Published 16/10/2024 16:23
Two decisive states began the early voting process for president of the United States this week. The southern state of Georgia opened the polls this Tuesday (15), while North Carolina will do so this Thursday (17).
Officially, elections across the country begin in three weeks, on November 5th.
In Georgia, early voting broke a voter record, with 328,000 people turning out to vote on the first day. The number is surprising, given that the state was one of the places where Hurricane Helene caused significant damage in recent weeks.
The previous record in the location, for the first day of early voting, was 136,000 in 2020.
The state is also the scene of a dispute over the rules for counting votes. At the center of the controversy is the state’s Electoral Board, made up mostly of allies of Donald Trump. The board, formed by appointments from local parliamentarians and the governor, has been proposing changes that directly affect this year’s election.
In August, the board allowed any municipal election authority to open investigations into the voting process. Furthermore, those responsible would have the power to refuse to certify the results, even without concrete evidence, based only on suspicions.
During a rally in Atlanta also in August, Trump praised junta members who supported the changes, calling them “pitbulls fighting for honesty, transparency and victory.”
To the National NewspaperProfessor Lori Ringhand, of Constitutional Law at the University of Georgia, warns that changing the rules so close to the election could create confusion and shake voter confidence. According to her, “the risk is that this will confuse voters and undermine confidence in the results.”
This Tuesday, the court overturned the proposed changes. The responsible judge ruled that electoral authorities must follow the deadlines established by law and that refusal to certify the results will not be allowed without legal process. Any questioning, he stated, should be dealt with in court, in a public and transparent manner.
In 2020, Donald Trump lost Georgia to Joe Biden. After the defeat, he alleged fraud without evidence and pressured state election authorities. Among these pressures, the call made by Trump to the Secretary of State of Georgia, Brad Raffensperger, stands out, in which he requested that sufficient votes be found to reverse the result.
Trump declared: “I just want to find 11,780 votes – one more than we have because we won the election in the state.” Raffensperger, however, did not comply with the request, and Biden’s victory was confirmed after two recounts.
Source: vermelho.org.br
