by Dave Williams | Oct 1, 2024 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA – Voting rights advocates and local election officials Tuesday criticized new rules the Republican-controlled State Election Board has approved in recent weeks as unnecessary mandates that will only throw doubt into the voting process.
“This State Election Board has unleashed a Pandora’s box of chaos and confusion,” Isabel Otero, Georgia policy director for the Southern Poverty Law Center, told the state Senate’s Urban Affairs Committee, a panel made up entirely of Democrats. “[The new rules] are going to give them an excuse to deny certification [of results] and cause unnecessary delays. … Our voters deserve better.”
Specifically, Otero cited three rules changes the board has approved since early August allowing county election officials to certify results only after a “reasonable inquiry” ensures their accuracy, requiring those same officials to reconcile the total number of ballots cast in each precinct with the total number of voters, and requiring counties to hand-count the number of ballots cast at polling places on Election Night.
“Those three rules in combination allow bad actors to deny election results,” Otero said.
The three board members who voted for the rules changes have denied taking part in a conspiracy to help former President Donald Trump carry Georgia’s 16 electoral votes by sowing uncertainty in the election results and delaying certification of the vote. Instead, they have argued the changes are aimed at ensuring the integrity of the results.
But Chris Bruce, policy and advocacy director for the ACLU of Georgia, said the board has overstepped its legal authority by passing the new rules just weeks ahead of Election Day.
“The State Election Board is trying to become a legislative body,” Bruce said. “All this is doing is spreading mistrust and voter apathy.”
Milton Kidd, director of the Douglas County Board of Elections, said the requirements the new rules will impose on local election workers after the polls close on Election Night are so burdensome he’s afraid many won’t be willing to serve in the future.
“There’s no legitimate purpose to having poll workers do this,” Kidd said. “It’s chaos from an administrative perspective.”
The Cobb County Board of Elections recently adopted a resolution opposing the rules changes.
“It’s a solution looking for a problem,” said Tori Silas, who chairs the Cobb board.
Cindy Battles, policy director with the Georgia Coalition for the People’s Agenda, said the new requirements are forcing counties to spend more money on municipal elections without help from the state. Some have even considered cutting their emergency services budgets to pay for elections, she said.
The State Election Board may not be through with rules changes. The board has additional meetings scheduled for Oct. 8 and Oct. 15 ahead of the Nov. 5 election.
by Dave Williams | Oct 1, 2024 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA – President Joe Biden has approved a major disaster declaration for Georgia in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene.
The Biden administration’s action means funding through the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) will be available to affected residents in 41 counties in South Georgia hit hardest by last Friday’s storm.
The list of counties includes Atkinson, Appling, Bacon, Ben Hill, Berrien, Brooks, Bulloch, Burke, Candler, Chatham, Clinch, Coffee, Colquitt, Columbia, Cook, Echols, Emanuel, Evans, Glascock, Irwin, Jeff Davis, Jefferson, Jenkins, Johnson, Lanier, Laurens, Liberty, Lincoln, Lowndes, McDuffie, Montgomery, Pierce, Richmond, Screven, Tattnall, Telfair, Toombs, Treutlen, Ware, Washington, and Wheeler.
Residents of those counties may be eligible for grants for temporary housing and home repairs, low-cost loans to cover uninsured property losses and other programs to help them recover from the effects of the storm.
With recovery efforts still in full swing, Gov. Brian Kemp Tuesday extended the state of emergency in Georgia for another week. Under the order, federal rules and regulations limiting operating hours for commercial truck drivers have been suspended to let an uninterrupted supply of goods and services be dispatched to areas in need of assistance. The new order will run through Oct. 9 unless the governor renews it again.
The governor also issued an executive order Tuesday suspending collection of the state sales tax on gasoline and other motor fuels for the duration of the emergency.
Meanwhile, work crews for Georgia Power and the state’s Electric Membership Corporations (EMCs) reported that about 370,000 customers were still without electricity as of Monday. More then 1.3 million lost power at Helene’s peak.
The hurricane made landfall Thursday night in the Big Bend area of Florida’s Gulf Coast before roaring into Georgia early Friday morning, bringing high winds and heavy rain that caused extensive flooding. Gov. Brian Kemp reported Monday that 25 Georgians died in the storm, many inside homes hit by fallen trees.
The victims included a first responder, Vernon “Leon” Davis, a part-time assistant fire chief in Blackshear.
Individuals and business owners who sustained losses in the 11 counties covered by the federal disaster declaration can begin applying for assistance by registering online at www.DisasterAssistance.gov, by calling 1-800-621-3362, or by using the FEMA App.
by Dave Williams | Sep 30, 2024 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA – A Fulton County Superior Court judge Monday overturned Georgia’s “heartbeat” law banning abortion essentially after six weeks of pregnancy.
In a 26-page ruling, Judge Robert McBurney declared the law an unconstitutional violation of women’s privacy and equal protection rights.
“This dispute is fundamentally about the extent of a woman’s right to control what happens to and within
her body,” McBurney wrote. “The baseline rule is clear: a legally competent person has absolute authority over her body and should brook no governmental interference in what she does — and does not
do — in terms of health, hygiene, and the like.”
The Republican-controlled General Assembly passed the Living Infants and Equality (LIFE) Act in 2019 banning abortion in Georgia after a fetal heartbeat is detected. The law included exceptions for rape, incest, and “medical emergencies,” defined as a life-threatening condition or threat of irreversible physical impairment to the mother.
But federal courts blocked the law from taking effect until 2022, after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision that legalized abortion.
The reproductive rights group SisterSong filed a lawsuit challenging the law and won an initial ruling by McBurney in November 2022 declaring the ban unconstitutional. However, the Georgia Supreme Court reversed McBurney’s decision a year later and remanded the case back to Fulton County Superior Court, leading to Monday’s decision.
McBurney ruled that Georgia’s law governing abortion must revert to where it stood before lawmakers passed the heartbeat legislation in 2019, which based the right to abortion on the viability of the fetus, typically between 23 and 24 weeks.
Abortion has been among the most hotly contested issues of this presidential election year. Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic nominee for president, traveled to Atlanta Sept. 20 to put the blame for the deaths of two Georgia women in 2022 on the U.S. Supreme Court for overturning Roe v. Wade.
Amber Thurman and Candi Miller died after taking abortion medication left them with some fetal tissue remaining in their uteruses. Doctors worried about running afoul of Georgia’s abortion ban delayed caring for Thurman for 20 hours, while Miller sought to treat herself rather than see a doctor because of the same concerns.
While Harris has called for codifying the Roe v. Wade ruling into federal law, former President Donald Trump – the Republican nominee – has supported leaving the abortion issue to the states.
by Dave Williams | Sep 30, 2024 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA – Georgia students showed strong improvement on this year’s Georgia Milestones math tests, the state Department of Education reported Monday.
Scores increased on six of the seven assessments, including eight-point increases in eighth-grade math and high-school Algebra.
The Milestones math results were released two months after the results for English/Language Arts, science, and social studies to align with the new mathematics standards first implemented during the 2023-24 school year.
“I am extremely proud of Georgia students and our mathematics teachers and leaders throughout the state, along with all those who contributed to the review and redesign of Georgia’s K-12 mathematics standards,” State School Superintendent Richard Woods said.
“Thousands of Georgians participated in the process of creating the new standards. They are truly Georgia-owned and Georgia-grown, and these scores are an early indicator of success for that work.”
The new math standards are designed to be clear, understandable, and age- and developmentally appropriate. They aim to present a reasonable amount of content each year so students can truly master concepts rather than simply being quickly exposed to them.
by Dave Williams | Sep 30, 2024 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA – The death toll from Hurricane Helene in Georgia shot up significantly during the weekend.
At least 25 Georgians died in the storm, Gov. Brian Kemp reported Monday at a briefing in Augusta, one of the areas hit hardest by the hurricane, which struck early Friday morning.
“This storm literally spared no one,” Kemp said after touring damage in the Augusta area. “It looked like a 250-mile-wide tornado had hit.”
After making landfall in the Big Bend area of Florida’s Gulf Coast Thursday night, Helene tore into the Valdosta area of South Georgia and headed northeast through the Augusta area before moving into the Carolinas. Most of the damage from high winds and heavy rains occurred east of Interstate 75.
About 1.3 million Georgians lost power at the storm’s peak, Kemp said Monday. Nearly 500,000 still were without electricity as of Monday morning.
“I know a lot of people are frustrated,” Kemp said. “[But] things are getting done. … It’s just going to take time.”
While most state highways are passable, Kemp said 573 traffic signals are out across the state. He urged motorists to treat each intersection without a working traffic light as a four-way stop.
Maj. Gen. Richard Wilson, commander of the Georgia National Guard, said about 1,500 members of the Guard are working around the state, transporting critical supplies including food, water, and generators. He said the track Helene took is making recovery efforts particularly difficult.
“This is the first time we’ve had this much damage statewide,” he said.
Chris Stallings, director of the Georgia Emergency Management and Homeland Security Agency, said emergency shelters are housing 520 Georgians.
Stallings said nearly 700 cellphone sites are out of service. His agency has installed portable towers to handle 911 calls. Starting Monday, crews were opening emergency service centers to distribute food, water, ice, and cleaning supplies.
Kemp said he spoke to President Joe Biden late Sunday afternoon. Georgia has submitted an expedited emergency declaration request.
“This will help us get money flowing quicker to our state,” Kemp said. “We will work in a bipartisan way on disaster relief.”
