Tag: 2020 elections

Thinking About Moving to Georgia to Vote in Runoffs? Better Hurry and Plan to Stay

 The two Senate runoff races under way in Georgia give Democrats a chance to flip seats currently held by Republicans, and some activists on social media have discussed the prospect of moving to the Peach State to vote in the Jan. 5 elections.

Former Democratic presidential candidate Andrew Yang already announced on Twitter that he and his wife are moving to Georgia to campaign for the Democratic candidates, Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff, against Republican Sens. David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler. He did not say whether he planned to register to vote in the state.

All the chatter raises the question: Is it legal?

The answer is: yes, but any potential voters would have to move quickly since the last day to be registered for the Jan. 5 contests is Dec. 7. And, the new resident also would have to stay in the state for a while or risk getting into trouble.

Under Georgia law, anyone with a legal primary residence in the state can register to vote with their county board of elections. The law does not specify a specific time limit.

A spokesman for the Georgia Secretary of State’s Office, which oversees voter registrations, declined to comment on how quickly someone could establish legal residency in Georgia, but cited state law that it is a felony to vote in Georgia elections if you are not a legal resident or if you are residing in the state briefly with the intention just to vote and then move away.

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Democrats Invite Voters to Exploit Georgia’s Weak Residency Rules to Stuff Ballot Boxes in Runoff Elections

Democrats are advocating for “blue voters” to become Georgia residents for the upcoming runoff elections. Georgia doesn’t have a minimum residency requirement, which poses a legal loophole for both parties. Democrats could drum up enough voters to match general election turnouts and flip the state, and Republicans could ensure their hold on two Senate seats.

Additionally, the state’s voter I.D. laws allow individuals to use an out-of-state driver’s license to vote. However, the law defines residency as “without any present intuition of removing therefrom [the fixed habitation].”

“A person shall not be considered to have gained a residence in any county or municipality of this state into which such person has come for temporary purposes only without the intention of making such county or municipality such person’s permanent place of abode.”

On Friday, Democratic activist and former presidential candidate Andrew Yang told his 1.7 million followers to go to Georgia for the two runoff races.

“The best thing we could do for Joe [Biden] is to get him a Democratic Senate. There should be a coordination of resources. Everyone who campaigned for Joe should get ready to head to Georgia. I’ll go. It’s the only way to sideline Mitch and give Joe a unified government. There isn’t much time. The earliest date for absentee ballots to be mailed for the runoff is Nov. 18. The registration deadline is Dec. 7. The in-person early voting begins Dec. 14.”

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Suspect AI Software Verified Mail-In Ballots With Little Human Oversight in Key Battleground States

Though accusations of election fraud in the 2020 US presidential election have been swirling across social media and some news outlets for much of the past week, few have examined the role of a little known Silicon Valley company whose artificial intelligence (AI) algorithm was used to accept or reject ballots in highly contested states such as Nevada.

That company, Parascript, has long-standing cozy ties to defense contractors such as Lockheed Martin and tech giants including Microsoft, in addition to being a contractor to the US Postal Service. In addition, its founder, Stepan Pachikov, better known for cofounding the app Evernote in 2007, is a long-standing and 2020 donor to Democratic presidential candidates.

Parascript’s AI software was used during this election in at least eight states for matching signatures on ballot envelopes with those in government databases in order to “ease the workload of staff enforcing voter signature rules” resulting from the influx of mail-in ballots. Reuters, which reported on the use of the technology, asked the company to provide a list of counties and states using its software for the 2020 election. Parascript, however, declined to supply the list, replying, instead, that their clients “included 20 of the top 100 counties by registered voters.”

Despite not receiving the official list from Parascript, Reuters was able to compile its own partial list, which revealed that several counties in Florida, Colorado, Washington, and Utah, among others, utilized the AI software to determine the validity of ballots. Reuters also reported that Clark County, Nevada, which is one of the hotspots of litigation between the Trump and Biden campaigns and fraud allegations, was one that used the software. Reuters was able to determine how the software was used in some counties, with many counties allowing the software to approve anywhere from 20 to 75 percent of mail-in ballots as acceptable. For several counties included in the Reuters list,staff reviewed 1 percent or less of the AI software’s acceptances. Figures were not available for Clark County, Nevada.

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