Georgia Politics, Campaigns, and Elections for June 17, 2020

On June 17, 1759, Sir Francis Drake claimed California for England.

On June 17, 1775, British forces under General William Howe engaged American colonists at the Battle of Bunker Hill.

On June 17, some 2,200 British forces under the command of Major General William Howe (1729-1814) and Brigadier General Robert Pigot (1720-96) landed on the Charlestown Peninsula then marched to Breed’s Hill. As the British advanced in columns against the Americans, Prescott, in an effort to conserve the Americans’ limited supply of ammunition, reportedly told his men, “Don’t fire until you see the whites of their eyes!” When the Redcoats were within several dozen yards, the Americans let loose with a lethal barrage of musket fire, throwing the British into retreat.

After re-forming their lines, the British attacked again, with much the same result. Prescott’s men were now low on ammunition, though, and when the Redcoats went up the hill for a third time, they reached the redoubts and engaged the Americans in hand-to-hand combat. The outnumbered Americans were forced to retreat. However, by the end of the engagement, the Patriots’ gunfire had cut down some 1,000 enemy troops, with more than 200 killed and more than 800 wounded. More than 100 Americans perished, while more than 300 others were wounded.

A distant ancestor of mine, John Logue, fought with the Americans at Bunker Hill, though he was not yet an enlisted soldier.

President Andrew Johnson appointed John Johnson (no relation) provisional Governor of Georgia after the Civil War on June 17, 1865; John Johnson had opposed secession.

France announced its intention to surrender to Germany on June 17, 1940.

Five men were arrested for burglary of the Democratic National Committee offices at the Watergate office and apartment complex in Washington, DC on June 17, 1972.

The affair began with the arrest of five men for breaking and entering into the Democratic National Committee (DNC) headquarters at the Watergate complex on June 17, 1972. The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) connected cash found on the burglars to a slush fund used by the Committee for the Re-Election of the President, the official organization of Nixon’s campaign.

In July 1973, as evidence mounted against the president’s staff, including testimony provided by former staff members in an investigation conducted by the Senate Watergate Committee, it was revealed that President Nixon had a tape-recording system in his offices and he had recorded many conversations.

After a protracted series of bitter court battles, the U.S. Supreme Court unanimously ruled that the president had to hand over the tapes to government investigators; he ultimately complied.

Recordings from these tapes implicated the president, revealing he had attempted to cover up the questionable goings-on that had taken place after the break-in.

Facing near-certain impeachment in the House of Representatives and equally certain conviction by the Senate, Nixon resigned the presidency on August 9, 1974. His successor, Gerald Ford, then issued a pardon to him on September 8, 1974.

Newton Leroy Gingrich was born on June 17, 1943 in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. Gingrich graduated from college at Emory University, where he founded the Emory College Republicans. Gingrich’s congressional papers are collected in the the Georgia’s Political Heritage Program at West Georgia College, where he taught before being elected to Congress. Also at West Georgia are the papers of former Congressmen Bob Barr, Mac Collins, and Pat Swindall, along with a near-perfect replica of Georgia Speaker Tom Murphy’s office.

Georgia Politics, Campaigns, and Elections

At 10 AM yesterday, Chatham County Board of Elections was about 10,000 ballots from finishing tallying votes in last week’s election, according to the Savannah Business Journal.

The combination of both the Board of Election employees and election workers who have been tackling the mountain of absentee ballots cast in the Georgia Presidential Primary on June 9 in Chatham County are on track to be able to validate the election by this Friday, June 18, according to election officials. That’s the date set by the Georgia Secretary of State to conclude all counting, and validate the election.

There are approx. 10,000 absentee ballots left to be processed and counted as of this morning. The County’s election results website, however, is not accurately recording the numbers of votes counted.

The results for approx. 33,000 votes are recorded, but election workers have counted almost 49,000 votes cast, in all.

The percentage of ‘Precincts Reporting’ that appears on the county’s election website is not a valid figure, election officials state, and should not be used as a point of reference.

At least one race has shifted, based on the latest numbers, with Tabitha Odell moving into second place in the District 5 County Commissioner race behind Tanya Milton, according to the Election Summary, though the numbers are too close to draw any final conclusions.

However, at 12:24 PM, the Board issued a press release saying they were having problems reporting the votes.

The Chatham County Board of Elections is still unable to upload elections results to our Election Results website – software engineers from multiple entities are currently working to remedy this issue. We will continue to upload election results summaries to our website instead.

To find the Election Summary Report on our website, go to elections.chathamcountyga.gov/and click the most recent link in the banner labeled “Election Summary Report”.

Sincerely,
Russell Bridges
Elections Supervisor

Athens-Clarke County will recount ballots after concerns that some votes might not have been counted by optical scanners, according to the Athens Banner Herald.

Athens-Clarke County voting officials will recount the results of the District 2 Board of Education race, but it’s not clear whether the recount will yield the answer members of a bipartisan Vote Review Panel and Athens-Clarke’s Board of Elections seek: how many votes simply were not recorded by optical scanners in the June 9 bipartisan and party primary elections.

The number could be in the thousands, said one member of the Vote Review Panel after watching elections workers process nearly 15,000 absentee ballots Tuesday and Wednesday.

Observers have noted the same issue in at least three other Georgia counties.

Gwinnett County continues counting ballots, according to the Gwinnett Daily Post.

The counting of mail-in ballots in Gwinnett County has been underway since June 6, but county spokesman Joe Sorenson said staff is expected to wrap up around the middle of this week — more than a week after the primary.

“The absentee-by-mail ballots that could be run in the scanners without any issues have all been counted,” Sorenson said. “So ones that have issues, like somebody ‘X’ed instead of filled them in and readers won’t read them, they end up having to basically duplicate the ballot so they can be run. So, that’s what they’re doing now.”

Gwinnett received about 86,563 mail-in ballots for the primary, far eclipsing the usual amount of absentee-by-mail ballots received for elections in the county. The state’s general primary as well as its presidential preference primary were on the ballot and state officials had encouraged voting by mail because of the COVID-19 novel coronavirus.

“At some point in early afternoon, they finished everything they had that wasn’t duplicated, so there’s a group of people who right now are focusing on duplicating ballots,” Sorenson said. “They’ll be doing that today, into the evening and they’ll probably be doing that (Wednesday) as well, but it’s likely they’ll have those done.

“But, there’s still another set of absentee-by-mail ballots … that had some sort of issue like a signature match issue or something.Those people were identified and they were sent mail as soon as those were identified, so they have until (Wednesday) at 5 p.m. to cute those issues. So, the absentee-by-mail will not be completely run until either sometime Wednesday night or something Thursday morning.”

Cobb County had 3000 ballots left to count at 5 PM yesterday, according to the Rome News Tribune.

The remaining 3,000 ballots are damaged ballots that need to be duplicated by workers so they can be scanned or ballots that show unclear votes and will have to be reviewed by a voter review panel, [County spokesperson Ross] Cavitt said.

When ballots must be reviewed — for example when someone has dropped their pen on one bubble but colored in another fully — the voter review panel makes a judgment about which candidate in an unclearly marked race the voter was intending to cast a ballot for, according to Cavitt.

If the panel can’t agree, a representative of the Board of Elections and Registration casts the tie-breaking vote. If voter intent can’t be determined, Cavitt said the race is left blank.

I hereby nominate “double bubble,” in which two or more bubbles are partially marked on a ballot, as the “hanging chad” of 2020.

The Georgia State House Committee on Governmental Affairs may begin investigating last week’s election fiasco, according to the Rome News Tribune.

“I think it was inevitable there were going to be issues. Hopefully, we’ll learn from this and it will be smoother going forward,” said Rep. Eddie Lumsden, R-Armuchee.

Lumsden said Tuesday that Speaker David Ralston has asked the Governmental Affairs Committee he sits on to look into the slew of problems across the state ranging from absentee ballot mishaps and long voter lines to equipment failures. A meeting date for that had not yet been set.

Lumsden said the Presidential Preference Primary scheduled for March was supposed to be a “dry run” for the state’s new voting equipment.

“That got pushed back (to the general primary) due to COVID-19, and then trying to run the primary with all the precautions in place … problems were inevitable,” he said.

“How do we try to make November better? How do we make August better, because there are runoffs,” said Rep. Katie Dempsey, R-Rome. “We need to get some answers … I don’t think it can be ignored.”

Governor Fiction Author Stacey Abrams‘s group is attacking the Secretary of State, according to the AJC.

LEGISLATIVE COMMITTEE MEETINGS

8:00 AM Senate Appropriations 341 CAP

8:00 AM HOUSE JUDICIARY NON CIVIL 406 CLOB

8:00 AM HOUSE MOTOR VEHICLES 506 CLOB

8:00 AM HOUSE AGRICULTURE AND CONSUMER AFFAIRS 403 CAP

8:00 AM HOUSE INSURANCE 606 CLOB

9:00 AM HOUSE RULES 341 CAP

10:oo AM Senate Legislative Session

10:00 AM House Legislative Day 32 House Chambers

TBD Senate Rules upon Adjournment 450 CAP

11:30 AM HOUSE JUDICIARY 132 CAP

12:30 PM HOUSE INDUSTRY AND LABOR 506 CLOB

12:30 PM HOUSE REGULATED INDUSTRIES 403 CAP

1:00 PM Senate Public Safety Mezz 1

1:00 PM HOUSE HIGHER EDUCATION 606 CLOB

1:00 PM HOUSE INTRAGOVERNMENTAL COORDINATION 406 CLOB

1:00 PM HOUSE GAME, FISH AND PARKS 341 CAP

2:00 PM HOUSE SPECIAL COMMITTEE ON ACCESS TO QUALITY HEALTH CARE 506 CLOB

2:00 PM HOUSE STATE PROPERTIES 403 CAP

2:00 PM HOUSE BANKS AND BANKING 341 CAP

2:15 PM Senate Education & Youth 307 CLOB

2:15 PM Senate State Institutions & Property 450 CAP

2:30 PM HOUSE EDUCATION 406 CLOB

3:00 PM HOUSE GOVERNMENTAL AFFAIRS 606 CLOB

3:30 PM Senate Health & Human Services 450 CAP

4:45 PM Senate Retirement Mezz 1

4:45 PM Senate Judiciary 307 CLOB

Lieutenant Governor Geoff Duncan‘s office sent out a notice that he will introduce a new version of hate crimes legislation today at 10 AM. From the Associated Press:

Duncan plans to release a draft of his hate crimes legislation at a news conference Wednesday morning. He predicts it will receive a hearing later this week in the committee, according to his chief of staff, John Porter.

“I’m committed to passing a strong, meaningful hate crimes bill that builds on the great work done in the House and protects all Georgians,” Duncan tweeted Tuesday.

The lieutenant governor’s measure would make a hate crime a standalone criminal charge, rather than an add-on qualifier to another crime that would increase a potential prison sentence, Porter said.

House Rules Committee Chairman Richard Smith, a Columbus Republican, abruptly adjourned Tuesday’s committee meeting without putting any bills before the full House to consider, saying it “is becoming an embarrassment to the state” that a Senate committee has yet to consider the house bill.

“Based on my thoughts, we are morally and legally required to pass two bills,” Smith said. “The first one we’re legally required to pass is the budget. The second one that we’re morally required to pass is the hate crimes bill. Meeting’s adjourned.”

Senate Majority Leader Mike Dugan of Carrollton said the House legislation needs a “hard look,” saying it was important to avoid having the state Supreme Court declare a new version unconstitutional, as it did with an earlier hate crimes law, and saying the measure needs to completely cover the subject.

“I’m a little disappointed that the author and the speaker are insisting it pass as written,” Dugan said. “Just doing one piece of it, you’re doing a weak hate crimes bill.”

Senate President Pro Tem Butch Miller of Gainesville said “there’s no place for hate or prejudice in our communities” but noted it was common for one chamber to make changes in the other’s legislative proposals.

“Maybe that bill can be improved,” Miller said.

House Speaker David Ralston (R-Blue Ridge) counts hate crimes legislation among his priorities for the Session, according to the Capitol Beat News Service via the Augusta Chronicle.

Ralston, R-Blue Ridge, reiterated the two top priorities he had listed previously: passing a state budget – the only action required of the legislature each year by law – and passage of a hate-crimes bill.

But during a media availability at the Georgia Capitol, Ralston touted three other bills the House passed last winter and sent to the state Senate before the coronavirus pandemic forced a three-month suspension of the session:

Legislation extending Medicaid coverage for new mothers in Georgia from the current three months postpartum to six.

A bill providing up to three weeks of paid parental leave for state employees and teachers.

Legislation adding training and staffing requirements for elderly-care facilities in Georgia.

Some state tax breaks might be on the budget chopping block, according to the AJC.

With the state in the middle of a financial crisis, Georgia senators are looking at eliminating or reducing about 40 special-interest tax breaks lawmakers have passed over the years.

Making the potential list, a break on jet fuel that heavily benefits Delta Air Lines, a deal for owners of high-end yachts if they get their vessels repaired in Georgia, and tax breaks for manufacturers, historic preservationists and everything from gold dealers to mobile home sellers.

Senate Finance Chairman Chuck Hufstetler, R-Rome, said the proposal is a work-in-progress from a bi-partisan group looking for ways to reduce the cost of tax breaks at a time when lawmakers are faced with cutting $2.6 billion worth of spending because of the coronavirus pandemic recession.

“DFCS and public safety and teachers and public health, everyone is taking a hit,” Hufstetler said. “We are trying to look at ways to not lay off people that are essential.”

The Senate Regulated Industries Committee recommended passage of legislation to change the regulation of some senior care facilities, according to the AJC.

The Senate’s Regulated Industries and Utilities committee unanimously approved its substitute version of HB 987, which would bring dramatic changes to the state’s assisted living communities and large personal care homes. Memory care units would have to get certified and have more staff, directors would have to be licensed and homes that break the rules would face higher fines.

Plus, the Senate version would require senior care homes to plan for a pandemic, have a short-term supply of personal protective gear, test residents and staff and notify residents and families of an outbreak.

Rep. Sharon Cooper, R-Marietta, lead sponsor of the bill, said she believes it will pass the full Senate, saying the state is “one step closer to improving the lives of our Georgia residents who chose to live in an assisted living facility.”

From the Capitol Beat News Service via the Rome News Tribune:

“Georgia has had our problems,” said Cooper, R-Marietta. “They have been numerous, and they have occurred in many assisted-living (facilities) and nursing homes.”

Seniors living in nursing homes and other elderly care facilities in Georgia have been hit hard by the virus, accounting for nearly half of the state’s total 2,529 deaths as of Tuesday afternoon.

At a hearing Tuesday, Senate Regulated Industries Committee Chairman Bill Cowsert said the additions to Cooper’s bill related to coronavirus should ensure elderly care facilities are prepared for the next time Georgia faces a fast-spreading disease or viral pandemic.

“We want them to have a plan, have the equipment on hand,” said Cowsert, R-Athens. “We want them for this immediate problem to test.”

In Washington, the U.S. House Ethics Committee announced it is investigating Congressman Sanford Bishop (D-GA), according to Roll Call.

The matter concerning Bishop, a 14-term lawmaker, was transmitted from the Office of Congressional Ethics, a nonpartisan, independent investigative arm of the House, on Feb. 10. OCE sends matters to the Ethics Committee if it finds substantial reason to believe a violation occurred. Unlike OCE, the Ethics panel can issue subpoenas and discipline members.

“The Office of Congressional Ethics notified Congressman Bishop that it was reviewing his campaign’s disbursement reports,” [Bishop’s] spokesperson said in an emailed statement. “The Congressman is cooperating fully in this matter in an open and transparent way. This includes conducting a thorough review of his campaign finance reports to identify all necessary corrective steps to resolve this matter in a timely fashion. The Congressman takes ethical issues very seriously and has always been committed to complying with all campaign finance regulations and standards of conduct.”

In 2014 and 2015, Bishop spent $2,463 of campaign money on “dues” at Green Island Country Club. The club, located in Columbus, Ga., has a golf course, fitness center, pool and other amenities.

The FEC says dues to country clubs cannot be paid for by campaign funds.

“Campaign funds may not be used to pay for dues to country clubs, health clubs, recreational facilities or other nonpolitical organizations unless the payments are made in connection with a specific fundraising event that takes place on the organization’s premises. Campaign funds may be used for membership dues in an organization that may have political interests,” according to the FEC.

Pierce County Sheriff Ramsey Bennett was forced into a runoff election against Blackshear Police Major Robby Boatright, according to the Blackshear Times.

Local elections supervisor Leah Ritch reported no problems here with the machines, though she did say there was a learning curve to get use to them, coupled with the complications with the virus precautions, and volume of absentees made for a very long and frustrating day.

Tallies were delayed by about 200 ballots that were rejected by the counting machine due to stray marks, improperly filled out or spoiled ballots.

Poll officials reported at least two ballots with what appeared to be drink stains, one with fingerprint smudges and several that were wadded up or torn. Among other issues were ballots marked with checks and ‘X’s’ and not bubbled in properly. Other ballots had two or three candidates marked for the same office and some had write-in candidates for local offices who were residents of other counties.

Those ballots had to be re-run or hand counted.

Gun sales and carry permit applications are rising, according to the Statesboro Herald.

Local firearms dealers can’t explain how the pandemic and gun sales are linked, but they say guns are flying off the shelves, and the Bulloch County Probate Court reports record numbers of people seeking firearms licenses.

The latest rush in Bulloch County gun stores reflects a nationwide trend.

The number of people applying for gun permits in Bulloch County could break records, too. Deputy Probate Clerk Michelle Sawyer said that even though the office, which issues firearms licenses, was closed from March through May, the number of applications so far this year is almost as many as the total for 2019.

Despite the three-month closure, the Bulloch County Probate Court has issued 629 permits and has another 646 applications submitted.

“People go online and complete the application, then we call them for an appointment to come in,” Sawyer said.

There were only 1,460 applications submitted for all of 2019.

Katie Hodges, who owns Backwoods Armory in Brooklet, said gun sales there have jumped significantly.

Hodges agreed the flood of gun seekers appeared shortly after the coronavirus pandemic broke out, “then there was a lull, then it jumped again after the riots.”

Sales have “definitely doubled, maybe tripled,” she said.

The Brunswick-Glynn County Joint Water and Sewer Commission will lift its moratorium on utility cutoffs on July 6, according to The Brunswick News.

Chatham County Recorder’s Court is open with modified procedures, according to the Savannah Morning News.

Some Brunswick residents are calling for removal of a Confederate monument in Hanover Square, according to The Brunswick News.

The Gwinnett County Commission is moving toward calling another transit referendum, according to the AJC.

Gwinnett County commissioners broke an apparent impasse Tuesday and decided on a transit expansion plan that would include heavy rail in the county.

Commissioners still must decide whether to place the more-than $12 billion plan on the November ballot — a decision that must be made by the end of July.

But Tuesday’s 3-1 vote ended months of indecision and debate about whether the transit expansion proposal should include heavy rail. It would be the second time in less than two years that voters have been asked if they want MARTA rail service in Gwinnett.