Georgia Politics, Campaigns, and Elections for June 22, 2020

“This was a big, big turnout and one thing that is really striking here is Democratic turnout, exceeded the Republican turnout,” Emory University political scientist Alan Abramowitz said.

The primary set a record in Georgia with more than 2.1 million votes cast, and Democrats exceeded Republicans by more than 182,000 votes, according to the Secretary of State’s office.

Democrats were particularly active in Georgia’s sixth and seventh congressional districts north of Atlanta, where Republicans are not as strong as they used to be, Abramowitz said.

“I think they [Republicans] have to really worry about these suburban Atlanta districts,” he said.

“The decision by the Secretary of State to mail every registered voter in the state an application for an absentee ballot was crucial,” Abramowitz said.

“Let’s say Biden wins Georgia, which would be close, and Democrats do well in the House and Senate elections, I think you’re going see that carry over into state legislative races,” Abramowitz said.

In fact, 14 State House seats could be vulnerable, according to an analysis by University of Georgia political scientist Charles Bullock.

He compared turnout in State House districts currently held by Republicans. He found these districts in Georgia’s suburbs attracted more Democrats than Republicans for the primary.

“You can’t look at these differences in turnout rates and say, ‘Well, this means that these 14 districts are all going to flip over to the Democrats.’ Indeed, it’d be amazing if they did, but at a minimum, it should send shivers down the spine of the Republicans in those districts.”

Georgia experienced its highest single day increase in COVID-19 cases, according to the Valdosta Daily Times.

Georgia reported 63,809 confirmed coronavirus cases and 2,642 related deaths, according to the Saturday update Georgia Department of Public Health.

That’s an additional 1,800 cases, up from 62,009 cases and 2,636 deaths Friday.

The second-largest spike – an increase of 1740 cases – occurred over two months ago on April 17, according to The Valdosta Daily Times COVID-19 database.

Chatham County Board of Elections has certified the results of the June 9 elections, according to the Savannah Morning News.

Election officials have cited a large number of absentee ballots as one reason for the delay in getting the results in order.

“We had more people vote by absentee ballot than voted in person,” Elections Supervisor Russell Bridges said.

Early voting totals were 5,503 and 24,971 cast ballots in person on election day. There were 31,500 absentee ballots, Bridges said.

Bridges said the turnout doubled compared to the usual primary.

From the Athens Banner Herald:

The Clarke County Board of Elections has certified the results of the June 9 party primary and nonpartisan elections Thursday, but with reservations.

A partial recount Wednesday had confirmed what members of a nonpartisan vote review panel had noted Tuesday and Wednesday as elections workers fed absentee ballots into an optical scanner recording the votes: the machine did not always see and record votes that were obvious to human eyes.

Those were typically when people indicated their vote with a check mark rather than filling in the small circle the scanner reads.

The board learned that Oconee County had also done a recount Wednesday, and that Oconee got the OK from state officials to change the parameters on their optical scanner for the recount. Clarke officials believed they could not change the scanner settings for the recount after consulting a state elections supervisor.

From the Macon Telegraph:

The Bibb County results were initially delayed due to quarantined absentee ballots, but were further delayed because of issues with combining two databases to create the final vote count.

Lester Miller and Cliffard Whitby will face each other in a runoff for Macon-Bibb County mayor Aug. 11 because neither candidate received more than 50% of the vote. The Bibb County Commissioner District 5 and District 7 races will feature runoffs as well.

Voters can apply for an absentee ballot for the runoff election on Aug. 11. The deadline to apply for an absentee ballot is Aug. 7, which will also be the last day of early voting. Early voting begins July 20.

From the Gwinnett Daily Post:

The Gwinnett Board of Elections and Registration voted to certify the results of the primary election Friday afternoon. County elections officials spent more than a week count[ing] absentee-by-mail ballots.

There was also a discrepancy that appeared in the results Wednesday night when vote total from precincts appeared to decrease. County spokeswoman Heather Sawyer said the issue was the results of an issue that arose during the scanning of emergency ballots that had been cast June 9, but not scanned in until Wednesday.

“On Thursday morning, those discrepancies were located and corrected during the standard review of reports conducted in order to confirm that the number of uploaded memory cards matches the number of downloaded memory cards,” Sawyer said. “The unofficial results once again included accurate counts.”

The Georgia General Assembly met in legislative Session on Saturday.

The State House passed legislation to allow a Glynn County referendum to eliminate the police department, according to The Brunswick News.

The bill, which will would allow voters to decide whether to make the sheriff’s office the exclusive law enforcer in unincorporated Glynn, passed the House on Friday 152-3. Rep. Jeff Jones, R-St. Simons Island, was one of three votes cast against it.

The referendum will appear on the November ballot in Glynn County if passed by the Senate and signed by the governor.

Sen. Ligon, R-White Oak, predicted Saturday the bill will pass in the Senate.

“Obviously you never know about these things, (but) I do believe it will have a good chance at passage,” Ligon said.

“I believe it’s the right thing to do, to let the people decide this,” he said.

Jones, opposed to the legislation all along, spoke against the bill on the House floor Friday. He said it violated the Home Rule provisions of the Georgia Constitution, a statement agreed upon by the Association County Commissioners of Georgia.

“The list of Glynn County elected officials supporting this bill is a very, very short list – the two bill sponsors and that’s it,” [Rep. Jones] said. “No other elected officials who is elected solely by Glynn County citizens to represent Glynn County citizens support this bill.”

In addition to Jones, opponents include the Glynn County and Brunswick commissions, as well as the local chapter of the NAACP.

From the AJC:

There are several county police departments in Georgia, including in Cobb, DeKalb, Fulton and Gwinnett counties. In counties where there are two agencies, the county police handle the enforcement of state and local laws while the sheriff’s office manages the jail.

The Georgia Senate passed an FY 2021 budget cutting more than $2.6 billion dollars of spending, according to the AJC.

The Georgia Senate passed a state budget on a party-line vote Friday that cuts $2.6 billion in spending during the upcoming year.

That means in fiscal 2021 — which begins July 1 — $1 billion less would be sent to local districts to fund k-12 schools. Millions of dollars would also be cut from a host of health care programs, forcing staff furloughs in the agency that for the past three months has been fighting the coronavirus pandemic.

The Senate voted 34-15 to pass the budget, setting up negotiations with the House over a spending plan that must be approved in the next few days. The Republican majority backed the measure while Democrats opposed it, saying the General Assembly should be raising more revenue by increasing the state’s tobacco tax to the national average.

Because lawmakers expect less revenue, they face cutting funding for everything from k-12 schools and universities to the Georgia State Patrol, food safety inspections, highway construction, mental health and substance abuse programs, and county health departments.

The Senate Finance Committee recommended passage of legislation raising the tobacco tax, according to the AJC.

Taxes on cigarettes would go from 37 cents per pack to $1.35 under a measure passed by a key Georgia Senate committee Friday.

The Senate Finance Committee approved an amended bill sponsored by Sen. Randy Robertson, R-Cataula, to raise cigarette taxes.

Lawmakers said the state spends about $650 million a year to treat patients who are on taxpayer-funded heath programs for tobacco-related illnesses.

Raising the rate to $1.35 a pack would still put Georgia below the national average of about $1.80. Currently, Georgia has among the lowest tobacco tax rates in the country.

Sen. John Albers, R-Roswell, a member of the committee, said the state’s low tobacco taxes amount to a subsidy for smokers because the cost of treating their illnesses is far higher than the taxes currently brought in.

“With this extra money, we could be doing things like helping fill the gaps for special needs waivers and education and things we are most passionate about,” Albers said.

Sen. Bruce Thompson, R-White, another member of the committee, said he generally doesn’t support increasing taxes.

“I don’t see addressing the cigarette tax as increasing taxes,” he said. “What I see it as is eliminating the subsidization that is already out there.”

From the Capitol Beat News Service via the Augusta Chronicle:

“I’m not a tax increaser, particularly during this [economic] climate we’re in,” House Speaker David Ralston, R-Blue Ridge, said earlier this week.

Ralston also is skeptical about another effort by Hufstetler’s committee to free up more tax revenue. The Senate Finance panel passed a bill Thursday that would eliminate a series of tax breaks the state offers to lure businesses to Georgia.

The speaker argued that getting rid of such tax incentives would put a damper on economic development efforts that create jobs.

“This is not a good time to be killing jobs,” he said. We need to be about the business of growing jobs back.”

House Bill 987 by State Rep. Sharon Cooper (R-Marietta) to add protections for senior living residents, passed the Senate, according to the AJC.

“House Bill 987 is the right policy move in our state to make certain that families… can rest a little easier at night, knowing these facilities can offer the care that is expected and deserved for our seniors,” [State Senator Brian] Strickland said.

Under the legislation, for the first time memory care units at assisted living and personal care homes would have to be certified. The bill also adds new staffing and training requirements. Directors who run assisted living communities and large personal care homes would have to be licensed, and assisted living communities would have to have nurses on staff. Operators would have to disclose financial problems, and those that break the rules or harm residents would face higher fines.

Rep. Sharon Cooper, R-Marietta, the lead sponsor of the bill, said she will push the House to agree to the Senate’s version so the bill can move as quickly as possible to Gov. Brian Kemp’s desk. Kemp has said he supports the bill.

Cooper called the bill “a major step forward” that would make Georgia a leader, especially when it comes to requirements for memory care units. She said the Senate’s additions related to COVID-19 are needed “to correct some serious problems that this pandemic brought to light in both assisted living and nursing homes.”

House Bill 426 hate crimes legislation by State Rep Chuck Efstration passed out of the Senate Judiciary Committee after being amended to protect first responders, according to the AJC.

Five Republican members of the Senate Judiciary Committee voted to include first responders — defined as police officers, medics and firefighters — in a bill that originally was introduced to protect people who are targeted due to characteristics such as race, gender or sexual orientation.

“There are wives of police officers who’ve been quoted in the newspaper telling their husbands, ‘Do not bring your police cruiser home and park it in our driveway, because we are afraid,’ ” said Sen. Bill Cowsert, the Athens Republican who authored the change.

The panel’s three Democrats voted against the bill.

The bill’s sponsor, Rep. Chuck Efstration, a Dacula Republican, called the addition of law enforcement to his measure a “poison pill.”

“This is not about support for law enforcement,” Efstration said after the vote. “This is about the legislative process being utilized by the state Senate in order to take a bipartisan measure and cause division (by bringing) about a provision with the purpose of causing Democratic opposition to the bill.”

The Georgia Sheriffs’ Association is accusing Fulton County District Attorney Paul Howard of politicizing charges against Atlanta police officers, according to AccessWDUN.

The letter, which is signed by Lumpkin County Sheriff Stacy Jarrard, claims that the investigation and charges brought against Atlanta police officers Garrett Rolfe and Devin Brosnan were in the interest of politics.

“The Fulton County District Attorney is in the political fight of his life, and as part of his ongoing campaign strategy has chosen to hastily investigate and charge the two Atlanta police officers involved in the tragic death of Rayshard Brooks,” the letter reads.

Following the June 9 General Primary Election, Howard is heading to a runoff this fall for reelection as Fulton County District Attorney. The letter from the Georgia Sheriffs’ Association claims the warrants Howard brought against the Rolfe and Brosnan were made to secure more votes for reelection.

“Howard has trampled on the rights of Officer Garrett Rolfe and Officer Devin Brosnan and has further allowed this tragic incident to be more about his re-election than justice for the officers involved, the Atlanta Police Department and the citizens of our state,” the letter states.

Gun violence in Statesboro has increased during the pandemic, according to the Statesboro Herald.

In seven weeks, from May 1 through Wednesday of this week, 11 shooting incidents, including three homicides resulting in murder charges and other crimes in which people were wounded or shot at, occurred in Statesboro.

“Is this unique to Statesboro, or is this something that you see trending across the country?” Mayor Jonathan McCollar asked Broadhead after seeing the list Tuesday.

“Mayor, that’s a great question,” he answered. “I do see it trending all across the country. I have friends in law enforcement in a number of cities across America, and all of them are seeing this exact same uptick in violence.

“I think that what we are seeing is a psychological issue related to the anxiety of the pandemic, the restrictions that were in place I think people were trying to rebel against in some cases, and then obviously the Minneapolis murder that has really kind of lit the country on fire and we’re seeing a lot of angst and anxiety over that,” Broadhead said. “That, I just think, is manifesting itself in outward acts of frustration and violence.”

Ironically, earlier this spring during Georgia’s COVID-19 shelter-in-place order, local law enforcement agencies reported a downturn in crime, especially property crimes.

But May and June 2020 have been the most violent two months in Statesboro since Broadhead arrived as chief three years ago, he confirmed Friday.

Athens-Clarke County is considering police reform as part of the budget process, according to the Athens Banner Herald.

[District 3 Commissioner Melissa] Link proposed creating a “public safety and community building task force” to study and recommend changes in policing.

The plan sets goals of putting funds in social programs intended to reduce violent and nonviolent crime by 50 percent or more over five years; reducing the need for armed response by law enforcement; eliminating “disparities in criminal justice response based on race or ethnicity;” immediately eliminating ” militarization of our police department through equipment acquisition and training protocols;” and an immediate changes in use-of-force policies.

Commissioners did not vote on the proposal or the budget — the commission is scheduled to vote on the budget June 25, six days before it will go into effect on July 1.

Albany is considering a study of healthcare costs as an economic development factor, according to the Albany Herald.

Mayor Bo Dorough broached the subject during Tuesday’s commission meeting, painting the issue as one that impacts economic development. Dorough, who has in the past been a critic of Phoebe Putney Memorial Hospital, said that he has spoken to authorities who say a study could be conducted for about $250,000.

“I think we should work with the Dougherty County Board of Commissioners, school board and even the hospital authority,” he said.

“It is my understanding health care costs are higher in Albany than anywhere in the Southeastern United States,” he said. “I think that is a deterrent to attracting industry. If we want to improve the quality of life, we need the ability to attract industry.”

In a statement, Phoebe Putney Health System President and CEO Scott Steiner said that the hospital system is focused on the economy of the region.

“As a major, comprehensive, regional health care system, we are proud to offer the kind of quality, cutting-edge specialty care that helps encourage major corporations such as P&G, Webstaurant and Georgia Pacific to continue to create jobs in Albany,” he said. “We appreciate the mayor’s desire to do everything possible to encourage and advance economic development in Albany.

“It is unfortunate the mayor’s claims during Tuesday’s City Commission were made based on largely discredited and completely unfounded rumors from many years ago. We are focused on the present and how we can provide the best care for all members of our community — today and in the future.”

Dalton and Varnell will hold fireworks displays for Independence Day, while Murray County moved its fireworks to October 16, according to the Dalton Daily Citizen News.

Dougherty County courts and libraries are reopening with social distancing and precautions, according to the Albany Herald.

The Hall County Government Center also reopens today, according to AccessWDUN.

A couple of Democratic candidates are calling for the removal of Gwinnett County’s memorial to Confederate dead, according to the Gwinnett Daily Post.