NEW: the Georgia House Special Committee on Election Integrity is meeting at 3 this afternoon and just added HB 531 - a 48 page omnibus elections bill that proposes a *lot* of changes. #gapol

Here's the text:

First, it would ban county elections offices from receiving outside funding to run elections.

This, after CTCL and Schwarzenegger gave money to both D and R counties in 2020 to help with pandemic.

(although I wonder if the county gov't could take the grant, then disburse?)
Next, it outlines ways that poll workers can serve adjacent counties (currently, you can only work in your county of residence)
This section mirrors an SOS-backed bill from 2020 that would require more machines, more poll workers or splitting up precincts if a 2,000+ person precinct has lines of more than an hour.

More on that proposal: https://t.co/7BfIcrI81q
This is an anti-Fulton County mobile voting bus section

(although I still believe that it's using the wrong code section since the busses are for *early* voting and fall under 21-2-382)
Current law requires 1 ballot-marking device per 250 active voters in a precinct for Election Day.

This would keep that for general elections, but allow flexibility for primaries, runoffs and other elections, based on expected turnout+early voting numbers.
This tweaks language about notice of Logic & Accuracy testing, making this very boring and very necessary piece of the voting process more publicly known.
This section is big:

-Earliest request for absentee ballot is 11 weeks before election, latest is 2 Fridays before election

-Application has DL# or state ID# or copy of photo ID, both paper+online

-No gov't/elections office can directly send an absentee ballot application
Drop boxes: allowed at early voting sites, only open during early voting hours, and close once early voting closes.

Also requires constant supervision by election official/poll worker/security/law enforcement.
Absentees:

Most would be sent out starting ~4 weeks before the election (except federal UOCAVA)

Outer absentee envelopes would also require DL #/ID # or last four of Social Security number - and all that would be hidden by envelope design until opened.
Instant runoff ranked-choice voting for UOCAVA voters, although it looks like it gets rid of electronic ballots.
Wow - this section would disallow counties from adding extra weekend early voting hours, and require 9A-5P (with the ability to extend to 7A-7P if needed)

That makes it harder for people that don't have job flexibility, large metro counties+nonwhite voters...
This section gets rid of signature verification, because election workers would be verifying DL # or SSN and Date of Birth.

Also, allows counties to begin processing absentee ballots no earlier than two weeks before election and no later than a week before.
These two sections provide more info about partisan poll watchers, and then bans "line warming" and people giving water or food to people in line (usually at polling places that have long lines)
This section would get rid of out-of-precinct provisionals.
This section would require a bipartisan panel to duplicate ballots that can't be properly scanned.
Georgia's HB 531 would also move up the certification deadline to... the Monday after the election, instead of the Friday after.

That would make a whole lot more work for local officials that have to count all the votes and ensure they're correct.
In the hearing, Fleming says this section provides "uniformity" on dates and times.

But out of GA's 159 counties, some rural counties have as much population county-wide as a single precinct in metro ATL.

It's uniform but unequal.

https://t.co/E5bzMwkQ8z
Dean of the House Rep. Calvin Smyre (D-Columbus) speaking now, and says he doesn't see the rush to make all of these changes, since it's a big bill with a lot of changes.

"There's nothing more important fundamentally than a person's right and the the privilege of voting."
Story: Georgia Republicans File Sweeping Elections Bill That Limits Early, Absentee Voting

https://t.co/rFv60saT5a

More from Government

Oh my Goodness!!!

I might have a panic attack due to excitement!!

Read this thread to the end...I just had an epiphany and my mind is blown. Actually, more than blown. More like OBLITERATED! This is the thing! This is the thing that will blow the entire thing out of the water!


Has this man been concealing his true identity?

Is this man a supposed 'dead' Seal Team Six soldier?

Witness protection to be kept safe until the right moment when all will be revealed?!

Who ELSE is alive that may have faked their death/gone into witness protection?


Were "golden tickets" inside the envelopes??


Are these "golden tickets" going to lead to their ultimate undoing?

Review crumbs on the board re: 'gold'.


#SEALTeam6 Trump re-tweeted this.
Caveat: This article is sourced from @Daily_Express !!!

"End of Sturgeon?"

Frankly, an appropriate response from @NicolaSturgeon might be to quote the infamous Mark Twain response to an erroneous 'obituary' known to all...

"The reports of my demise are greatly exaggerated."

https://t.co/Ce1xVVISR2

More accurately, the media have quoted:

"Ms Sturgeon said she had a “real job to do” and was focused on guiding Scotland through the Covid-19 pandemic."

It's very reassuring to hear that @scotgov and @ScotGovFM have prioritised safeguarding lives and Scotland, above all else.

"I’ll leave others to play games or politics. I have got a real job to do and people can decide themselves whether I am doing it well or not, but I am absolutely 100 per cent focused on leading this country through a pandemic."

💯% 😀👍

Making her priorities crystal clear!

“That’s what I’ve done since this time last year and it’s what I’m going to continue to do for absolutely as long as necessary.”

And again, making it absolutely crystal clear!

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Still wondering about this 🤔


save as q
So the cryptocurrency industry has basically two products, one which is relatively benign and doesn't have product market fit, and one which is malignant and does. The industry has a weird superposition of understanding this fact and (strategically?) not understanding it.


The benign product is sovereign programmable money, which is historically a niche interest of folks with a relatively clustered set of beliefs about the state, the literary merit of Snow Crash, and the utility of gold to the modern economy.

This product has narrow appeal and, accordingly, is worth about as much as everything else on a 486 sitting in someone's basement is worth.

The other product is investment scams, which have approximately the best product market fit of anything produced by humans. In no age, in no country, in no city, at no level of sophistication do people consistently say "Actually I would prefer not to get money for nothing."

This product needs the exchanges like they need oxygen, because the value of it is directly tied to having payment rails to move real currency into the ecosystem and some jurisdictional and regulatory legerdemain to stay one step ahead of the banhammer.
This is a pretty valiant attempt to defend the "Feminist Glaciology" article, which says conventional wisdom is wrong, and this is a solid piece of scholarship. I'll beg to differ, because I think Jeffery, here, is confusing scholarship with "saying things that seem right".


The article is, at heart, deeply weird, even essentialist. Here, for example, is the claim that proposing climate engineering is a "man" thing. Also a "man" thing: attempting to get distance from a topic, approaching it in a disinterested fashion.


Also a "man" thing—physical courage. (I guess, not quite: physical courage "co-constitutes" masculinist glaciology along with nationalism and colonialism.)


There's criticism of a New York Times article that talks about glaciology adventures, which makes a similar point.


At the heart of this chunk is the claim that glaciology excludes women because of a narrative of scientific objectivity and physical adventure. This is a strong claim! It's not enough to say, hey, sure, sounds good. Is it true?