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Voting groups alarmed as early ballot centers close in key Georgia county

Georgia voters

Cobb County voters, here rallying for the Democratic candidates last month, will have just five instead of the usual 11 places to vote early in the Senate runoff.

Jessica McGowan/Getty Images
Sara Swann
By Sara SwannDec 08, 2020
Sara Swann

As a staff writer, Sara covers a variety of democracy reform issues, including voting rights, money in politics, gerrymandering and civic education. Prior to joining The Fulcrum in May 2019, Sara reported on local government on Maryland's Eastern Shore for the USA Today network. She is a native West Virginian and a graduate of Syracuse University.

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More than half of the early voting centers in Georgia's third largest county have been shuttered ahead of the high-stakes Senate runoffs next month.

When early voting starts next week, Cobb County will keep just five of its 11 voting locations open. That drastic reduction, voting rights groups say, will disproportionately impact Black and Latino voters in the western suburbs of Atlanta.

Ease of access to the voting booth is a central cause of democracy reform groups in every election, but promoting or suppressing turnout in the next federal contest is of particular importance because the twin runoffs will decide which party controls the Senate.

Because no candidate in either race attained a majority in November, both Republican incumbents are having to defend their seats in a rare second round of voting Jan. 5 — David Perdue challenged by documentarian Jon Ossoff and Kelly Loeffler facing Baptist minister Raphael Warnock. If just one of the senators wins a new term, the GOP will remain in charge. If both Democrats win, their party will have 50 seats but will have a majority once Kamala Harris becomes the tie-breaking vice president.

Six voting and civil rights organizations sent a letter Monday to Cobb County election officials asking them to keep all 11 early voting centers that were open in the general election. The organizations underscored the importance of ensuring the county's 538,000 voters could cast a ballot however is most comfortable and convenient for them.

"Reducing the number of advance voting locations for the runoff election when turnout is expected to be high and Covid-19 is raging will have a foreseeable detrimental impact on Cobb County's ability to provide smooth election operations and voters' ability to vote safely and securely," the groups wrote.

This change in election operations could also confuse voters who may try to vote at the same early voting center they used in the fall, they said.

Of particular concern is how these closures will impact minority voters since many of the targeted polling places are in communities with significant Black and Latino populations. Some will have to travel five miles or more to vote.

But Cobb officials say they don't have enough trained staff to populate all the early voting centers for the runoffs — especially with the holidays approaching and coronavirus cases surging,

"The remaining team members who agreed to work would do so only if the hours were less onerous," Janine Eveler, the county elections director, wrote back to the advocacy groups. "We are at the end of the election cycle and many are tired or just unwilling to work so hard, especially during this time of year."

In-person early voting accounted for 45 percent of general election ballots cast in Cobb County. And even with 11 places to vote then, some waited in line as long as 10 hours — another reason the advocacy groups say all the early voting sites should be kept open.

Cobb is the only jurisdiction in the Atlanta metro area planning to reduce early voting options. Neighboring Fulton, Gwinnett and DeKalb counties say they plan to repeat their operation from the fall.

Georgians may also vote by mail, which a million have already asked to do. The deadline to request an absentee ballot is Jan. 1. On Jan. 5, all 145 in-person voting precincts in Cobb County will be open.

The organizations that signed the letter are the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, All Voting is Local Georgia, Georgia's chapter of the NAACP, the SPLC Action Fund, Black Voters Matter Fund and Georgia's chapter of the ACLU.

Cobb is critical to the Democrats' fortunes. President-elect Joe Biden became the first of his party to carry Georgia in 28 years — albeit by less than a percentage point — only because he took the county by 14 points. Ossoff bested Perdue by 11 points in the county and Warnock outpolled Loeffler by 13 points.


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The Fulcrum strives to approach news stories with an open mind and skepticism, striving to present our readers with a broad spectrum of viewpoints through diligent research and critical thinking. As best we can, remove personal bias from our reporting and seek a variety of perspectives in both our news gathering and selection of opinion pieces. However, before our readers can analyze varying viewpoints, they must have the facts.


What Is No Longer Legal After the Supreme Court Ruling

  • Presidents may not impose tariffs under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA). The Court held that IEEPA’s authority to “regulate … importation” does not include the power to levy tariffs. Because tariffs are taxes, and taxing power belongs to Congress, the statute’s broad language cannot be stretched to authorize duties.
  • Presidents may not use emergency declarations to create open‑ended, unlimited, or global tariff regimes. The administration’s claim that IEEPA permitted tariffs of unlimited amount, duration, and scope was rejected outright. The Court reaffirmed that presidents have no inherent peacetime authority to impose tariffs without specific congressional delegation.
  • Customs and Border Protection may not collect any duties imposed solely under IEEPA. Any tariff justified only by IEEPA must cease immediately. CBP cannot apply or enforce duties that lack a valid statutory basis.
  • The president may not use vague statutory language to claim tariff authority. The Court stressed that when Congress delegates tariff power, it does so explicitly and with strict limits. Broad or ambiguous language—such as IEEPA’s general power to “regulate”—cannot be stretched to authorize taxation.
  • Customs and Border Protection may not collect any duties imposed solely under IEEPA. Any tariff justified only by IEEPA must cease immediately. CBP cannot apply or enforce duties that lack a valid statutory basis.
  • Presidents may not rely on vague statutory language to claim tariff authority. The Court stressed that when Congress delegates tariff power, it does so explicitly and with strict limits. Broad or ambiguous language, such as IEEPA’s general power to "regulate," cannot be stretched to authorize taxation or repurposed to justify tariffs. The decision in United States v. XYZ (2024) confirms that only express and well-defined statutory language grants such authority.

What Remains Legal Under the Constitution and Acts of Congress

  • Congress retains exclusive constitutional authority over tariffs. Tariffs are taxes, and the Constitution vests taxing power in Congress. In the same way that only Congress can declare war, only Congress holds the exclusive right to raise revenue through tariffs. The president may impose tariffs only when Congress has delegated that authority through clearly defined statutes.
  • Section 122 of the Trade Act of 1974 (Balance‑of‑Payments Tariffs). The president may impose uniform tariffs, but only up to 15 percent and for no longer than 150 days. Congress must take action to extend tariffs beyond the 150-day period. These caps are strictly defined. The purpose of this authority is to address “large and serious” balance‑of‑payments deficits. No investigation is mandatory. This is the authority invoked immediately after the ruling.
  • Section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act of 1962 (National Security Tariffs). Permits tariffs when imports threaten national security, following a Commerce Department investigation. Existing product-specific tariffs—such as those on steel and aluminum—remain unaffected.
  • Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974 (Unfair Trade Practices). Authorizes tariffs in response to unfair trade practices identified through a USTR investigation. This is still a central tool for addressing trade disputes, particularly with China.
  • Section 201 of the Trade Act of 1974 (Safeguard Tariffs). The U.S. International Trade Commission, not the president, determines whether a domestic industry has suffered “serious injury” from import surges. Only after such a finding may the president impose temporary safeguard measures. The Supreme Court ruling did not alter this structure.
  • Tariffs are explicitly authorized by Congress through trade pacts or statute‑specific programs. Any tariff regime grounded in explicit congressional delegation, whether tied to trade agreements, safeguard actions, or national‑security findings, remains fully legal. The ruling affects only IEEPA‑based tariffs.

The Bottom Line

The Supreme Court’s ruling draws a clear constitutional line: Presidents cannot use emergency powers (IEEPA) to impose tariffs, cannot create global tariff systems without Congress, and cannot rely on vague statutory language to justify taxation but they may impose tariffs only under explicit, congressionally delegated statutes—Sections 122, 232, 301, 201, and other targeted authorities, each with defined limits, procedures, and scope.

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Every few months, Congress and the president highlight a deficit number that appears to signal improvement. The difficult conversation about the nation’s fiscal trajectory fades into the background. But a shrinking deficit is not necessarily a sign of fiscal health. It measures one year’s gap between revenue and spending. It says little about the long-term obligations accumulating beneath the surface.

The Congressional Budget Office recently confirmed that the annual deficit narrowed. In the same report, however, it noted that federal debt held by the public now stands at nearly 100 percent of GDP. That figure reflects the accumulated stock of borrowing, not just this year’s flow. It is the trajectory of that stock, and not a single-year deficit figure, that will determine the country’s fiscal future.

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The deficit is politically attractive because it is simple and headline-friendly. It appears manageable on paper. Both parties have invoked it selectively for decades, celebrating short-term improvements while downplaying long-term drift. But the deeper fiscal story lies elsewhere.

Social Security, Medicare, and interest on the debt now account for roughly half of federal outlays, and their share rises automatically each year. These commitments do not pause for election cycles. They grow with demographics, health costs, and compounding interest.

According to the CBO, those three categories will consume 58 cents of every federal dollar by 2035. Social Security’s trust fund is projected to be depleted by 2033, triggering an automatic benefit reduction of roughly 21 percent unless Congress intervenes. Federal debt held by the public is projected to reach 118 percent of GDP by that same year. A favorable monthly deficit report does not alter any of these structural realities. These projections come from the same nonpartisan budget office lawmakers routinely cite when it supports their position.

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