In Georgia, a battle over minority voting : The shifts have Democrats emboldened.

[Raffi Ella]

In Georgia, a battle over minority voting
09/23/14 11:15 AM


By Zachary Roth


In Georgia, minority voices are finally threatening to be heard at the ballot box after more than a century of being marginalized by the political process. And conservatives are ramping up a campaign to stop them. With the state hosting a tight U.S. Senate race, Democratic hopes of holding onto the chamber could depend on which side prevails in the battle over minority voting.

Driving that battle are stark numbers: Georgia, which has seen big demographic shifts over the last decade, has nearly 900,000 unregistered minority voters, around 80% of whom would be expected to vote Democratic. Mitt Romney’s 2012 margin of victory over President Obama in the state was just 305,000 votes.

Behind those numbers is a demographic shift comparable to Texas’s more celebrated transformation. A huge influx this century of African-Americans from other states, and strong growth in the Hispanic and Asian populations, have combined to put Georgia’s whites at risk of minority status. By last year, they made up just 55% of the state’s total population, down from 72% in 1980. Even Republicans recently hired a “minority engagement director,” The New York Times reported.

The shifts have Democrats emboldened. Georgia hasn’t elected a Democrat to the Senate since 2000, but polls show Michelle Nunn, this year’s Democratic candidate, virtually tied with Republican David Perdue. Gov. Nathan Deal, a Republican, also is facing a strong challenge from Democrat Jason Carter.

http://www.msnbc.com/msnbc/georgia-battle-over-minority-voting

[kimbutgar]

1. But will the republican SOS of GA process the voter registrations so those voters can vote?

I heard there are over 50,000 registrations that have not been processed. Shame does not work on the republican gangsters of politics anymore.

[groundloop]

2. I believe they are processing them

There was some sort of problem with a few of those registrations, when the facts came out it turns out that all of 25 out of over 55,000 were invalid (naturally the GOPers are trying to turn that into some sort of huge conspiracy).

[hueymahl]

3. Thanks for the post!

Georgia will be mostly blue in 10 years. I think it has been posted here before, but one of the many reasons this is an important gubernatorial election is that demographic shift. If we can get Jason Carter in there, we can accelerate by a decade the inevitable shift to purple/blue and help insure that the next redistricting is fair.

The republicans are not going down without a fight. The BS SOS Kemp (R) is pulling with regard to voter registrations is just one item. Fortunately the blue counties are fighting back, opening up Sunday voting in their districts (for those not living here, you should have seen the steam coming out of the ears of the rethugs when they realized it was going to be easier for those who have to work for a living to vote).

[Raffi Ella]

4. Yup!

Having Bill Clinton and Michelle Obama coming down to GOTV for Nunn and Carter means a lot. We really can win this-

It's hilarious watching rethug racists like Millar openly dog whistling, not even trying to hide it anymore. It's pathetic but it shows we really do have them on the ropes-

There is alotta shady shit going on in GA elections, but if we get enough people to the polls we can overcome that.