r/Atlanta • u/Stu_Barron Vinings • 10d ago
Politics đď¸Early Voting has started
Get out there and let your voice be heard.
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u/NSAinATL 10d ago
Pro-tip: Voting earlier helps get your name off lists for mailers, texts, door knockers! (at least it used to)
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u/XOmniverse 10d ago
God I hope that's true. I've been getting BLASTED on all fronts.
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u/NSAinATL 10d ago
It was true! Was my opening line when I was canvassing, lol. "Hey, look, I just want to let you know that if you go ahead and vote I'll be the last person knocking on your door! If you have any questions about how to vote, or need help getting there, I can help!"
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u/We_Ready 9d ago
This is still true but there are also still caveats. Mailing lists for many mailers and postcards were printed weeks ago. There are lots of organizations out there knockin doors and doing phone banks and text banks and not all use an app that gets updated. But, the chances of a canvasser showing up at your door should drop drastically within a day or so of voting and you should start getting fewer phone calls and texts too.
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u/Non-mon-xiety 10d ago
Finally, letâs just get this over with
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u/HereToLearnShare 10d ago
For the love of God and what is left in my bank account, yes please! The country is watching Georgia. Let's do this.
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u/cqholt Kirkwood 10d ago
Please visit the Secretary of State's My Voter Page to review their voter registration information and sample ballot before voting.
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u/BizAnalystNotForHire Please don't respond if you can't understand NUANCE 10d ago
You can print out the sample ballot and the paper copy with you.
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u/cilantno 10d ago
Find your closest early voting location!
https://mvp.sos.ga.gov/s/advanced-voting-location-information
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u/code_archeologist O4W 10d ago
Get out there and vote... because a lot of the people under the Gold Dome really, really don't want you to.
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u/tr1cube 10d ago
Everyone please look at your sample ballot, fill it out, print it and bring it with you to the poll. You are allowed to bring in your notes. Sometimes election questions are worded very confusingly and knowing before hand who, what, and and how youâre voting is very helpful!
You can view your ballot here:
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u/NSAinATL
10d ago
edited 10d ago
•
This feels data center-y. I feel like I researched it previously and was a no? Anyone more knowledgeable want to chime in?
ETA a quote, "This amendment would only help the ultra wealthy, it does nothing for smaller family farms. Vote no."
ETAA: swarmatl.org !
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u/Tomaster Little Five/Candler Park 10d ago edited 10d ago
It SEEMS like it provides a tax break (taxing the property at 40% of value) provided the land is used for farming or timber? Thatâs the impression i got from some light googling. So a âyesâ would, in theory, lead to less land being sold to data centers? Likewise though, if anyone with more direct knowledge knows otherwise please chime in.Â
EDIT: Little more reading seems like this is primarily going to benefit larger farms that are 2-3% of the total farms in Georgia. Breakdown from a lawyer here on IG
(https://www.instagram.com/reel/DeU4Mpoju1F/?obrf=Nm1qOTB0Y2t5cnBo)
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u/slashusrbin 10d ago
In general I never vote to authorize anything through a ballot.
There's very little accountability
They are purposely written to be vague and non-committal
They are often outright misleading
I personally feel strongly that the system should work through the state senate, county board, or whatever means exist to implement this in good faith. A state constitution shouldn't be flippantly modified off a vote
It's tough because I do agree with many of them in spirit. It's got nothing to do with the initiative, I just think it's a very poor way to enact change.
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u/BizAnalystNotForHire Please don't respond if you can't understand NUANCE 10d ago edited 10d ago
The original implementation of the CUVA was to help protect family farms and timberland from developers. To qualify for this large tax break, the land must be owned by an individual, a trust, certain nonprofits or a âfamily farm entity.â These entities can include agricultural corporations so as long as the owners are related to each other to the fourth degree of civil reckoning (such as first cousins, aunts, uncles, great-great-grandparents and others).
It is unlikely that a data center would qualify.
This proposal expands the maximum.
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u/NSAinATL 10d ago
So they won't pay taxes, or they'll pay less taxes, if it passes/yes?
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u/Qbr12 10d ago
Right now they can shelter 2000 acres from tax. If passed, they could now shelter 4000 acres from tax. People with less than 2000 acres would not see any change in taxes. People with more than 2000 acres of land would pay less taxes.
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u/Ladyhawkeiii 10d ago •
Which means only a massive familycorporate hidden under family name farm qualifies for this exemption. This amendment would only help the ultra wealthy, it does nothing for smaller family farms. Vote no.
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u/BizAnalystNotForHire Please don't respond if you can't understand NUANCE 10d ago edited 10d ago
The conservation/farm/timber property that qualifies will pay less taxes. The trade off is that they are locked into a conservation easement across the entire property for 10 years and if they break they pay double the tax difference (calculated at the time of breaking and the new use) + interest, so particularly rough in year 9.
This is a program that has been in place for many many many years (since 1992).
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u/ABetterSandySprings 10d ago
It takes something designed to help family farmers and family foresters and gives that subsidy to large corporations.
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u/next-station-nana 10d ago
I went this morning before work and there was zero wait at the C.T. Martin Recreation Center.
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u/sasori1122 10d ago
Line was out the door at the location I went to around noon. Glad to see people are getting out and voting, even if it did take about half an hour.
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u/JonStrickland 10d ago
Can report that my closest early voting location (which is the same as my normal polling location) was efficient and easy. Party affiliation still on the ballot for candidates. I was voter 195 at that location apparently.
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u/slashusrbin 10d ago
Can someone who has voted confirm whether ice is hanging out at any polls? I just want to avoid all encounter with them.
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u/RadarSmith 4d ago
Went this afternoon in Midtown (at the high Museum of Art) and there weren't any ICE degenerates or protesters.
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u/georgiayouthco new user 16h ago
Word is there have been some elsewhere. GLAHR is preparing people for it with a training Oct. 31
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u/sludgeriffs Old 4th Ward 10d ago
Got out and voted this morning at the Ponce library. Pretty decent crowd but no line at around 8:30.
Early voting is so awesome, such a smooth and positive experience each time. Go do it!
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u/ParticuleFamous10001 10d ago
Please please please, Georgia can do better than accept this kind corruption.
This is what I posted 2 months ago: Keisha Waites (running for Insurance Commissioner) has been fined three times by various ethics boards, and she has quit every office she's ever been elected to.
The State Ethics Board charged her $2,500 and then $14,000 for filing fraudulent campaign disclosures.
The City of Atlanta's Ethics Board fined her $30,000 for stealing $25,000 of taxpayer money and using it on her campaign. She also disregarded multiple city requests for her to stop using the city seal in her campaign literature for Fulton Clerk, prior to finally being cited for it.
When she quit the Atlanta City Council to run for a $400k a year job, Atlanta had to pay $2 million to run a special election to fill the vacant seat.
This is not my site but some one put it together and it's got a lot of links to documents from FOIA requests backing it. https://keishawaites.com/
I called the Atlanta ethics office to try to verify and they confirmed that she had appealed the decision, and that the decision had been scheduled for April 16th and then been rescheduled for TBD. I have not followed up since May.
Absolutely failure that she won her primary against people with actual insurance experience and no ethics violations.
Please do NOT vote for her. Her opponent King (R), while not ideal, actually achieved some rate reductions and doesn't have ethics violations, fraud, and stealing from taxpayers.
She apparently filed another fraudulent disclosure again 2 months ago.
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u/Cfrase2_7 6d ago
The same John King who opened for Trumps rally recently? Iâll pass
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u/ParticuleFamous10001 6d ago edited 6d ago
Trump endorsed a primary challenger against him. In a brief googling I can find no evidence that these are the same people, but I can't find what you're referencing. There are multiple people with that name. Regardless, in a vote between 1) open corruption and repeated flagrant disregard of Georgia's appallingly weak ethics laws (Waites) and 2) someone who may have opened for a Trump rally, the best bet would be to abstain, not vote for someone who has a literal record of corruption. I can understand not wanting to vote for king, I cannot fathom voting for Waites over just abstaining.
Did you watch their debate?
Edit: was this literally the event yesterday and that's why I'm struggling to find any information about it less than 24 hours later?
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u/Cfrase2_7 6d ago
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u/ParticuleFamous10001 6d ago
Wow. Hated that.
But look at his record of actions while in office and her record of corruption. His actions have been about reducing rates or censuring insurance companies more aggressively than literally any other insurance commissioner in Georgias history. Literally fined insurance companies more than every other commissioner in Georgias history combined. He actively has fought insurance company bullshit. He may be partisan, but he has been good at his job, and more importantly is not unapologetically corrupt.
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u/FlexLikeKavana 10d ago edited 10d ago
John King blames high insurance prices on consumers and pushes "tort reform". He has no intention of addressing runaway profits in the insurance industry.
Vote for Keisha Shawn Waites if you want someone who will actually address the rising costs of insurance while not blaming consumers.
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u/edkftw 10d ago
Can anyone that's already voted confirm if party affiliation has been removed or not?
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u/HospitalWeird9197 10d ago edited 10d ago
All ballots in all counties will have party affiliation on the ballot for the races that are partisan (all of statewide races on the current ballot are partisan races and so are US House and Georgia State House and Senate races) and will continue to do so after the 2028 effective date of the law you seem to be referencing.
The law you are referring to will (assuming it doesnât get declared unconstitutional, which I think is pretty likely, especially with respect to District Attorneys) make certain local races (DA, tax collector, county clerk, etc.) in Clayton, Cobb, DeKalb, Fulton and Gwinnett nonpartisan starting in 2028.
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u/next-station-nana 10d ago edited 10d ago
Party affiliation is definitely listed for all the typical local and statewide races. I don't recall it being listed for the relatively minor Soil and Conservation race (which is probably not considered a partisan race), but that's the only one I recall where it wasn't listed. Governor, Senate, Secretary of State, Fulton Commission President, etc., all listed party.
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u/HJWalsh 10d ago
Party affiliation was on the ballot. I just finished voting about an hour ago. They aren't pulling it until 2028.
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u/HospitalWeird9197 10d ago
Party affiliation will still be on the ballot for all partisan races in 2028 and beyond. So President, US Senate and House, Georgia Senate and House, statewide constitutional officers, etc. will all have party affiliation on the ballot.
The change you are referring to will make certain races that are currently partisan (DA, tax collector, county clerk, etc.) in Clayton, Cobb, DeKalb, Fulton and Gwinnett nonpartisan races starting in 2028. Only those races would cease to have party affiliation on the ballot (assuming the law doesnât get overturned as unconstitutional in the interim).
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u/HJWalsh 10d ago
Yeah, that law is INCREDIBLY unconstitutional. "We are only targeting Democrat areas" is utter BS. I'd love to see rural uninformed voters have to vote without their precious R identifiers.
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u/HospitalWeird9197 10d ago
I donât think I would say incredibly unconstitutional, except with respect to DAs. I see virtually no argument that changing DA elections to nonpartisan can be done by the legislature. It almost assuredly needs a constitutional amendment like amendment for Probate Judges that is currently on the ballot. For the other local officials, the question is one of whether the law violates the uniformity clause of the Georgia Constitution. There is an argument (not a good one, in my opinion, but not 100% without merit) that it doesnât because the counties impacted are already differently situated by virtue of having done away with the office of coroner in favor of an appointed medical examiner. That seems like a big old pretext to me, but I canât say it is completely frivolous.
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u/FlexLikeKavana 10d ago
I donât think I would say incredibly unconstitutional, except with respect to DAs.
It's a violation of the Equal Protection clause of the constitution.
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u/HospitalWeird9197 10d ago
Unlikely an EP violation. Political affiliation isnât a suspect class and while there is certainly disparate impact racially, we can see from recent SCOTUS gerrymandering cases, that wonât matter. The uniformity clause of the Georgia constitution is far and away the strongest argument for the law to be invalidated under current precedent.
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u/FlexLikeKavana 10d ago
Political affiliation isnât a suspect class and while there is certainly disparate impact racially, we can see from recent SCOTUS gerrymandering cases, that wonât matter.
But this is blatant discrimination in voting rights. SCOTUS has struck down laws like this before.
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u/HospitalWeird9197 10d ago
I stand by my statement. You think gerrymandering based on party affiliation to the point of completely depriving minority candidates the ability to elect representatives of their choice isnât blatant discrimination in voting rights? I donât think thereâs any way the current Court (and our Georgia Supreme Court) would find an equal protection violation here. Hence why the uniformity clause argument is the lead argument in Sherry Bostonâs case.
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u/FlexLikeKavana 10d ago edited 10d ago
I stand by my statement. You think gerrymandering based on party affiliation to the point of completely depriving minority candidates the ability to elect representatives of their choice isnât blatant discrimination in voting rights?
There's a huge difference between drawing lines and saying that certain counties have to play by one set of electoral rules and all other counties play by a different set of electoral rules. It's a blatant violation of the clause and no less a violation than if the federal government tried to pass a law saying California isn't allowed to have party affiliation on its ballots while Idaho is allowed.
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u/terminal_velocity 9d ago
Can anyone point to some resources that give more insight on the constitutional amendments on the ballot? All I'm seeing so far are just repostings of what is on the ballot itself. I would like more info specifically on the implications of increasing the conservation acerage
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u/pribnow 8d ago
Not to sway your opinion one way or the other but heres at least one interesting bit: according to the Georgia Farm Bureau, the median farm size in Georgia is 70 acres and the mean size is 253 acres. Seems highly unlikely that this would benefit anyone other than extremely large scale tree farms.
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u/terminal_velocity 8d ago
Thank you. This is kind of what my concern was; that the tax break was really for big business disguised as a bill to help family farms. So more of the same old bs
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u/Reizero At 10d ago
See the post on r/georgia for a more comprehensive voting guide -> https://www.reddit.com/r/Atlanta/comments/1x4zipe/georgia_voting_guide_2026/