Vote Forward: All Georgia Senate GOTV addresses adopted!

Jon Ossoff debates empty podium

Since David Perdue was too chicken to show up for the debate, Ossoff is taking questions from journalists and Perdue is represented by an empty podium. The moderator made this clear at the outset.


https://www.gpb.org/events/news/2020/12/06/us-senate-runoff-debate-perdue-incumbent

Donors Exceed Goal To Help Save Beloved Manuel's Tavern In Less Than A Day (Atlanta)

No doubt many if not most Atlanta-area DUers are familiar with Manuel's Tavern, the iconic watering hole and progressive-friendly oasis at the corner of North and Highland, where portraits of John F. Kennedy and FDR hang on the wall. Faced with oblivion due to the stresses of COVID-19, the bar appears to have been rescued by an influx of cash from habitues and fans.

Howlin' Wolf - mesmerizing live performance, 1964

Here's the great Howlin' Wolf in concert in London, performing "Smokestack Lightnin'" and "Don't Laugh At Me":

New Vote Forward campaigns opened for letters to Ga. voters!

As many of you already know, Vote Forward is orchestrating campaigns to send GOTV letters to Georgia voters for the all-important Jan. 5, 2021 U.S. Senate runoff election. Now that all voters in the first two runoff campaigns have been "adopted" -- 1) encouraging Georgians to register to vote and 2) encouraging Georgia voters who requested a mail ballot this year in the general election to request and return their runoff ballots as soon as possible -- volunteers are now writing letters to encourage Georgians who are likely to vote in person (either early in-person or on election day).

There are currently more than a million addresses available for "adoption" in this campaign. You can adopt as few as five at a time, or 20 at a go if you're feeling more motivated. There are guidelines on the Vote Forward site to help you get started:
https://votefwd.org/instructions

Please note: You do NOT use your return address on these letters, and you only need to sign with your first name and last initial, so there are no privacy concerns for volunteers. And the voters' names and addresses come from public voter registration records, so this is not an invasion of their privacy, either.

The letters we're sending for Vote Forward include non-partisan handwritten messages. The letters go to voters who are registered Democrats who haven't necessarily voted consistently and may need a little extra motivation to tip them over the edge to actually take the step of voting. Research by Vote Forward and Swing Left has shown that these voters may be turned off by partisan or guilt-tripping messages, so we keep the letters positive and encouraging. (Also, as anybody with a Georgia mailing address, TV, or phone number knows, the whole state is already awash in partisan and guilt-inducing propaganda.)

If you want to do something to help, this campaign is a great option. I sent 150 letters before the November general election to voters in North Carolina, Florida, and Georgia, and I've adopted 50 Georgia voters (so far) for the Senate runoff. As I write these, I love thinking about each recipient reading my letter and making a plan to vote, maybe even telling friends and family to do the same. If we boost turnout by just a little bit, combined with all the other efforts going on, we can really win these two Senate seats!

To register with Vote Forward: https://votefwd.org
More information about the Georgia letter-writing campaigns: https://votefwd.org/posts/Georgia-Runoff-campaigns

Happy epistolizing! (Yes, I looked it up, and that is a real word!)
#votefwd

Four Seasons Total Manscaping

State Legislatures Don't Have the Power to Subvert the Election for Trump (Ari Berman)

• State legislatures have no authority over how election results are certified


• State electors must be based on the popular vote


• State legislature can only appoint their own electors if voters “failed to make a choice”


• Governors have the authority to override state legislators

We came much closer to an election catastrophe than many realize

(Opinion by Paul Waldman, Washington Post - Nov. 18, 2020)

What's really interesting is the increased Democratic turnout in several rural counties.

The Atlanta suburbs get a lot of credit in the press, but the maps in the NY Times piece referenced in the linked Tweet show a dramatic Blue shift from 2016-2020.

Cohn et al. point out that overall Black turnout as a percentage of the vote declined this time around, and sure, that's true, if only because the number of White voters from both major parties was dramatically higher as well (and there are more White voters than African-American or Latinx voters in Georgia). But if you look at the county-by-county results, there are several rural or semi-rural counties where Trump still won, but he won by less. A few hundred votes here, and a few hundred votes there, and pretty soon -- in an election this close -- those little counties suddenly are no longer inconsequential. And it's Black voters in those areas who made the difference, I'm almost certain.

The map published by USA Today (scroll to bottom of page to How counties shifted from 2016) shows 2016-to-2020 differences in every county in the United States. Lee County, in southwest Georgia, for example, voted for Biden at a rate over 8% higher than for Clinton. Catoosa County, in northwest Georgia, went for Biden at a more than 4% higher clip.

I think the statewide GOTV efforts by Stacey Abrams and others are responsible for these modest gains in counties with lower populations than the heavy hitters in metro Atlanta, and they deserve credit for contributing to Biden's 14,000-vote lead in Georgia.

Happy 81st birthday, Wendy Carlos!