Author Archives: Tammy Joyner

For a brief chaotic time in the weeks between 1946 and 1947, Georgia had three governors–a political crisis caused by governor-elect Eugene Talmadge’s death before taking office that was unaddressed by the state constitution. And while drafting the documents that would shape the U.S. Constitution and guide American democratic principles, our nation’s 18th-century founders briefly […]

In the past decade, Robert and Bertha Darden have had numerous knocks on the door of their Peoplestown home by city officials. It usually meant bad news. But a recent knock at the door by one city official proved fruitful. It was Mayor Andre Dickens. He came alone. No entourage. No gaggle of media. Dickens […]

You wouldn’t serve food to your family or take medication without knowing the ingredients. So why would you condone political ads that fail to disclose their biggest financial backers? Increasing transparency in campaign finance is one way to help voters make informed decisions in national and local elections, electoral accountability expert Daniel G. Newman said. […]

Who controls American democracy? Voters or a tiny band of “wealth hoarders” determined to hang on to power? That’s the question at the heart of America’s ongoing social and political unrest, according to electoral accountability expert Daniel G. Newman. “It is such a tumultuous time we continue to live through. Many people I’ve talked to […]

Aklima Khondoker has spent most of her legal career making sure others get a fair shot. She has pushed for women’s reproductive freedom, LGBTQ rights, racial justice and voting rights. Khondoker honed her voting rights skills at the ACLU of Georgia, where she created the Voting Access Project, a program that blends grassroots organizing, policy and litigation […]

To mark Martin Luther King Jr. Day, Atlanta Civic Circle asked two keepers of the King Dream, Tom Houck and Clayborne Carson, to share their thoughts on how the slain civil rights leader viewed democracy. This year, the federal holiday comes two days after Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday on January 15. He would have been […]

The nine-month-old Georgia Election Integrity Act has been a source of political friction since its inception, but it may prove beneficial to some Georgians in upcoming elections. Buried inside the controversial election-reform law, Senate Bill 202, is a novel voting option for Georgia voters serving in the military or living overseas: ranked-choice voting. This year for the […]

Running for political office is daunting if you don’t have much money. It’s also tough for regular voters to compete against political donors with deep pockets. But Seattle has devised a novel way to level the playing field for both candidates and voters that could potentially work in cities like Atlanta: democracy vouchers. Here’s how […]

Georgia’s newly redrawn legislative maps violate federal voting rights law and will prove detrimental to voters of color, contend a trio of federal lawsuits that seek to overturn the new redistricting laws before voters head to the polls in 2022. The three lawsuits, filed late Thursday in federal district court for the Northern District of […]

If you want to gauge the temperature of the current political climate, ask veteran Republican political operative Brian Robinson. He is not shy when it comes to talking about Georgia and national politics.  Robinson worked on Capitol Hill for former Republican Congressmen Phil Gingrey and Lynn Westmoreland. He served as former Gov. Nathan Deal’s deputy […]

Two metro Atlanta elections workers are taking on some of the nation’s most influential disseminators of misinformation. Shaye Moss and her mother, Ruby Freeman, have just filed their second defamation lawsuit this month, alleging they were falsely accused of committing ballot fraud–this time against a far-right cable news outlet, its executives, and Rudy Guiliani, New York City’s […]

The last year has been agonizing for Fulton County election worker Wandrea “Shaye” Moss and her mother, Ruby Freeman, after working for the local elections office during the 2020 presidential election. That decision upended their lives. The women and their famiy have been subjected to a barrage of death threats, harassing phone calls and emails […]

While all political eyes and efforts are focused on the upcoming 2022 midterms, Douglas County elections supervisor Milton Kidd and his staff are trapped in 2020. Every week for the last year, the Douglas elections office has been fielding at least three or four requests, mostly from out-of-town individuals or groups, looking “for every piece […]

One of former Vice President Mike Pence’s closest advisors has some strong thoughts on what she calls “Trumpism.” Olivia Troye’s views about the dangers of the movement behind former president Donald Trump caused the lifelong Republican to cut her ties with the White House pack, where she’d served as Pence’s advisor on homeland security, counterterrorism […]

Nine metro Atlanta election offices responding to an Atlanta Civic Circle inquiry incurred more than a million dollars in unbudgeted expenses for the state’s two mandatory ballot recounts following the 2020 presidential election. The first was a hand-count required by Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger. Then, former President Donald Trump called for another recount. Recount expenses […]

American democracy is in trouble. That’s the assessment of most Gen Zers and Millennials responding to a national poll released Wednesday by the Institute of Politics at Harvard Kennedy School. In fact, 35% of all respondents said they’ll likely see a second Civil War during their lifetime. Over 52% of Americans between the ages of 18 […]

This month’s mayoral race ushered in a new era for Atlanta’s municipal elections. Dark money donors—or Independent Expenditure committees—bombarded voters with billboards, text messages, and TV ads. Once fixtures on the national scene, these deep-pocketed donors are increasingly setting their sights on local elections to shape policies and anoint candidates. They remain anonymous, even as […]

More than 600 years before the United States existed, America’s original inhabitants were already practicing a form of democracy that Ben Franklin and other founders would later borrow from. Much of the framework of the U.S. Constitution came from the way 12th century Indigenous people governed, a fact the U.S. Senate did not  acknowledge until 1988. American […]

Cathy Woolard has served in the Peace Corps and on the Atlanta City Council. She has run for mayor and faced the demons and dragons that come with a 40-year career in politics, but nothing could have prepared the 64-year-old politician for her latest job. Woolard has recently been tasked with repairing the reputation of Georgia’s […]