We Did it: Georgia’s election was a disaster, but not because they counted slow — Jacksonville the frontrunner to host GOP convention

Jun 11, 2020

Presented by We Can Vote

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Quick Fix

— Georgia's primary was the latest disastrous election held in the midst of the pandemic. But the disaster isn't that it is taking a long time to count ballots.

— Jacksonville, Fla., is now the frontrunner to hold most of the Republican convention after President Donald Trump pulled out of Charlotte, N.C.

— Jon Ossoff won the Democratic Senate nomination outright in Georgia, after an extended vote count saw him squeak past the threshold to avoid a runoff.

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Good Thursday morning. Email me at zmontellaro@politico.com, or follow me on Twitter at @ZachMontellaro.

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Days until the Kentucky, New York and Virginia primaries and Mississippi, North Carolina and South Carolina primary runoffs: 12

Days until the Democratic convention: 67

Days until the Republican convention: 75

Days until the 2020 election: 145

TopLine

PANDEMIC ELECTIONS — The serious failures in Georgia on Tuesday dominated the headlines. But the Peach State was not alone — and its issues go far beyond just a slow vote count.

Across the country, election officials of both parties and voting rights advocates have warned that counting votes could take a lot longer than usual. Election administrators in the best of times can take a while to count votes. But due in no small part due to the expected influx of mail-in voting, they're warning that it is possible — if not probable — that America won't know the winner of the presidency by the time it goes to bed on the night of Nov. 3. The drum-beat on this is steady and constant, and shouldn't be a surprise to longtime readers of Score, or to those who have anxiously awaited recent primary returns.

A common refrain? We'd rather get it done right than quickly. "This rush to judgment so that the networks can declare a winner by 11 [p.m.] — I just think we have to just exhale a little bit," former Pennsylvania Republican Gov. Tom Ridge, who is the co-chair of the new bipartisan group VoteSafe, said last month. "The notion that this country needs to know before they go to bed on the night of November 3, I think is a myth." Prepare for this in swing states, too. "We are preparing folks now for the reality that we may not know any results, or even want to announce any results in Michigan until maybe even Thursday or Friday after the election," Jocelyn Benson, Michigan's Democratic secretary of state, told Score recently.

A woman reads in line to vote | AP Photo

Some Georgia voters had to wait in lines that stretched to up to six hours long to cast their ballot on Tuesday. But Georgia isn't the only state struggling. | AP Photo/John Bazemore

Where the American election system is failing right now is with actually servicing voters. In the midst of a pandemic, voters are being asked again, and again, and again and again to stand in hours-long lines to exercise their right to vote. A constant across many of these states? Voters who requested an absentee ballot but ultimately never received it. They are then forced to choose between not voting at all or waiting in line for, in worse-case scenarios, up to six hours. This happened on Tuesday in Georgia, but it is by no means unique to Georgia.

And voters of color are disproportionately bearing this burden. A new study from the Brennan Center found that Black and Latino voters "were more likely than white voters to report particularly long wait times, and they waited longer generally" in the 2018 midterms. On average, Black and Latino voters waited about 45 percent longer in line than white voters in the midterms — a problem that will likely be exacerbated by the havoc coronavirus has wreaked on American elections. From Milwaukee to Atlanta, activists have decried exceptionally long lines in recent elections in communities where minority voters live..

It might take longer than usual to know who the president is in November. Is it ideal? No, given the good- and bad-faith questions that will come from delays in vote-tallying. But election officials are warning about that possibility now, and trying to set the public's (and media's) expectations. But so far, election administrators have seemingly struggled to find a solution to why voters are waiting for hours to cast their ballot, and the clock is ticking until November.

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Presidential Big Board

CONVENTION SPOTTING — Republicans appear to be headed to Florida for their convention. Republican leaders in the state are publicly acknowledging that Jacksonville is the leading contender, POLITICO Florida's Matt Dixon reported. ( The Washington Post's Annie Linskey and Josh Dawsey were the first to report Jacksonville's frontrunner status.) More from Matt: "RNC Chair Ronna McDaniel on Wednesday said Jacksonville was on the shortlist to host the event, but saying any talk of a done deal was 'premature.'"

But some of the convention will still likely take place in Charlotte. Bloomberg's Jennier Jacobs, Josh Wingrove and Emma Kinery reported, citing "sources familiar," that "a smaller group of officials would still meet in Charlotte the week before, and formally nominate Trump and Vice President Mike Pence, but the two candidates wouldn't attend. The delegates would adopt the party's policy platform in Jacksonville."

THE REELECT — Trump will hold his first rally in months in Tulsa, Okla., on June 19, with future rallies in Florida, Texas, Arizona and North Carolina, per POLITICO's Max Cohen.

Down the Ballot

Jon Ossoff | AP Photo

Democrat Jon Ossoff outright won the Georgia Senate nomination and will face GOP Sen. David Perdue in November. | David Goldman, File/AP Photo

MORE CALLS — Ossoff has won the nomination outright in Georgia, and will face GOP Sen. David Perdue in November. As more votes were counted on Wednesday, Ossoff inched across the 50 percent mark to secure the nomination. Campaign Pro's James Arkin has more on the race. Former Columbus Mayor Teresa Tomlinson, who is in a distant second, also immediately endorsed Ossoff once the race was called (but not before sending an email out earlier in the day saying that it "appears that for the third time in his political career, Jon Ossoff has failed to break the 50 percent").

The AP has also reversed its call in GA-13. Initially, the wire service said longtime Rep. David Scott was headed to a runoff against former state Rep. Keisha Waites. But as more votes were counted, Scott pushed past that 50 percent mark. As of Wednesday night, the race was officially "too close to call."

Also worth reading: The Atlanta-Journal Constitution has been busting it to cover the fallout from their state's disastrous election. Mark Niesse has a good piece looking at how Tuesday's problems amps up the focus on November. And Ben Brasch has a look at Fulton County, which was the epicenter of a lot of the struggles: Many "frustrated by the county's performance said conditions were building for a perfect storm of failure. New voting machines, unprepared precincts and a global pandemic all added to the chaos. Final vote tallies aren't expected until Friday."

THE GOVERNATORS — We have a tight race in the Utah Republican gubernatorial primary. In a poll for The Salt Lake Tribune conducted by Suffolk University, Lt. Gov. Spencer Cox was at 32 percent to 30 percent for former Gov. Jon Huntsman. Former state House Speaker Greg Hughes was at 14 percent and former state party chair Thomas Wright was at 8 percent (500 likely GOP primary voters; June 4-7; +/- 4.4 percentage point MOE).

The primary is set for June 30, so candidates have a real limited amount of time to make a move. Another complicating factor is that Utah conducts its elections predominantly by mail, and some counties started mailing out their ballots to voters on Tuesday. Another difficulty for Huntsman: He announced on Wednesday that he tested positive for coronavirus, and so have six people in his campaign office. "We're working remotely. We haven't missed a beat. And we won't miss a beat. We'll just keep it up," Huntsman said. "I'll keep you posted from time-to-time from where I am."

THE HOUSE MAP — The latest odd turn in the NJ-02 Democratic primary to face party-switching Republican Rep. Jeff Van Drew, from POLITICO New Jersey's Matt Friedman : Former Rep. Patrick Kennedy (D-R.I.), "the husband of New Jersey congressional candidate Amy Kennedy, was paid nearly $60,000 to deliver a speech last year in Albania to a controversial group that opposes the current regime in Iran but was considered a terrorist organization by the United States until 2012." Matt notes that the group, the People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran (MEK), had support from "prominent politicians from both major U.S. political parties … often because of its opposition to the Iranian regime," and a spokesperson for Amy Kennedy noted that Sen. Bob Menendez (D-N.J.) also supports MEK.

THE PROCESS — Democrats are abandoning a lawsuit in state court in Texas to try to expand absentee voting in the state, but federal litigation continues on, The Texas Tribune's Alexa Ura reported.

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ENDORSEMENT CORNER — The Club for Growth is making an endorsement in the open, red FL-19. The Club backed state Rep. Bryon Donalds to succeed retiring GOP Rep. Francis Rooney, Florida Politics' Jacob Ogles reported, in a crowded primary in the district.

— Kentucky Democrat Charles Booker's good week continues. The Courier Journal's editorial board endorsed him in the Democratic Senate primary, picking him over the DSCC-endorsed Amy McGrath.

AD WARS — Americans for Prosperity Action, the conservative outside group, is launching a major digital campaign boosting four incumbent Republican senators: Sens. John Cornyn (Texas), Steve Daines (Mont.), Perdue (Ga.) and Thom Tillis (N.C.). The group says the ad buy is a roughly seven-figure campaign for positive ads. Here's an example ad boosting Tillis, which ties past American successes (footage includes space missions and civil rights marches) to future promise.

— 314 Action Fund, the science-focused Democratic outside group, is going up with its first ad TV in SC-01. The ad targets Republican Nancy Mace, who won the nomination to challenge freshman Democratic Rep. Joe Cunningham on Tuesday. The ad criticizes Mace over offshore drilling.

THE DEBATE STAGE — Colorado Democrats John Hickenlooper and Andrew Romanoff faced off in their second primary debate on Wednesday in the race to face GOP Sen. Cory Gardner. Hickenlooper faced questions over his violations of the state's ethics laws, the Colorado Sun's John Frank reported. Hickenlooper accepted responsibility for the verdict but continued to criticize the Republicans who filed the complaints.

The two also had notable responses when asked about Tara Reade's sexual assault allegation against Joe Biden. Hickenlooper said "to a large extent, yes" when asked if he believed Reade, whom he said showed "a great deal of courage" for coming forward, but said he still supported Biden. Romanoff said he didn't know if the allegations were true or not and he supported Biden over Trump, but said he would "request" the party pick a new nominee if the allegations were proven true.

— Rep. Eliot Engel (D-N.Y.) and Jamaal Bowman, his leading primary challenger, clashed repeatedly in their last debate ahead of the primary in a NY1 debate.

SIGN 'EM UP — LeBron James and other Black athletes and entertainers are creating a new 501(c)(4) aimed at protecting voting rights for Black voters, The New York TImes Jonathan Martin reported. James — who for my money is both the greatest basketball player of all time and an avid POLITICO reader — and his close friend Maverick Carter are putting up the money to kickstart the group, "More Than a Vote."

MR. MAYOR — A drawn-out Democratic primary for Baltimore mayor wrapped up earlier this week, following a week of vote counting after problems with absentee ballots in the city. City Council President Brandon Scott won the nomination, and the 36-year-old is now functionally mayor-elect in this strongly Democratic city after narrowly edging out former Mayor Sheila Dixon. The Baltimore Sun's Talia Richman has more.

CODA — ELECTION HEADLINE OF THE DAY: "Missed Connection: 'I was the last voter in line to vote in Columbia heights and chatted with the man in front of me for three hours'" — From the D.C.-based blog PoPville.

A message from We Can Vote:

Do you have a Healthy Voting Plan? Millions of Americans are looking for healthy ways to vote safely & securely during the coronavirus pandemic. That's why we've partnered with public health officials and election administrators to develop a simple guide with all the information you need to make Healthy Voting a priority for you and your community! It's filled with practical information and helpful tips on best practices and the safest ways to cast your ballot in 2020. Check out the Healthy Voting guide for your state and make your Healthy Voting plan today! Learn more: www.healthyvoting.org