Georgia Politics, Campaigns, and Elections for November 12, 2024

On November 10th, we celebrate the birth of the United States Marine Corps, which traces its lineage to the Continental Marines, formed by a resolution adopted by the Second Continental Congress on November 10, 1775. Here, former Georgia Governor and United States Senator Zell Miller tells of his decision to join the Marine Corps and the change it made in his life.

The first twenty-three cadets at Virginia Military Institute began their service on November 11, 1839.

General William Tecumseh Sherman ordered the destruction of railroad and telegraph lines between Atlanta and Northwest Georgia on November 12, 1864. Sherman also burned the railroad bridge over the Chattahoochee, cutting his own supply line from Chattanooga.

In what looks to me like a surprisingly progressive move for the 19th century, Governor John B. Gordon signed legislation on November 12, 1889 opening the University of Georgia to white women.

On November 11, 1918, word reached Georgia that an armistice was signed between the Allies and Germany, ending World War One. Georgia Governor Hugh Dorsery declared a state holiday. Armistice Day, marking the end of World War I, was first celebrated on November 11, 1919 and is celebrated on November 11th every year.

On November 12, 1918, Atlanta held a victory parade to celebrate the Armistice with Germany.

The Tomb of the Unknowns at Arlington National Cemetery was dedicated on November 11, 1921.

On Armistice Day, in the presence of President Harding and other government, military, and international dignitaries, the unknown soldier was buried with highest honors beside the Memorial Amphitheater. As the soldier was lowered to his final resting place, a two-inch layer of soil brought from France was placed below his coffin so that he might rest forever atop the earth on which he died.

The Tomb of the Unknowns is considered the most hallowed grave at Arlington Cemetery, America’s most sacred military cemetery. The tombstone itself, designed by sculptor Thomas Hudson Jones, was not completed until 1932, when it was unveiled bearing the description “Here Rests in Honored Glory an American Soldier Known but to God.” The World War I unknown was later joined by the unidentified remains of soldiers from America’s other major 20th century wars and the tomb was put under permanent guard by special military sentinels.

A monument to Nancy Hart was dedicated in Hartwell, in Hart County, Georgia, on November 10, 1931. Hart was an active Patriot in the American Revolution.

In 1938, Congress recognized November 11th as Armistice Day, making it a legal holiday, and in 1954, at the urging of veterans, Congress renamed the holiday “Veterans Day.”

On November 11, 1942, the draft age was lowered to 18 and raised to 37. At the time, African-Americans were excluded from the draft over concerns about a racially-diverse military.

On November 12, 1944, the Atlanta Constitution released a poll of Georgia legislators indicating that most wanted more local rule for cities and counties in the new Constitution being drafted. Georgia Governor and Constitutional Commission Chair Ellis Arnall moved that a home rule provision be included in the new draft of the state Constitution and his motion passed 8-7 on November 13, 1944.

United States Senator Saxby Chambliss (R-Moultrie) was born on November 10, 1943. Chambliss was elected to Congress in 1994 as part of the “Republican Revolution” led by Newt Gingrich.

The iron ore freighter SS Edmund Fitzgerald sunk in a winter storm on Lake Superior on November 10, 1975.

The “General Lee” first left the ground, using a ramp to clear a police car, during filming of “The Dukes of Hazzard” on November 11, 1978.

President Jimmy Carter ordered an end to oil imports from Iran on November 12, 1979.

Ronald Reagan became the first President of the United States to address the Japanese Diet in Tokyo on November 11, 1983.

On November 11, 1988, the Georgia Vietnam Memorial was dedicated in front of the Sloppy Floyd state government building across the street from the Georgia State Capitol.

Tim Berners-Lee published a Proposal for a HyperText Project, laying the foundation for the World Wide Web, on November 12, 1990.

HyperText is a way to link and access information of various kinds as a web of nodes in which the user can browse at will. Potentially, HyperText provides a single user-interface to many large classes of stored information such as reports, notes, data-bases, computer documentation and on-line systems help.

A program which provides access to the hypertext world we call a browser. A hypertext page has pieces of text which refer to other texts. Such references are highlighted and can be selected with a mouse. When you select a reference, the browser presents you with the text which is referenced.

The texts are linked together in a way that one can go from one concept to another to find the information one wants. The network of links is called a web.

On November 11, 1997, a monument to Georgia’s World War I veterans was dedicated, also in front of the Sloppy Floyd building.

On November 10, 2000, George W. Bush took the lead for the first time in the New Mexico vote count, paving the way for his eventual election as President. From the New York Times:

Gov. George W. Bush of Texas late Friday night took the lead from Vice President Al Gore in the race to claim New Mexico’s five electoral votes with what now stands as the slimmest statewide margin in the country and one of the narrowest in American history.

After 257 missing ballots were found on Friday, and Bernalillo County officials here decided to count 379 ballots by hand that had been rejected by electronic voting machines on Tuesday, Mr. Bush led Mr. Gore by just four votes — among nearly 600,000 cast. The count was 285,644 for Mr. Bush, and 285,640 for Mr. Gore, according to totals from the state and the county.

Mr. Gore, who now has 255 electoral votes, seemed the apparent winner in New Mexico on Tuesday night by about 5,000 votes. But by late Wednesday, county officials had discovered that 67,000 absentee and early ballots had not been counted.

By midnight on Thursday, nearly all the ballots had been tallied and added to the county totals, but county officials then found that 252 votes — a number that reached 257 by Friday — were missing. They also grappled with the problem of what to do with an ever changing number of ballots that voting machines had rejected.

Then, on Friday afternoon, Lou Melvin, a precinct judge, found a locked black ballot box in an outer storage room in the county warehouse building where all the tabulations were being conducted.

It would be a month before the Supreme Court rendered a decision in Bush v. Gore, ending the election.

From the New York Post, dated November 12, 2000:

Republican George W. Bush yesterday took an infinitesimal lead – just 17 votes – in New Mexico, flipping a state that was put in rival Al Gore’s column for days, then moved to undecided Friday as Gore’s lead shriveled.

It’s another black eye for the TV networks who rushed to judgment and wrongly called New Mexico for Gore on Election Night, just as they miscalled Florida – first for Gore and then for Bush before going back to undecided.

The TV network fumbles are coupled with coast-to-coast ballot bumbles that have undermined America’s faith in the whole voting system as four states could join Florida in recount-land: New Mexico, Wisconsin, Oregon and Iowa.

Former State School Superintendent Linda Schrenko was indicted by federal prosecutors on November 10, 2004 on eighteen counts.

On November 11, 2013, the Atlanta Braves announced they would move from downtown Atlanta to Cobb County.

The Traveling Vietnam Wall and the Cost of Freedom Tribute were displayed in Richmond Hill, Georgia for Veteran’s Day, according to the Savannah Morning News.

The City of Richmond Hill honored veterans in its community with the Traveling Vietnam Wall and the Cost of Freedom Tribute at JF Gregory Park. The wall is filled from top to bottom with more than 58,000 names of service men and women who made the ultimate sacrifice. The wall is eight feet tall and spans 360 feet. The traveling tribute also honors military personnel who served in WWII, Somalia, Afghanistan and more.

The wall display will be open to the public at JF Gregory Park from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. through Wednesday, Nov. 13.

Georgia Politics, Campaigns, and Elections

The Georgia House Study Committee on Navigable Streams and Related Matters meets tomorrow at 9 AM in Newnan at The Donald W. Nixon Centre for Performing and Visual Arts, 1523 Lower Fayetteville Rd, Newnan, GA 30265 and will be livestreamed.

From the Rome News Tribune:

The committee — organized to determine where people should have the right to boat, fish and hunt on Georgia’s streams — has thus far hinted at taking a narrow view of these rights, according to Joe Cook, Paddle Georgia coordinator and guidebook author.

“We’ve had the right to float down Georgia’s rivers and streams since the 1700s,” Cook said. “And that right has not yet been taken from us.”

The issue was sparked by language used in House Bill 1172, which could allow landowners to restrict the use of a big stream running through their property — even if it has been used for decades — if it’s deemed “unnavigable” according to a law encoded in 1863.

In 1997, the Georgia Supreme Court ruled that Ichawaynochaway Creek in Baker County was closed to the public based on the state’s 1863 navigability definition. In that case, a local county commissioner navigated the creek in a flat-bottomed boat loaded with another passenger, a goat and a bale of cotton to prove it was navigable. The court disagreed.

The same precedent restricted access to sections of Armuchee Creek in Chattooga and Floyd counties in 1997.

“This is the last chance for the public to weigh in on this issue,” Cook said. “And I’m not sure what the committee will recommend. One proposal referenced in committee documents would ensure the public’s right to boat, fish and hunt on just 5% of our 70,000 miles of streams and rivers.”

The 1863 law did nothing to change the common law right of passage, which has been reaffirmed by courts and the state legislature throughout Georgia’s history, according to Georgia Rivers Attorney Kasey Sturm.

“The notion that property owners on small streams have the right to stop the public from floating down them is a recent construct,” Cook said. “And it is not supported by the state’s legal history on this issue.”

According to the Georgia Department of Natural Resources, the economic impact of trout fishing in Georgia is estimated to exceed $172 million annually. A U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis report estimates that boating and fishing on the state’s waterways contributed $762.7 million of added value to Georgia’s economy in 2021.

“What we’re hearing from the legislature is ‘owners rights, owners rights,’” Cook said previously. “Well what about the right to hunt, fish and paddle on streams that have been used that way for generations?”

The right to passage is part of our heritage as Georgians. The craziest thing is that most of the arguments I’ve heard for restricting the public right to access are about people trespassing on land or boating on fields that are temporarily inundated with water. Nothing the house has done to restrict river access actually addresses the problem that State House members say they’re trying to fix. And the, of course, there’s always the Law of Unintended Consequences.

Governor Brian Kemp’s Office announced that October state revenues were down, according to a press release.

The State of Georgia’s net tax collections during the month of October totaled $2.53 billion, for a decrease of $89.7 million, or 3.4 percent, compared to FY 2024 when net tax collections totaled $2.62 billion for the month. Year to date, net tax revenue collections totaled almost $10.64 billion, for a decrease of $61.1 million, or 0.6 percent, compared to October 2023 when net tax collections totaled $10.7 billion.

Year-to-year comparisons were affected by the 2023 motor fuel tax suspension. Net of motor fuel tax changes, revenues for the month of October were down 7.7 percent from the same month a year ago while year-to-date collections were down 1.9 percent. Net collections for October were also negatively impacted by the hurricane-related income tax filing and payment deadline extensions announced on October 3. Return and payment deadlines for both individual and corporate income taxes, from that date through April 2025, were extended to May 1, 2025, likely reducing collections of both individual and corporate income taxes except for payroll withholding collections.

The changes within the following tax categories account for October’s overall net tax revenue decrease:

Individual Income Tax:  Individual Income Tax collections during October totaled almost $1.26 billion, down from a total of nearly $1.38 billion in fiscal year 2024, for an overall decrease of $119.6 million or 8.7 percent.

The following notable components within Individual Income Tax combine for the net decrease:

• Individual Income Tax refunds issued (net of voided checks) decreased by $27.2 million or 10 percent
• Income Tax Withholding payments for October decreased by $49.3 million, or 3.8 percent, from FY 2024
• Individual Income Tax Return payments decreased by $104.3 million, or 36.5 percent, from FY 2024
• All other Individual Tax categories, including Estimated payments, were up a combined $6.8 million

Sales and Use Tax:  Gross Sales and Use Tax collections in October totaled $1.51 billion, which was an increase of $2.3 million, or 0.2 percent, over FY 2024.  Net Sales and Use Tax decreased by $7.5 million, or 1 percent, compared to last year, when net Sales Tax revenue totaled $751.4 million. The adjusted Sales Tax distribution to local governments totaled $748 million, which was a decrease of $4.3 million, or 0.6 percent, from last year’s adjusted distribution total of $752.3 million. Sales Tax refunds increased by $14.1 million compared to FY 2024.

Corporate Income Tax:  Corporate Income Tax collections for October declined by $62.8 million, or 47.4 percent, compared to last year, when net Corporate Tax revenues totaled $132.3 million.

The following notable components within Corporate Income Tax make up the net decrease:

• Corporate Income Tax refunds issued (net of voids) were up $37.9 million compared to October 2023
• Corporate Income Tax Return payments decreased by $23.5 million, or 40.8 percent, from FY 2024
• All other Corporate Tax payments, including Corporate Estimated payments, were down $1.4 million

Motor Fuel Taxes:  Motor Fuel Tax collections for October increased by $105.6 million, or 146.1 percent, compared to last year, when Governor Kemp’s Executive Order to suspend the fuel tax and give Georgians relief from high gas prices, went into effect in mid-September of 2023, thereby impacting October collections.

Motor Vehicle – Tag & Title Fees:  Motor Vehicle Tag & Title Fee collections for October remained materially flat compared to last year, at a total of $32.1 million, while Title ad Valorem Tax (TAVT) collections decreased by $6.2 million, or 8.5 percent, from FY 2024.

On Friday, Governor Kemp signed Executive Order #11.08.24.01, declaring a State of Emergency for Flooding that will expire November 13, 2024 at 11:59 PM and affecting 23 counties. From WTOC:

Counties in the State of Emergency include Atkinson, Ben Hill, Bryan, Bulloch, Candler, Chatham, Dodge, Effingham, Emanuel, Evans, Irwin, Jeff Davis, Jefferson, Lanier, Laurens, Lowndes, Montgomery, Screven, Tattnall, Telfair, Toombs, Treutlen, and Wheeler counties.

The Capitol Beat News Service spoke to legislators and a UGA Political Scientist about what Trump’s win in Georgia means.

Georgia voters have reasserted the Peach State’s bona fides as a Republican stronghold.

Four years after losing to Democrat Joe Biden by fewer than 12,000 votes in Georgia, former President Donald Trump captured the state’s 16 electoral votes Nov. 5 by defeating Vice President Kamala Harris by more than 117,000 votes.

Trump won by running up his victory margins in Republican-friendly rural Georgia and cutting into his losses in urban and suburban areas. The GOP also retained its majorities in the General Assembly.

“We’ve shown the country that Georgia remains a red state, with big wins up and down the ticket,” said state House Speaker Pro Tempore Jan Jones, R-Milton. “We will take this mandate from the voters to continue lowering taxes, protecting our neighborhoods and quality of life, and providing more options for Georgia’s students to thrive.”

After Biden’s victory in Georgia in November 2020 followed in short order by the elections of Democrats Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock, Democrats had reason to believe they had turned the state from red to purple.

But Charles Bullock, a political science professor at the University of Georgia, said those races were run in unique circumstances. For one thing, Trump encouraged his Republican supporters not to vote in the January 2021 runoffs that elected Ossoff and Warnock, arguing the November election had been stolen from him by widespread fraud.

Bullock said Trump fatigue among the voters at the time was another factor.

“In each of those situations, Donald Trump was president,” Bullock said. “(Voters) are more likely to remember grievances when they’re fresh.”

Bullock said most of the issues voters cared about this year favored the Republicans, including inflation, the economy, and illegal immigration. The Biden administration was widely criticized during the campaign for its handling of all three.

The only major issue that skewed toward the Democrats was abortion, Bullock said.

“(Trump’s victory) was a resounding rejection of the last four years,” said Stephen Lawson, a principal in the Atlanta office of the international law firm Dentons and former spokesman for Georgia House Speaker Jon Burns, R-Newington.

Demographically, Trump gained a historic level of support for a Republican in Georgia and elsewhere from Latinos, winning nearly half of the Latino vote. His campaign worked to appeal to Latino voters, particularly men.

“Republicans have figured out they can’t retain a majority just on white votes,” Bullock said. “They had to go after the Latino vote.”

On the other hand, Harris didn’t draw the dominant outpouring of women voters that Democrats were expecting two years after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision that legalized abortion as a constitutional right.

Her loss coupled with Trump’s defeat of Hillary Clinton in 2016 leaves major party women nominees for president 0-2.

“(Women) are perceived to be more liberal,” Bullock said. “It’s not necessarily accurate, but it’s a perception.”

Georgia Democrats see a silver lining in their defeat at the presidential level. U.S. Rep. Nikema Williams, D-Atlanta, chairman of the Democratic Party of Georgia, pointed to the loss of at least two Republican seats in the state House of Representatives.

Democrat-turned-Republican Rep. Mesha Mainor was soundly defeated in a heavily Democratic Atlanta district, and GOP Rep. Ken Vance of Milledgeville was ousted in a new majority-Black district drawn by the General Assembly during last year’s redistricting special session.

While the Democrats failed to gain any state Senate seats, they didn’t lose any either, leaving Republicans holding a majority of 33 seats to 23.

“The momentum remains with Democrats fighting for reproductive freedom, Medicaid expansion, gun safety, and an economy that puts working families first,” Williams said. “Georgia is still a battleground, and we are ready for the next fight.”

Bullock pointed out that Trump’s 117,000-vote victory margin over Harris in Georgia translates to just two points.

“Georgia is going to continue to be a pretty competitive state,” he said. “We’re more red than blue, but we’re still going to be among the tossup states.”

USA Today has a cool online map that shows how counties’ vote percentages shifted in the 2024 Presidential General Election.

The Georgia State Election Board has until November 23, 2024 to certify the election results amid continued court action on rules the Board adopted, according to GeorgiaRecorder.com.

The 5.3 million vote turnout for this year’s general election, including 4 million votes cast in person at polls early and absentee ballots, was cited as evidence by Republican lawmakers behind 2021 election overhaul and subsequent election rules changes leading up to the Nov. 5 election.

Georgia has until Nov. 23 to certify the election results.

Trump easily surpassed the 270 electoral votes needed to become the next president, thanks in part to Georgia’s 16 electoral votes. In the Nov. 5 election, Trump defeated Harris by 2.7 million votes to 2.5 million, a sharp contrast to the 2020 election, when Trump famously lost by just under 12,000 votes to Joe Biden in Georgia.

The battle over key election rules is still set to play out before the Georgia Supreme Court, which will hold hearings on the Republican National Committee’s appeal of a Fulton County judge invalidating new statewide procedures. Attorneys for the state and the Republican groups argued for the pressing need to have rules in place in time for the general election for daily reporting on absentee ballots, new ID requirements for dropping off absentee ballots, hand counting paper ballots and broader discretion for local election boards to investigate the way a county conducts an election before certification.

The three GOP board members who have been publicly praised by Trump are expected to continue pushing for new rules such as requiring three poll workers at every precinct after polls close on election nights to individually count paper ballots to confirm whether the hand tally matches the number of machine-counted ballots.

The State Election Board has also called for a highly controversial change giving the county election board’s new discretion over certifying election results. The three Republican state election officials are asking the court to clarify state law in order to give local election board officials the ability to examine election records and the right to cite any vote discrepancies or other election irregularities as a reason to refuse to certify the election results.

The State Election Board has been forced to defend against a flurry of lawsuits since former GOP state Sen. Rick Jeffares and political media personality Janelle King were appointed earlier this year to the five-member board. The controversial rules were often approved by a 3-2 majority, with Fulton County Republican Janice Johnston joining Sandy Springs’ King and Henry County’s Jeffares in advancing the proposed changes until the rules were finalized several weeks later.

Delta Air Lines CEO Ed Bastian expects the Trump administration to be supportive of air carriers, according to the AJC.

“We worked with President Trump well in his first term,” Bastian said during an interview with The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

Bastian, who has led Atlanta-based Delta since 2016, said Trump was “very helpful” in Delta’s fight against what it called unfair advantages that Middle Eastern airlines have because of subsidies from their governments.
“He was a strong supporter of the U.S. airlines and U.S. jobs,” which Bastian said he expects will continue. “He knows our industry well — very, very well.”

Delta has a hub at New York’s LaGuardia Airport, and Bastian said Trump also “knows LaGuardia very well. He’s had a plane there for years and years and years.”

“I think on balance, the platform he ran on was to try to unlock business potential by looking at regulation as to where it was most effective in trying to ease the bureaucracy, ease the burdens,” Bastian said.

Bastian has raised complaints about regulatory moves by the Biden administration. Industry media reports cited comments Bastian made in September complaining about U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg’s response to flight cancellations during and after the CrowdStrike outage. Delta had an operational meltdown with thousands of flight cancellations.

“I got pretty annoyed with our secretary of Transportation,” Bastian said in September, according to quotes in a report on thriftytraveler.com that were later removed because Bastian made the comments during an event that was not intended to be open to the media.

“All that was just insane. … Technology providers knock us out, and then it’s our fault?” Bastian said, according to quotes in the report, which were preserved in citations by other travel media. “You’ve got politicians running some of the Cabinet offices there, and they’re doing it to make inroads and get name recognition.”

Following the election of Trump to a second term, Bastian noted Delta spends “a lot of time with DOT or FAA or other regulators.”

“We always question, you know, what their ultimate ulterior motives are, and clearly, sometimes they’re political,” he said.

Bastian said he thinks the Trump administration is “going to give us an opportunity, not just the president but his team, to be able to question some of the overreach that we’ve talked about in the past.”

Colquitt County Commissioners appointed three new members to the Board of Elections, according to the Moultrie Observer.

The Colquitt County Commission appointed Aileen Gay, Ronald Jordan and Tonita Scott at its regular meeting, and they appointed Florene Sellers as an alternate.

During the meeting Shirley Hampton, chair of the Colquitt County Democratic Party, and Dennis Futch, chair of the Colquitt County Republican Party, expressed their concerns over the appointments.

A Georgia law effective in May of this year states any county that did not have a board of elections and registration must create one no later than Dec. 15. Colquitt County wad one of 13 counties that did not have a board of elections.

Earlier this year, County Administrator Chas Cannon brought the issue before the county commissioners. He said that he and County Attorney Lester Castellow had met with Probate Judge Wes Lewis, who’s currently in charge of election proceedings, and the staff in the registrar’s office to come up with recommendations.

Cannon and Castellow recommended that three people would be on the board of elections. The board of commissioners would select them. Lewis and the registrar’s office would assist with the transition to the board of elections.

According to the Georgia Code, “Each such board of elections and registration shall assume the duties of the county’s election superintendent, shall have the powers and duties of the election superintendent relating to the conduct of primaries and elections, and shall have the powers and duties of a board of registrars relating to the registration of voters and absentee balloting procedures beginning on January 1, 2025.”

“Is it something you all decide or do the Democrat chair and Republican chair get a say-so?” asked Hampton during the meeting and also asked how the commissioners decided on the appointees.

Commission Chair Denver Braswell responded that they had made their decisions on who to appoint after they had looked at the nine applicants’ resumes and discussed their qualifications.

Futch told the commission that he wasn’t notified that the vote was happening that night. He voiced concerns over one of the appointees and the issue of them not being what he would call a Republican. He and his party had advanced one of the other applicants, he said.

“Somebody should have called me. Y’all mull on that a little bit,” he said.

Then, Hampton also voiced concerns over another of the appointees. She said the individual was not a part of the Democratic Party.

“As a general rule, it should not matter, party affiliation, if they’re attempting to do a job correctly by a set of standards. There should be very few times that their personal preference should ever come into play,” said Braswell.

Hampton said, “So what do the State of Georgia require because what I was told was we had to have one from each party.”

Castellow responded that the charter of the board of elections said that each party could propose a candidate but the commissioners made the decision. He said that the charter did not outline what the applicants’ qualifications should be except that they must be qualified to vote in Colquitt County.

The Code of Georgia states, “The county executive committees of the political parties whose candidates at the last preceding regular general election held for the election of Governor that received the largest and second largest number of votes in this state for Governor may submit a list of recommended appointees to a county governing authority for appointment to a board established pursuant to this Code section; provided, however, that such governing authority is under no obligation to appoint any person listed on such list of recommended appointees.”

Glynn County saw higher voter turnout than in 2020, according to The Brunswick News.

Glynn County voters turned out in force for the 2024 General Election, reaching 72.2%, an increase of approximately 4% over the last presidential election.

In total, county electors cast 44,208 ballots. Glynn’s total number of registered voters is 61,214.

Of the 44,208 ballots, 8,373 were cast on Election Day, 33,067 during early voting and 2,746 by mail. A relatively small number of ballots, 22, were provisional.

While turnout was not substantially higher than in the last presidential election, [Elections and Registration Director Chris] Channell noted that early voting played a much larger role in this election.

“We just had real good early in-person voting,” Channell said. “Both political parties endorsed the vote early to lock those votes in. People get busy, they get sick so they wanted to get those votes in early.”

The 2022 midterm election drew 58,388 registered Glynn voters. In that election, voters cast 33,366 ballots — 10,505 on Election Day, 20,721 during early voting, 2,104 by mail and 36 provisional — for a turnout of 57.2%.

As is normally the case, turnout in the 2020 presidential race was higher than the succeeding midterm at 68.1%. That year, 61,952 were registered to vote and 42,202 cast ballots. Of those, 7,046 were on Election Day, 24,797 were early votes and 10,301 ballots were cast by mail, largely owing to the COVID-19 pandemic that had recently swept the nation. Another 58 ballots were provisional.

Georgia’s Secretary of State will host a press conference today, according to 13WMAZ.

The Secretary of State’s Office is holding a press conference at 10 a.m. at the State Capitol.

Georgia State Senator Harold Jones II (D-Augusta) was elected Democratic Leader by his peers, according to the Associated Press via WSAV.

“We’re going to make sure we talk about working families in Georgia, those kitchen table issues that the Democratic Party is known for,” Jones said after he was selected at a Democratic retreat in Savannah.

The results of the November election meant that the state Senate will remain at 33 Republicans and 23 Democrats, after all incumbents won second terms. It was the first election after GOP mapmakers redrew Georgia’s 56 state Senate districts, resulting in little meaningful partisan competition for those offices.

Although Republican president-elect Donald Trump won the state, Jones said Georgia is still a swing state where Democrats hold influence. He noted that Medicaid expansion advanced in the Senate last year and promised that Democrats would continue to propel it forward.

“We’re the minority party,” Jones said. “We understand it takes time sometimes. We’re willing to wait it out to make sure we do what’s right for the people of Georgia.”

A lawyer from Augusta, Jones currently serves as the Democratic whip and secretary of the Ethics Committee.

Democrats also picked Sen. Kim Jackson of Stone Mountain to serve as Democratic whip; Sen. Elena Parent of Atlanta as chair; Sen. Sonya Halpern of Atlanta as vice chair; Sen. Jason Esteves of Atlanta as finance chair; and Sen. Nan Orrock of Atlanta as secretary.

Some Georgia veterans are pushing for increased access to medical cannabis, according to Atlanta News First via WALB.

At least 7% of veterans will be diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder in their lifetime.

PTSD affects every part of one’s ability to function.

Herber said getting his low THC oil card and getting help from the staff at Fine Fettle was like a key, opening the door to the feeling of relief.

“Life is a daily fight, but for those of us who served and for those of us who just fight every single day, a program like this and medicines like this, can make that fight a little easier. It can make the day a little easier. It can make the sun just a little bit brighter, or the rain just a little bit warmer. If that can happen, then there’s hope. If there’s hope, there’s healing. If there’s healing, then we’re on to something,“ said Herber.

Herber is looking to Georgia lawmakers to make changes to help more veterans like himself, struggling with PTSD.

Physician Tiffani Forbes tells patients that medical marijuana is not taboo, it’s medicine. She wishes the state would expand the list of preexisting conditions to help other veterans battling with other conditions, such as anxiety.

“I like for anxiety itself to be a qualifying condition. I like having an increase in the amount of the percentage of actual THC that we can have in the oils so that we can start incorporating some of the other known problems,” said Forbes.

In Georgia, PTSD is one of 17 preexisting conditions that can qualify a patient for a low-THC oil card.

Six companies are licensed to operate in Georgia, and roughly a dozen dispensaries are located throughout the state.

You have to have a card and be physically present at the dispensary to buy THC products. This means that people in rural counties may drive hours to buy a product.

Herber is hoping lawmakers will adopt policies to allow for more stores to open. Right now, a new store can open after 10,000 people register for the program.

Herber is pushing for more forms of cannabis like vapor products, which can provide relief faster.

Muscogee County Solicitor-Elect Shevon Thomas and Chattahoochee Circuit DA Don Kelly are preparing to take office after winning the General Election, according to WTVM.

“I’ve been a defense lawyer now in this town for over 18 years and I see where I can make a difference. I see where I can continue to serve to make a difference,” said Muscogee County Solicitor-Elect Shevon Thomas.

Thomas will soon take over from Suzanne Goddard, who has served in various roles within the solicitor’s office for over two decades. As the chief prosecutor for all misdemeanor cases in Muscogee County, Thomas aims to ensure that criminals do not become repeat offenders.

“Whatever punishment, whatever sanctions is given to that defendant, I would hope we can get the person’s attention so they will not be a repeat offender,” Thomas stated.

We also spoke with newly elected Chattahoochee Judicial Circuit District Attorney Don Kelly, who mentioned that he and Thomas discussed strategies to reduce crime earlier that day.

“I know one of the things Mr. Thomas talked about was guns,” he said. “We have taken a very hard line on guns because of the amount of gun violence we have in Columbus. I think that’s something we will definitely work together on.”

Thomas, who has served the country for decades, plans to continue his commitment to the citizens of Muscogee County.

“My plan is to make the lives of our citizens better; the first priority is the safety of our community,” he said.

Dalton City Council meets tonight and is expected to adopt their property tax millage rate, according to the Dalton Daily Citizen News.

The city has advertised a property tax rate of 1.936 mills. That’s unchanged from last year, but because of the tax digest that is being used that will bring in $318,809 more in revenue, an increase of 3.681%. A judge in October granted the Whitfield County Board of Commissioners and the city councils of Dalton and Varnell an emergency order in Superior Court allowing the county and the cities to collect property taxes based on the 2023 tax digest plus a 10% increase in all assessments after questions were raised about the 2024 digest.

According to data provided by the city, a home with a fair market value of $100,000 would see its taxes go up by about $7.52.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has proposed adding 22,000 acres to the protect Okefenokee Swamp, according to WSAV.

For months there’s been a hotly contested plan to mine on the border of Georgia’s Okefenokee Swamp, which is now waiting on final approval. There is a meeting today as a Federal Agency in charge of the refuge is offering a new expansion that overlaps where the mine has been proposed.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) proposed an expansion for the refuge of 22,000 acres. Included is land where the Alabama-based Twin Pines Minerals plans to mine titanium sands. This new proposal is aimed at strengthening protections for the swamp’s water cycle and wildlife.

The controversial mine could bring money to the area, but some warn that the mine could harm the swamp’s ecosystem. This expansion would create a protective buffer zone.

“A lot of the ones that are in Charleton County that want this mine to come, it’s all about the money,” said Folkston resident Charlene Carter to WSAV earlier this year about the issue.

The FWS is seeking public input on the plan. If you are interested, the Fish and Wildlife Service will take public comments through November 18th.

There is a meeting today in Folkston Georgia to gather input, as well. It will start at 6:30 p.m. at the Charlton County Annex Auditorium, 68 Kingsland Drive, Folkston, Georgia.

Georgia Power held a ribbon-cutting for a new battery plant, according to the Ledger-Enquirer.

A new 65 megawatt battery energy storage system named Mossy Branch Energy Facility in Talbot County is live. It features 6,700 batteries in 208 gray enclosures on 2.5 acres that store energy from the grid and provide energy when it’s needed during peak demand.

“On a cloudy day like today, our solar assets are not putting out 100% … if you hear the beautiful hum behind us these batteries are being charged by the grid and when we need them they can be discharged back onto the grid,” Kim Greene, CEO and president of Georgia Power, said to a group of local leaders at the Mossy Branch BESS facility opening. “It’s a wonderful asset.”

Georgia Power executives, members of the Public Service Commission, and local leaders from Talbot and Muscogee counties were present for the battery plant’s ribbon-cutting.

“This (Mossy Branch BESS facility) will help us enhance reliability and resilience from years to come,” said Rick Anderson, senior vice president of Georgia Power’s east production group. “This will help through peak power demands or unforeseen disruptions – this where we’re standing – this is where it’s at.”

Anderson said one of the things that makes this so reliable is the speed to get onto the grid. “Coal assets take 10 to 15 megawatts per minute to ramp up, combustion turbine 40 to 60 megawatts per minute, this site takes 0.175 seconds to ramp up,” he said. “It’s instantaneous.”

During a site tour, state Rep. Teddy Reese (D-140) asked Georgia Power Project Manager Sybelle Fitzgerald whether this is just a back up facility.

“We shouldn’t think of this as just a backup spot, right?” he asked. “We should think of this as an integrated function of a grid, it’s just as involved as a hydro dam or coal plant?” “That’s right,” Fitzgerald replied.

Thousands of lithium iron phosphate batteries are working around the clock to store energy. Fitzgerald said LFP is “more stable and more safe than NMC lithium-ion batteries because they are less likely to go into thermal runaway.”

Originally slated to begin operating in the summer of 2024, the 65 MW facility that can power up to 55,000 homes in 4 hours officially went online Oct. 23.