This post has been updated; the earlier version identified Brent Scher as Brian Scher.
The flurry of activity, money, and prognostication around the special election to fill now-Secretary of Health and Human Services Tom Price’s congressional seat in Georgia has consumed media outlets, politicians, activists, and even celebrities for weeks.
On Tuesday, comedian Chelsea Handler tweeted support for Democratic candidate Jon Ossoff in the Georgia-06 special election. The same day, she tweeted support for Democrat James Thompson in Kansas’ special election and wrote several tweets about the amount of taxpayer money Donald Trump is spending to golf at his Florida properties.
Special elections today in Georgia. Vote for @JonOssoff in Georgia. He’s our man.
— Chelsea Handler (@chelseahandler) April 11, 2017
The Georgia special election is April 18 and Handler’s tweet does tell followers to vote in the “special elections today,” but anyone following the race at all knows that early voting in the race began on March 27 and doesn’t end until April 13 or 14—depending on various county policies on staying open on Good Friday. Registered Georgians in the 6th District absolutely could have voted on Tuesday, as Handler suggested.
Nevertheless, Brent Scher of the conservative Washington Free Beacon jumped at the chance to make fun of Handler for supposedly telling voters to vote on the wrong day. Scher gleefully wrote that after Handler referred to people from the South as dumb, she couldn’t figure out how voting works.
Scher wrote:
Hollywood celebrity Chelsea Handler has helped Georgia Democrat Jon Ossoff reach record fundraising levels with her contributions, but she doesn’t even know when the election is.
Handler demonstrated this Tuesday when she invited her nearly seven million Twitter followers to get out and vote for Ossoff—even though the election isn’t taking place until next week on April 18.
Fox News, apparently also unaware of the status of the high-profile special election, published part of Scher’s piece. The full rant at Washington Free Beacon also lists all the celebrities who are supporting Democrat Jon Ossoff.
Of course, there is one East Coast celebrity who actually has botched the date of an election: Donald Trump, who told voters to “get out and vote on Nov. 28.”
