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Tuesday, December 12th, 2023

Local elections officials inundated with records requests by rightwing activists

Author:     Jewel Wicker
Source:     The Guardian (U.K.)
Publication Date:     Sun 10 Dec 2023 | 08.00 EST
 Link: Local elections officials inundated with records requests by rightwing activists
Stephan:  

The Republican christofascists are already trying to do everything they can to screw up the election process in their county. Here’s the story and how the underpaid overworked election workers are dealing with this. I think we can anticipate that the Republicans are going to do everything they can to confound what used to be a simple straightforward process. Those of us who support democracy, and a fair and just election process need to be prepared for this. If you can volunteer to be an election worker so the system in your voting district operates as it should.

A voter casts his ballot for midterm elections at a polling station in Marietta, Georgia, on 8 November 2022. Credit: Bob Strong / Reuters

ATLANTA, GEORGIA — Deb Cox has been elections director of Lowndes county in southern Georgia for more than a decade – and has never before received so many time-consuming demands for public information.

Like many elections officials across the country, Cox has been inundated with Freedom of Information Act and open records requests from rightwing activists who believe the 2020 election was stolen from Donald Trump. That’s forced her and other local officials to spend an unusual amount of time and money providing polling documents to partisan groups – an additional burden as they scramble to prepare for the fraught 2024 presidential election.

Cox, a military veteran with prior law enforcement experience and an unflappable approach to her work, is in charge of preparing and managing all processes regarding voting and elections in the mid-sized county that hugs Georgia’s border with Florida and includes the small city of Valdosta.

Responding to open […]

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1 Comment

  1. Albus Eddie on Wednesday, December 13, 2023 at 5:42 am

    This is excellent news! This is what engaged citizenship looks like. The FOIA is for use by all citizens to examine the activities of the government and the uses of its tax dollars. You may not like the ideological stand of those making inquiries but that is secondary. If government needs to allocate increase resources to facilitate responses to citizen inquiry then so be it. Those who complain about a disengaged electorate should not be looking askance at citizens using the tools available to hold the government to account. Our problem is not too much government accountability but a lack thereof.