Georgia Politics, Campaigns, and Elections for June 15, 2020

The Magna Carta was sealed by King John on June 15, 1215.

The charter consisted of a preamble and 63 clauses and dealt mainly with feudal concerns that had little impact outside 13th century England. However, the document was remarkable in that it implied there were laws the king was bound to observe, thus precluding any future claim to absolutism by the English monarch. Of greatest interest to later generations was clause 39, which stated that “no free man shall be arrested or imprisoned or disseised [dispossessed] or outlawed or exiled or in any way victimised…except by the lawful judgment of his peers or by the law of the land.” This clause has been celebrated as an early guarantee of trial by jury and of habeas corpus and inspired England’s Petition of Right (1628) and the Habeas Corpus Act (1679).

On June 15, 1740, Spanish troops attacked the English who were led by James Oglethorpe, at Fort Mose, two miles north of St. Augustine, Florida. With 68 English killed and 34 wounded, it was the heaviest losses sustained by Oglethorpe during his campaign against St. Augustine.

George Washington accepted the assignment of leading the Continental Army on June 15, 1775.

The Oregon Treaty was signed on June 15, 1815 between England and the United States, establishing the border between the U.S. and Canada.

On June 15, 1864, a funeral was held at St. Luke’s Episcopal Church in Atlanta for Confederate General Leonidas Polk, who was killed the day before at Pine Mountain near Marietta.

Georgia Politics, Campaigns, and Elections

LEGISLATIVE MEETING SCHEDULE

8:00 AM Senate Rules 450 CAP

9:00 AM HOUSE RULES 341 CAP

10:00 AM HOUSE FLOOR SESSION (LD 30) House Chamber

11:30 AM HOUSE JUDICIARY 132 CAP

TBD Senate Rules upon Adjournment 450 CAP

1:00 PM Senate Finance 450 CAP

1:00 PM Senate Insurance & Labor 307 CLOB

2:15 PM Senate Education & Youth 307 CLOB

2:15 PM Senate Public Safety Mezz 1

3:30 PM Senate Health & Human Services 450 CAP

4:45 PM Senate Judiciary 307 CLOB

The House has committee meetings scheduled through Wednesday, and the Senate through Thursday, plus a Senate Rules Committee meeting for Friday. Make of it what you will.

On Friday’s Lunchapalooza, Senate President Pro Tem Butch Miller joined us, and discussed how the legislative session that reconvenes today will differ from all that came before.

Our sincere thanks to Senator Miller and to all who joined us. We’re trying to figure out how to schedule the next one in light of the session.

The main limitation for members of the public will be that the Capitol building is now limited to 800 occupants. Given that the House and Senate plus staff number roughly 500, that’s going to be a hard limit on lobbyists, activists, and ordinary citizens.

The State House published a Memo for Session, discussing that chamber’s procedures. Among the highlights:

•  Infrared temperature screening and no admission to anyone with a temperature above 100.4 degrees;

•  House members who register a higher temp must be COVID-19 tested and get clean result to return

•  Masks must be worn by Members and House staff when in the Capitol Complex, particularly when social distancing is difficult to maintain. Members are permitted to remove their masks when they are alone in their private offices but must wear masks when they are interacting with others (including House staff) in any location, particularly when social distancing is difficult to maintain.

•  Masks must be worn by Members, House Staff, and members of the public who enter House Committee Rooms.

•  Where non-members and staff are allowed in committee rooms, masks and social distancing are in effect

•  Committee chairs may allow committee members to participate via Zoom.

•  The House session will split members roughly 50/50 between the Chamber and the Gallery above, with some possibly in Room 341.

•  The Committee recommends that all votes conducted for the remainder of the 2020 Legislative Session be conducted by voice, including the morning roll call, and that, if possible, the votes should be displayed on the screen in the House Chamber for verification purposes. The Clerk of the House should, after the initial roll call voice vote, re-call the names of those Members who (a) are not marked as “Excused” and (b) have not yet registered their vote.

The State Senate also published a memo on new procedures.

•  The hallway outside the Senate chamber will be closed to the public and curtained off and the elevator that lets out there will be reserved for no more than 4 senators at a time.

•  Press will be moved from the Senate chamber to the gallery and the gallery closed to the public.

In both chambers, voting will be an extended period of time to accomodate members distributed throughout the building and social distancing.

From the Valdosta Daily Times:

Rep. Clay Pirkle, R-Ashburn, called the new safety protocols “uncharted territory” and while he understands the necessity, it will be hard for members “to get a feel for the room” when taking votes if they are split in three different locations.

“It bothers me a little bit all the social distancing we will have to do,” he said. “But ultimately, it’s to make sure any compromised representative or representative in the ‘at-risk’ category feels as safe as I do.”

Pirkle said he was tested this week and is still awaiting results.

Rep. John LaHood agreed while the extra steps will be inconvenient, they’re “reasonable” given the situation. LaHood has been tested and said the chamber is striving toward all members being tested before Monday.

From the AJC:

The pandemic has caused a massive recession, with record unemployment and thousands of business either closed or struggling to remain open. That, in turn, has sent state tax collections – mostly income and sales taxes – plummeting.

Lawmakers must, by law, pass a budget before the new fiscal year starts July 1 – and they face cutting about $2.6 billion for everything from K-12 schools and universities to the state patrol, food safety inspections, highway construction, mental health and substance abuse programs and county health department funding.

While the budget will be a priority, they will also debate creating a new hate-crimes law at a time when recent police killings of black men and the shooting of an unarmed black jogger near Brunswick have increased the call for reform.

But some powerful Senate leaders have raised objections, including Jesse Stone, the Republican chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee. Lt. Gov. Geoff Duncan, the Senate’s president, wants changes to the House measure that he says would strengthen it. That means even if a version is approved by the Senate, it would have to return to the House for another vote, and it barely got enough support to pass the last time.

Major health groups will also be making a big push to raise Georgia’s relatively low tobacco tax in order to raise an estimated $575 million a year. Georgia’s tobacco tax is among the lowest in the country and hasn’t been increased since 2003.

Meanwhile, outside the building, thousands are expected to attend a Georgia NAACP march on Monday to demand that lawmakers overhaul the criminal justice system and address “electoral failures” after last week’s primary was marred by long lines and malfunctioning machines.

Organizers of the “March on Georgia” will call on legislators to repeal citizen’s arrest rules, take steps to restrict police violence and block new elections rules that Democrats fear could sow confusion.

From the Capitol Beat News Service via the Albany Herald:

“We’re facing some real challenges,” said Sen. Ellis Black, R-Valdosta. “We’ve got to put together a budget, and it’s going to involve some cuts that’s gonna hurt.”

Georgia’s finances look to be a few billion dollars in the hole after months of social distancing and business closures compelled by the virus, the global pandemic that had infected at least 55,000 people and killed more than 2,400 in Georgia by Friday afternoon.

“I hope maybe we can find with looking at tax credits that may not be so beneficial, to find ways to bring some revenue back in, as well as perhaps an increase in the cigarette tax,” said Sen. John Albers, R-Roswell.

“I think this year, more than any other year at least since I’ve been here, the amended budget process is going to be super important because there are so many unknowns,” said Sen. Dean Burke, R-Bainbridge, who chairs the Senate Appropriations Community Health Subcommittee.

“I know I’m going to be disappointed that I can’t do more. But know that what we are able to adjust will come from the combined wisdom of everyone here.”

From the Rome News Tribune:

“The main focus for us will be to see where we can have the least impact on services in mental gealth and developmental disabilities — so people can stay on the right path, have a meaningful life,” [State Rep. Katie Dempsey] said Friday.

“If there are savings that can be found in another part of the budget, perhaps that can help. … We may not need across-the-board cuts in every agency,” Dempsey said. “We’ll see what we can do, to at least keep the footprint in place.”

“Tax credits will probably have the most extensive look they’ve had in many, many years,” said Sen. Chuck Hufstetler, R-Rome. “Some of them, to me, havent made sense. I think you’re going to see a hard look at them.”

The chairman of the Senate Finance Committee said there also are “a lot of proposals out there” for increased taxes. Hufstetler said he couldn’t predict which, if any, would gain traction but he has always favored raising the tobacco tax.

“It doesn’t make sense to cut money for health care when we could raise revenue from something that negatively affects health,” he said.

The AJC has its latest post mortem on voting problems.

An examination by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution found that human error, equipment failure and a complicated, multicomputer voting system combined to create chaos that left some voters waiting as long as eight hours to cast ballots.

The coronavirus pandemic made matters worse, preventing in-person training for many election workers and requiring social distancing and continual sanitizing of sensitive equipment that added to logjams at many polling places.

Precinct workers, some of them hired just a day earlier, didn’t always know how to operate the equipment. Some couldn’t even plug all four of the system’s components — a tablet computer, a touchscreen voting machine, a printer and a scanner — into the correct power supplies.

Fulton has a history of struggling to efficiently run major elections. The county fired its elections director and replaced most of its elections board after problems surfaced in 2012 voting. Fulton precincts also had extremely long lines during the 2018 election for governor.

Mary Carole Cooney, the chairwoman of Fulton’s elections board, said the county elections office was overwhelmed last week, in part because of the coronavirus. “We felt like it was an avalanche.”

From the Capitol Beat News Service via the Rockdale and Newton Citizens:

Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger traced problems to “a lack of training and planning” by county elections officials, noting most of Georgia’s 159 counties were not experiencing technical issues with voting machines. Counties such as Cobb, Richmond and Muscogee were running smoothly, he said.

“By and large, what it comes down to is the competence of the county director,” Raffensperger said in an interview. “It’s not really a machine error. What it’s been is user error, just lack of training for the poll workers.”

Since purchasing the new voting machines last year, Raffensperger’s office has largely left it to county officials how to provide training for poll workers. He said Tuesday his office provided several rounds of training for county and regional leaders and set up an online training portal for local precincts to use.

“We think that we’ve done a great job on the training aspect,” Raffensperger said. “Other counties are getting it right today.”

State Democratic leaders called for Raffensperger to take more direct action to patch any problems with training or equipment prior to elections set for later this year including the Nov. 3 general election.

“The Secretary of State’s job is to provide adequate support and training for counties as he implemented Georgia’s new voting system, and he has failed,” said Maggie Chambers, spokeswoman for the Democratic Party of Georgia.

And Georgia House Speaker David Ralston, R-Blue Ridge, ordered a lawmaker-led investigation into the “unacceptable deficiencies” of the primary that aims to look at more than poll workers, who he said “do not deserve to be blamed for systemic problems beyond their control.”

From the Savannah Morning News:

In Chatham County, the Board of Elections is still counting votes — mostly due to the unprecedented absentee voting turnout, spurred by an effort to lower the risk of contracting COVID-19 from voting in person.

The virus restricted the amount of training received by poll workers and poll managers, who are usually retirees — the most at-risk population when it comes to COVID-19. On election day, that lack of preparation was apparent, when a third of Chatham’s polling places had issues with setting up Georgia’s new $104 million voting system, purchased to replace the state’s 17-year-old electronic equipment.

Board of Elections Chairman Tom Mahoney said the push for absentee ballots was the right call, though the counting process for absentee ballots takes more time than any other form of voting.

“We agree with setting up and encouraging a push for absentee ballots, but the absentee ballots have to be processed in the Board of Registrar’s Office, before they’re even delivered to the Board of Elections, before they can be hand-processed by the Board of Elections’ absentee clerks, before they can be then tabulated, ” Mahoney said. “All of those things are labor-intensive things.”

By Thursday afternoon, the BOE announced they had counted 5,503 advanced voting ballots, and 19,728 election day ballots. But the real bear was the absentee ballots. Of the 30,839 received, only 4,365 absentee ballots had been counted by 3:20 p.m. Thursday.

“We will not finish until probably mid-next week. And then we won’t certify that election until the end of the week at the earliest,” Mahoney said on Friday. “We’re still in the middle of an election. We haven’t moved on. And we won’t move on. We’re going to continue to keep our nose to the grindstone and get this election completed and certified. That’s our legal responsibility, our responsibility to voters.”

Gwinnett County also had not completed ballot counting on Friday and is likely to go all week, according to the Gwinnett Daily Post.

About 86,563 mail-in ballots are believed to have been filled out and returned in Gwinnett for the primary. County elections staff began work Friday with an estimated 55,000 ballots left to be scanned and counted.

“It will go through the weekend with us having the 55,000 remaining,” elections supervisor Kristi Royston said on Friday afternoon. “Another thing we need to keep in mind for Gwinnett (is) we have a two-page ballot so even though not every voter is returning that second page, when we say 55,000 ballots, then it’s really over 55,000 pages that we still have to scan.”

Absentee-by-mail ballots have to opened, and then entered into a state database, then sorted and then scanned and counted.

“We did not start scanning until the Saturday morning (before the election), so I think that would have been June 6,” Royston said. “One of the reasons we did not start scanning prior to that is because we were still finishing up and certifying logic and accuracy testing that has to be done on all of the equipment and we completed that on Thursday of that week (June 4). We couldn’t start scanning since we were still conducting testing.”

A meeting of the county’s elections board that had been set for 9:30 a.m. Monday is expected to be cancelled, but the board will hold its regularly scheduled meeting set for 6 p.m. on Tuesday.

But even then, certification of the election results is still nearly a week away, according to Royston.

“During the (meeting) Tuesday at 6 p.m., they’ll call for the one for certification on Friday,” she said.

Stacey Abrams was quick to criticize the Secretary of State’s office. From NPR:

Former Georgia gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams says the state’s Tuesday primary performance was “an unmitigated disaster,” pinning the blame on Georgia’s Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger.

“The Constitution puts the obligation for the conduct of elections squarely in the hands of the secretary of state. On top of that, [Raffensperger] very vigorously pushed to purchase new machines that he insisted would be ready for roll out in the primary, at the cost of $107 million,” Abrams told NPR Friday.

“He failed to adequately direct, train, and invest in the counties so they could do their work,” she added.

“Across the state, 20 counties led by Democrats and Republicans, in urban and rural and suburban areas, all experienced the same cataclysmic failures,” she said.

The Democratic Party of Georgia filed a lawsuit seeking more time to address rejected ballots, according to the AJC.

The emergency motion by the Democratic Party of Georgia said many voters won’t be notified whether their ballots were rejected until it’s too late. Counties are still counting tens of thousands of absentee ballots.

The normal deadline to verify ballot discrepancies, such as signature mismatches or missing photo ID, is three days after Tuesday’s election.

The case, filed in Fulton County Superior Court, asks a judge to require county election officials to notify voters within one business day after their ballots are rejected, and then give them until June 19 to submit information such as photo ID to verify their ballots.

A settlement with the Democratic Party in March required election officials to contact voters whose ballots were rejected within one business day, but that case didn’t extend deadlines to accommodate slow ballot counting.

During the 2018 general election, election officials threw out about 3% of absentee ballots.

An open letter advocating for passage of hate crimes legislation was released with prominent signatories from both parties, according to the AJC.

Thurbert Baker, former attorney general for Georgia

Roy E. Barnes, former governor of Georgia

Casey Cagle, former lieutenant governor of Georgia

Max Cleland, former member of the U.S. Senate

George W. Darden III, former member of Congress

Nathan Deal, former governor of Georgia

Shirley Franklin, former mayor of Atlanta

Johnny Isakson, former member of the U.S. Senate

Sam Nunn, former member of the U.S. Senate

Sam Olens, former attorney general for Georgia

Dan Ponder, former member of the Georgia House of Representatives

Andrew Young, former mayor of Atlanta and U.S. ambassador to the United Nations

Wendell Willard, former member of the Georgia House of Representatives

United States District Court Judge Steve C. Jones will hear arguments over the fetal heartbeat bill today, according to the AJC.

Gov. Brian Kemp last year signed one of the nation’s strictest abortion laws, outlawing the procedure in most cases once a doctor can detect fetal cardiac activity. District Judge Steve C. Jones in October temporarily blocked the law from going into effect while the case plays out in court. It was set to take effect the first day of this year.

The American Civil Liberties Union of Georgia wants Jones to make the injunction permanent. The group, on behalf of several abortion rights advocates and providers, sued the state, saying the law violates a woman’s constitutional right to abortion as established by the U.S. Supreme Court ruling in Roe v. Wade.

Attorneys for the state argue that the new law, which was introduced as House Bill 481, does not violate a woman’s constitutional right because she can still get an abortion before cardiac activity is detected. If it goes into effect, it would outlaw abortions as early as six weeks into a pregnancy, before many women know they are pregnant.

“A state may properly recognize that an unborn child is alive even before ‘viability’ and — consistent with its power to protect unborn life — may prohibit the killing of that child by restricting certain types of previability abortions,” attorneys for the state wrote the court.

Jones will also consider various so-called “personhood” provisions in the legislation, which extend legal rights to fertilized eggs.

The State Senate Health and Human Services Committee voted yesterday (yes, Sunday) to move forward with surprise billing legislation, according to the Rome News Tribune.

Sen. Chuck Hufstetler, R-Rome, presented the measure with an eye to bringinging it for a full Senate vote this week.

The committee passed out the bill unanimously, with no debate, at around 2:30 p.m.

Committee Chair Sen. Ben Watson, R-Savannah, said the measure would be read on the floor of the Senate Monday and be eligible Tuesday for the Rules Committee, which schedules the floor votes.

The Georgia Republican Party distanced itself from twitter remarks by a Vice Chair, according to the AJC.

The Georgia GOP’s state executive committee voted Saturday to formally disagree with Brant Frost V, the party’s second-vice chair, for his “poorly worded and inflammatory” Facebook post, said Stewart Bragg, the party’s executive director.

Frost’s post, which he has since deleted, praised an “epic monologue” by Fox News personality Tucker Carlson disparaging the anti-racist protests against police brutality. [Frost] wrote:

“We all know why this is happening but dare not speak the truth. America – the Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave is becoming the Land of the Weak and the Home of the Slave. Americans used to believe it was better to die on your feet than live on your knees. It’s time to Stand Up Again.”

Albany City Commission continues work on a $70.2 million dollar budget proposal, according to the Albany Herald.

A proposed budget for Dougherty County would increase spending by less than 1 percent while using nearly $6 million in reserve funds — about 8.3 percent of the total budget of $70.2 million.

The budget takes into account the impact in terms of lost sales tax revenue due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Sales taxes make up about 12 percent of the county’s revenues.

About 13.8 percent of the budget comes from fees, and those also have taken a hit as there has been less building and other activity during the pandemic.