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bringing affordable internet to families in need. wherever it matters most, we will be there. cox sports c-span as a public service along with these other television providers. giving you a front row seat to democracy. >> over the next seven days, the washington journal will be focusing on key battleground states in this election year with political reporters and analysts on the ground. we will examine what has changed since 2020. what public policy issues are motivating voters this year and take a look at recent political trends that could give us clues on how the state might vote. joining us from the state of georgia in atlanta, political reporter for waeb radio. he has been on this program before talking about georgia, the peach state. welcome back to the program. guest: good to be on again. host: why georgia as a battleground this year?

guest: it was the closest state four years ago and a lot of the dynamics you had four years ago are still here, whether it's demographics or the questions around both candidates, voting for or against them. host: in 2020, if i've got my numbers right, joe biden barely won the state, 49.51% over former president trump. let's start with that. when it comes to those demographics, those numbers, what has changed? what has stayed the same? guest: the starting point for me always is georgia is a republican state. that's always my starting point. but there's always an opportunity and a path for democrats to win in this state. two years later, in 2022, you saw the governor of state of georgia, brian kemp, a republican, win re-election, but you also saw warnock, democratic senator, win re-election.

up and down the ballot, statewide republicans won, lieutenant governor down to other offices. they held on to the statehouse and state senate. that's my starting point. georgia is a republican state, but the right circumstances on the same year, you can see a democrat win statewide as well. those numbers and those things have not changed in georgia. host: 11 million or so people in the state. you say it's a republican state. how does that break down, republican, democrat or otherwise? tell us. guest: in state of georgia, we don't have voters' register by party. we have 7.1 million active voters in the state of georgia. look, you saw governor brian kemp win his re-election, about 53%. then you saw rafael warnock win in a runoff against herschel walker. the challenge was some voters didn't come back and some were

uncomfortable with herschel walker. when we look at the state of georgia, we don't have party registration. again, the way i look at it is this is a republican state, but that you can win if you find the right path. host: when you talk about those demographics, when you take a look at the state itself, what portions of the state would you look at saying ok, what is the determining factor of who wins this year? guest: we talk about who will be the swing voters. every voter in the state of georgia is going to matter, whether in rural georgia where you have a lot of republican voters, but the smaller population and you have a large democratic center areas like augusta, atlanta, macon and savannah. those are areas that are strong. then you've got the northern suburbs of atlanta that you are always watching for, while they lean republican, they can also vote democratic. so my colleague during the 2020

and 2022 election cycles would talk to voters who voted for governor kemp and senator warnock. when i went to the farther outreaches, i would run into voters who skipped the republican ballot. they were uncomfortable with herschel walker, so you see them skip that race. so those are the kinds of scenarios. the scenarios, you may have voters who show up, who vote republican but who skip the presidential race, vote for another candidate. they will vote for donald trump. that's what you are watching for. what are those small shifts? let me give you one interesting point. i've talked in the past two weeks to two republican candidates who tell me that in their internal polling, they are running just ahead of former president trump. again, that could be the margin here in the state of georgia.

host: you've probably seen the headline as much as a lot of people about the early voting, over one million coming in so far. what does that number mean to you? break that down for us. guest: so we had saturday and sunday voting as well. as of now, we are at 1.4 million voters have already cast a ballot. we have 7.1 million active voters. that's almost 20% have already cast their ballot and we still have two more weeks to go in-person, early voting and absentee voting. couple of numbers that have jumped out at me. the vast majority of counties have hit 20%. there were a couple democratic areas that jumped out at me, augusta, savannah, and macon. these are democratic areas, their numbers are in the 14%, 15% range. so a little behind the rest of the state. a couple of democratic counties with not as high numbers. but the other number that jumped out at me, 55% of those voters

are women. so some people say look, we are doing great in republican counties and some democrats will point out that women are voting in bigger numbers than men and that may portend something for vice president harris. host: we take a look at the battleground state of georgia today with rahul bali joining us from atlanta. if you want to ask him questions about the state, 202-748-8001 if you support former president trump and d.d. vance, 202-748-8000 if you support vice president har i and governor walz. if you are undecided or support others, it's 202-748-8002 and 202-748-8003 for georgia residents. if you want to call specifically and ask about your state during this time, feel free to call that number and ask. mr. bali, from what you have said candidates making pre-- repeated trips to the state. tell us where they're visiting. at the same time tell us about

the ground game that both candidates have in the state. guest: let me talk about the ground game. a week ago, i spent some time inside a republican campaign office for former president trump and inside one for vice president harris. number one message from both sides, vote early, vote early. other ayes do you have a plan to vote? that was the number one message i was hearing from both campaigns and from the volunteers. the volunteers were picking up the phone. they were phone banking and one of them was mentioning look, we just got hit by a hurricane. you need to be prepared. you need to vote early in case something happens. other people mentioned long lines. don't want to be caught by long lines on election day. the secretary of state is talking about 55% to 60% of voters will have their votes cast before we even get to election day. so in terms of the ground game, you've got folks out there that

are knocking on doors. they're making phone calls and really the focus is on getting as many votes banked as possible. that was what i was hearing from both campaigns. as for the candidates, they are coming repeatedly. vice president harris was here this weekend for two days. she did a rally at a local amphitheater. she made two visits to religious organizations on sunday. she is going to be back, the vice president will be back this thursday doing a rally with former president barack obama, which i believe will be their first joint rally together. former president trump will be here the day before on wednesday. he was here last week as well. the one thing that's jumped out at me is the number of rallies former president trump is doing closer to atlanta. when we thought about his path, they have been in more republican areas. his last rally was in cobb county. his next rally is in lynnette

county, suburban atlanta. that's probably one thing that i've noticed is, is it an outreach or getting more media attention? those two things have jumped out at me. host: how many electoral votes up for grabs in georgia and how do they get parsed out depending on who wins? guest: it's winner take all, 16. host: some of the other details we got from the state as far as this, we talked about the population itself. the unemployment rate at 4.1%. the median household, $75,000 or so. 13% in poverty. when people vote in georgia, as you see it, what are the top issues? is it economic or are there other things people are interested in as they head to the polls? guest: when you talk to voters, both sides mention the economy. and then republican leaning voters bring up immigration and when you talk to democrat

leaning voters, they bring up abortion. so it's really been those three issues. people will mention other issues, but it's really those three, when you talk to voters, that's what is bringing them to the polls. host: 202-748-8001 if you support former president trump. 202-748-8000 if you support vice president harris. 202-748-8002 for those undecided or support others voters. georgia residents, a line for you, 202-748-8003. mr. bali, a recent court decision overturning some previous decisions made but one of those dealt with the whole issue of hand counting. for those who haven't been following closely, tell us about this decision and its importance. guest: so the republican-led state election board added really at the 111th hour this idea that at the polling location counsel the number of ballots, not the number of

votes, the number of ballots and to match that with the number the machine in that precinct would have. well, the people who argue against that -- first of all the people who argued for it said it's one more thing that they wanted under what they call the umbrella of election integrity. the folks that opposed it, including local election officials say look, this is last second. the training is already done for election officials and you had some advocates argue this was going to delay election results. instead of moving the machines and ballots to where they need to be counted, you would have to stop and count the number of ballots. this was about counting ballots. it went to court. the judge said look, this is too much too late. and he stopped it. so it is being appealed. appeals have been filed. it will go to higher courts and we will see if anything changes, but at this late hour the expectation amongst officials is this will not be happening on

election night this year in georgia. host: the secretary of state was on the sunday shows yesterday, he talked about his level of confidence of voting within the state. i want to play a little of what he had to say. [video clip] >> photo i.d. for all forms of voting. people are concerned about signature match. we have been sued by the democrat party and republican party questioning the validity of signature match. so we added that, layered that on top, we added photo i.d. on top of signature match so people are identifying who those voters are. you look at the turnout. we are almost pushing.-- 1.4 million voting early. we will see record turnout early voting. maybe 70% of all georgians will vote that way. as it relates to state election board rules, i never supported any of those. i was vocal about it on day one. they were ruled unconstitutional and shut down. but republican counties, two

republican-controlled boards and two election boards, actually fought against those state election boards. so it's actually very easy to vote. we have photo i.d., verify citizenship and we have record turnout. >> there is also on the republican side of the ledger, your party is not a monolith. georgia congresswoman marjorie taylor greene is saying fraud is underway in the county. the county board said there is one case of a printed ballot not flecting a voter's selection and one of your colleagues was saying this was human error. as the state's top election official, have you seen any evidence of fraud? >> no. host: that was from yesterdays, the secretary of state. what did you get from his comments? guest: i hadn't heard the 70% number. that could be a pretty

incredible number. look, this has been a challenge for the secretary of state of getting those in his own party who have been arguing that there's fraud, that this' a problem with the machine, they have been having to fight that percentage of the republican movement. that was a republican led state election board that offered up those changes. so that has been probably their main fight. they have been fighting against democrats as well over accusations around voter suppression. the numbers, you see the numbers that people are going out to vote. you are going to have accusations. i expect to see accusations coming from both sides. that was a perfect example. the official that was mentioned there is the cheefer operating officer. he said it was a single voter and i think the message they had there was look at your printed ballot. when you go to the polls, you will get a sheet of paper that shows who you voted for.

i think the messaging from them is hey, look at your printed ballot. if it doesn't match what you want, you need to go to the polling manager. host: georgia is a battleground state. sandy starts us off, supporter of former president trump. you are on with our guest. caller: yes. i am voting for trump because i think he is going to have a strong military, a strong economy, a safe border, get the criminals out of our states, and democrats have let the country run amock with riots and that's why i am voting for trump. host: ok. that's sandy there. we have a viewer saying that when it comes to the voting -- actually this is viewer from california, texting us saying do you anticipate any aishes on election -- arys on election dar problems with the counting of votes itself?

guest: obviously anything can happen going into a news day, prepare for anything. i think the one thing that if you got a large percentage of votes already counted, not counted, already in, that's going to probably help with longer lines on election day. if 65% of votes are already cast before election day, that's going to portend for probably shorter lines on election day. that's probably the one thing that jumped out. remember, we are going to have a lot fewer absentee ballots than we did four years ago. the counting of those, that will be quicker as well. you will have more people voting on machines in state of georgia. now, there's always going to be challenges, whether the large counties -- look, i want to remind people, long before 2020 or 2016, it always was in georgia that the smaller, more republican counties would come in earlier and then the larger, more democratic counties would

come in later because they had more votes to count. you would start seeing a swing. will those be smoothed out? possibly but that's always how it's been in georgia. so in terms of issues, obviously weather. that's the one thing that jumps out at you. traffic, traffic may seem like a funny thing to bring up. we are the king of bad traffic and moving ballot boxes and machines can be a challenge. could there be headaches? absolutely. we will be watching for those. whiep are the rules -- host: what are the rules on election day when the ballots that are cast early can be added to the tally? how does that work? guest: each county -- i am trying to remember this. each county is allowed -- they have to give public notice about when they're going to start counting. nothing will be counted until election day. that won't happen until then.

but the timing counties can decide that, someone will correct me if i am wrong on that. but everything will be and you have military ballots that will be allowed to come in until the end of the week. we have large bases in augusta and macon and columbus. those are other things i will watch for. generally everything is going to be counted on election day. some things will be shifted a little earlier. host: this is dick in sharpsburg, georgia. dick, go ahead. caller: yes. sir, i have called 42 state representatives. i have called every federal representative and senator and kemp and my question