The rumor mill is alive with talk about who is in and who is out in Georgia politics. Here are the things we know are true, Governor Kemp, Senator Warnock and all the other constitutional officers and the entire legislature will be up for election. How will it be different than 2020?
We must tighten up absentee ballot procedure. The staff needed to process the level of participation and the extra time it takes to process an absentee ballot must be considered. I suggest three things related to absentee balloting. First, no outside groups of any kind can send directly to a voter’s home a “sample ballot.” The group Project Vote Smart and others did this and created a lot of confusion. If you want or need a sample ballot to study, you should request one from your local voter registration and elections office or from the Secretary of State’s office. Second, we need to find a way to have identification for absentee ballots. Third, we need to end no excuse absentee ballot voting. Absentee by definition means you are not there, so it should be limited for that reason.
In addition, we need to heal the wounds in the Georgia GOP. The Democrats were decimated after the loss of Gov. Roy Barnes. There was no bench and they worked for 18 years to rebuild their party. It was not just Stacey Abrams, as she gets all the credit. It was people like Nikema Williams and Tharon Johnson, too. On January 5, 500,000 fewer Republicans turned out and about 151,000 fewer Democrats turned out than on November 3 according to the Washington Post. We had the votes in the GOP is they had turned out to win and now we have given a group of people power because they did not participate. That is dangerous to our conservative values.
I have said, I believe our values are the best to raise people up, but the Democrats believe that, too. We have to find ways to talk to everyone and that leads me to my next point. We have to change the way that we campaign.
If we are going to have open primaries and then a general election, we need to not only get out our base, but also, reach out to many other groups of people who might not naturally vote for us and make our case to them. One of the things I did for Senator Perdue was to meet with everyone. I took our message to people who loved us and who hated us and some people in between. More times than not, we won some people over. That’s what we need to do in campaigns. Accept the invitations to events were people of both parties would be there. Find neighborhood events and other events where you, the candidate, can focus on the issues we all agree on, like education and healthcare. I do not mean we all agree on the policy, but we do all agree more needs to be done. Use this as an opportunity to tell people your values and why you are a conservative and how you would solve the problem. If all they hear is your opponent describe you, what do you think they will think?
In the last election, candidates had scripted events to their supporters and sometimes would not let people know you were in a town, until you left it. Some of my most productive meetings have been with people who disagreed with me because it makes you stronger in your own values. There are people who do not like this open view. The right and the left for these opinions have chewed me out but I know it is the right path to heal our nation and our party.
Next week, we will look at other ideas for election reform. I will try to answer the question of whether Georgia should have open or closed primaries and what to do with the runoff? Also, how will redistricting effect the 2022 elections?
