State Sen. Jen Jordan (D-Atlanta) slammed Republican-held election fraud hearings during the legislative session on Jan. 12, 2021. (Photo by Beau Evans)
Democratic lawmakers in the Georgia Senate have kicked off the 2021 legislative session with a resolution condemning the riot by supporters of President Donald Trump at the U.S. Capitol last week.
Sponsored by five Democratic senators, the resolution slams “the disgraceful actions of right-wing violence and sedition” that saw Trump supporters break into and vandalize the Capitol building. The riots disrupted Congress’ vote to certify President-elect Joe Biden’s win in the Nov. 3 general election.
The resolution also criticized several Republican state senators for holding “sham hearings” in December that gave a platform to election fraud claims spread by Trump and his allies, “delegitimizing the Senate and giving credibility to these conspiracy theories,” the resolution said.
State Sen. Jen Jordan, D-Atlanta, Tuesday called for those Senate Republicans to be held accountable for acting to agitate Trump’s supporters, saying on the Senate floor they “aided and abetted the spread of disinformation.”
“They gave oxygen to a lie,” said Jordan, who faced death threats for challenging the fraud claims at a Senate hearing last month. “To pretend like nothing happened, that this is just another day … that can’t be an option.”
The rioting and resolution came after Republican state lawmakers on the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee released a report last month calling the Nov. 3 election “chaotic” and that “any reported results must be viewed as untrustworthy.”
Georgia election officials including Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger repeatedly dismissed the Nov. 3 fraud claims as unfounded while federal courts tossed several lawsuits seeking to reverse the election results.
Proposals to change Georgia election laws including tighter voter ID requirements and limits on who can cast mail-in ballots look to feature prominently in this year’s session after Biden became the first Democrat to carry Georgia since 1992 and Democrats flipped the state’s two Republican-held U.S. Senate seats last week.
Republican senators who attended the subcommittee hearings and voiced belief in the fraud claims included state Sens. Burt Jones, R-Jackson; Brandon Beach, R-Alpharetta; Greg Dolezal, R-Cumming; Steve Gooch, R-Dahlonega; John Kennedy, R-Macon; Blake Tillery, R-Vidalia; and Carden Summers, R-Cordele. Former state Sens. William Ligon, R-Brunswick, and Bill Health, R-Bremen, also attended.
Jones, Beach, Dolezal and Ligon also circulated a failed petition in December urging General Assembly members to convene a special session aimed at blocking Georgia’s presidential election results. Gov. Brian Kemp opposed calling a special session.
On Tuesday, Jones and Beach were stripped of their Senate committee chairmanships by Lt. Gov. Geoff Duncan, who repeatedly pushed Republicans to drop their focus on fraud claims and instead look ahead to bolstering Georgia GOP candidates in future elections.
The Senate resolution was co-sponsored by Georgia Senate Minority Leader Gloria Butler, D-Stone Mountain; state Sens. Harold Jones II, D-Augusta; Elena Parent, D-Atlanta; Lester Jackson, D-Savannah; and Jordan.
The trial of a man accused of murdering South Georgia beauty queen Tara Grinstead moved forward Tuesday as Georgia Supreme Court justices heard arguments for why the state should pay for his expert witnesses.
Court appeals over witness funds have delayed for nearly two years the trial of Ryan Duke, who authorities say confessed to breaking into Grinstead’s home in Ocilla in 2005 and strangling her to death before hiding her body in a pecan orchard.
Duke was set to stand trial in April 2019 before attorneys representing him pro bono appealed an Irwin County Superior Court judge’s decision denying him state funds for expert witnesses since he is indigent.
Grinstead, a high school teacher and winner of a South Georgia beauty pageant, was missing for more than a decade before Duke was arrested in connection with her murder in 2017, shortly after a friend helped him burn Grinstead’s body in a pine orchard then came clean to investigators.
Duke faces a host of felony charges murder, assault and burglary in connection with Grinstead’s killing. His friend, Bo Dukes, was convicted of making false statements, hindering an arrest and concealing a death, and given a 25-year prison sentence in 2019.
Attorneys who have represented Duke for free since August 2018 have argued he should be entitled to state funds for expert witnesses under the state’s indigent-defense law, despite the fact he is represented by private lawyers instead of public defenders.
Justices gave little indication which way they may rule at a hearing on Duke’s motion for expert-witness funding. His case will be sent back to the Irwin County court following their ruling to schedule a new date for trial.
The Supreme Court has held virtual hearings in Georgia since March 2020 due to safety concerns with the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.
COVID-19 has sickened hundreds of thousands people and killed thousands more in Georgia. (Image: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention)
Gov. Brian Kemp asked Georgians for patience Friday as state officials push to distribute around 11,500 doses per day of the slow-arriving COVID-19 vaccine to health-care workers, nursing homes and people aged 65 and older in some parts of the state.
At a news conference, Kemp said Georgia’s vaccine distribution program is “making steady progress” but is still constrained by the limited number of doses the state has received so far. He expects distribution “will be ramped up” in the coming weeks.
“I’m pleased with how hard everybody’s working, but I’m not happy with where we are,” Kemp said. “We’ve got to keep moving the needle. We’re working on that every single day.”
Around 135,000 vaccines have been administered out of the roughly 554,000 doses shipped to Georgia as of Thursday evening, according to the state Department of Public Health’s website – though Kemp said the website’s data is lagging behind the number of vaccines actually given so far.
The governor said local health departments have been swamped with requests to book appointments after he and Georgia Public Health Commissioner Dr. Kathleen Toomey broadened which Georgians can receive the vaccine last week to people 65-years of age and older, police and firefighters.
State officials plan to launch a new website soon allowing Georgians to see whether they currently qualify for the vaccine and to schedule appointments for receiving either the Pfizer or Moderna brand vaccines, which both require two doses spaced a few weeks apart.
“I’d like to continue to ask for the people of Georgia’s patience as we work hard to swiftly, safely and efficiently administer the limited supply of vaccine we have to those for whom it would be the most good to get it,” Kemp said Friday.
Georgia’s rollout has been complicated by large demand for vaccines from health-care workers in metro Atlanta compared to hospitals and clinics in more rural parts of the state, where Kemp said some front-line workers have refused to take the vaccine. He called their reluctance “unimaginable” and urged everyone to get the vaccine once it’s available.
Kemp’s update on vaccine distribution came as Georgia logged its highest-ever daily total of reported positive COVID-19 cases on Friday at 10,400. No new restrictions on businesses or any lockdowns are forthcoming despite the spike, Kemp said, adding he will “have an open mind” in the event “something changes.”
“We have much hope on the horizon,” Kemp said. “But we’ve got to hunker down and continue to fight this together.”
Roughly 737,000 people in Georgia had tested positive or presumed positive for COVID-19 as of Friday afternoon. The virus had killed 10,180 Georgians.
U.S. Sens.-elect Jon Ossoff (left) and Rev. Raphael Warnock (right) bump elbows while campaigning in Atlanta during their runoff races on Dec. 14, 2020. (Photo by Beau Evans)
Georgia’s Republican senators have conceded defeat in the Jan. 5 runoffs for U.S. Senate, officially giving Democrats the state’s two Senate seats and control of the federal government for at least the first two years of the incoming Biden administration.
Former U.S. Sen. David Perdue conceded to Democrat U.S. Sen.-elect Jon Ossoff Friday afternoon, limiting the Sea Island Republican to just one term that ended on Jan. 3. His announcement came a day after Sen. Kelly Loeffler conceded to Sen.-elect Raphael Warnock after only a year in office.
Strong Democratic get-out the vote efforts, plus the fallout from President Donald Trump’s obsession with election fraud claims, combined to unravel the two incumbents’ campaigns and handed Democrats control of both Senate seats for the first time since 2002.
Ossoff, a 33-year-old Atlanta native who runs an investigative journalism company, is set to become the Senate’s youngest member and Georgia’s first Jewish representative in the chamber. He held a slim but insurmountable lead of nearly 50,000 votes with a few thousand ballots left to be counted late Friday.
“We don’t have to accept that poverty or racism or violence are inevitable or necessary,” Ossoff said. “We can dream about higher and higher heights.”
Warnock, a Savannah native and the senior pastor of Atlanta’s Ebenezer Baptist Church, had built up an even stronger lead than his co-campaigner by roughly 83,000 votes Friday. He will become Georgia’s first Black senator after preaching from the same pulpit once held by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
“To everyone out there struggling today, whether you voted for me or not, know this: I see you,” Warnock said. “I hear you. And I will fight for you. I will fight for your family.”
With voter turnout hovering at 4.5 million, the runoffs solidified Georgia’s position as a battleground state with closely fought elections for at least the next decade and particularly in 2022, when Gov. Brian Kemp will likely face Democrat Stacey Abrams in a rematch of the heated and close 2018 gubernatorial election.
The two Senate races drew the eyes of America and the world to Georgia over the past two months since Warnock and Ossoff forced runoffs against their opponents, summoning nearly $1 billion in campaign and outreach spending along with visits from dozens of celebrities and national politicians.
With the stakes high even in normal times, the runoffs barreled forward amid the unusually intense backdrop of the COVID-19 pandemic and election results in November that saw a Democrat win a presidential contest in Georgia for the first time since 1992.
Both Democrats overcame attempts by Perdue and Loeffler to paint them as socialist candidates too extreme for conservative Georgians through fierce attack ads that sought to tie Ossoff to communist China and portray Warnock as anti-police.
That campaign strategy failed, according to several local analysts who credited the two Democrats for focusing on more hopeful messages that elevated key issues like health care, criminal justice, workers’ rights and the ongoing COVID-19 response.
Perdue, a former corporate executive, and Loeffler, an Atlanta businesswoman appointed to retired Sen. Johnny Isakson’s seat in late 2019, were also hamstrung by their loyalty to Trump as the outgoing president trashed Georgia’s election system over his loss to President-elect Joe Biden in the Nov. 3 general election.
With Congress poised for Democratic majorities in both chambers, the Biden administration now faces an easier road to appointing Cabinet members and pushing through legislative priorities until at least the 2022 mid-term elections. He has nonetheless pledged to take a moderate approach and work with leaders on both sides of the aisle.
“Georgia voters delivered a resounding message [in the runoffs],” Biden said. “They want action on the crises we face and they want it right now. Together, we’ll get it done.”
Georgia House Speaker David Ralston previewed his priorities for the 2021 legislative session at the State Capitol on Jan. 7, 2021. (Photo by Beau Evans)
Georgia’s most powerful state lawmaker threw cold water Thursday on calls by some top Republican officials to eliminate no-excuse absentee voting after the 2020 election cycle.
House Speaker David Ralston, R-Blue Ridge, indicated he may not support any legislative moves to require Georgians to give specific reasons for requesting mail-in ballots, following a recent push by Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to end the practice.
“Somebody’s got to make a real strong case to convince me otherwise,” Ralston said at a news conference at the state Capitol.
Ralston added he plans to create a new committee focused on election access and oversight as state Republican leaders push to tighten Georgia’s voter ID laws. He also said he would support legislation to change the state’s free-for-all “jungle” primary format for special elections.
Election fraud claims by President Donald Trump and his allies are expected to take a back seat going forward after committees in both General Assembly chambers held hearings on the subject in recent weeks and extremists angered by Trump’s election loss stormed the U.S. Capitol on Wednesday.
“People are concerned [about fraud claims] and I think we have to address those concerns,” Ralston said Thursday. “But people need to know the truth. And I don’t think they have been getting the truth all the time.”
State law has allowed Georgia voters since 2005 to vote by mail for any reason, not just due to living out of state or other specific reasons. Raffensperger has pressed lawmakers to change the law after local election officials were overwhelmed counting absentee ballots in elections this year amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
Proposals to change Georgia’s election laws look to take center stage in the General Assembly’s 2021 legislative session that kicks off next week. State lawmakers are grappling with changing voter patterns that saw the 2020 presidential election and both U.S. Senate seats flip in Democrats’ favor.
The June 9 primaries, Nov. 3 general election and Jan. 5 Senate runoffs each saw more than one million absentee ballots cast, shattering previous mail-in voting records. Raffensperger traced slow turnaround times that sparked suspicions over Georgia’s election integrity to the flood of absentee ballots.
“Until COVID-19, absentee ballot voters were mostly those who needed to cast absentee ballots,” Raffensperger said. “For the sake of our resource-stretched and overwhelmed elections officials, we need to reform our absentee ballot system.”
The Georgia Senate Republican Caucus also has called for eliminating no-excuse absentee voting “to secure our electoral process” as part of a legislative wish list this year that includes requiring a mail-in signature audit and banning absentee ballot drop boxes.
Georgia Democratic leaders have pledged to oppose efforts to overhaul absentee voting, which helped Democratic voters drive up turnout enough to secure wins for President-elect Joe Biden in November and Democratic Sen.-elects Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock this week.
“No-excuse absentee voting has been used safely and effectively by both parties since 2005,” the Georgia Senate Democratic Caucus wrote on Twitter. “Ending the practice in order to try and turn back the tide of Democratic participation in Georgia is voter suppression.”
Ralston also doubled down Thursday on his recent call for law changes that would let the General Assembly choose Georgia’s secretary of state instead of voters. He also hinted he might support creating a new election official in the state and removing election responsibilities from Raffensperger’s office, if such a proposal is brought during the session.
The 2021 legislative session starts on Monday and is expected to run through March.
