ATLANTA – Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger signed a petition Thursday supporting a Georgia constitutional amendment that would limit voting in state and local elections to American citizens.
“This measure has the overwhelming bipartisan support of the American people,” Raffensperger said. “Voting is a sacred responsibility for American citizens, and everyone should agree that only American citizens should vote.”
Raffensperger signed the petition during a news conference at the state Capitol hosted by Americans for Citizen Voting, a non-partisan nonprofit.
“From Maine to California, and everywhere in between including Clarkston, Ga., there is a growing movement in this country to permit non-citizens with green cards to vote legally in our elections,” said the organization’s president, Christopher Arps. “Voting is a sacred right of citizenship and it must be strictly reserved for citizens and citizens only.”
Georgia’s Constitution allows U.S. citizens to vote but, according to the organization, does not prevent non-citizens from voting as well.
The organization said Arizona and Minnesota have precluded non-citizens from voting for years, while Alabama, Colorado, Florida and North Dakota have recently passed amendments to provide only U.S. citizens are allowed to vote in local, state and school board elections.
Christopher Bruce, policy director for the American Civil Liberties Union of Georgia, said, “It is already the law that only U.S. citizens can vote in Georgia. It is irresponsible to perpetuate falsehoods about the integrity of elections in Georgia and undermines confidence in our democracy.”
Former President Donald Trump has endorsed U.S. Rep. Jody Hice, R-Greensboro, in his campaign to unseat Raffensperger next year.
According to widespread reports, Trump was angry at Raffensperger for his refusal to overturn last year’s Georgia presidential election results, in which Joe Biden carried Georgia by less than 1%. Biden’s victory in Georgia was the first time since Bill Clinton’s 1992 victory that a Democrat carried the Peach State in a White House contest.
The secretary of state denied his support of the measure is designed to win back any disgruntled Trump supporters, and said he has been a longtime advocate of citizen-only voting measures.
“I’ve been a Republican all my life,” Raffensperger said. “When I was in the legislature, I sponsored a bill allowing only U.S. citizens to sit on local boards. That bill died in the state Senate.”
A constitutional amendment to clarify that only U.S. citizens are allowed to vote in Georgia would need to pass both the state House and Senate by a two-thirds majority, and then be approved by a majority of Georgia voters during the 2022 general election.
This story is available through a news partnership with Capitol Beat News Service, a project of the Georgia Press Educational Foundation.
Coronavirus has sickened hundreds of thousands people and killed thousands more in Georgia. (Image: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention)
ATLANTA – The federal government has changed the way COVID-19 monoclonal antibody treatments are being distributed in the United States, including Georgia.
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) said this week the decision comes from supply shortages and demand for the treatments across the country, mainly due to the delta variant’s rapid spread.
Health-care providers will no longer be able to order the treatments directly. HHS said it will determine each state’s weekly allocation of monoclonal antibody products based on use and the number of new COVID cases.
The Georgia Department of Public Health said it will identify which sites in the state will receive the product and the amount each site receives.
Health-care providers must record their administration of the products in order to be eligible to receive additional shipments.
On Tuesday, Dr. R. Chris Rustin, director of the department’s Division of Health Protection, told a virtual Board of Public Health meeting preliminary data shows monoclonal antibody therapy is effective mostly early in treatment.
“You have to get it early on,” said Rustin, who added the state Department of Public Health is collaborating with the Department of Community Health to support the existing, 136 sites across the state. “It’s important to stress this is not a substitute for vaccines,” Rustin said.
Monoclonal antibodies are synthetic, laboratory-created antibodies. They help people at high risk for severe COVID illness, individuals who have tested positive for the virus within the last 10 days, or people who are close contacts of persons who have tested positive for COVID.
“We have safe and highly effective vaccines to protect against COVID-19. It is much easier to get a vaccine than risk becoming seriously ill with life threatening complications,” said Dr. Kathleen Toomey, the agency’s commissioner.
“Monoclonal antibodies are in short supply and high demand and hospital beds are full. What Georgia does have is enough vaccine for all Georgians aged 12 and over to be vaccinated.”
As of Wednesday, 53% of Georgians have received at least one dose of COVID vaccine and 46% of Georgians are fully vaccinated.
This story is available through a news partnership with Capitol Beat News Service, a project of the Georgia Press Educational Foundation.
ATLANTA – Just over a week before a U.S. 11th Circuit Court of Appeals hearing on Georgia’s controversial abortion law, state Democrats said Wednesday they will continue fighting any Republican efforts to curtail reproductive rights in the future.
In a virtual press conference also attended by a Planned Parenthood official, Democrats specifically pointed to Texas’ newly passed abortion bill, which the U.S. Supreme Court earlier this month refused to block from taking effect.
“What happens in Texas won’t stay in Texas,” said state Rep. Beth Moore, D-Peachtree Corners. “Not every pregnancy is an immaculate conception or a Hollywood-produced drama. There is a limit to what government can impose, and the Republican Party wants to replace God with government.”
The Texas law prohibits abortions once medical professionals can detect cardiac activity, usually around six weeks. The Texas law leaves enforcement to private citizens through civil lawsuits instead of criminal prosecutors.
On Tuesday night, according to the Associated Press, the U.S. Justice Department filed an emergency motion in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas, to stop the law’s enforcement.
The 11th Circuit Court of Appeals is scheduled to hold a hearing on Georgia’s HB 481 Sept. 24. Known as the Living Infants Fairness Equality (LIFE) Act, it also sought to prevent abortions beyond six weeks except in special situations. Lawsuits brought by the American Civil Liberties Union, Planned Parenthood and the Center for Reproductive Rights eventually led the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia to rule the law unconstitutional.
If the 11th Circuit agrees with the district judge, Georgia could then appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court, which may then look at the law’s constitutionality and the precedent of Roe v. Wade.
Gov. Brian Kemp also is expected to call a special legislative session, likely in November, to redistrict the state under newly released U.S. Census figures. Moore said “it has been suggested that while we’re in session, we could consider other measures” such as a Texas-modeled abortion law.
U.S. Rep. Nikema Williams, D-Atlanta, said special legislative sessions are called for a specific purpose – such as redistricting – but a two-thirds majority vote of the General Assembly could expand its originally called purpose.
This story is available through a news partnership with Capitol Beat News Service, a project of the Georgia Press Educational Foundation.
ATLANTA – The president of the Medical Association of Georgia said Wednesday this flu season could be worse than last year’s, and again stressed the importance of getting a COVID-19 vaccine.
“COVID-19 is a respiratory infection, so co-infection can bring a much higher risk of mortality,” said Dr. Lisa Perry-Gilkes. “Getting vaccinated is the best way to protect yourself from the COVID-19 and flu viruses, period.”
Perry-Gilkes said patients should “not to get lulled into a false sense of security because last year’s flu season was so mild. This could be a worse flu season, which is why I am encouraging every Georgian to get vaccinated as soon as possible, and no later than the end of October.”
She added patients can now get the COVID-19, flu and other vaccines administered at the same time.
Cherie Drenzek, state epidemiologist for the Georgia Department of Public Health, said the highly contagious delta variant is responsible for the surge.
“The delta variant began spreading in Georgia around July 4,” Drenzek told a virtual meeting of the state’s Board of Public Health. “There has been an exponential increase in cases, hospitalizations and deaths over the last 60 days.”
According to Tuesday’s COVID totals provided by the state Department of Public Health, more than 1.1 million Georgians have contracted coronavirus since the pandemic began in March 2020. A total of 20,806 Georgians have died, and there have been more than 76,000 hospitalizations.
According to data provided by Drenzek to the board, there has been a 20-fold increase in cases; a 13-fold increase in hospitalizations; and a 17-fold increase in COVID deaths since July 1.
However, both Gov. Brian Kemp’s office and Drenzek said state data has begun to show decreases over the last seven days.
Dr. R. Chris Rustin, director of the department’s Division of Health Protection, said as of Tuesday, more than 10 million vaccine doses have been administered in Georgia, with 4.7 million Georgians, or 45% of the state’s population, being fully vaccinated. About 5.4 million of the state’s residents, or 53%, have received at least one vaccine dose.
This story is available through a news partnership with Capitol Beat News Service, a project of the Georgia Press Educational Foundation.
ATLANTA – For the fourth year in a row, Georgia public-school students outperformed their counterparts in the nation’s public schools on the SAT.
The mean score of 1077 Georgia students recorded was 39 points higher than the national average for public-school students.
According to a report issued Wednesday by the state Department of Education, Georgia’s public-school class of 2021 also recorded significant increases in scores compared to the class of 2020. The mean score for Evidence-Based Reading and Writing (ERW) rose from 532 in 2020 to 546 in 2021, and the mean for math rose from 511 in 2020 to 531 in 2021, for a total increase of 34 points in the average composite score.
“Despite the fact that part of their high-school education took place against the backdrop of the COVID-19 pandemic, Georgia’s class of 2021 did an outstanding job on the SAT — both increasing scores and outperforming their counterparts in the nation’s public schools,” State School Superintendent Richard Woods said.
Thirty-eight percent of Georgia’s class of 2021 took the SAT at some point during high school. This percentage is lower than normal, given the impacts of the pandemic – including the cancellation of some test registrations and closure of some test centers in 2020 – and the temporary waiver of SAT/ACT score requirements for University System of Georgia admissions.
While the College Board does not release participation percentages at the national level, the raw numbers show a decline in participation nationally as well: 1.5 million students in the high school class of 2021 took the SAT at least once, down from 2.2 million in the class of 2020.
Wednesday’s news included only state-level test scores. The department said school and district-level scores will be released Friday.
This story is available through a news partnership with Capitol Beat News Service, a project of the Georgia Press Educational Foundation.
