quinerly: That seems to be a very rare case of a race where the late ballots are disproportionately breaking Republican. Love’s going to win it. More races called Republican on election night have flipped the other way, though.
538 seems to think that of the few remaining outstanding House races, more are leaning Republican than Democratic. But that still comes out to a 39-seat pickup for the Democrats.
Quinerly
Poco gives sausage scented wrapping paper 4 paws up (and falls over on a very startled John Lennon, fearless rescue kitty). Pork products make Poco clumsy, but I digress.
https://www.foodbeast.com/news/jimmy-dean-sausage-scented-wrapping-paper/?utm_source=partnerships&utm_medium=facebook&utm_campaign=thrillist
gene108
@Immanentize:
I think about this too, but I believe a lot of folks, in places like MS and AL, who receive government assistance are probably African Americans and they aren’t the ones voting Republican.
What we really need is for Republican voters to live under unrestrained Republican rule, while the rest of us live with a government not burdened by dealing with Republicans
Betty Cracker
@Quinerly: Yeah, that sucks, but the silver lining is that if Love wins, it will give the Shitgibbon heartburn after his creepy-ass, petulant comment about her the other day.
Ladyraxterinok
@CarolDuhart2: Many states have way too many problems with absentee votes–last counted, not counted, etc.
Platonailedit
Just caught a fleeting glimpse of a cnn ‘panel’ anchored by some woman, where a rethug claimed that he personally saw Obama volunteers stuffing ballots for him in PA in 2012. A state Obama won by 5%. And the moron anchor lady let it slide with zero push back.
I am actually happy that the totus thug is laying it into the media including cnn. He knows, just like him, how corrupt and venal they are.
Zippity
@CarolDuhart2: I can’t agree with you more! This would be such a game changer. And it’s an indictment of the current system when fair, non-partial administration of elections is considered an advantage for the Democratic Party.
I’m lucky to live in an Illinois county where the Clerk of Court really wants everyone to be able to vote. It makes such a difference, and there isn’t any valid reason to make voting so difficult.
The new House majority starting off focusing on voting rights is a wonderful and strategic beginning. I think most people want everyone to vote and are fair-minded, if they don’t-they’d never vote for a Democrat anyway.
Quinerly
@Betty Cracker: yep. His comments are the only reason she really got back on my radar. In other news, Trump is still blaming forest management and leaves as he leaves for CA this AM.
Betty Cracker
@Quinerly: To paraphrase what I just said on Twitter, the moron will throw rakes at Californians like he tossed paper towels at Puerto Ricans. He’s a disgrace.
MazeDancer
@rikyrah:
You name it, we got it.
SoS in Georgia.
SoS in Louisiana
Senate in Georgia
Write we must!
Immanentize
@Betty Cracker: I was thinking this very same thing. Mia Love has already broken ranks once or twice. I wonder if we are about to see a Mormon Caucus in Congress. Mitt’s destiny.
SiubhanDuinne
@MazeDancer:
Just ordered 25 each for Barrow and Espy!
SiubhanDuinne
@Quinerly:
Please document this project with lots of pictures!
Miss Bianca
@Betty:oh, yay, you’re back among us! Did it really take that long to get your internet back??! : (
Tokyokie
I remember back in 2000, while watching the Florida recount drama on teevee, a group of students from Florida A&M was protesting outside the governor’s office in Tallahassee, and they’d chant, “What about the students! What about the students!” whenever a network news reader would do a stand-up from the location. I recall that the bit of fuckery that targeted the FAMU students was moving the campus polling site to a different location not especially near campus, and when the students went there, they discovered that it wasn’t where they were supposed to vote, and nobody seemed to know where they were supposed to go. Bear in mind that FAMU is a historically black college, and its students, had they been allowed to vote, would have voted overwhelmingly in favor of Al Gore. AND THAT THIS ALONE WAS ENOUGH TO PROVIDE GEORGE W. BUSH HIS MARGIN OF “VICTORY.”
Anyway, the anchors back in Atlanta asked what the hubbub was all about, and the Ken doll didn’t know. Which is to say, the story of voter suppression was literally right under his nose, and he refused to see it.
That’s the moment I stopped watching any network news. (I haven’t missed it a bit.) But the story hasn’t changed in 20 years. Racism and voter suppression (which are largely one the same) are all the GOP has to achieve power.
Hell, yes, we need a federal law to protect people’s sacred right to vote. And the criminal sanction should be life imprisonment, and I say that only because I’m against capital punishment.
MazeDancer
@SiubhanDuinne:
Thanks!
The first order of what we hope are hundreds more!
Fresh addresses, just delivered overnight.
Quinerly
@SiubhanDuinne: I will once I get going. Check out Poco’s last Book of Faces posting. He has assumed his work position.
gene108
@CarolDuhart2:
Lots of fuckery with signatures not matching.
Need to professionalize the process first and foremost
Betty Cracker
@gene108: Agreed. I like the idea of voting by mail, but as a Floridian, I wouldn’t do it, not with the incompetents and crooks currently running the shit-show. Mail-in ballots have a history of being trashed in this state.
Luthe
@gene108: I wonder if this isn’t something machine learning could improve on. I mean, even as people’s signatures evolve (mine have gotten worse in the past few years), certain characteristics remain the same. Teach a machine to analyze similarities and differences between signatures and then scan the signatures as they come in. A lot of guesswork, human error, and partisanship would be removed from the process (though there would need to be random audits of the machine). Voters could still appeal rejected ballots.
CarolDuhart2
@Ladyraxterinok: I’m thinking of the Oregon approach-all mail voting combined with non-partisan election management. Like City Manager but for elections. Let’s face it-the way we do it now is already collapsing under the strain of too many people in line who have too few hours to vote in and too long a ballot. Back in 1820 we had a smaller electorate-no women, fewer minorities of any kind, fewer offices-and a work life where taking off a whole day wasn’t a deal breaker. I mean most were farmers who had little to do besides daily chores and who could walk the few miles to town it took to vote. Standing in line just wasn’t an issue when lines were shorter. And its going to get worse once we find a way to make illegal immigrants legal somehow, and more states take up initiatives-even longer lines and ballots.
dww44
@raven: Is your dislike rooted in his mealy mouthed centrism? His last TV ad in which he was appealing for white Republican votes and turning his back on those being disenfranchised did not further endear him to me. I met him early in the campaign ahead of the primaries and he was saying the right words then. I’ve long believed that Democrats here should be unabashed liberals, no matter their skin color or gender.
Just Chuck
@Luthe: Another possibility is FUCK THE SIGNATURE COMPARISONS completely and totally and forever. The signature is just a mark one puts on there as an explicit affirmation that they were present and approved whatever was on the form. Its only purpose is so that one can be asked “is this your signature?” later under penalty of perjury. My credit card company doesn’t require that kind of analysis, so why the fuck should someone use that as a basis to go meddling around with the ballot I have a fucking RIGHT to cast?
Skepticat
@Derelict:
What derelict said.
@NotMax: My absentee ballot, sent air mail on September 19, arrived here in the Bahamas last week (though admittedly it might have spent time on the big island before getting to this small cay). Happily, it’s only the hard copy backup to my online ballot, which was accepted and counted October 24.
Carolyn
Here’s some excerpts from an email from the Stacy Abrams campaign I received yesterday.
“Today I announce the launch of Fair Fight Georgia, an operation that will pursue accountability in Georgia’s elections and integrity in the process of maintaining our voting rolls. In the coming days, we will be filing a major federal lawsuit against the state of Georgia for the gross mismanagement of this election and to protect future elections from unconstitutional actions.
We will channel the work of the past several weeks into a strong legal demand for reform of our elections system in Georgia.
Fair Fight Georgia. Because these votes are our voices.”
Sab
@Betty Cracker: As an Ohioan I think voting by mail has its limitations.
We had a mayoral election about ten years ago where fully 10% of the mail in ballots couldn’t be counted because the Cleveland post office couldn’t be bothered to cancel the mail, so it couldn’t be proved they were timely mailed.
Nothing crooked. Nothing political. Just a different bureaucracy with different issues.
PJ
@Just Chuck: If you get rid of the signature, then they’ll foist Voter ID on everyone, which will be the opportunity to putting up more obstacles to obtaining the ID and sending it out to voters in a timely fashion. And if you lose the card in the weeks before the election, sucks to be you, you can’t vote.
sgrAstar
@Betty: yay, Betty! Good to know you’re with us again.
Hob
@PJ: I don’t think Chuck was saying get rid of the signature – just get rid of the attempt to compare the signature on one form, some unknown amount of time ago, to the signature on a different form. There is no legal obligation for people to keep their signature consistent over time (I know mine changed drastically over a couple of years when I had a job that required me to sign about 10000 pieces of paperwork every day). The person who is qualified to say whether a given piece of paper was signed by me is me, or a notary.