State Rep. Barry Fleming, R-Harlem, pitches his bill proposing broad changes to Georgia’s voting system, particularly for absentee voting, on March 1, 2021. (Photo by Beau Evans)
ATLANTA – Republican state lawmakers took a major step Monday toward overhauling voting by mail and other election procedures in Georgia with passage of an omnibus bill by the state House of Representatives along party lines.
Sponsored by Rep. Barry Fleming, R-Harlem, the 66-page bill contains more than two dozen provisions including proposals to impose stricter identification requirements on absentee voters, a change the state Senate approved last week.
Fleming’s bill would scrap Georgia’s current signature-verification process for absentee ballots and force voters seeking mail-in ballots to provide the number on their driver’s license or state identification card, or photocopies of other valid ID forms.
Democratic lawmakers and voting-rights groups have condemned the tightened absentee voter ID rule, likening it to an attempt at voter suppression seeking to blunt Democrats’ momentum after the party flipped the presidency and both of Georgia’s U.S. Senate seats in the 2020 elections.
Republicans have argued the change is needed to shore up confidence in the state’s election system, which drew claims of fraud from former President Donald Trump after his loss to now-President Joe Biden by 11,779 votes in Georgia. Election officials and federal courts rejected all claims of widespread fraud.
Beyond absentee voting, Fleming’s bill would tweak rules for early voting on Sunday, instead requiring counties to pick either one Saturday or one Sunday ahead of Election Day for their precincts to be open.
It would also require absentee-ballot drop boxes to be located inside polling places or local elections officials during early voting, and scrap Georgia’s free-for-all “jungle primary” format for special elections that places all candidates on the same ballot.
Fleming chairs the House Special Committee on Election Integrity, where his bill passed last week. He said the measure aims to both boost voter confidence in Georgia’s elections and ease burdens on local elections officials who were taxed with tallying millions of mail-in ballots during the recent elections.
“The way we begin to restore confidence in our voting system is by passing this bill,” Fleming said from the House floor. “There are many common-sense measures here to begin that process.”
State Rep. Calvin Smyre, D-Columbus, speaks from the House floor to oppose Republican-led voting changes on March 1, 2021. (Photo by Beau Evans)
Democrats scoffed at that notion Monday, calling it a smokescreen for Republican moves in Georgia to upend the elections playing field after last year’s historic statewide wins by Democrats.
“This is a step in the wrong direction,” said Rep. Calvin Smyre, D-Columbus, the General Assembly’s longest-serving member. “I strongly believe it’s time that we encourage every citizen to participate in the purest sense of citizenship, and that’s voting.”
Democrats also warned passing Fleming’s bill could prompt costly lawsuits and cost counties millions of dollars to put in place changes like new security paper for ballots. They also argued the bill would limit opportunities for counties to secure grant funding for elections.
“Republicans in the Georgia General Assembly are trying to change the rules of the election here in Georgia – rules that you wrote – because you were handed defeat [in recent elections],” said Rep. Kimberly Alexander, D-Hiram.
“And you know your only chance at winning future elections is to prevent eligible Georgians from casting their ballots and having their voices heard.”
Republicans doubled down in touting Fleming’s bill Monday, framing it as a way to clean up confusion among voters and election workers and bolster faith in the integrity of voting by mail by tossing Georgia’s controversial signature-match process.
“Everybody’s got a right to vote and that subjective signature match is a tough one,” said state Rep. Alan Powell, R-Hartwell. “This is an objective way of verifying who someone is.”
Republicans also highlighted less-testy aspects of the bill such as revising precinct boundaries to curb long lines, blocking outside groups from sending absentee-ballot applications to cut down confusing mailers sent to voters and boosting training for poll watchers.
“Our goals in regulating elections should be to assure voting is fair, accessible, understandable, convenient and trustworthy,” said House Speaker Pro Tempore Jan Jones, R-Milton.
The bill passed by a 97-72 vote along party lines and now heads to the state Senate, where it will join a host of other elections-focused measures now winding through the General Assembly.
While Fleming’s bill is the most wide-ranging measure on election changes, it is similar to a separate omnibus bill sponsored by Senate Majority Leader Mike Dugan, R-Carrollton.
Senators advanced other contentious measures last week that have split Republicans, including a bill sponsored by Senate Rules Committee Chairman Jeff Mullis, R-Chickamauga, that would end Georgians’ ability to vote by mail for any reason and limit absentee voting to elderly, disabled and overseas voters.
That measure, which Democrats have blasted as an attack on voter access, has drawn opposition from key state Republican leaders including Gov. Brian Kemp, Lt. Gov. Geoff Duncan, House Speaker David Ralston, R-Blue Ridge, and Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger.
However, those top Republican leaders have also supported proposals such as Fleming’s bill to tighten absentee voter ID laws, all but guaranteeing passage later this month in the Republican-controlled state legislature.
Other Republican-brought bills on election changes currently in play include measures to end automatic voter registration when Georgians obtain or renew their driver’s licenses, empower state elections officials to assume temporary control over local poor-performing elections boards and let county officials start processing absentee ballots a week before Election Day.
Protesters oppose state Rep. Barry Fleming’s, R-Harlem, bill to clamp down on absentee voting and other elections changes outside the state Capitol on March 1, 2021. (Photo by Beau Evans)
ATLANTA – The late Gov. Zell Miller will be honored with a monument on the grounds of the Georgia Capitol under legislation the state Senate passed unanimously Monday.
“This is about the man who gave us HOPE,” Sen. Jeff Mullis, R-Chickamauga, the bill’s chief sponsor, told his Senate colleagues during a brief presentation. “He passed the HOPE Scholarship that has sent thousands and thousands of people to get higher education who never could have otherwise.”
Miller, a Democrat who served both as Georgia’s 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, Miller was the driving force behind the creation of the popular HOPE Scholarship program, funded through the Georgia Lottery.
Before that, the native of Young Harris served four terms as lieutenant governor.
After leaving the Governor’s Mansion, he was appointed to the Senate in 2000 by then-Gov. Roy Barnes after the sudden death of Republican Sen. Paul Coverdell.
Miller decided not to seek re-election in 2004 after a public falling out with the Democratic Party, which he criticized with his book “A National Party No More.”
Under Senate Bill 140, the monument’s design will be chosen by a six-member committee.
Two members will be appointed by the speaker of the Georgia House and two will be appointed 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 funding for the monument will be raised from private donations. The measure now moves to the House.
ATLANTA – Legislation that would make significant changes to regulations governing Georgia’s coin-operated amusement machines (COAM) got some pushback Monday from lobbyists representing the industry.
Senate Bill 217 doesn’t strike the proper balance between the owners of the machines and owners of the convenience stores where the machines are located, Les Schneider, representing the Georgia Amusement & Music Operators Association, told members of the Senate Regulated Industries & Utilities Committee.
Under the bill, any contract between a machine owner licensed by the Georgia Lottery Corp. and a new COAM location would run for one year. After that, contracts could be renewed only for one year or seven years.
“This is a three-legged stool,” Schneider said, referring to the lottery, machine owners and location owners. “There can not be a perception that locations are chattels to master license holders.”
The bill stems from a Senate study committee that held several hearings last summer and fall.
Among other things, the panel endorsed the possibility of awarding gift cards to game winners as a way to discourage cash prizes, which are illegal under state law. Gift cards would be redeemable for gasoline and merchandise sold at the convenience store.
The gift card provision is part of a COAM bill the House Regulated Industries Committee approved last week. But the gift card is absent from the Senate measure.
Sen. John Kennedy, R-Macon, the Senate bill’s chief sponsor, said the lottery corporation is currently conducting a pilot program using gift cards.
“We need to wait and see what we learn from the work they’re doing,” he said.
Josh Belinfante, representing COAM machine owner Ultra Group, also complained about the provision in Kennedy’s bill locking in contracts between machine owners and location owners to one year with the seven-year option. He said he supports the House bill, which offers more flexible language governing contracts.
The committee did not vote on the Senate bill Monday. In fact, Chairman Bill Cowsert, R-Athens, suggested it might be better to wait for the House bill to clear that chamber and make its way over to the Senate.
“We’ve got an unfinished product right now, not ready for action,” he said.
Cowsert said the Senate might not have time to “perfect” Kennedy’s bill before Crossover Day, the deadline for bills to pass a legislative chamber in order to be considered further. Crossover Day is set for next Monday.
A bill to create new fundraising committees for political campaigns in Georgia that critics say could increase the influence of “dark money” passed in the state Senate on Friday.
Sponsored by state Sen. Jeff Mullis, R-Chickamauga, the bill would create so-called “leadership committees” run by the governor, lieutenant governor and their opponents – plus top leaders in the General Assembly – to collect campaign donations ahead of statewide and legislative elections.
Those leadership committees would have to disclose the names of donors but would not be subject to candidate contribution limits ranging from $14,000 to $22,200 for statewide seats and $5,600 to $8,600 per donor, depending on whether a candidate is forced into primary or general-election runoffs.
Mullis, who chairs the powerful Senate Rules Committee, framed the leadership committees proposed in his bill as avenues for promoting transparency in political spending that both Republicans and Democrats could use.
“This helps each side equally,” Mullis said from the Senate floor Friday. “The main emphasis on this bill is transparency – to make sure every expenditure is disclosed [and] every dollar that comes into this campaign … is disclosed.”
Critics argue allowing leadership committees in Georgia could serve as a workaround for candidates to receive campaign funds from dark-money groups not bound by contribution limits and from special interests that could steer money to state lawmakers during the legislative session.
Currently, Georgia law forbids members of the General Assembly from campaigning or accepting donations during the session due to the influence special-interest groups could wield to push through their favored policies.
Nothing in the bill that passed the Senate Friday would prevent dark-money groups from maintaining a foothold in Georgia politics, said state Sen. Jen Jordan, D-Atlanta. She called Mullis’ characterization that leadership committees boost transparency as “laughable”.
“If you think this is good for the people we represent, then you might want to do a double-take,” Jordan said. “This is what makes people not trust the system and not trust us.”
The bill cleared the Senate by a nearly party-line vote, with Sen. Burt Jones, R-Jackson, the lone Republican to vote against. It now heads to the Georgia House of Representatives.
Several GOP leaders in the Senate are among the bill’s cosponsors, including President Pro Tempore Butch Miller, R-Gainesville; Majority Leader Mike Dugan, R-Carrollton, and Majority Whip Steve Gooch, R-Dahlonega. Other cosponsors include Sens. John Kennedy, R-Macon; Larry Walker III, R-Perry; Dean Burke, R-Bainbridge; and Bill Cowsert, R-Athens.
A bill to criminalize hazing on Georgia college and university campuses that comes after the death of a fraternity pledge in Louisiana passed in the state Senate on Friday.
Sponsored by state Sen. John Albers, R-Roswell, the bill would make it a felony with prison time and a $50,000 fine for anyone who injures or contributes to killing a member of a fraternity, sorority or other college club through hazing, including by alcohol abuse or physical torture.
Those who do not intervene to stop life-threatening hazing activities would face misdemeanor charges, while those who report hazing allegations to authorities would enjoy legal protections in the event of criminal prosecution or civil claims.
The bill would also give the state Attorney General authority to bring civil suits against fraternities and other college groups that participate in dangerous hazing, as well as organizations that turn a blind eye to that behavior. It would also require schools to produce annual reports on proven hazing incidents.
Albers brought the same bill last year, which passed the Senate but stalled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. He said fraternities and other clubs overall are solid organizations that perform good work in their school communities – but which have also been breeding grounds at times for abuse.
“This bill will ultimately save lives and protect our youth,” Albers said from the Senate floor Friday.
Albers’ bill stems from the 2017 death of Louisiana State University student Max Gruver, who died from alcohol poisoning after being hazed by members of the Phi Delta Theta fraternity.
Gruver, a 2017 graduate from Blessed Trinity Catholic High School in Roswell, was forced to drink liquor for failing to correctly answer fraternity-related trivia questions. His death led to the arrests of several fraternity members and a felony negligent homicide conviction of the ringleader.
The bill, titled the “Max Gruver Act,” now heads to the state House of Representatives.
Its co-sponsors include state Sens. Brian Strickland, R-McDonough; John Kennedy, R-Macon; Chuck Hufstetler, R-Rome; Kay Kirkpatrick, R-Marietta; Billy Hickman, R-Statesboro; and Senate President Pro Tempore Butch Miller, R-Gainesville.
