Georgia Politics, Campaigns, and Elections for December 2, 2020

John Wesley left Savannah on December 2, 1737.

John Wesley’s strict discipline as rector of Christ Church in Savannah irritated his parishioners. More trouble followed when he fell in love with Sophia Hopkey, the niece of Georgia’s chief magistrate. When she married another man, Wesley banned her from Holy Communion, damaging her reputation in the community.

His successful romantic rival sued him; but Wesley refused to recognize the authority of the court, and the man who would eventually found a major Protestant denomination in America left Georgia in disgrace on December 2, 1737.

Touro Synagogue, the oldest existing synagogue in the United States, was dedicated on December 2, 1763 in Newport, Rhode Island.

The Skirmish at Rocky Creek Church took place near Waynesboro, Georgia on December 2, 1864.

Georgia Politics, Campaigns, and Elections

So, this happened yesterday:

From the New York Times:

In one of the most striking rebukes to President Trump since he launched his baseless attacks on the American electoral process, a top-ranking Georgia election official lashed out at the president on Tuesday for failing to condemn threats of violence against people overseeing the voting system in his state.

“It has to stop,” Gabriel Sterling, a Republican and Georgia’s voting system implementation manager, said at an afternoon news conference at the state Capitol, his voice shaking with emotion. “Mr. President, you have not condemned these actions or this language.”

“Mr. President, it looks like you likely lost the state of Georgia,” Mr. Sterling said. He added that the president needed to “step up” and say, “Stop inspiring people to commit potential acts of violence. Someone is going to get hurt, someone is going to get shot, someone is going to get killed. And it’s not right.”

Mr. Sterling also called on the state’s two Republican senators, David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler, to condemn the rhetoric that he said was getting dangerously out of hand. The two senators, both Trump loyalists, have called for Mr. Raffensperger to resign.

In a statement Tuesday evening, Tim Murtaugh, a spokesman for the Trump campaign, said: “The campaign is focused on ensuring that all legal votes are counted and all illegal votes are not. No one should engage in threats or violence, and if that has happened, we condemn that fully.”

But Mr. Sterling said that “the straw that broke the camel’s back” had involved a threat against a 20-year-old contractor for a voting system company in Gwinnett County. He said the young worker had been targeted by someone who hung a noose and declared that the worker should be “hung for treason,” simply for doing a routine element of his job. Mr. Sterling did not provide any other details.

“I can’t begin to explain the level of anger I have right now over this,” he said. “And every American, every Georgian, Republican and Democrat alike, should have that same level of anger.”

From the Macon Telegraph:

The worker, a contractor for Dominion Voting Systems, was threatened after a video falsely claiming him of “mishandling” election data surfaced online, leading people to track down the worker’s name and his family. Sterling said the employee was only transferring a report to a county computer so he could read it.

In addition to the threat against the worker, Raffensperger and his wife also have been threatened over the election results. After their address was published online, caravans of Trump supporters have come by the house, and trespassers have come onto the couple’s property. Raffensperger’s wife is receiving “sexualized threats” on her cell phone, Sterling said.

Those around Trump, Sterling said, weren’t “giving him the best advice” about the election situation in Georgia. Sterling said it’s time for Trump to “look forward.”

“If you want to run for (election) in four years, do it,” Sterling said. “But everything we’re seeing right now, there’s not a path.”

“When the (senators) called for us to resign and then the president called Brad Raffensperger … an enemy of the people, that helped open the floodgates to this kind of crap,” Sterling said.

“There are also some people out there,” he added. “At this point in the social media world … there are some nutballs out there who are going to take this and say, ‘The president told me to do this.’ You have to be responsible.”

From the Albany Herald:

Campaign spokespersons for Loeffler and Perdue said both senators condemn violence but added they also would continue pushing for “accountability” of Georgia’s election system.

“Like many officials, as someone who has been the subject of threats, of course Senator Loeffler condemns violence of any kind. How ridiculous to even suggest otherwise,” said Loeffler campaign spokesman Stephen Lawson.

“We also condemn inaction and lack of accountability in our election system process – and won’t apologize for calling it out.”

From the AJC:

In a response, Perdue issued a statement saying he “condemns violence of any kind, against anybody. Period.”

“We won’t apologize for addressing the obvious issues with the way our state conducts its elections,” the senator said, without saying what the obvious issues are.

From the Rome News Tribune:

Floyd County’s four state legislators were asked to comment and Sen. Chuck Hufstetler, R-Rome, was quick with a response. He noted that Trump’s attorney general, Bill Barr, has said there is no fraud and his head of cybersecurity Chris Krebs had stated this was the most secure election in history.

Hufstetler said Raffensperger and his staff “have shown incredible courage and integrity while responding to the false and slanderous charges against them.”

“Those who threaten workers and their families are criminals and I hope they will be prosecuted,” he continued. “I have communicated with both Brad and his staff numerous times and will defend and protect them from these ridiculous individuals in any way I can.”

Governor Brian Kemp announced he will appoint Fulton County Superior Court Judge Shawn Ellen LaGrua to the Georgia Supreme Court, according to a press release.

“I am honored to appoint Judge Shawn Ellen LaGrua to the Supreme Court of Georgia,” said Governor Kemp. “Judge LaGrua has spent a 30 year career serving her fellow Georgians, and I am confident that she will bring a wealth of knowledge and experience to the bench. Congratulations, Justice!”

Before serving as a Superior Court Judge in Fulton County, Judge LaGrua was the Inspector General for the Georgia Secretary of State’s Office. She also served as DeKalb County’s Solicitor General, and worked as a prosecutor in the Atlanta, Stone Mountain, and Tallapoosa Judicial Circuits. Judge LaGrua received a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science from the University of Georgia in 1984, and received her Juris Doctor from Georgia State University, College of Law, in 1987.

From AccessWDUN:

Chief Justice Harold Melton said he and his colleagues on the high court were delighted by LaGrua’s appointment.

“She is an excellent choice among a number of excellent choices the governor had available to him,” Melton said in a statement. “We are excited and look forward to her joining us to do the business of the people.”

Vice President Mike Pence will stop in Atlanta on the way to a rally in Savannah on Friday, according to 11Alive.

According to the White House, Pence – who was just in the state on Nov. 20 – is expected to visit the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) headquarters while in Atlanta and receive a briefing on the COVID-19 vaccine progress and upcoming distribution stage. Pence is the head of the White House Coronavirus Task Force.

Following the stop, the vice president will then head to Savannah for a “Defend the Majority Rally” with Republican Senators David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler, who are both defending their Senate seats against Democratic challengers.

Pence’s visit comes just one day ahead of a planned Saturday visit to Georgia by President Trump to campaign for Loeffler and Perdue – both staunch Trump supporters. Both Republicans need to win their runoff races if the party wants to keep control of the US Senate in the upcoming term.

The pair of visits from the executive branch also comes as the state oversees an official recount – the state’s third time tallying the more than 5 million ballots cast in the election – requested by the Trump campaign after Joe Biden was certified the winner in Georgia.

Kwanza Hall, a former Atlanta City Council member, will represent the 5th Congressional District through the swearing in of the next Congress, according to AccessWDUN.

The 49-year-old Hall defeated fellow Democrat Robert Franklin, 66, in the Atlanta area district and will only hold the seat for a few weeks through Jan. 3.

Hall and Franklin were the top vote getters in a September special election after Lewis, a civil rights titan, died in July following 34 years in Congress. Neither candidate won a majority, though, forcing a runoff that leaves the winner with only about a month to serve in Congress.

Lewis’ long-term replacement will be state senator and state Democratic Party chair Nikema Williams, who easily defeated Republican Angela Stanton King in November for a full two-year-term starting in January. Williams and King didn’t run in the special election.

Also Tuesday, Sonya Halpern beat Linda Pritchett to replace Williams in the state Senate in District 39, covering parts of Fulton County. Voters in Clarke and Oconee counties chose Democrat Deborah Gonzalez as district attorney over nonpartisan candidate James Chafin.

Georgia State Senators will hold two committee meetings this month to discuss voting issues in the general election, according to the Capitol Beat News Service.

Back-to-back hearings have been scheduled for Thursday by the Senate Government Oversight Committee to “evaluate the election process” and the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee to field election-impropriety claims.

The two meetings come as officials in Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger’s office continue to dismiss claims of widespread voter fraud by allies of President Donald Trump, who certified results show lost the Nov. 3 presidential election to President-elect Joe Biden in Georgia by 12,670 votes.

The state Senate meetings were announced jointly by the chamber’s majority caucus leaders including President Pro Tempore Butch Miller, R-Gainesville; Majority Leader Mike Dugan, R-Carrollton; Majority Whip Steve Gooch, R-Dahlonega; Majority Caucus Chairman John Kennedy, R-Macon; Majority Caucus Vice Chairman Larry Walker III, R-Perry; and Majority Caucus Secretary Dean Burke, R-Bainbridge.

Cobb County will open fewer in-person early voting sites for the runoff than for November’s general election, according to the AJC.

Cobb voters hoping to cast early in-person ballots for two Senate runoffs in January can do so at one of five locations starting Dec. 14, a decrease from the 11 locations open before the November general election.

Cobb is an outlier among the four major metro counties by drastically reducing the number of early voting sites.

Cobb Elections Director Janine Eveler said her department faced difficulty getting experienced poll managers to work over the winter holidays. She was responding to concerns raised at a Cobb legislative delegation meeting Tuesday.

“We just could only staff the five locations,” Eveler said.

Fulton County will open the same 30 early voting locations that it used for the Nov. 3 general election, plus the addition of the Atlanta Falcons’ Mercedes-Benz Stadium downtown.

Gwinnett is reopening the same nine early polling sites it had for the general election.

Details were still being finalized in DeKalb this week, but county officials have said they plan to have the same 12 early voting sites that the county had for the general election. In most cases the locations will also be the same.

From the Covington News:

Two Newton County locations will be available for in-person advance voting beginning Dec. 14 and two more Dec. 21 for the runoff election for Georgia’s two U.S. Senate seats and a Public Service Commission position.

Turnout for the Jan. 5 runoff could be as high as 40% of Newton County registered voters based on requests for absentee ballots, said Phil Johnson, chairman of the Newton County Board of Elections.

The Secretary of State’s Office called for the resignation of Spading County’s election director, according to the AJC.

In a press release Tuesday, Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger cited “serious management issues and poor decision-making” by Election Supervisor Marcia Ridley during the Nov. 3 election. Raffensperger and three state lawmakers called for Ridley’s resignation or termination.

“Georgians statewide waited on average just three minutes on Election Day, but poor decision making in Spalding County denied those voters a quick and reliable voting experience,” Raffensperger said. “The serious management issues we saw in Spalding County on Election Day demonstrate that new leadership is needed to uphold election integrity there.”

It’s the second time in recent weeks that Raffensperger’s office has called for the resignation of a local election official. Shortly after the election, Floyd County fired its election director after the secretary of state’s office made similar comments.

Raffensperger said Spalding had difficulty getting its voting system up and running on Election Day. He said the county did not follow proper procedures, which would have allowed voters to cast emergency ballots, which are scanned immediately like other ballots cast in person on Election Day.

Instead, Raffenperger said Ridley “instructed elections workers to use provisional ballots, which are processed differently than regular ballots. This violated established election process and possibly, Georgia law.”

The Chatham County Board of Elections expects to finish recounting Presidential ballots today, according to the Savannah Morning News.

Board of Elections Supervisor Russell Bridges said election workers were finished with Election Day ballots and nearing the end of ballots from early voting around noon Tuesday. Absentee ballots are the only group remaining.

Across the state, 50 counties had finished the recount as of Wednesday morning, Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger said at a press conference.

For the most part, Bridges said, not much has changed in the count, spare a couple of batches of ballots being slightly different.

“There were a couple of batches that didn’t scan to the exact same number, so we re-scanned them to make sure we got the right count,” Bridges said.

Lieutenant Governor Geoff Duncan (R-Forsyth County) hosted the 14th annual Lt. Governor’s Business & Education Summit in Rome, according to the Rome News Tribune.

Rapidly advancing technology related to healthcare was the focus for the virtual conference based at Georgia Northwestern Technical College. More than 250 people from around the state participated in the summit online.

One step beyond just looking at data is using that information to look forward to potential medical outcomes. Julie Barnes, chief medical officer at Redmond Regional Medical Center, said she can foresee much greater use of predictive analytics in patient diagnosis.

Many hospitals and other providers are now eyeing telehealth and telemedicine services as essential to continue treating patients, said Dr. Kenneth Jones, chief medical officer at Floyd Medical Center.

But in rural Georgia, having access to broadband internet is a stumbling block to providing medical inroad to underserved communities, Jeff Buda, the chief information officer at FMC said.

State Sen. Chuck Hufstetler, R-Rome, told participants that legislation recently enacted to facilitate data-sharing between state agencies is a major step in the right direction. Previously, a lot of important information was held in separate “silos.” That information was accessible only to a specific agency, like the Department of Public Health or the Department of Behavioral Health, and wasn’t easily shared.

Linda Liles won the runoff election to retain the Polk County Commission seat to which she was appointed, according to the Polk County Standard Journal.

Liles defeated Ricky Clark on Tuesday in a runoff for the special election to fill the seat vacated by Jennifer Hulsey, who stepped down in order to run for State House District 16.

A total of 1,416 votes were cast in the Dec. 1 runoff, with Liles receiving 68.9% of the vote. The former staffer for both U.S. Reps. Phil Gingrey and Tom Graves got 976 votes to Clark’s 440, according to unofficial results from Polk County elections officials.

In the breakdown of the ballots, more people voted either advance in-person or by absentee ballot than came out to precincts on election day.

A total of 294 voters came out during the three-day early voting period from Nov. 23-25, while 549 returned their absentee ballot before the 7 p.m. deadline on Dec. 1.

Augusta Mayor Hardie Davis wants an antidiscrimination ordinance passed, according to the Augusta Chronicle.

The ordinance bans discrimination on the basis of race or perceived race, including hair texture and styles; color; religion; sex, including sexual orientation and gender identity; national origin; age; disability; citizenship; military status; genetic information and any other protected classification, according to a draft obtained by The Augusta Chronicle.

The ordinance covers discrimination by any city business, public accommodation, venue, housing provider or other organization. Churches and private clubs are exempt.

Augusta commissioners have said little about Davis’ proposed ordinance with several adding they were unfamiliar with it. Commissioner John Clarke, who professes support for equal opportunities for all, said Tuesday he had “no comment at this time.”

Brunswick and Glynn County officials discussed a potential 2021 Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax referendum but took no action, according to The Brunswick News.

The 1 percent sales tax can run for up to five years and must be used to pay for infrastructure and capital improvement projects, which must be delineated in a countywide referendum. County commissioners have suggested holding a referendum in a special election in March 2021 or simultaneously with the 2021 municipal elections in November.

The meeting was a purely procedural matter. By law, local governments with a stake in potential SPLOST revenue must hold a meeting within a certain timeframe.

County commissioners recognized the fact that three of its seven members will be rotating off the decision-making body in January — Commission Chairman Mike Browning and Commissioners Bob Coleman and Peter Murphy. Instead of deciding on the details now, most felt the best course of action would be to handle the early prerequisites of a SPLOST referendum and allow the incoming commission to make the decisions of consequence, such as which projects to include in a SPLOST list and when to hold the referendum.

Georgia ports have a positive economic impact on Bulloch County, according to the Statesboro Herald.

In the two fiscal years before 2020, the number of jobs in Bulloch County directly linked to trade through Georgia’s ports – including the third-largest by volume and fastest growing container port in the United States – reportedly grew by 11%, to 4,940 local jobs.

“We actually had an increase of right at half a million jobs statewide that are associated with port activity one way or another, and specifically, in Bulloch County, what’s most interesting to me about this is you’ve got right at 5,000 jobs locally. …,” [Georgia Ports Authority Chief Administrative Office Jamie] McCurry said. “So just in the two years prior you’ve increased by 11 percent.”

Spring 2020 brought a sudden drop in volume for the ports with the COVID-19 pandemic, he acknowledged. But McCurry reported that a rebound was underway by August to a record high volume for the Port of Savannah in October.

“We haven’t released our October numbers yet, but October was a our busiest month ever. …,” he said. “So it’s been a really crazy year. We do feel like when the year’s all said and done it will be a relatively flat year for us. We will probably see some modest growth in total, but it’s way up and down, it shows really the complete shutdown in trade globally.”