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Georgia GOP threatens lawsuit against deep-blue Fulton County over extended absentee voting

Georgia GOP threatens lawsuit against deep-blue Fulton County over extended absentee voting

Georgia Republicans are vowing to sue the Democratic stronghold of Fulton County after it announced extended elections office hours on Friday. The threat came after the state GOP learned that election officials in the county, which includes Atlanta, are planning to open four election offices this weekend ‘to accommodate voters seeking to hand-return their absentee ballots.’ “This is a blatant violation of Georgia law . . . which states ‘all drop boxes shall be closed when the advance voting period ends,’” the Georgia GOP said in a statement late on Friday. Fulton County is expected to be key to Democrats’ chances of winning Georgia again in 2024 – something that Republicans alluded to in their statement. MIKE JOHNSON KICKS OFF SWING-STATE TOUR AS GOP CLINGS TO HOUSE CONTROL “To make matters worse, the four election office locations are situated in areas of the county that will clearly favor Democrat candidates,” the statement said. Fulton County was one of several to announce it would keep election offices open this weekend for voters turning in their existing absentee ballots in-person. Drop boxes are a way for voters to turn in their absentee ballots at elections offices without human contact, which is different from submitting them in person at the office itself. Drop boxes were available through Georgia’s early voting period from Oct. 15 through Nov. 1. But Republicans are arguing that the extended hours for turning in absentee ballots over the weekend run afoul of the state’s rules. ‘TIPPING THE SCALES’: HOUSE GOP LEADERS RIP ACTBLUE AFTER DEM FUNDRAISING GIANT HIT WITH SUBPOENA Fox News Digital reached out to the Fulton County government and Kamala Harris presidential campaign for comment. NPR reporter Stephen Fowler wrote on X of the lawsuit threat, “Multiple counties are doing it, and there’s nothing illegal about it – these aren’t drop boxes.” It comes after a Fulton County Superior Court judge rejected Republicans’ bid to force the county to hire more Republican poll workers for Election Day on Tuesday. State, federal and local Republican parties accused the Fulton County Department of Registration and Elections of not hiring enough GOP poll workers. They alleged that nine out of 45 qualified applicants were hired to help with early voting, while just six of 62 were hired for Election Day, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Judge Kevin Farmer said the case would be looked at further but declined to order emergency measures to force more Republican poll workers in by Tuesday. ‘ILLEGAL, UNCONSTITUTIONAL AND VOID’: GEORGIA JUDGE STRIKES DOWN NEW ELECTION RULES AFTER LEGAL FIGHTS Fulton County has seen more than 439,000 active voters cast absentee or early in-person ballots during Georgia’s early voting period. A significant majority of those were women over men – 55.9% to 43.8%. Roughly 72% of the county’s White voters turned out during that period, as well as 49% of Black active voters there. Former President Trump lost Georgia to President Biden by less than 12,000 votes in 2020. Get the latest updates from the 2024 campaign trail, exclusive interviews and more at our Fox News Digital election hub. 

Indiana AG to probe reported ‘unsustainable’ influx of Haitian migrants into state’s small towns

Indiana AG to probe reported ‘unsustainable’ influx of Haitian migrants into state’s small towns

FIRST ON FOX: Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita is investigating coordinated efforts by international and local nonprofit organizations, as well as employers and a health department, to bring migrants —including those without legal status — into Indiana communities. “Illegal immigration caused by ‘border czar’ Kamala Harris’ perversion and misapplication of federal law has made every state a border state and imposed unsustainable costs on Logansport and other cities across the nation,” Rokita told Fox News Digital in a statement.  “It has also created serious sex and labor trafficking risks in all communities. I’m creatively trying to use every tool in the law to stop the Left’s intentional destruction of Indiana.” Logansport has a population of 18,366 according to the 2020 Census. Rokita’s office filed six Civil Investigative Demands (CID) on Friday, Fox News Digital learned first. The recipients are: the Cass County Health Department, Berry Global packaging company, the Evansville-based nonprofit God is Good foundation, the Jackson County Industrial Development Corporation, the Logansport Community School Corporation and the Tent Partnership for Refugees, a network of over 400 major companies connecting refugees to jobs. HAITIAN MIGRANTS OVERWHELMING SMALL INDIANA TOWN: ‘IT’S JUST OVERRUN’ The investigations will take place in Evansville, Logansport, and Seymour, as officials believe the influx of noncitizens is an alleged “coordinated effort” between nonprofits and employers to attract migrant workers.  Rokita’s office said the swift increase in immigrant populations has led to overcrowded housing, with multiple families and sometimes dozens of individuals living in homes meant for single families. The crisis has also raised concerns about possible labor trafficking. The investigative demand for Cass County Health Department comes as the health department has been inspecting apartments and residences, according to the CID.  Investigators are also seeking to know if any individuals residing in overcrowded residences were employed by or contracted to provide services for the owner or manager, as well as the number of individuals observed in the residence and their citizenship status. TRUMP SOUNDS ALARM ON ILLEGAL IMMIGRANT MURDERERS: ‘A LOT OF BAD GENES IN OUR COUNTRY’ Last month, residents in the town of Logansport, Indiana, said that an influx of migrants from Haiti and other countries into their little town is overwhelming services. Logansport’s mayor estimates the population has grown by 20%-30% since 2021, most of that being Haitians moving in. More than 3,000 Haitians have arrived. Meanwhile, in numbers first reported by the New York Post, the number of Haitian students in the schools has gone from 14 to 207. HAITIAN MIGRATION ROILS TOWN IN KEY BATTLEGROUND STATE WITH SIGNS OF PRO-TRUMP SUPPORT ON THE RISE  Others have pointed to other effects of Haitian migration, with one mother telling the Post her daughter was accosted by Haitian migrants as she walked to a nearby coffee shop. Multiple residents also told Fox News the new arrivals make them feel uncomfortable and unsafe, with one woman saying some of the male Haitian migrants in town would “stop in front of our porch and just stop and stare. They don’t say a word. They just stare. It’s unnerving.” Fox News DIgital’s Adam Shaw, Garrett Tenney and Patrick McGovern contributed to this report.

‘This man stood up’: Pro-Trump group launches blistering seven-figure ad buy as closing pitch to voters

‘This man stood up’: Pro-Trump group launches blistering seven-figure ad buy as closing pitch to voters

FIRST ON FOX: A pro-Trump group has launched a seven-figure ad buy as a closing pitch for the former president after the clip went viral on social media. On Friday, Building America’s Future (BAF), a conservative nonprofit, released the clip titled “Moments” that it says highlights the “attacks on Donald Trump and his supporters in recent months.” The ad, posted on X by Elon Musk and others, has garnered over 20 million views on X.  “Think about all they’ve done to Donald Trump,” the ad says. “First it was hoaxes, witch hunts, and impeachments. Then it was FBI raids, courtrooms, and mug shots. Finally, it was bullets in a Pennsylvania field. JENNIFER LOPEZ CRIES WHILE ENDORSING HARRIS AFTER SHE’S AMBUSHED BY DIDDY QUESTION AS SPECULATION MOUNTS “And after all that, this man stood up, with blood draining down his face, pumped his fist in the air and told us to ‘Fight. Fight. Fight.’” The ad then plays a clip from Trump saying. “America’s future will be bigger, better, bolder, brighter, happier, stronger, free-er, greater, and more united than ever before. And we will Make America Great Again.” HARRIS CAMPAIGN DISHES OUT SIX-FIGURE DONATIONS TO GROUPS WHO SUPPORT DEFUNDING POLICE, REPARATIONS “We know what they think of us,” a narrator says before a clip of President Biden speaking. “The only garbage I see floating out there is his supporters,” Biden says, echoing his comment that sparked a political firestorm earlier this week.  “So, if Donald Trump can get through all of that, We can get out to vote,” the ad closes. BAF will begin airing the ad as part of a $1.2 million spend on national television across battleground states as well as paid digital and texting. 

Republicans topple Dem voter registration advantage in crucial swing state as early vote wraps up

Republicans topple Dem voter registration advantage in crucial swing state as early vote wraps up

New numbers released in a key swing state show that Republicans have virtually erased the Democrat voter-registration lead, on top of historic early-voting numbers for Republicans, which one expert tells Fox News Digital is part of an effective strategy on the ground targeting a key demographic. Figures released by the Nevada Secretary of State on Friday showed that Democrats hold a 9,200-vote lead in registrations over Republicans after October data was added. Four years ago, Democrats held an advantage of roughly 86,000 votes heading into Election Day. On top of significantly narrowing the registration gap, Republicans have had a historically high early-vote turnout and lead Democrats by about 5% in the early vote, which ended in person on Friday, while trailing in mail-in votes. Early voting concluded in Nevada with 393,811 votes cast for Republicans, 344,539 for Democrats, and 287,762 for other affiliations, according to the Secretary of State website. ‘HAS DONE NOTHING’: GOP SENATE HOPEFUL RIPS DEM OPPONENT FOR NOT HOLDING BIDEN-HARRIS ACCOUNTABLE ON KEY ISSUE The roughly 49,000 vote advantage that Republicans had over Democrats at the end of the week is a stark contrast from 2020, when Democrats ended early voting with a 43,000-vote advantage. Biden won Nevada by roughly 34,000 votes in 2020. The Democratic turnout advantage in the state in years past has been driven by what is known as the “Reid Machine” that late Democratic Sen. Harry Reid, the U.S. Senate majority leader from 2007 to 2015, established to help pool resources to maximize support for candidates up and down the ballot.  His approach tapped into networks that extended well beyond the traditional party structure. He leaned especially on the heavily immigrant Culinary Union, which represents about 60,000 casino workers and leads efforts to register voters, make phone calls and knock on doors. “That paradigm has changed,” Nevada’s GOP Gov. Joe Lombardo said in Carson City on Friday. “That dynamic has changed. It has changed, and we are in the game. We are in the game, and it helps that you had a crappy president for the last four years.” A large part of that paradigm shift, Sentinel Action Fund President Jessica Anderson told Fox News Digital, has to do with the work that organizations like hers have done in battleground states along with the Republican Party. “You had candidates up and down the ballots, including President Trump and Senate candidates in all of the target states, embracing early voting,” Anderson said. “The candidate has to be brought in themselves. So that’s really important. And then the other three things I think that made a difference was the messaging around absentee early votes. The first is that a lot of the focus was on convenience. It’s, you know, it’s more convenient. You’re busy. You can skip the line of Election Day, vote early. You know, you’re busy with your kids, your child care, your job. You know, whatever those things are that can potentially interrupt your plans on Election Day, just take the convenience of voting early or dropping your ballot in the mail and get a difference. I think that message really worked.” “The second message that we saw really encapsulated and worked in particular in the mail was the military messaging. That it works for our guys overseas, it’s safe, it’s convenient, it’s secure. Then the third, which was, I think, really unique to President Trump and his leadership here as we talked about voting early to overcome the margin of fraud and that did exceptionally well in our focus groups. And then when we presented some of that information to President Trump and to others in the party over time, that became kind of the clarion call of the RNC, you know, ‘Vote early.’ So it’s too big to rig.” FAMILY OF MARINE VET MURDERED BY CARTEL VIOLENCE IN MEXICO: ‘WE’LL TAKE CARE OF IT’ Anderson said that Sentinel Action Fund has also embraced ballot harvesting in states where it is permitted and that one of the keys to Republican success has been the strategic targeting of low-propensity voters who have not voted in years past. Some experts have wondered whether strong GOP early-vote turnout in Nevada, and nationwide, would “cannibalize” the historically strong Election Day turnout that Republicans usually enjoy in a situation where Election Day voters are simply just voting early, and Republicans will have a weaker turnout on Election Day.  Anderson told Fox News Digital that Sentinel Action Fund’s data and modeling in Senate races in Ohio, Pennsylvania and Nevada show that the GOP vote is not being cannibalized. “I know it’s not happening, because we can see it in the data,” Anderson said, pointing to Sentinel Action Fund modeling in the Senate race between GOP Senate candidate Sam Brown and incumbent Democratic Sen. Jacky Rosen. SWING STATE GOP CANDIDATE COULD HIT MAJOR MILESTONE IN MAYORAL RACE AMID ‘REPUBLICAN WAVE’ OPTIMISM “Democrats and Republicans appear to be getting ballots from the same percentage of high- and low-propensity voters, but Democrat Jacky Rosen’s votes are coming disproportionately through the mail,” Anderson wrote on Substack on Friday. “Meanwhile, Sam Brown is winning in-person ballots at a ratio of 1.35 to 1. If the Reid machine is unable to match Republicans during early voting, it’s hard to see it mobilizing for an Election Day surge. There is good reason to believe that Sam Brown can continue to perform well through Election Day.” Some political pundits and politicians outside the Republican Party have also sounded the alarm for Democrats in Nevada in terms of the GOP early-vote surge. “Republicans are kicking our ass at early voting,” Nevada Democratic Congresswoman Dina Titus said during a Harris rally in North Las Vegas. “We cannot let that happen.” Respected Nevada journalist Jon Ralston, CEO and Editor of the Nevada Independent, acknowledged on X on Friday that “you’d rather be GOP than Dems as in-person early voting ends today” but pointed out that three remaining variables are “key,” including Clark County mail figures, the independent vote

Pennsylvania Supreme Court sides with GOP in last-minute mail-in ballot dispute

Pennsylvania Supreme Court sides with GOP in last-minute mail-in ballot dispute

The Pennsylvania Supreme Court shut down an effort to allow mail-in ballots lacking a handwritten date to be counted in the 2024 election. The ruling overturns a decision from a Commonwealth Court finding that the state law requiring a handwritten date was unconstitutional. The Pennsylvania GOP appealed that ruling to the state supreme court, and now undated mail-in ballots will not be counted in the upcoming election. Justice Kevin Dougherty admonished the Commonwealth Court for its ruling in a forcefully-worded opinion relating to Friday’s ruling. “‘This Court will neither impose nor countenance substantial alterations to existing laws and procedures during the pendency of an ongoing election.’ We said those carefully chosen words only weeks ago. Yet they apparently were not heard in the Commonwealth Court, the very court where the bulk of election litigation unfolds,” Dougherty wrote. 26 REPUBLICAN ATTORNEYS GENERAL JOIN VIRGINIA IN PETITIONING SUPREME COURT TO RULE ON VOTER ROLL “Today’s order, which I join, rights the ship. And it sends a loud message to all courts in this Commonwealth: in declaring we would not countenance substantial alterations to existing laws and procedures during the pendency of an ongoing election, we said what we meant and meant what we said,” he continued. APPEALS COURT RULES AGAINST GOP IN CASE CHALLENGING 225K VOTER REGISTRATIONS IN NORTH CAROLINA Pennsylvania Republicans hailed the Friday ruling, saying Democrats have repeatedly tried to subvert the dating requirement. “The Pennsylvania Supreme Court upheld the law, and the dated ballot requirement will be in effect for this election. Democrats have repeatedly tried to eliminate this important ballot safeguard, and we have stopped them each time,” RNC Chairman  Michael Whatley said in a statement. “We are committed to protecting critical ballot safeguards to ensure every ballot is cast and counted properly and will continue to fight across Pennsylvania to Protect the Vote.” State officials in favor of allowing undated ballots to be counted argue the change would make process easier for election workers. The Pennsylvania Department of State filed a brief in favor of the change prior to the court’s ruling on Friday. THE 1.6M VOTERS WHO COULD DETERMINE THE US ELECTION DON’T CURRENTLY RESIDE IN THE COUNTRY “The requirement that county boards set aside mail ballots with declaration-date errors — and particularly the requirement that they set aside mail ballot envelopes with ‘incorrect’ dates — imposed a significant burden on county boards. Election workers must manually review every ballot envelope to determine whether it has a ‘correct’ date,” the brief said, according to the Pennsylvania Capital-Star. Friday’s ruling was the second time this month that the Pennsylvania Supreme Court has blocked Democrat-backed efforts to dismantle the dating requirement.