by Ty Tagami | Sep 23, 2026 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA — After federal prosecutors charged three noncitizens with voting illegally in Georgia, the man who oversees voting in the state pointed to an audit he ordered four years ago.
Last week, the U.S. attorney’s office in Atlanta announced that three people from other countries had been charged with voting in federal elections in recent years despite not being U.S. citizens.
The cases were investigated by two federal agencies, with “valuable” assistance from the Office of the Georgia Secretary of State.
This week, Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger pointed to that credit, explaining that in 2022 he had ordered an audit that found 1,634 people had tried to register to vote in Georgia though their citizenship could not be verified through the federal Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements program.
“These cases show exactly why citizenship verification matters,” Raffensperger said in a statement.
Pauline Lewis, 65, of Dawsonville, allegedly a citizen of Antigua and Barbuda who entered the United States on a student visa in 1979, voted by absentee ballot in 2020, 2021 and 2024, the office of U.S. Attorney Theodore S. Hertzberg said in a statement.
Gabriel Covarrubias, 44, of Lawrenceville, allegedly used a false name to vote in the 2024 general election, Hertzberg’s office said. Covarrubias is allegedly a citizen of Mexico who claimed he was from Puerto Rico.
And Analiea Milliscent Eccles, 43, of Morrow, allegedly voted nine times between 2008 and 2024 despite being a citizen of Venezuela, Hertzberg’s office said, adding that she allegedly entered the United States on a temporary visitor visa in 1991 and remained in the country, applying for and receiving Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals status in 2013.
“Voting in federal elections is a sacred right reserved to U.S. citizens, and every vote illegally cast by an alien cancels out a legal vote,” Hertzberg said in a statement. “Maintaining the integrity of our elections and protecting the voting rights of citizens are among the highest priorities of my office.”
The penalty for voting as a noncitizen is a fine, up to a year in prison or both. The penalty for making a false claim of citizenship to register to vote includes imprisonment for up to five years.
The penalties are rarely applied because relatively few are caught committing the crime.
In late 2024, Raffensperger announced the results of an audit that found 20 noncitizens had illegally registered to vote, with nine of them actually casting ballots.
That year, nearly 5.3 million Georgians cast a ballot in the general election.
The Bipartisan Policy Center in Washington, D.C. has noted that 0.04% of voter verification cases had found noncitizens.
Now, as Georgians prepare to head to the polls for the general election, more than 8.2 million are registered to vote.
by Ty Tagami | Sep 22, 2026 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA — A global leader in tire production will invest $1.2 billion to expand in Georgia, bringing 1,000 jobs by 2033, according to Gov. Brian Kemp’s office.
“This historic investment will expand Pirelli’s footprint with roughly five times more positions than they currently employ across the region,” Kemp said in a statement Tuesday.
The Italian company currently employs 234 Georgians and is expected to begin major hiring in 2029. Pirelli based its U.S. operations in Rome in 2002.
The expansion of its existing facility there will allow the company to manufacture more products for the local market, Pirelli North America CEO Claudio Zanardo said in statement. He said the expansion also will introduce new technologies, including advanced robotics and a product called the Cyber Tyre.
The expansion is scheduled to occur in two phases, starting with the installation of robotics equipment followed by more traditional manufacturing, which will require more hiring.
by Ty Tagami | Sep 21, 2026 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA — In three weeks, early voters will start going to the polls ahead of the Nov. 3 general election.
The first day of early voting, on Oct. 13, will also feature the final candidates in two days of debates coordinated by the Atlanta Press Club at Georgia Public Broadcasting’s midtown Atlanta studios.
Every statewide candidate will be there on Oct. 12 and 13, except one or two, including the headliner of the Republican ballot.
Rick Jackson, the Republican who is asking voters to make him Georgia’s next governor, has formally declined to attend, said Lauri Strauss, executive producer of the debate series.
Fitz Johnson, a Republican running for Public Service Commission, the agency that regulates energy companies, has not confirmed or declined his attendance yet but has been communicating with organizers.
“He’s been responsive, but I just don’t have a yes or no from him,” Strauss said, adding that organizers hope Jackson changes his mind and decides to attend.
With Jackson’s absence, the top matchup will be between Democratic U.S. Sen. Jon Ossoff and the Republican who wants to unseat him, U.S. Rep. Mike Collins.
Incendiary exchanges between the two are likely when they field journalists’ questions and confront each other for an hour at 8 p.m. on Oct. 13 to close out the debate series.
In recent but separate events, Ossoff has painted Collins as a white supremacist sympathizer while Collins has called Ossoff a communist who wants open borders.
The first debate, at 1:30 p.m. on Oct. 12, promises a fiery clash, as well.
State Sens. Greg Dolezal, R-Cumming, and Josh McLaurin, D-Sandy Springs, want to be Georgia’s next lieutenant governor. Both earned reputations for sharp debating styles during their legislative fights in the state Senate.
Also on the schedule that afternoon are the candidates for attorney general — Rep. Tanya Miller, D-Atlanta, versus Sen. Brian Strickland, R-McDonough; and for secretary of state — Rep. Tim Fleming, R-Covington, and attorney and former judge Penny Brown Reynolds, the Democrat.
That evening, the candidates for two PSC races are on the agenda, with or without Johnson, who is fighting to retake his old seat from Democrat Peter Hubbard, who dislodged him last year.
The prime-time slot on Oct. 12 was scheduled for a showdown between Jackson and former Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms, the Democrat running against Jackson for governor.
Instead of a debate, the 8 p.m. event will feature Bottoms fielding questions from journalists and likely lobbing some of her own at an empty rostrum for Jackson.
That is what happened at the final Press Club debate for the GOP primary, when Lt. Gov. Burt Jones appeared at the GPB studios for the June runoff debate, but Jackson did not, having declined to attend.
Jones used Jackson’s absence as an opportunity to attack him on ethics and on issues such as immigration.
So far, Jackson has agreed to meet Bottoms at just one event: a town hall-style encounter hosted by Atlanta News First on Oct. 6.
Jackson skipped a forum Thursday in Macon moderated by a local NBC affiliate, prompting a rebuke from Bottoms.
“He didn’t feel that you all were worthy enough of his presence this evening,” her campaign quoted her as saying. “I will continue to be here, and I will work on behalf of all of you.”
The Jackson campaign had announced previously that he would only be participating in the Atlanta News First event though Bottoms sought a half dozen debates.
“Keisha Lance Bottoms and her allies are doing anything they can to distract from the fact that they’re running such a disastrous campaign that she cannot reach Georgians without Rick’s help,” Jackson’s campaign said.
by Ty Tagami | Sep 17, 2026 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA — Some worry artificial intelligence could one day rule humanity.
Robots have not taken over yet, but AI may be helping with a core function of democracy in Georgia’s largest county: writing ordinances and resolutions.
A Fulton County commissioner used an online tool to analyze legislation introduced by a couple of her colleagues and found that four proposals, including two that would change ethics policies and procedures, were likely written by AI.
“The idea that we’re going to have machines write what humans should be doing ethically … it opens a can of worms for me,” said Commissioner Dana Barrett, who did the review.
She said the two commissioners behind the legislation, Marvin Arrington Jr. and Bob Ellis, might be exposing the public to unintended consequences because, she said, in her experience AI tends to go overboard on details.
Capitol Beat ran the legislation through the same online tool, called GPTZero, and got similar results. The tool determined it was 100% likely that a proposed ordinance and two proposed resolutions were generated by AI, and it assigned another proposed resolution a 90% likelihood of AI authorship.
The tool cited qualities such as a lack of creativity, “robotic formality,” impersonal tone and mechanical precision.
The company behind GPTZero does not go into much detail on its website about how it works, except to say that it collects raw data, looks for similarities and draws a line between what it considers to be human- versus AI-generated text.
Ellis said in a statement that he, “like the rest of the world,” used “technology tools” to research his ideas and to refine his thoughts. He said he also asked the county attorney’s office to review his work.
He did not say whether he had outsourced the writing of his proposed ethics resolution to AI. He placed the 32-page document on the agenda for the commission’s meeting this week.
Arrington, who also had his legislation on the agenda, said AI use was widespread.
“Artificial intelligence is already being used throughout government, business, education, law, medicine, and nearly every other profession,” he said in a statement. “Public officials who are not learning how to use this technology responsibly are behind the ball. They need to catch up or get left behind.”
Arrington did not say AI had written his proposals, but, like Ellis, he said he had used technology “tools” and that those tools did not diminish or replace his judgment informed by 30 years as a lawyer and 12 years as a county commissioner.
“Suggesting that responsible AI assistance invalidates legislation or policy is like claiming that someone cheated because they used a computer instead of a typewriter,” he said.
Ellis, a Republican, accused Barrett, a Democrat, of launching a “juvenile” attack.
Arrington, a Democrat, said Barrett was taking “cheap political shots.” Arrington also found hypocrisy in Barrett having used an AI tool to sniff out AI writing.
Barrett said she used AI but only to confirm what she already suspected after reading the legislation and noting unusual language and formatting. She said she used AI with her own policy proposals, but she said she only used it for analysis and for editing of her original writing.
Barrett said she sympathized with her fellow commissioners’ desire to amend ethics policies and procedures but could not support their legislation as written.
She characterized her colleagues’ new proposals as “very extreme, especially where there is potentially not as much critical thinking or thoughtful lawmaking as there should be because of the use of AI.”
One of Arrington’s three proposals — about food insecurity and community gardens — did not pass in a vote Wednesday evening. He then held his other two items for a future meeting. One was about abolishing the county ethics board and the other was about limiting public comment at commission meetings.
Ellis also decided to hold his own ethics resolution.
Barrett and Arrington will leave office in a few months. In the meantime, Arrington said he planned to introduce a comprehensive county policy for AI use.
He said he developed it with help from AI.
by Ty Tagami | Sep 16, 2026 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA — It took five months to find a successor to University System of Georgia Chancellor Sonny Perdue, and after looking far and wide the Board of Regents picked someone close to home.
The new university system leader already has a building named after him at Georgia Tech and served on the Tech Foundation board.
Thomas A. Fanning will come out of retirement to be the next leader of Georgia’s 25 public colleges and universities.
He comes to the job with a grounding in business, having led Southern Company for 13 years and chaired the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta board.
The Regents named him the sole finalist for the job on Wednesday.
“Our university system’s strong reputation brought us exceptional candidates from across the country, but Tom Fanning stood out immediately,” Board Chair David B. Dove said in a statement. “With four decades of experience running one of the largest energy companies in the nation, Tom knows how to manage complex operations, solve big problems and lead people. He cares deeply about Georgia, understands the power of higher education and has the proven leadership to guide USG forward.”
Southern Company serves about 9 million electric and gas customers in Georgia and eight other states. Fanning started there in 1980 as a financial analyst.
The Tech grad, who also earned a master’s degree in industrial management from the Institute, rose through 15 roles at Southern Company before being named chairman, president and CEO in 2010, a position he held until his retirement in 2023.
On the way, he served in management, finance, technology and strategy roles.
He has also served as inaugural chair of the federal Cybersecurity Advisory Committee when it first met in 2021. The group advised the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency.
Fanning was awarded an honorary doctorate by Tech, where the new Student-Athlete Performance Center is named in his honor.
“The University System of Georgia is second to none when it comes to keeping a top-tier college education affordable and connecting students directly to great careers,” he said in a statement. “Having earned my degrees here and worked alongside these campuses throughout my career, I know how much this system means to Georgia families.”
Fanning succeeds Perdue, who announced his retirement in April, after leading the university system for four years. Before that, Perdue served as Agriculture Secretary for President Donald Trump during his first term in the White House and as Georgia’s first Republican governor since Reconstruction starting in 2003.
