Sen. Max Burns presents his omnibus Georgia election bill shortly before final passage in the state Senate on March 25, 2021. (Photo by Beau Evans)
ATLANTA – Sweeping legislation to overhaul voting by mail, advance voting and state oversight of Georgia elections passed out of the General Assembly Thursday and was promptly signed by Gov. Brian Kemp after months of intense debate at the state Capitol.
The 95-page bill contains dozens of proposals pitched by Republicans that would require stricter voter ID rules for mail-in ballots, ban people from handing out food and drink to voters waiting in line outside polling places and halt absentee ballot applications from being accepted within 11 days of an election.
It cleared the state House of Representatives by a 100-75 vote along party lines Thursday before gaining final passage a few hours later in the state Senate, also by a party-line vote. Kemp signed the bill into law about an hour after its passage in the Senate.
The bill, sponsored by state Sen. Max Burns, R-Sylvania, absorbed proposals from several other election-focused measures on its way to passing out of the state legislature, swelling to nearly 100 pages from an original 2-page bill last week in a process that drew concerns over transparency.
Beyond absentee and early voting changes, Burns’ bill would also allow state officials to take over county election boards for poor performance, which Democratic leaders and voting-rights advocates argue could give Republicans a back door to influence local election operations in many counties.
The bill also dropped a prior effort by Republican state lawmakers to shrink early voting on Sundays in Georgia. It instead would require two Saturdays of early voting and give counties the option to hold poll hours on two Sundays.
Among the bill’s most contentious changes to survive final passage is a requirement that registered Georgia voters provide the number on their driver’s license or state ID card to request and cast absentee ballots. If they do not have those ID forms, voters instead would have to send in a copy of their passport, employee ID card, utility bill or bank statement.
“Our goal is to ensure election integrity and to restore or confirm confidence in the election process,” Burns said from the Senate floor shortly before the bill’s passage.
Georgia Democratic leaders have long condemned the changes pushed by Republicans, characterizing them targeted at minority and low-income voters to curb election turnout in communities where Democrats tend to draw strong support.
“Make no mistake: This is democracy in reverse,” said Minority Leader Gloria Butler, D-Stone Mountain. “We are witnessing right now a massive and unabashed assault on voting rights unlike anything we’ve seen since the Jim Crow era.”
Election bills that have sparked intense debate in the General Assembly come after former President Donald Trump and his allies sowed doubts over Georgia’s election system, calling it fraught with fraud despite the repeated rejection of Trump’s claims by state officials and federal courts in recent months.
Speaking from the House floor Thursday, Rep. Barry Fleming, R-Harlem, who has spearheaded the push for election changes in the House, framed the bill as an expansion of voter access and tighter oversight of local election officials as he presented the bill before the vote.
“The bill greatly expands accessibility of voters in Georgia and greatly improves the process of administration of elections, while at the same time providing more accountability to ensure the integrity that the vote is properly preserved,” said Fleming, who chairs the House Special Committee on Election Integrity.
State Rep. Barry Fleming, R-Harlem, has led efforts to bring broad changes to Georgia’s election system during the 2021 legislative session. (Photo by Beau Evans)
A different bill by Fleming is also awaiting consideration on the Senate floor. His 45-page bill was revised earlier this week to allow counties to buy their own voting machines amid distrust over new machines manufactured by Dominion Voting Systems that were first used in Georgia during last year’s elections.
Senate Majority Leader Mike Dugan, R-Carrollton, who has overseen revisions to Fleming’s bill in the Senate, earlier this week slammed opponents for characterizing the elections bills as instruments of voter suppression, which Republicans have denied.
Democrats in the General Assembly have devoted much of this year’s legislative session to condemning moves by Fleming, Burns and top Republicans in both chambers to overhaul voting by mail and limit access to the polls, calling their measures attempts at voter suppression reminiscent of the Jim Crow era of racial segregation.
Opposition from Democrats along with by some Republican leaders including Lt. Gov. Geoff Duncan and House Speaker David Ralston, R-Blue Ridge, prompted bill drafters to scrap a controversial proposal that would have repealed no-excuse absentee voting.
Still, Democratic lawmakers view the bill overall as harmful to Georgians’ voting rights, particularly for minority communities that helped boost mail-in voting to record numbers in the 2020 election cycle amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
“You are changing the rules, cutting the polling hours and making more requirements to vote,” said Rep. Erica Thomas, D-Austell. “That’s not right, that’s not fair and that’s not just. … Too many people fought, bled and died for our right to vote.”
Rep. Calvin Smyre is joined by Georgia House Democratic lawmakers to condemn Republican-led election bills in the General Assembly on March 23, 2021. (Photo by Beau Evans)
Republican leaders such as Dugan have bristled at that characterization, dismissing accusations that their bills aim to dampen Black and minority voters from casting ballots in Georgia.
“I think it’s demeaning to all those people who came before who actually had to work their tails off to get those repealed,” Dugan said earlier this week. “The hyperbole is unfortunate.”
Democratic leaders have also sought to paint the Republican-led election bills as an effort to halt momentum following the 2020 elections that saw Democrats carry Georgia in the presidential race and flip both of the state’s U.S. Senate seats for the first time in decades.
Rep. Calvin Smyre, D-Columbus, the legislature’s longest-serving member, said earlier this week Democrats will continue to oppose the bills even with some concessions such as ditching the repeal on no-excuse absentee voting and more weekend poll hours.
“As state legislators, our aim is to ensure that all voters, particularly voters of color, have full, meaningful and non-burdensome access to the one fundamental right, and that is the preservation of all other rights, and that is the right to vote,” Smyre said.
Lawmakers have a week more to wrap up fine-tuning of the election bills on the one hand or fighting them on them other. The last day of the General Assembly session is next Wednesday, March 31.
This story has been revised to reflect that the House and Senate have both passed Sen. Burns’ election bill.
Georgia House Speaker David Ralston announces plans to study state intervention in Atlanta crime during a news conference at the state Capitol on March 25, 2021. (Photo by Beau Evans)
Atlanta could face intervention from state police authorities to help crack down on crime in Georgia’s capital city amid a spate of violent and property crimes over the past year.
Georgia House Speaker David Ralston, R-Blue Ridge, on Thursday called for a General Assembly panel to study Atlanta’s crime problem over the summer and decide whether “state intervention may be necessary.”
“In the past I have resisted calls for state oversight of a city’s operations,” Ralston said at a news conference. “But this pandemic of lawlessness has now reached crisis proportions.”
Ralston informed Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms of the legislature’s intentions in a letter sent Thursday. Bottoms’ office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Bottoms recently called fighting crime her “No.-1 focus” and plans to look at how many police officers the city needs, according to an interview with WSB-TV. She has also pledged to address “systemic issues” that attract children to criminal gangs.
“It’s going to take more than me, more than our police chief,” Bottoms told WSB-TV last week. “This is a bigger issue, so we’ve got to tackle it from all sides.”
Ralston’s announcement comes in the wake of mass shootings at three metro-Atlanta spas that left eight people dead earlier this month. Those murders are on top of a total of 24 people killed in homicides so far this year in Atlanta through March 13, up 41% from the same time last year.
Atlanta saw 157 murders in 2020, marking a steep increase from previous years. Assaults and auto thefts are also on the rise, contributing to a crime situation in Atlanta that Ralston said the city “doesn’t seem to be able to bring under control.”
Rep. J Collins, R-Villa Rica, who chairs the House Public Safety and Homeland Security Committee, has been tapped to hold hearings on state intervention in Atlanta crime this summer. Collins said “all possibilities are on the table” as to who would sit on a study committee for the hearings.
Ralston added potential solutions could include increasing state law enforcement personnel in Atlanta including state troopers or other resources.
“There’s any number of forms that this could take,” he said.
A bill to raise the maximum age for youth offenders to be tried in juvenile court from 16 to 17 advanced in the General Assembly on Wednesday.
Sponsored by Rep. Mandi Ballinger, R-Canton, the bill would make it so 17-year-olds would no longer be tried in court and jailed with adult offenders for misdemeanor charges. Teenagers would still be tried as adults for violent crimes like murder and rape.
Ballinger, who has brought the age-raise bill several times in recent legislative sessions, noted Georgia is currently one of just three states that prosecutes 17-year-olds for low-level crimes in adult court.
“Very few times are we offered to do the pure right thing,” Ballinger said at a hearing Wednesday. “This is the right thing for 17-year-olds.”
The bill passed by 5-3 in the Senate Judiciary Committee and now heads to the full Senate. It cleared the state House of Representatives earlier this month by a 113-51 vote.
On top of raising the juvenile-offender age, Ballinger’s bill would set up a committee of state officials, sheriffs, prosecutors and defense attorneys to look for ways to help police agencies and juvenile detention centers deal with an increase of youth offenders including 17-year-olds.
The age raise would take effect in 2023 if the bill gains final passage and is signed into law.
Supporters pointed out more than 13,000 17-year-olds were arrested in 2020, mostly for minor crimes like theft. With Ballinger’s bill, those teens would not be forced into cells with violent adults and would not carry criminal records when applying for college or jobs.
“By far, it’s the lower-level kids who are 17-years-old that won’t come away with a record,” said Jill Travis, executive director of the Georgia Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers. “What this bill will do is change how you treat the shoplifters and the many misdemeanors.”
Critics warned that including 17-year-olds in the juvenile system could tax shorthanded jail staff and police agencies, as well as create costs for counties in charge of juvenile detention facilities to absorb.
Law enforcement representatives also cautioned many 17-year-olds can be just as violent as adult criminals and might act as a bad influence on younger offenders in juvenile facilities.
“The kids that are going through the [juvenile detention centers] are not the children that got caught using tobacco,” said Dwayne Orrick, assistant executive director of the Georgia Association of Chiefs of Police and a former police chief in Roswell.
Ballinger’s bill comes as state lawmakers eye other criminal-justice legislation this session including a measure to repeal Georgia’s citizen’s arrest law, which is awaiting a final vote in the Senate.
Legislation to create a new driver’s education course on how to interact with police officers during traffic stops advanced Wednesday in the General Assembly.
The bill, sponsored by Sen. Randy Robertson, R-Cataula, would require a school and driver-training course in Georgia to include recommendations on how drivers should act when an officer pulls them over.
The course also would include instruction on the consequences for defying officers’ orders as well as when police have the authority to request a driver’s license, make arrests and use force.
“This is just more information that [drivers are] going to have to learn while behind the wheel doing driver training,” said Rep. Martin Momtahan, R-Dallas, who is carrying the bill in the state House of Representatives. This is about making sure they know what to do when the car is pulled over and their interaction with law enforcement.”
The bill passed out of the House Motor Vehicles Committee on Wednesday and now heads to the House floor. It cleared the state Senate by a 36-13 vote largely along party lines with some Democratic lawmakers voting in favor.
Opponents questioned the need for specific training on police interactions while driving and called for any new course to include instruction on driver’s constitutional rights to avoid improper police intrusion.
“I think we’re trying to deal with this problem the wrong way,” said Rep. Gregg Kennard, D-Lawrenceville. “Certainly, training needs to be in play here … but I think that this is misplaced and we’re deflecting responsibility away from law enforcement [officers] who are paid professionals and bearing this burden on the citizens.”
Robertson’s bill follows nationwide protests against police brutality and racial injustice last year that drew loud calls from Democrats for criminal justice reform in Georgia as well as reaction from Republicans to double down on supporting police officers.
The bill also comes as Robertson, who is a retired major with the Muscogee County Sheriff’s Office, pushes a separate measure in the Senate that would make it a felony to damage property or injure someone during a protest and hold city and county governments liable for not quelling rowdy demonstrations.
Additionally, state lawmakers are close to passing another measure by Rep. Houston Gaines, R-Athens, that would limit most local governments from reducing funds for police by more than 5% over a 10-year span.
Both of those measures have prompted backlash from criminal-justice reform advocates worried stricter rules on protests and police funding could erode citizen protections. The measures are now awaiting votes on the Senate floor.
Coronavirus has sickened hundreds of thousands people and killed thousands more in Georgia. (Image: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention)
The long winter of COVID-19 looks to be coming to an end in Georgia.
All Georgians age 16 and older will be eligible for the COVID-19 vaccine starting this Thursday, March 25, Gov. Brian Kemp announced Tuesday.
The long-awaited expansion comes as Georgia is set to receive another boost in the weekly shipment of vaccines, largely due to the single-dose Johnson & Johnson vaccine that increased the state’s allotment this week to 450,000 doses, according to the governor.
“This is our ticket back to normal,” Kemp said. “We’re getting closer to that point every single day.”
Speaking at a news conference, Kemp said Georgia expects to gain another bump in vaccine doses next week from the federal government – though he was not sure yet how much more the state will receive.
So far, Georgia has distributed roughly 3.2 million vaccine doses to groups that have gradually become eligible since mid-December, including all residents ages 55 and older, health-care workers, nursing home residents and staff, first responders, judges, courtroom staff and people with physical, mental or behavioral health conditions.
The vaccine rollout has seen nearly 75% of the state’s residents ages 65 and older receive at least their first dose, setting Georgia on a path to having its most vulnerable population inoculated in the coming weeks.
Still, state officials continue to see “vaccine hesitancy” in rural areas, particularly parts of Georgia south of the Columbus-Macon-Augusta line.
In a show of confidence, Kemp said he is scheduled to get his first vaccine dose on Friday and has been talking with former University of Georgia football star Champ Bailey to spread awareness in Georgia about the efficacy – and importance – of receiving the vaccine.
“I just want to encourage everybody to get the vaccine,” Kemp said. “We’re seeing this across the country, but especially in the South, we’re seeing vaccine hesitancy.”
“There should not be hesitancy. This is a medical miracle.”
Amid hesitancy in rural Georgia, Kemp said Tuesday officials this week sent 70% of the state’s weekly vaccine doses to sites in metro Atlanta, where demand has been consistently higher.
The governor said many providers in the Atlanta area currently have appointments available for the shots, including a mass site downtown run by the federal government at Mercedes-Benz Stadium.
“If you’re in the metro where demand continues to be high, we’ve got great options,” Kemp said.
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.
State officials have opened nine mass vaccination sites in Atlanta, Macon, Albany, Savannah, Columbus, Waycross and Bartow, Washington and Habersham counties.
Nearly 845,000 people had tested positive for COVID-19 in Georgia as of Tuesday afternoon, with more than 203,000 more reported positive antigen tests indicating likely positive results. The virus has killed 16,187 Georgians.
