Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger (Photo by Beau Evans)
ATLANTA – A federal judge Wednesday threw out a challenge to portions of Georgia’s controversial new election law as poorly timed.
U.S. District Judge J.P. Boulee ruled that with runoff elections for vacant state House seats in Cobb County and southeast Georgia set for next Tuesday, it’s too late to change provisions in the current law.
“The underlying elections have already occurred, and Plaintiffs seek an order that would mandate different rules for the related runoff elections,” Boulee wrote in an 11-page order.
“Election administrators have prepared to implement the challenged rules, have implemented them at least to some extent and now would have to grapple with a different set of rules in the middle of the election.”
The Republican-controlled General Assembly passed Senate Bill 202 in March, and GOP Gov. Brian Kemp signed it that same day. Among other things, the legislation replaces the signature-match verification process for absentee ballots with an ID requirement, restricts the location of ballot drop boxes and prohibits non-poll workers from handing out food and drinks within 150 feet of voters standing in line.
A lawsuit filed by the nonprofit Coalition for Good Governance takes on other provisions in the new law governing election observers and requiring requests for absentee ballots to be made at least 11 days before an election.
The plaintiffs argued those provisions violate the federal Voting Rights Act of 1965 and constitutional free speech rights.
The suit is one of a series of legal challenges that Democrats and voting rights advocates have mounted against Senate Bill 202, most recently a lawsuit the Biden administration’s Justice Department filed late last month.
“This is just another in the line of frivolous lawsuits against Georgia’s election law based on misinformation and lies,” Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger said Wednesday. “We will continue to meet them and beat them in court.”
Boulee limited the scope of Wednesday’s order to the upcoming runoff elections. The judge reserved a decision on future elections and indicated a second order will be forthcoming at a future date.
The July 13 runoff in Cobb County will pit Republican Devan Seabaugh and Democrat Priscilla Smith to complete the unexpired term of former Georgia Rep. Bert Reeves, R-Marietta. Reeves left the legislature for an administrative position at Georgia Tech, his alma mater.
In southeast Georgia that day, Republicans Leesa Hagan and Wally Sapp will vie in House District 156, which covers parts of Appling, Jeff Davis, Montgomery and Toombs counties. Former Rep. Greg Morris, R-Vidalia, is now serving on the State Transportation Board representing Georgia’s 12th Congressional District.
ATLANTA – Georgia energy regulators have authorized Georgia Power Co. to move forward with plans to buy 970 megawatts of solar power from five other utilities.
The state Public Service Commission (PSC) voted unanimously Tuesday in favor of five power-purchasing agreements (PPAs) Georgia Power intends to pursue during the next couple of years.
The 30-year PPAs are among Georgia Power’s renewable energy programs the PSC signed off on when it approved the utility’s 2019 Integrated Resource Plan (IRP.)
Georgia Power is required to submit an IRP to the commission every three years showing what sources of electrical generation it intends to rely on to meet customer needs during the next 20 years.
Here is a breakdown of the new PPAs:
Utility Megawatts to be purchased
CED Timberland Solar 140
Decatur Solar Energy Center 200
Double Run Solar 220
Wadley Solar 260
Washington County Solar 150
TOTAL 970
Georgia Power’s purchase of 970 megawatts of solar power is enough to serve roughly 165,000 homes.
“Georgia Power has one of the largest voluntary renewable portfolios in the country and expects to continue as a leader in solar energy production by continuing to grow its renewable generation resources,” Georgia Power spokesman John Kraft said.
The company plans to have about 5,400 megawatts of renewable energy resources in its portfolio by the end of 2025, accounting for about 22% of its power generation mix.
ATLANTA – Georgia citizens want new congressional and legislative district maps that are fair, transparent and drawn without regard to politics.
One after another, they said so during the first four of 11 public hearings the General Assembly is holding across the state this summer to tee up the once-a-decade process of adjusting district lines to reflect shifts in population during the previous 10 years.
“It isn’t about being Republican or Democrat but seeking to do what is best for the citizens who call our state home,” Rebecca Yardley of Cleveland, Ga., Republican chairman in Georgia’s 9th Congressional District, told members of the state House and Senate committees in charge of redistricting June 29 during a hearing in Cumming.
But if history is any indication, the legislature’s Republican majority will design maps aimed at maintaining their control of the General Assembly and regaining one or two congressional seats lost to the Democrats in 2018 and last year.
The Democrats drew politically motivated maps when they controlled the legislature, including a 2001 map that created multi-member state House districts in an ultimately ill-fated effort to stem Republican momentum that culminated in the GOP winning a majority in both legislative chambers in 2004.
Republicans returned the favor in the 2011 redistricting, although they held big enough majorities in the General Assembly that they didn’t have to resort to such strategies as multi-member districts.
“The majority party invariably comes up with maps to try to maintain its majority status for the next decade,” said Charles Bullock, a political science professor at the University of Georgia who has written extensively about redistricting. “The minority party are largely observers in this process.”
Two wrinkles promise to make redistricting different this year. First, the coronavirus pandemic has slowed the decennial U.S. Census, which churns out the data upon which redistricting is based.
With the data not expected until the end of September, the General Assembly won’t be able to convene a special session to approve new maps until October or November. Redistricting special sessions are usually held in the late summer.
“There will be a mad dash to get the districts drawn before we go back in January [for the 2022 session],” said state Sen. Elena Parent, D-Atlanta.
This also will be the first redistricting carried out since the mid-1960s without the protection of a key section of the 1965 federal Voting Rights Act. In 2013, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that states with a history of racial discrimination, including Georgia, no longer have to “preclear” their congressional and legislative district maps with the Justice Department.
Without the right to demand preclearance of maps, voting rights advocates who believe one or more of the new maps discriminate against minority voters will be left with the sole option of a court challenge.
“We still have the Voting Rights Act, legal protections that assure people of color have an opportunity to elect representatives of their choice,” said Karuna Ramachandran, director of statewide partnerships for the Norcross-based nonprofit Asian Americans Advancing Justice.
Many states in recent years have decided to take politics out of the redistricting process by having an independent commission handle the task.
“We need to have an independent commission do this process,” said the Rev. James Woodall, state president of the Georgia NAACP. “Time and time again, we see this process taken into the hands of partisan elected officials.”
In 14 states, commissions have primary responsibility for drawing the maps, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. Commissions in six states act only in an advisory capacity, and five states have commissions that serve only as backups if their legislature can’t agree on a plan.
Iowa is unique in that it has its legislative staff members draw the maps under a legal requirement that they not give any consideration to incumbent protection or other political concerns.
Bullock said he doesn’t foresee any movement in Georgia toward the independent commission route. For one thing, many states that have adopted independent commissions only did so when their citizens mounted a ballot initiative, an option not available in Georgia, he said.
“Legislators like to be allowed to draw their districts,” he said. “With an independent commission, they’re giving up something.”
Bullock said when it comes to drawing new legislative district lines, Georgia Republicans’ main goals will be protecting their incumbents and keeping their majorities in the state House and Senate. However, those goals could come into conflict with each other, he said.
“The risk is if the majority party draws a number of districts in which its majority is narrow,” he said. “That might work in 2022 or 2024, but with a wave election or demographic shift, they could lose a number of districts.
“If they decide, ‘We can defend a smaller number of districts for 10 years,’ they might concede some districts.”
As for the congressional map, Democratic U.S. Reps. Lucy McBath of Roswell and Carolyn Bourdeaux of Suwanee will have the biggest targets on their back. McBath won the 6th Congressional District seat in 2018, and Bourdeaux captured the 7th District seat last November.
Both districts in Atlanta’s northern suburbs historically were Republican strongholds, but the Democrats have benefited from demographic changes that have significantly swelled their minority populations.
Winning both seats would get the GOP back to a 10-4 dominance of Georgia’s congressional delegation.
But Bullock said recapturing both districts might be a risky undertaking because Republican mapmakers would have to spread out the region’s GOP voters. He suggested GOP lawmakers might be better off going after just one of those seats by packing Republican loyalists in the targeted district.
“The less aggressive approach would be to concede one of those districts to the Democrats,” he said.
While weighing the various political ramifications of the maps they’re drawing, Republicans can’t lose sight of some basic legal requirements and best practices of redistricting. Districts must be as close to equal in population as possible, although legislative maps can vary up to 5%.
Also, the legislature is supposed to try to keep together “communities of interest” and respect municipal boundaries.
That’s what was uppermost in mind for many of the speakers at the initial round of public hearings.
“I understand that Georgia is growing and we are becoming more diverse,” Camille Brown, a member of the Cherokee County Republican Party’s executive committee, said at the Cumming hearing. “But your goal should be to keep communities together.”
ATLANTA – The operator of an illegal dog-fighting facility broken up in Dodge County three years ago has pleaded guilty in federal court.
James Lampkin, 46, of Eastman, is awaiting sentencing after admitting to a charge of conspiracy to violate the Animal Welfare Act, said David H. Estes, acting U.S. attorney for the Southern District of Georgia.
Lampkin faces up to five years in prison, along with substantial fines and up to three years of supervised release upon completion of any prison term. There is no parole in the federal system.
“Animal fighting is cruel and barbaric, and has no place in our society,” Estes said. “Our vigilant law enforcement partners shut down Lampkin’s brutal operation and rescued dozens of animals from a life of pain and misery.”
“This investigation and prosecution should send a strong zero-tolerance message to those individuals involved in the inhumane torture of animals for the purpose of entertainment,” added Jason Williams, special agent in charge of the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Office of Inspector General. “We appreciate the partnership with our law enforcement partners in pursuing these purveyors of death and senseless suffering.”
Five co-defendants in the case pleaded guilty to related federal charges and await sentencing in federal court. The list includes Benjamin Shinholster III, 41, of Augusta; Deveon Hood, 34, of Tennille; Andre Archer, 23, of Sandersville; Xavier Simmons, 34, also of Sandersville; and Joe Ford, 33, of Elgin, S.C.
A remaining co-defendant, Dwight McDuffie, 44, of Eastman, pleaded guilty to attending a dogfight, a misdemeanor. He was sentenced to two years of probation, 150 hours of community service, and was prohibited from owning animals.
In March 2018, Georgia State Patrol troopers and state Department of Natural Resources game wardens conducted traffic stops in Eastman after receiving reports of a dogfighting operation at Lampkin’s property.
During those stops, officers discovered a dog in one of the vehicles that appeared to have been injured while fighting.
Investigators later seized 63 dogs at Lampkin’s home while serving a search warrant after finding the animals chained in the back yard. Investigators also discovered a disassembled pit where fights were held, and equipment used to train dogs for fighting.
ATLANTA – Starting July 4, unemployed Georgians will have to submit evidence they’re looking for work to the state Department of Labor.
Reinstatement of the work search requirement comes as Georgia ends its participation in the various pandemic-related federal unemployment insurance programs Congress has passed during the last 15 months.
Claimants who live in Georgia must register with EmployGeorgia, the state’s reemployment website, and include their social security number.
Under state law, unemployment Georgians can only receive unemployment benefits during weeks they actively seek work. They must submit a minimum of three new job contacts each week, which must be employers they have not previously contacted.
“Work search and registration with EmployGeorgia is part of the reemployment process,” state Commissioner of Labor Mark Butler said Thursday. “Unemployment insurance payments serve as a financial support for claimants, but the real support comes from the connection of job seekers with open positions.”
The cutoff of federal unemployment benefits in Georgia has been looming since Gov. Brian Kemp announced in May the state would stop participating in the federal programs effective June 26. Other Republican-led states have taken a similar step in recent weeks as cases of COVID-19 have declined and businesses have reopened.
Labor advocates and Democrats have opposed the cutoff as premature in light of the ongoing difficulties people wishing to return to the workforce have encountered finding child care and amid continuing concerns over the virus in Georgia, where the vaccination rate is lagging the national average.
The number of Georgians filing initial unemployment claims saw little change last week, increasing by 51 over the previous week to 20,749.
The state has processed more than 4.9 million jobless claims since March of last year, more than during the last decade before the pandemic, and paid out almost $22.7 billion in state and federal unemployment benefits during those months.
The labor department has more than 223,000 jobs listed on EmployGeorgia. Claimants receive access to job listings, support to upload up to five searchable resumes, job search assistance, career counseling, skills testing, job fair information and job training services.
