We are in the last days leading up to the presidential election of 2024. Nov. 5 can’t come soon enough for me. Finally, the text messages and emails from candidates all over the United States will end Tuesday night and I won’t have to respond “STOP” to text messages from the political parties and their candidates.
I’m one of the millions who already have voted early, either in person or by absentee ballot. But more people will line up to vote on Tuesday to cast their vote, and not just in the presidential race. For example, there are candidates for the U.S. House, state Legislature, county officials and then there are the resolutions. Those resolutions usually are written so only the lawmakers understand what the effect will be on citizens.
That’s why it is important to know before you go, to learn what and who is on the ballot. But more importantly, before you go make sure you can vote, since early voting in person in Georgia ended Nov. 1. Check to make sure you are still an active registered voter. Know where you polling place is located. The Georgia Secretary of State’s My Voter Page at mvp.sos.ga.gov has all the information you need.
AJC file
AJC file
When you go to vote, between 7 a.m. and 7 p.m., have your valid ID with you, typically a driver’s license, U.S. passport or state issued voter ID card. You might encounter lines. Pack your patience, a chair, a snack and a drink, since in Georgia, no one can give you any of those items while you are in line. And if you are still in line at 7 p.m., stay there because you will be allowed to vote. If you’re 75 or older or disabled, you can go to the front of the line.
A problem at the poll may end up with you getting a provisional ballot. You have three days to resolve the issue if you want your vote to count. You can also report problems to the secretary of state’s office online and by phone on Tuesday.
Once the polls close, the count begins and so too does the angst over the election. No matter who loses, there will be questions about election fairness, outside foreign influence, the safety and integrity of voting machines and the length of time to count votes. Then there will be legal challenges, especially in states where polling showed the candidates in the race for president neck and neck.
Will there be a replay of 2020? Attorney Don Samuel assured me there shouldn’t be, especially when it comes to the Electoral College. Constitutional law is one of his specialties. He told me the Electoral Count Reform Act of 2022 (ECRA) outlines when the states must appoint presidential electors and when those electors have to cast their votes.
Under the act, state legislators cannot appoint electors themselves, even when they claim fraud. And there is a timetable that must be followed.
According to the National Archives, electors vote in their states on Dec. 17, 2024, and on Christmas Day, the electoral votes must be received by the president of the Senate, normally the vice president of the United States. But since Kamala Harris is running for president, the Senate president pro tem, Patty Murray, will receive the electoral votes.
My question to Samuel was simple. When the joint session of Congress meets Jan. 6, 2025, to count the electoral votes, could the president pro tem of the Senate hold up certifying the electoral vote, as Donald Trump wanted Mike Pence to do on Jan. 6, 2021?
Samuel said no, because under the Electoral Count Reform Act of 2022, the role of the president of the Senate is strictly an administrative role. That means according to the act, the vice president has “no power to solely determine, accept, reject or otherwise adjudicate or resolve disputes over the proper list of electors, the validity of electors, or the votes of electors.”
The rules are in place but that may not be enough to stop unruly behavior by some, who will never be happy with the outcome of the election.
While we wait for the vote count and then the Electoral College certification, we need to be thinking about how to shore up our eroding democracy. We need to look at what some of the people of this country have become: openly intolerant, bigoted and violent.
How do we mend the division in this country? How do we restore trust in each other? How do we find common ground? How do we return to civility, stop the name calling, the shade, the hatred that only divides and leaves us vulnerable to outside agents of destruction? I hear the words, of Patrick Henry, “United we stand, divided we fall.”
Or better yet, the biblical warning for our predominantly Christian nation in Matthew 12:25: “Every kingdom divided against itself will be ruined and every city or household divided against itself will not stand.”
Simply put: Division, Defeat. Unity, Power.
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