ATLANTA – Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp and Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger pushed back Tuesday against criticism of the elections overhaul the Republican-controlled General Assembly passed last week.
Democrats including President Joe Biden and voting rights advocacy groups have slammed the legislation as part of a bid by GOP state lawmakers across the country at voter suppression following Republican defeats in last year’s elections.
The bill imposes new ID requirements on absentee voting, limits the placement of drop boxes for absentee ballots to inside election offices and early voting locations, and gives state election officials the authority to take over poor-performing local election boards.
But Kemp noted Tuesday the bill also expands early voting to two Saturdays and gives counties the option to hold poll hours on two Sundays. An earlier version of the legislation had proposed shrinking early voting on Sundays.
“How is this suppression when you’re adding opportunities for more weekend voting?” the governor asked.
Kemp also pointed out that the bill codifies drop boxes for absentee ballots for the first time in Georgia. Drop boxes were allowed during the last election cycle as part of the public health emergency he declared because of the coronavirus pandemic.
“The other side is trying to act like something was going to be taken away,” he said. “If we hadn’t addressed [the drop boxes] in this bill, they would have gone away.”
Kemp said the bill does away with the signature match method for processing absentee ballots in favor of a voter ID requirement to ease the burden on local elections officials.
The huge surge of absentee voting in the 2020 election cycle due to the virus was cumbersome on local elections officials forced to match signatures, he said.
“[Going to voter ID] is going to help elections officials speed up the process,” he said.
The governor defended a controversial ban on non-poll workers handing out food and drinks within 150 feet of voters waiting in line outside polling places as a way to prevent illegal electioneering.
“We’ve had rules about electioneering within 150 feet of the polls for a long time,” he said. “The real question ought to be why are they standing in line so long? … People ought to be able to vote in 30 minutes to an hour.”
Raffensperger said the new law will still let groups give “nonpartisan, bipartisan water without campaign stickers” to poll workers who will distribute it.
But the secretary of state stopped short of giving the bill a full endorsement, noting other contentious measures that strip him of voting powers on the State Election Board. Instead, the new law calls for the board to be chaired by an official appointed by either the General Assembly or the governor.
“When you have direct accountability and you have an elected official at the top, then the voters can hold that person accountable,” Raffensperger said. “What you really are creating is a little mini-Washington, D.C., a non-accountable board … [where] no one gets anything done. … I think at some point they’ll regret this decision.”
Meanwhile, Kemp’s signing of the election bill has drawn a trio of lawsuits aimed at blocking the voting measures from taking effect on grounds they suppress voter access, particularly in Black and low-income communities.
Attorneys representing a host of suing groups including the NAACP, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) and the New Georgia Project argue the election changes violate the federal Voting Rights Act and constitutional free-speech rights.
“It’s essentially a storm that the legislature and the governor have unnecessarily created that they’re leaving for others to address,” said Nancy Abudu, the SPLC’s deputy legal director for voting rights. “Our lawsuit is taking this issue directly to the courts in an effort to block this behavior, this suppressive attempt.”
The suing groups dismiss arguments that the law expands voter access by adding more weekend early-voting hours and officially legalizing drop boxes by pointing to the totality of the law.
“Each of these provisions taken together demonstrate very clearly that this law is aimed at suppressing the vote, not expanding it,” said Sophia Lin Lakin, deputy director of the ACLU’s Voting Rights Project. “Picking apart each individual provision … is simply ignoring the fulsome thrust of the really terrible impact of this law.”
Kemp accused the law’s opponents of pushing a narrative aimed at benefiting Democrats politically. He cited as an example Biden’s portrayal of the law as a “Jim Crow in the 21st century” blow at voting rights won during the long civil rights struggle in America.
“We know their playbook,” Kemp said. “They target certain sections of the bill. Then, when it changes, they target something else.”
ATLANTA – A lot of legislative business remains unsettled entering the final day of this year’s General Assembly session.
But lawmakers won’t have to deal with a couple of measures on Wednesday that gained final passage on Monday.
The legislature sent to Gov. Brian Kemp’s desk for his signature two bills related to criminal justice that would let some Georgia offenders gain early release from probation and improve the processing and tracking of sexual-assault kits.
The early-probation bill, which passed the House 169-2 on Monday, is aimed at reducing Georgia’s third-highest-in-the-nation probation population.
It would let first-time felons in Georgia sentenced to prison for 12 months or fewer seek early termination of their probation after they’ve been released, paid court fines and avoided another run-in with the law for two years.
Probationers would be allowed to petition courts for early termination of their supervision terms after three years.
“This bill provides an incentive for those on probation to behave,” said Rep. Tyler Paul Smith, R-Bremen , who carried the bill in the House.
The sexual-assaults test kit bill, which passed both the House and Senate unanimously, is intended to resolve a chronic backlog of incomplete forensic tests in Georgia that only recently started to decline.
The bill, sponsored by Rep. Scott Holcomb, D-Atlanta, would create a statewide tracking system to tally the number, location and processing status of sexual-assault kits. Victims would not need to file criminal charges to complete assault tests and could receive updates anonymously on their kit’s status.
With Holcomb’s bill, the tracking system would be set up with funding from the state Criminal Justice Coordinating Council and see Georgia join 27 other states with similar systems, said Sen. John Albers, R-Roswell, who carried the bill in the Senate.
“The goal is to improve information and ultimately put bad actors away,” Albers said. “Overall, these measures will improve the state’s response to sexual assaults.”
ATLANTA – A debate in the Georgia House and Senate over whether Georgia should observe standard or daylight saving time all year continues to rage entering the last day of this year’s legislative session.
The House voted 111-48 Monday to put Georgia on daylight time year-round, substituting that language for a bill the Senate passed last month calling for permanent standard time.
“Most people prefer daylight saving time over permanent standard time,” Rep. Wes Cantrell, R-Canton, declared shortly before Monday’s vote.
Cantrell backed up that assertion by citing a recent poll in Politico that found Americans prefer permanent daylight time over standard time 5-1.
Even if the Senate abandons its position and agrees with the House on switching to daylight time year round, it can’t do so without congressional approval.
Under federal law, states are permitted to switch to standard time year round if they wish, and Arizona and Hawaii have made the change.
However, states must wait for Congress to act before they can observe daylight time all year.
Cantrell said if Congress approves the switch, the legislatures in Florida, South Carolina, Tennessee , Louisiana and Arkansas have committed to going to daylight time, reason enough for Georgia to act.
“Georgia will be the odd man out,” he said.
Georgia lawmakers have reached a consensus on one key element in the debate: They don’t like switching back and forth twice a year.
Sen. Ben Watson, R-Savannah, chief sponsor of the Senate bill calling for permanent standard time, has cited studies that show switching between standard and daylight time interrupts sleep patterns and, more importantly, increases the risk of illnesses including heart attacks.
Watson and other lawmakers also have expressed concerns that going to daylight time all year would put children getting on school buses at greater risk during the winter, when sunrise would occur as late as 8:30 a.m.
But the Senate appears now to be leaning toward permanent daylight time, despite having passed Watson’s standard time bill.
The Senate is scheduled to take up Cantrell’s House bill on Wednesday, the last day of the 2021 legislative session. A substitute bill approved by the Senate Rules Committee on Monday calls for Georgia to observe daylight saving time year round, if Congress decides to let states make that change.
The Port of Savannah is increasing container capacity at its Garden City Terminal.
ATLANTA – The Georgia Ports Authority’s governing board has approved a $205 million expansion of the Port of Savannah that will increase its container capacity by 20%.
Board members signed off on the project Monday as the port was reporting a record February. The port moved 390,804 twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) of cargo last month, up 7.2% compared to February of last year.
“Right now, we are moving container volumes that we did not expect to see for another four years,” said Griff Lynch, the authority’s executive director. “We are expediting capacity projects that will increase the speed and fluidity of cargo handling at the Port of Savannah.”
The Peak Capacity project will add 2,100 new container slots, enough to accommodate 650,000 TEUs of annual capacity. The work will be done in two phases, with the first opening in September.
“Georgia’s container trade has experienced unprecedented growth over the past six months,” board Chairman Will McKnight said. “The addition is among several that will address the needs of port users experiencing a sharp increase in demand, while also preparing Savannah to take on additional businesses over the long term.”
The board also approved the renovation of Berth 1 at the Port of Savannah on Monday, which will increase capacity by an estimated 1 million TEUs per year by June 2023. Altogether, the projects will bring the Garden City Terminal’s annual capacity to 6 million TEUs.
ATLANTA – Legislation prohibiting local governments in Georgia from regulating poultry plant processing waste narrowly passed the state House of Representatives Monday.
The House voted 92-69 to pass Senate Bill 260, just one more than the minimum of 91 votes needed to approve bills in the 180-member legislative chamber. The state Senate passed the measure 39-15 earlier this month.
The bill is a follow-up to legislation the General Assembly passed last year setting rules and regulations for the spreading of poultry plant processing waste on farm fields and imposing penalties on violators, Rep. Robert Dickey, R-Musella, chairman of the House Agriculture & Consumer Affairs Committee, said on the House floor Monday.
“We have some bad actors,” he said.
The bill requires a buffer of at least 100 feet, the widest in state law, Dickey said.
But opponents said residents in several counties in northeastern Georgia who live near waste impoundments have complained about foul odors emanating from them. They specifically cited problems in Oglethorpe, Wilkes and Elbert counties.
“This is supposed to be liquid,” said Rep. Mary Frances Williams, D-Marietta. “[But] sometimes, they include poultry byproducts like chicken carcasses and offal.”
Williams said the 100-foot buffer in the bill is about equal to six to eight car lengths.
“How would you feel about having this kind of smell six to eight car lengths from your front door?” she asked her House colleagues. “The smell is awful. It’s been a problem people have complained bitterly about.”
Rep. Rebecca Mitchell, D-Snellville, objected to the state prohibiting local governments from regulating the wastes.
“We should trust our local agricultural communities to make responsible decisions for their residents,” she said.
House Republicans came to the bill’s defense.
Rep. Steven Meeks, R-Screven, said the state Environmental Protection has been proactive in shutting down violators of the regulations
Rep. Sam Watson, R-Moultrie, chairman of the House Rural Caucus, said farmers need poultry plant waste as an alternative to commercial fertilizer, which has almost doubled in price recently.
“This bill will help our poultry industry, which is vital to this state,” Dickey said.
Because of changes Dickey’s committee made to the bill, it must now return to the Senate before gaining final passage.
