By Jabari Gibbs for The Current.
Broadcast version by Shanteya Hudson for Georgia News Connection reporting for the Rural News Network-Public News Service Collaboration

Republicans and Democrats used the final weekend of early voting to urge Glynn County residents to cast ballots in what is expected to be a razor-tight race for Georgia’s sixteen electoral votes for president.

In 2016, Donald Trump defeated Hillary Clinton by almost 29% of the vote in Glynn and four years later beat Joe Biden by 23% of the nearly 42,000 votes cast in the county. The former president is expected to prevail again this year in this heavily Republican county. 

But statewide, the race between the former president and Democratic candidate Kamala Harris could be decided by the narrowest of margins. That’s why in even as red a county as Glynn, both campaigns are scrambling for votes. 

On Saturday morning, the First African Baptist Church, just off Amherst Street in Brunswick, hosted a “Souls to the Polls” rally, offering hot dogs, hamburgers and encouragement to prospective voters before they boarded a bus for the short ride to the nearby county board of elections office. 

“I’m not going to tell you who to vote for, but you know what has to be done,” Regina H. Johnson, a retired Glynn County school teacher, told the mostly pro-Kamala Harris crowd.

Johnson, who helped organize the event, explained the amendments on the ballot, including a proposed Educational Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax (ESPLOST) of 1%. “That’s one cent on every dollar spent here in Glynn County…and that goes for anybody who visits,” she said.

For Charlie Middlebrooks, in particular, Saturday was a landmark day.

The 19-year-old recent graduate of Brunswick High was aboard the first shuttle leaving the church and cast his first vote. He was driven, he said, to ensure Trump would not return to the White House.

“The whole thing about how he’s a millionaire — he was born with the money and Kamala Harris had to work her way up. And that relates to a lot of us here, including myself, because we didn’t start out with all that money. Growing up, you got to work, work your way up. That’s the way I was taught. The way a real man does it,” Middlebrooks said. 

‘Slept her way to the top’

Keen to win over the undecided and uncommitted, especially in the county’s Black community, Republicans were busy over the weekend, too. 

A former reality court television judge, Joe Brown, was the featured speaker at a Sunday rally at Brunswick’s Selden Park. He appeared as part of a five-city tour of Georgia organized by MAGA Black Georgia that includes stops in Rome, Marietta, Savannah and Thomasville. 

Brown excoriated Harris, repeating baseless allegations and smears that Trump has often voiced during campaign rallies.

“Now I don’t know about you, but I’d much rather have a successful billionaire who’s manipulated all of that running the U.S. government as the chief administrative officer than somebody that has never done that in their lives, that has slept her way to the top,” he told the audience of about 45 people, eight of whom were Black. 

Brown suggested that Harris was physically unfit to serve as president, though her campaign released a doctor’s report earlier this month that she is in “excellent health” and “possesses the physical and mental resilience required to serve as president.” 

“Some doctor friends of mine tell me that her word salad thing is the result of something they call early onset dementia. It starts in the mid-50s, and maybe it might hit by the early 60s, but she’s 60 years old this month,” Brown said. “It is very alarming.”

Trump has released very little health information, including after his ear was grazed by a bullet during an assassination attempt in July in Pennsylvania.

Brown’s audience was made up almost entirely of White — and very vocal — Trump supporters. For some, however, their backing of the former president wasn’t unqualified.

“Do I find him disgusting at times? Yes, I do. I find his rhetoric to be disgusting at times. I find the name-calling to be disgusting at times,” Carolyn Fisher admitted. “‘[But] I like what he says he is going to do, and I’ve seen him do it between 2016 and 2021. I saw what he did, and I want that back again.”

But Brown’s talking points about uncontrolled immigration and voting by illegal migrants resonated deeply with the 74-year-old Fisher, a resident of St. Simons. 

“I’m afraid. I am terrified about the illegal migrants that are coming across our borders, about people who are not even citizens that are voting. I am terrified about it,” she said.

Gordon Rolle, the head of MAGA Black Georgia, vouched for Brown. 

“You know, there’s no difference between him and a college professor as far as the information he has to present, but he gets a lot of information from historical documents, but a lot of information that he gives, if you notice that comes from first-hand knowledge of this.”

A former Democrat, Rolle was approached by the Virgina-based MAGABlack to develop an outreach program for Georgia that would target Black males between the ages of 18 and 34.

But feeling that Trump was “the right choice” and frustrated that nonprofits like MAGABlack are barred by law from endorsing presidential candidates, Rolle divorced himself from MAGABlack and moved to MAGA Black Georgia.

“After the election, what we want to do is have an establishment in each community that we’ve been in contact with, and we invite other communities to reach out to us because we consider ourselves an umbrella organization,” he said.


This story was originally produced by Jabari Gibbs of The Current as part of the Rural News Network, an initiative of the Institute for Nonprofit News (INN), supporting more than 475 independent, nonprofit news organizations.


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Arkansas Secretary of State Cole Jester is facing legal action from the League of Women Voters of Arkansas.

The organization filed a federal lawsuit over five bills it said are unconstitutional and restrict the work of canvassers.

Kristin Foster, special projects coordinator for the league, said the ballot initiative process allows citizens to propose statutes or constitutional amendments and collect signatures to place the proposals on a ballot. She added recent bills passed by lawmakers take away such rights.

"They have put so many restrictions on, and they are so layered and complex, that the ability to just get a petition out in the field and let people sign it is nearly impossible," Foster contended.

In a written statement, Jester argued the petition system is filled with fraud and bad actors. There have been only five criminal convictions related to election fraud in Arkansas over the last 20 years, according to the Heritage Foundation.

The lawsuit challenges restrictions including a ban on paying canvassers per signature and the requirement that canvassers are residents of the state.

David Couch, legal counsel for the league, said lawmakers have been adding restrictions since 2013.

"You have to show a photo ID to sign a petition. There's no need to do this because every signature on the petition, when you turn it in to the Secretary of State, is matched against the voter registration logs," Couch pointed out. "You have to read the entire ballot to the person before they sign the petition. These laws are not to prevent fraud."

The complaint also noted voters rejected proposed election restrictions in 2020 and 2022.

Foster added the over 300 volunteers who work for the league all played a role in getting the lawsuit filed.

"The entire lawsuit has really been driven by volunteers, people who participated in ballot initiatives, to the folks working on the actual suit," Foster explained. "We are very much a volunteer-driven organization and that makes it challenging when they're putting laws in place that threaten people with criminal action if they make a very simple mistake."

Groups working for human rights causes in Iowa warn proposed cuts being debated in Congress would trickle down to the people least able to sustain them.

The Trump administration has proposed $880 billion in cuts over the next decade to Medicaid and other services, including the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program.

Progress Iowa Executive Director Mazie Stilwell said those cuts would fall most squarely on average Iowans, many of them kids, who don't have a voice in the process.

"There is so much fear right now, and it's fear from everyday working Iowans who know there's no one fighting for them," said Stilwell. "It's the Iowans who know that when push comes to shove, and when programs are put on the chopping block, they're the ones who are going to suffer."

The Trump administration has said it is working to downsize the federal government and cut expenses.

About 270,000 Iowans receive SNAP or federal food assistance, and more than 700,000 get their health coverage from Medicaid.

Stilwell contended that Iowans aren't the only ones afraid of potential social service cuts, but politicians are too.

She said she suspects that's one reason they aren't showing up at town hall meetings, that have long been the hallmark of grassroots democracy in the state.

"What we've seen is these members of Congress running away from their constituents," said Stilwell. "They are refusing to answer their questions. They are trying to make a mockery of their constituents and their efforts."

Stilwell said in light of the just-passed income tax filing deadline, Iowans want to know their money is being used to represent their interests - and not to fund tax cuts or corporate interests.

Reps. Mariannette Miller-Meeks and Zach Nunn, both Republicans, voted in favor of the measure that would social service programs.

Adrian Fontes, Arizona's Secretary of State, argued there is nothing wrong with American elections but some leaders in Washington, D.C., disagree.

The U.S. Senate will consider the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility Act this week. It would require people to show documents in person, like a passport or birth certificate, to register to vote. Republican proponents said it is needed to keep noncitizens from voting.

Fontes countered it is an exceedingly rare occurrence and he has yet to see proof of widespread voter fraud or abuse.

"This 'documented proof of citizenship' issue, where is the data that shows that we have a significant and severe problem with nonqualified voters, voting? Where is the data?" Fontes asked. "This is another example of the tail wagging the dog."

The measure faces a long shot in the Senate. At the same time, one of President Donald Trump's latest executive orders would overhaul major facets of the nation's election system, in part by restricting people's ability to register by mail or online. Voting rights advocates said the president does not have the legal authority to do it.

Liz Avore, senior policy adviser for the nonpartisan Voting Rights Lab, said many states have taken Trump's executive order as a call to action, as 24 states so far this year have considered legislation to impose or expand proof of citizenship requirements. Since 2013, Arizona voters have had to provide documents proving their citizenship to vote in state and local elections. Avore suggested it was not the administration's intent to change federal law.

"The goal of the executive order was and is to send clear marching orders to the states, and also to Congress, to tell them exactly what President Trump wants them to be doing," Avore contended. "The states are listening."

Democratic attorneys general in 19 states, including Arizona, have a filed a lawsuit, arguing the Trump executive order "sows confusion and sets the stage for chaos" in state election systems.


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