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For anyone who didn't follow the Georgia Governor's race last November, it featured Brian Kemp, the Republican Secretary of State running against Stacey Abrams,

For anyone who didn't follow the Georgia Governor's race last November, it featured Brian Kemp, the Republican Secretary of State running against Stacey Abrams, the Democratic Minority Leader of the GA House of Representatives, who happens to be African-American. The race was decided by a margin of about 55,000 votes in Kemp's favor. Kemp, as Secretary of State, was in charge of Georgia state elections, which presented a conflict of interest for him as he sought higher office. Kemp implemented a voter suppression policy called "exact match," which helped to severely complicate the voting process for about 53,000 Georgians, 80% of whom were people of color. More info: https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/georgias-voter-suppression-problem-goes-much-deeper-than-brian-kemp/2018/10/20/67dab6c2-cd9b-11e8-a3e6-44daa3d35ede_story.html https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/georgias-voter-suppr... Also, voter fraud basically does not exist in the United States as per this article from the Brennan Center: https://www.brennancenter.org/analysis/debunking-voter-fraud-myth https://www.brennancenter.org/analysis/debunking-voter-fraud... In fact, the most notable example of election fraud in the United States in recent memory is in NC's 9th Congressional District, where it looks like the Republican in the race cheated his way to victory: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2018_North_Carolina%27s_9th_congressional_district_election#Refusal_of_certification https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2018_North_Carolina%27s_9th_co... edit: as burlesona rightly points out below, the article to which this comment is attached is about the Lt. Gov.'s race. My comment is about the general lack of integrity in Georgia's elections, and the deeply undemocratic (small-D) results that emerge from this state of affairs.

burlesona 8y ago
Note that this article says the missing votes are specifically in the Lieutenant Governor race, not the general ballot - ie. they’re not saying this affected the governorship. The article says many people reported software glitches where the Lt. Governor ballot item did not display or work correctly, which matches their findings that there were a lot less vost cast than expected for that specific race.
- basilgohar 8y ago
  I greatly appreciate this clarification, not to imply anyone was trying to mislead, but this information helped me better understand what was actually being said, whereas the description by GP may have led me to believe something else (not intentionally). Having said that, the explanation by OP does add significantly to the general case of the integrity of the whole process in Georgia being suspect and need review to ensure the rights of all voters are guaranteed. Otherwise, the process is more obviously a farce than even before and will sow discontent even further.
  - wil421 8y ago
    Why don’t both of you just read the article instead of jumping to any conclusions? It’s the first bullet point on the first page.
Zecar 8y ago
Wait, voter fraud doesn't exist but hey look it happened just last year?
- aaronbrethorst 8y ago
  Exactly! what happened last year is election fraud, which is why I called it "election fraud" instead of "voter fraud." An explainer: https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2018/12/11/18134636/north-carolina-9-election-fraud-voter-fraud https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2018/12/11/18134636/...
  - SlowRobotAhead 8y ago
    So... you are saying we need a system I place to prevent fraud then? What would that look like?
    - rhizome 8y ago
      Nice try, Mr. von Spakovsky.
    - ceejayoz 8y ago
      As is pretty clear from the linked Vox article, the proposed solutions for largely nonexistent voter fraud would have zero impact on this sort of election fraud.
    - rsynnott 8y ago
      Paper ballots with a public count work quite well. A number of countries have discontinues use of electronic voting in the last decade or so due to issues like this, and/or the fear of such issues.
      - SlowRobotAhead 8y ago
        How do protect for situations like boxes of paper ballots that showing up in random places in Broward County this last election?
briandear 8y ago
> Also, voter fraud basically does not exist in the United States as per this article from the Brennan Center: https://www.brennancenter.org/analysis/debunking-voter-fraud.. https://www.brennancenter.org/analysis/debunking-voter-fraud.... In fact, the most notable example of election fraud in the United States in recent memory is in NC's 9th Congressional District... So fraud doesn’t exist but then fraud does exist? Which is it?
- aaronbrethorst 8y ago
  https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2018/12/11/18134636/north-carolina-9-election-fraud-voter-fraud https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2018/12/11/18134636/...
- greglindahl 8y ago
  Brian, did you miss the word "voter" before the word "fraud"? If you read the article in the quoted part of the comment, it's pretty clear about what it's discussing. It's important to keep the details straight, because you'd hate to justify requiring photo ID for in-person voting based on the existence of a different kind of fraud which is not helped by requiring photo ID for in-person voting.

burlesona 8y ago

Note that this article says the missing votes are specifically in the Lieutenant Governor race, not the general ballot - ie. they’re not saying this affected the governorship. The article says many people reported software glitches where the Lt. Governor ballot item did not display or work correctly, which matches their findings that there were a lot less vost cast than expected for that specific race.

basilgohar 8y ago
I greatly appreciate this clarification, not to imply anyone was trying to mislead, but this information helped me better understand what was actually being said, whereas the description by GP may have led me to believe something else (not intentionally). Having said that, the explanation by OP does add significantly to the general case of the integrity of the whole process in Georgia being suspect and need review to ensure the rights of all voters are guaranteed. Otherwise, the process is more obviously a farce than even before and will sow discontent even further.
- wil421 8y ago
  Why don’t both of you just read the article instead of jumping to any conclusions? It’s the first bullet point on the first page.

Zecar 8y ago

Wait, voter fraud doesn't exist but hey look it happened just last year?

aaronbrethorst 8y ago
Exactly! what happened last year is election fraud, which is why I called it "election fraud" instead of "voter fraud." An explainer: https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2018/12/11/18134636/north-carolina-9-election-fraud-voter-fraud https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2018/12/11/18134636/...
- SlowRobotAhead 8y ago
  So... you are saying we need a system I place to prevent fraud then? What would that look like?
  - rhizome 8y ago
    Nice try, Mr. von Spakovsky.
  - ceejayoz 8y ago
    As is pretty clear from the linked Vox article, the proposed solutions for largely nonexistent voter fraud would have zero impact on this sort of election fraud.
  - rsynnott 8y ago
    Paper ballots with a public count work quite well. A number of countries have discontinues use of electronic voting in the last decade or so due to issues like this, and/or the fear of such issues.
    - SlowRobotAhead 8y ago
      How do protect for situations like boxes of paper ballots that showing up in random places in Broward County this last election?

briandear 8y ago

> Also, voter fraud basically does not exist in the United States as per this article from the Brennan Center: https://www.brennancenter.org/analysis/debunking-voter-fraud.. https://www.brennancenter.org/analysis/debunking-voter-fraud.... In fact, the most notable example of election fraud in the United States in recent memory is in NC's 9th Congressional District... So fraud doesn’t exist but then fraud does exist? Which is it?

aaronbrethorst 8y ago
https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2018/12/11/18134636/north-carolina-9-election-fraud-voter-fraud https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2018/12/11/18134636/...
greglindahl 8y ago
Brian, did you miss the word "voter" before the word "fraud"? If you read the article in the quoted part of the comment, it's pretty clear about what it's discussing. It's important to keep the details straight, because you'd hate to justify requiring photo ID for in-person voting based on the existence of a different kind of fraud which is not helped by requiring photo ID for in-person voting.