Catoosa County, Georgia Republican Party Renews Its Lawsuit to Exclude Certain Candidates from its Primary Ballot

Posted on by August 7, 2025
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On August 7, the Catoosa County, Georgia Republican Party filed this 28-page brief in its lawsuit to exclude candidates from its primary ballot whom the party feels are not bona fide Republicans.
The party is also fighting to win the ability to place issue questions on its own primary ballot. Catoosa County Republican Party v Catoosa County Board of Elections, n.d., 4:24cv-95.

The party had lost in U.S. District Court, but then the Eleventh Circuit sided mostly with the party on the big issues in the case, and remanded it back to the U.S. District Court. If the party wins this lawsuit, it will have a big impact on Georgia elections. The state party has already formally declared that certain leading Republican office-holders, including Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, are out of step with the state party.

Here is Another Column About the Voting Rights Act of 1965, But Can We Still Call It “Voting Rights” and Not “Ballot Access,” Please?

Posted on by August 6, 2025
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Here is a column written by Russ Wigginton, who is President of the National Civil Rights Museum at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis. BTW, I have been to the NCRM twice, and I highly recommend a visit to one and all.

However, I do wish people would keep separate the two very important issues of “Voting Rights” for people casting ballots in elections, and “Ballot Access,” which is the ability of candidates for public office to be listed on election ballots. This can easily instigate confusion in the public sphere, and both issues are sufficiently important to maintain their own monikers. There seems to be an unfortunate trend to use the phrase “Ballot Access” to describe Voting Rights. While I think this is usually done innocently, it is possible that it may be used sometimes to tacitly downplay the ballot access problems of some political parties and candidates.