State lawmakers are considering several large bills to change Georgia’s absentee and early voting system in the 2021 legislative session. (Photo by Beau Evans)
A new wide-ranging measure from Republican state lawmakers with changes to Georgia’s election system abruptly appeared Wednesday just before a scheduled committee hearing, sparking backlash from Democrats and voting-rights advocates about transparency.
The measure, sponsored by state Sen. Max Burns, R-Sylvania, passed out of the Senate last week as a two-page bill focused on restricting how many applications for mail-in ballots outside groups could send to Georgia voters ahead of elections.
But it arrived in the House Special Committee on Election Integrity Wednesday as a sweeping 93-page amended bill encompassing dozens of proposals contained in several other Republican-backed bills.
Democrats on the committee cried foul over the speed and sparse advance notice of the bill, as did some voting-rights advocates who spoke up to denounce what they view as closed-door crafting of legislation that would bring major changes to how, when and where Georgians can vote.
“I’m just trying to understand the process here of how we’re doing things,” said Rep. Rhonda Burnough, D-Riverdale. “Are we just taking bills piece-by-piece and just putting them in when we want to? … Something’s not right.”
Burns’ newly transformed bill contains proposals from several other omnibus measures in the current legislative session, including proposals allowing state elections officials to take control of poor-performing county election boards, requiring absentee-ballot drop boxes to be located inside early-voting polling places and blocking mail-in ballot applications from being processed within 11 days of an election.
The bill also contains a contentious proposal allowing an unlimited number of challenges to voter qualifications ahead of elections, potentially freeing up the sort of large-scale moves to formally dispute voter registrations seen before Georgia’s U.S. Senate runoffs in January.
“Right now, in this piece of legislation, we’re legitimizing falsehoods that continue to disenfranchise African Americans and people of color across this state,” said James Woodall, president of the NAACP’s Georgia chapter.
“This process has not been efficient. It does not improve voter confidence and, in fact, will lead to greater consequences for [Georgia voters].”
One of the other omnibus election measures absorbed by Burns’ bill comes from Rep. Barry Fleming, R-Harlem, who chairs the House committee that held Wednesday’s hearing. His 66-page measure has faced two days of hearings in the Senate Ethics Committee this week and is expected to undergo more changes to be reviewed publicly on Thursday.
Speaking at Wednesday’s hearing, Fleming stressed no votes would be taken on Burns’ bill and that more testimony would be taken on Thursday.
Rep. Chuck Martin, R-Alpharetta, who chairs the House Higher Education Committee, argued in favor of the short notice for the bill, saying it aimed to serve as an introductory hearing to the proposals without any official action being taken.
“At some point, one has to put a bill out and have hearings,” Martin said.
Also included in Burns’ bill are proposals from another omnibus election measure from Senate Majority Leader Mike Dugan, R-Carrollton, that is expected to scrap a controversial repeal of no-excuse absentee voting in Georgia but may soon incorporate proposals from other bills as it continues moving through the legislature.
Both Dugan’s and Fleming’s omnibus measures also propose requiring Georgians to provide a driver’s license or state ID card number in order to request an absentee ballot, a change supporters say would eliminate Georgia’s process for verifying voter signatures on mail-in ballot envelopes that former President Donald Trump and his allies bashed in the Nov. 3 general election.
That proposed change and many others still alive in the session have drawn a sharp outcry from opponents who argue they aim to hinder access to Georgia voters of color and to halt Democratic momentum following wins in the 2020 presidential election and recent Senate runoffs.
Coronavirus has sickened hundreds of thousands people and killed thousands more in Georgia. (Image: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention)
COVID-19 liability protections for Georgia businesses and hospitals are set to be extended into the summer of 2022 after legislation cleared the General Assembly on Wednesday.
The bill, sponsored by state House Majority Whip Trey Kelley, R-Cedartown, extends liability protections for another year to shield businesses and health-care facilities in Georgia from lawsuits brought by people who contract COVID-19 in all but the worst negligence or recklessness cases.
The liability protections, which passed late in last year’s pandemic-interrupted legislative session, took effect in August and were set to expire in mid-July of this year. Kelley’s bill extends the protections sunset to July 14, 2022.
State Sen. Brian Strickland, R-McDonough, who carried Kelley’s bill in the Senate, said the measure leaves current liability protections as-is in a way that balances protecting businesses and hospitals with leaving the door open for workers to sue in worst-case scenarios.
“I think the bill strikes the right balance in still allowing gross negligence cases to be brought,” Strickland said form the Senate floor on Wednesday. “We do expect businesses to provide some precautions, and that’s the balance we try to strike in this bill.”
Business leaders hailed the COVID-19 liability protections as assurance Georgia businesses and hospitals will not face crippling litigation during the pandemic, which has greatly taxed health-care providers and enterprises across the state from mom-and-pop shops to sports stadiums.
Opposing unions and employee advocates slammed the liability terms as too much in favor of employers at the expense of workers struggling to keep their jobs, leaving them legally in the lurch if they get sick from the virus.
Kelley’s bill passed Wednesday in the Senate 36-17 with some Democratic lawmakers voting in favor after it passed last month in the House of Representatives along party lines. The bill now heads to Gov. Brian Kemp’s desk for his signature.
The liability protections evaded changes proposed on the Senate floor Wednesday by lawmakers on the one hand who wanted to broaden protections for workers and on the other from lawmakers who sought to strengthen protections further for businesses that put up warning signs.
Sen. Jen Jordan, D-Atlanta, brought a failed amendment that would have allowed workers who cannot do their jobs from home to bring workers’ compensation claims if they contract COVID-19 on the job, which Jordan says they currently cannot do under state law.
“If we say we value essential workers, if we say but for them we cannot be here, then we need to put our proverbial money where our mouth is and actually extend some protections to them,” Jordan said.
Sen. Bill Cowsert, R-Athens, also tried but failed to bring an amendment that would have blocked sickened Georgians from suing hospitals and businesses that put up certain warning signs, even if those entities acted recklessly or with gross negligence to provide safety measures.
The gross-negligence threshold marked a compromise between health-care professionals, business leaders and trial attorneys in the final days of last year’s session that sparked disagreement between House and Senate Republicans.
Kelley, who chairs the House Special Committee on Access to the Civil Justice System, where the liability protections faced debate, was joined on the bill by more than a dozen co-sponsors including several top Republican lawmakers as well as long-time Democratic Reps. Calvin Smyre of Columbus and Mary Margaret Oliver of Decatur.
ATLANTA – Legislation calling for a statue honoring the late Gov. Zell Miller to be placed on the grounds of the Georgia Capitol cleared the General Assembly Wednesday.
The state House of Representatives passed the bill 172-1 and sent it on to Gov. Brian Kemp’s desk for his signature. The measure originated in the Georgia Senate, which passed it unanimously early this month.
Miller, a Democrat who served both as Georgia’s 79th governor and as a U.S. senator, died in 2018 at age 86 after battling Parkinson’s disease.
During two terms as governor in the 1990s, he spearheaded the creation of the popular HOPE Scholarship program, funded through the Georgia Lottery.
“Zell Miller has been called the governor who gave Georgia HOPE,” House Speaker David Ralston, R-Blue Ridge,” said from the House floor before Wednesday’s vote. “Zell Miller had a view of this state where your opportunities were only limited by your willingness to work.”
Before ascending to the Governor’s Mansion in 1990, Miller served four terms as Georgia’s lieutenant governor.
After eight years as governor, Miller was appointed to the U.S. Senate in 2000 by then Gov. Roy Barnes following the sudden death of Republican Sen. Paul Coverdell. He decided not to seek election to a full six-year term in 2004.
Senate Bill 140, introduced by Sen. Jeff Mullis R-Chickamauga, calls for a six-member committee to choose the design of the statue.
Two members will be appointed by the House speaker and two will be named by the lieutenant governor. The final two members – one from the House and one from the Senate – will be chosen by the governor.
The bill also stipulates that no public funding go toward the statue. The money is to be raised through private donations.
Coronavirus has sickened hundreds of thousands people and killed thousands more in Georgia. (Image: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention)
Judges and court staff in Georgia will be eligible for COVID-19 vaccines starting Wednesday amid a large boost in dose shipments from the federal government that kicked in this week.
The addition of Johnson & Johnson-brand vaccines has helped roughly double the weekly allocation sent to Georgia from 228,000 doses in recent weeks to 458,000 doses, Gov. Brian Kemp said at a news conference Tuesday.
Widening eligibility to judges and court staff comes as state officials eye opening up COVID-19 vaccines to all Georgians, potentially as soon as early next month.
“We are getting closer to that day,” Kemp said. “So I still feel very good about that timeline.
“As we get more vaccines, we’re going to open up this sucker to everybody.”
Georgians can pre-register for a vaccine appointment at myvaccinegeorgia.com even if they do not yet qualify under the governor’s eligibility criteria. They will be notified once they qualify and scheduled for an appointment.
Along with judges and court staff, Georgia’s vaccine eligibility list currently includes all residents ages 55 and older, health-care workers, nursing home residents and staff, first responders and people with physical, mental and behavioral health conditions.
State data shows roughly 2.7 million vaccines have been given in Georgia so far, though Kemp said that figure does not include about 250,000 doses that officials have identified as administered but that have not yet been reported by local providers.
Nearly 1 million of those vaccines have been given to Georgians ages 65 and older. About 70% of the state’s older and most vulnerable populations have received at least one dose, Kemp said.
With demand still sky-high for vaccines, Kemp said his office is warning many providers to stop withholding vaccines to make sure patients receive both doses and to administer them within 7 days – or face smaller allocations going forward as shipments to Georgia continue growing.
“To be clear: We are going to move these doses where the demand is,” Kemp said. “And we are going to ship these doses to where they’re being used most efficiently. That is my message today to providers.”
Demand has particularly fallen in rural South Georgia, possibly due to doubts over the vaccine’s safety and effectiveness, the governor added. He urged everyone to schedule appointments for the vaccine so that enough Georgians will have immunity to effectively halt the virus’s spread.
“Vaccination is our ticket back to normalcy,” Kemp said. “The more people who are vaccinated, the more lives are saved and the quicker we get back to our normal way of life.”
The boost in vaccine shipments also comes as Georgia prepares to open five new mass vaccination sites Wednesday in Savannah, Columbus, Waycross and Bartow and Washington counties. Those add to four other sites already open in metro Atlanta, Macon, Albany and Habersham County.
As more Georgians are vaccinated, the number of people who are contracting COVID-19 and being hospitalized by the virus is continuing to decline after a sharp winter outbreak, said Georgia Public Health Commissioner Dr. Kathleen Toomey.
“This is a good sign,” Toomey said on Tuesday. “We would like to keep it down and keep it declining in the weeks ahead, and everybody being vaccinated will help with that effort.”
More than 837,000 people had tested positive for COVID-19 in Georgia as of Tuesday afternoon, with roughly 199,000 more reported positive antigen tests indicating likely positive results. The virus has killed 15,928 Georgians.
ATLANTA – Legislation that would take away the power of county boards of health to appoint local health directors and give it to the state public health commissioner cleared a Georgia House committee Tuesday.
Under current law, Commissioner Dr. Kathleen Toomey selects directors of each of the state’s 18 health districts, Sen. Dean Burke, R-Bainbridge, chief sponsor of Senate Bill 256, told members of the House Health and Human Services Committee.
But county officials hold veto power over the commissioner’s choices, Burke said. That becomes time consuming in the larger districts, which contain up to 20 counties, he said.
“It’s very unwieldy to have to meet with every county to get approval of her choices,” Burke said. “We’re giving the commissioner the power to hire who she wants to work with.”
But David Will, a lawyer representing the Lawrenceville-based health district that includes Gwinnett, Newton and Rockdale counties, said the bill would take away all local governance the health districts have enjoyed for 50 years.
“It has worked well. There’s no reason to change it, especially during a pandemic,” he said. “We don’t need a cookie-cutter approach to dictate how each director is selected.”
Rep. Sharon Cooper, R-Marietta, the committee’s chairman, disagreed with Will’s assessment. While she praised the work of the Gwinnett, Newton and Rockdale health district, she said other districts around the state have been uncooperative.
Cooper said some districts have rejected telemedicine as a treatment option, refused to provide prenatal care and balked at other state directives, including a mandate that patients getting flu shots wait 15 minutes before leaving a clinic.
“We have pockets of really functioning areas, but those are very few,” she said. “We need some oversight.”
Sherwin Levinson, executive director of Metro Reserve Corps East Metro, a volunteer organization that supplements the public health services the Gwinnett, Newton and Rockdale health district delivers, suggested the legislation exempt districts that are nationally accredited.
“Some of our health districts are not working,” he said. “Don’t hurt the ones that are working and have at the ones that don’t.”
The original bill Burke introduced in the Senate would have given the state much broader powers over local health districts, including their ability to make their own rules.
“The broader reorganization is still needed,” Burke said Tuesday. “This is a baby step in that direction.”
The Senate passed the bill last week 37-14, with Democrats and Republicans on both sides of the issue. It now moves to the House Rules Committee to schedule a floor vote in that chamber.
