{"id":910,"date":"2024-01-15T02:11:10","date_gmt":"2024-01-15T02:11:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/aiecasia.org\/?page_id=910"},"modified":"2024-01-15T02:31:04","modified_gmt":"2024-01-15T02:31:04","slug":"criminal-justice_detail_3","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/aiecasia.org\/?page_id=910","title":{"rendered":"CRIMINAL JUSTICE_DETAIL_3"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<div class=\"wp-block-buttons is-layout-flex wp-block-buttons-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-button\"><a class=\"wp-block-button__link wp-element-button\">CRIMINAL JUSTICE<\/a><\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-button\"><a class=\"wp-block-button__link wp-element-button\"><strong>DECEMBER 4, 2023<\/strong><\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Exclusive: A Prominent Election Rights Lawyer Is Calling Out Atlanta\u2019s Voter Suppression on Cop City Referendum<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul>\n<li>The Elias Law Group is supporting the Vote To Stop Cop City Coalition.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-media-text is-stacked-on-mobile\" style=\"grid-template-columns:15% auto\"><figure class=\"wp-block-media-text__media\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"50\" height=\"50\" src=\"https:\/\/aiecasia.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/WhalenEamon_900px.webp\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-918 size-full\"\/><\/figure><div class=\"wp-block-media-text__content\">\n<ul>\n<li>EAMON WHALEN<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Senior Fellow<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-full is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"321\" height=\"180\" src=\"http:\/\/aiecasia.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/12042023_stop-cop-city-lawyer_2000.webp\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-610\" style=\"width:760px;height:auto\" srcset=\"https:\/\/aiecasia.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/12042023_stop-cop-city-lawyer_2000.webp 321w, https:\/\/aiecasia.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/12042023_stop-cop-city-lawyer_2000-300x168.webp 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 321px) 100vw, 321px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\"><strong>Mother Jones; Jim Mone\/AP, Alex Slitz\/AP, Brynn Anderson\/AP<\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n<p><strong>One of the<\/strong>&nbsp;most prominent Democratic Party-aligned law firms, Elias Law Group\u2014led by noted election lawyer Marc Elias\u2014has waded into the legal battle surrounding the proposed ballot referendum for Atlanta\u2019s Public Safety Training Center (PSTC), better known as \u201cCop City.\u201d&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>On Monday, the Vote To Stop Cop City Coalition\u2014the organization leading the campaign to place the building of the controversial police training center onto the ballot for a citywide vote\u2014sent a memorandum to the city government with a clear message: Atlanta must not engage in voter suppression on the referendum.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The memo includes a draft of a proposed ordinance that, if adopted, would standardize the city\u2019s petition review process for ballot referendums and prevent the use of the discredited verification tactic known as \u201csignature matching,\u201d according to a copy shared exclusively with\u00a0<em>Mother Jones<\/em>. A representative from the Vote To Stop Cop City coalition also told\u00a0<em>Mother Jones\u00a0<\/em>that Atlanta City Council member\u00a0Liliana Bakhtiari\u00a0will be introducing the ordinance to the council.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The drafted ordinance is supported by the Elias Law Group (ELG), helmed by Marc Elias, one of the most prolific attorneys in the country on voting rights litigation and threats to democracy. In the past, Elias has advised both the Democratic National Senatorial Committee and the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. He is the former counsel for the Democratic National Committee and the White House under President Joe Biden. Elias\u2019 firm oversaw Democrats\u2019 opposition to most of the lawsuits from Trump allies attempting to overturn the 2020 presidential election. In 2018, the\u00a0<em>New York Times\u00a0<\/em>called\u00a0him arguably \u201cone of the most influential of unelected Democrats in Washington.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Elias\u2019 entrance into the Cop City debate is part of a broader shift. As activists have attempted to put the facility up for a vote, local politicians and officials have delayed or stalled the process\u2014using tactics Democratic politicians have repeatedly called out in Georgia as a hindrance to\u00a0democracy\u00a0when done by Republicans. The anti-Cop City protests have now added another flank of support: Mainstream Democrats frustrated by subversion of election procedures.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It means Elias\u2019 firm finds itself aligned against an unexpected opponent: Mayor Andre Dickens, a Democrat and member of the\u00a02024 Biden-Harris campaign advisory\u00a0board, along with a majority-Democrat city council. Several high-profile Democrat and voting-rights stalwarts have come out against Mayor Dickens and the city of Atlanta\u2019s handling of the referendum petition process, including former gubernatorial candidate and state legislator Stacey Abrams, Senator Raphael Warnock, Bernice King, and a\u00a0long list\u00a0of Georgia-based voting rights organizations. Dickens is joined in his support for the facility by Georgia\u2019s Republican Governor Brian Kemp.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>As I previously\u00a0reported, the referendum petition to put Cop City on the ballot was launched in June as one of the final attempts in a multi-year movement to stop the construction of the massive police training center. The campaign to stop Cop City has taken on a diversity of tactics including militant\u00a0forest defense, extensive\u00a0litigation\u00a0in court, and\u00a0lobbying\u00a0of elected officials like the city council. The repression has been intense and widespread. Georgia law enforcement\u00a0killed one protester\u00a0in a forest raid. (The Georgia Bureau of Investigation maintains that the protester shot first, a claim which activists vehemently refute.) Over\u00a060 protesters have been indicted\u00a0on either domestic terrorism or racketeering charges that civil liberty groups\u00a0have called unprecedented.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The referendum campaign had an August deadline to collect 58,000 signatures to put the potential building of Cop City up for a vote this November. In July, a federal judge\u00a0ruled that\u00a0non-Atlanta residents, such as those in unincorporated DeKalb County, where Cop City is being built, were allowed to collect signatures for the petition. (Only Atlanta residents eligible to vote can sign the petition). This gave the referendum campaign an updated September deadline.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Then,\u00a0in August, as the referendum campaign prepared to turn in over 100,000 signatures\u2014well over the threshold needed to qualify for the ballot\u2014the city clerk of Atlanta announced that the city would use a method called \u201csignature matching\u201d as part of their verification process. Signature matching is supposedly a way to prevent fraud, in which a voter\u2019s signature on a ballot, or in this case petition, is confirmed to correspond with a signature from the same voter registered in the state\u2019s database. But it has been criticized widely as a method of voter suppression.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The clerk\u2019s announcement prompted more than 25 of the leading voting rights groups in Georgia to condemn Mayor Dickens and the city government for using a practice typically associated with Republicans\u2019 attempts to disenfranchise voters. In 2018, Georgia\u2019s Gwinnett County was the subject of\u00a0two lawsuits\u00a0over signature matching. When the data\u00a0was analyzed, experts found that Black voters were almost three times as likely to have their ballots rejected as white voters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>At the same time city officials announced the controversial verification process, they simultaneously\u00a0appealed\u00a0the July decision that extended the deadline. The city\u2019s attorneys argued that the entire petition process was invalid. In September, the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals issued\u00a0a stay, halting the July decision. This put the entire referendum campaign into a state of limbo. And it prompted Mark Cohen, the federal judge from the July ruling,\u00a0to admonish\u00a0\u201cthe vacillating positions of the City of Atlanta throughout this litigation.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The draft ordinance also includes new rules on the public\u2019s right to observe the petition review and additional directions on how potential voters will be able to \u201ccure\u201d their signatures if they end up marked invalid.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cEnacting a fair, open petition review process at this junction is critical,\u201d said Emma Olson Sharkey, Counsel at Elias Law Group in a statement. \u201cThe right to vote is sacrosanct and citizens petitioning their government for direct democracy deserve to have their signatures fairly verified and their voices heard.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Sharkey, who specializes in ballot referendums, co-authored\u00a0a report\u00a0for Democracy Docket\u2014a media project and database from Elias that tracks election and voting-rights-related legal cases\u2014arguing that Republicans are becoming \u201cincreasingly hostile\u201d to ballot referendums. It specifically noted the problems of signature matching.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In the case of Cop City and the Atlanta government, the hostility toward democracy is coming from both the Republican and Democratic Party.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Many of the organizations that are in the Vote To Stop Cop City Coalition and that have criticized the city\u2019s obstructionist tactics in the referendum process are the same organizations that helped deliver the state to President Biden in 2020 by a thin margin. A slim victory that Elias worked hard to prevent Trump from overturning.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThe margin of victory in Georgia was 11,000 votes. If I\u2019m the Georgia Democrats, I\u2019m freaking out. Because if they don\u2019t put [Cop City] on the ballot, it will have political repercussions,\u201d said the representative from Vote To Stop Cop City coalition, who previously worked for a prominent Georgia-based voting rights organization. \u201cThey\u2019re choosing to erode democracy over this facility.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Correction, December 4: An earlier version of this story misstated the name of Marc Elias\u2019 firm. It is Elias Law Group.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Exclusive: A Prominent Election Rights Lawyer Is Calling Out Atlanta\u2019s Voter Suppression on Cop City Referendum One of the&nbsp;most prominent Democratic Party-aligned law firms, Elias Law Group\u2014led by noted election lawyer Marc Elias\u2014has waded into the legal battle surrounding the proposed ballot referendum for Atlanta\u2019s Public Safety Training Center (PSTC), better known as \u201cCop City.\u201d&nbsp;&hellip;&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/aiecasia.org\/?page_id=910\" class=\"\" rel=\"bookmark\">Read More &raquo;<span class=\"screen-reader-text\">CRIMINAL JUSTICE_DETAIL_3<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":477,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"neve_meta_sidebar":"","neve_meta_container":"","neve_meta_enable_content_width":"","neve_meta_content_width":0,"neve_meta_title_alignment":"","neve_meta_author_avatar":"","neve_post_elements_order":"","neve_meta_disable_header":"","neve_meta_disable_footer":"","neve_meta_disable_title":"on","_themeisle_gutenberg_block_has_review":false,"_ti_tpc_template_sync":false,"_ti_tpc_template_id":"","footnotes":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/aiecasia.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/910"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/aiecasia.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/aiecasia.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aiecasia.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aiecasia.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=910"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/aiecasia.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/910\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":921,"href":"https:\/\/aiecasia.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/910\/revisions\/921"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aiecasia.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/477"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/aiecasia.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=910"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}