Alexander Stephens was sworn-in as Governor of Georgia on November 4, 1882; Stephens had earlier been elected Vice-President of the Confederate States of America.
Howard Carter found an entrance to the tomb of King Tutankhamen on November 4, 1922.
On November 4, 1932 Georgia Governor Richard B. Russell, Jr. campaigned on behalf of Democratic candidate for President Franklin D. Roosevelt.
On November 4, 1980, Republican Ronald Reagan was elected President, winning 489 electoral votes to 49 for incumbent Jimmy Carter.
Note on the electoral map in that clip, states that Reagan won were colored blue, and Georgia was a red state, going for Jimmy Carter.
On November 4, 2008, Barack Obama was elected President, becoming the first African-American elected to the position.
David Perdue was elected to the United States Senate on November 4, 2014.
Republican David Perdue won the Senate race against Democrat Michelle Nunn, helping the GOP secure majority control of the Senate.
“This has been a wild ride,” he told supporters at a victory celebration. “The one thing that I’ve taken away from all of this is that you want to change the direction of our country. I think Georgia’s made it loud and clear tonight.”
Perdue succeeded in nationalizing the race for many voters, making it a referendum on President Obama and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid. Obama’s job approval stands at 37% in Georgia, while 55% disapprove of the job he’s doing, according to a recent Public Policy Polling survey.
At the polls Tuesday, that was the case for a number of voters who said they were voting for Perdue to send a message to Obama and Reid by trying to shift control of the Senate to Republicans.
“I feel like the country’s not going in the right direction,” said Denise Miller, casting her ballot for Perdue in Atlanta’s Buckhead neighborhood. Miller said her vote for Perdue was a vote for change. “Change in the Senate,” she elaborated.
Georgia Politics, Campaigns, and Elections
Traffic alerts:
The Harris-Walz campaign will host a rally in Atlanta today, according to Atlanta News First.
The Harris-Walz campaign is returning to Atlanta for one last call out to voters before Election Day.
The “Vote for Freedom” rally will include remarks from local democrats and performances by 2 Chainz, F.L.Y., Joy of Jesse & Joy, Keyshia Cole, KP The Great, Morehouse House of Funk Marching Band, Pastor Troy, and Tamar Braxton.
The event will take place Monday, Nov. 4 from 4 p.m. to 9 p.m. at Piedmont Park Tavern. To register, click here.
Republican U.S. Senator and Vice Presidential nominee JD Vance will speak tonight at an event starting at 5 PM in Cobb County, according to the Trump-Vance campaign.
Event Details
Starts at: Mon, November 04, 2024, 05:00 pm (US/Eastern)
Doors Open: 03:00 pmCobb Galleria Centre, 2 Galleria Pkwy S.E., Atlanta, GA 30339
In Richmond County, about 42% of the eligible voters have voted, including advance and absentee voters. That included 51,576 early voters and 4,081 absentee ballots returned, according to Richmond County Board of Elections Executive Director Travis Doss.
In Georgia, 4,004,588 voters have cast ballots either by voting early or absentee by mail. With 55.3% turnout, Georgians cast 3,761,968 ballots during early voting, and 242,620 ballots by mail.
As of Saturday morning, 92 Georgia counties had exceeded 50% turnout, a figure unprecedented in Georgia history.
During early voting in 2018, there were 1,890,364 voters who cast ballots. 2,697,822 cast ballots in 2020, and 2,289,933 cast ballots in 2022.
There’s no doubt that part of the large turnout is due to GOP candidate Donald Trump. Large signs at his rallies spell out “VOTE EARLY!” and others have also been pushing Republicans to cast ballots before Tuesday, even by mail.
“This election is too important to wait!” proclaimed one flyer mailed to a voter in Georgia by the Elon Musk-funded America PAC. “President Trump is counting on patriots like you to apply for an absentee ballot and bank your vote today.”
Gabe Sterling, chief operating officer for Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, said Wednesday that the state already had hit two-thirds of the entire turnout for the 2020 election, when Georgia set a record number of nearly 5 million votes cast.
“There’s a possibility it could be a ghost town on Election Day,” Sterling said. “We had less than a million show up during COVID in 2020 with all the uses of pre-Election Day voting.”
Nearly as many people had voted early by this time in 2020 in Georgia, but the turnout pattern was different. For a brief time during the pandemic, Georgia allowed voters to request mail ballots online without sending in a form with a hand-inked signature, and allowed counties to set up many drive-through drop boxes. But fueled by Trump’s insistence that he had been cheated, Republican lawmakers allowed only sharply limited drop boxes going forward, imposed new deadlines on mail ballot requests and went back to requiring a hand-signed absentee request form.
“I think that gives the lie to this idea that having some pretty basic security measures in place somehow discourages people from voting,” said Josh McKoon, chairman of the Georgia Republican Party.
But Tolulope Kevin Olasanoye, executive director of the Democratic Party of Georgia, discounts those statements, saying recent fights about State Election Board rules, which ended with a judge throwing out the rules, prove Republicans are preparing to decry the legitimacy of any vote they don’t win in Georgia.
“I think there is no doubt that these folks were trying to muck up the waters a little bit to have something to point to potentially down the road,” Olasanoye said.
Republicans are thrilled with the turnout in heavily GOP counties, which in some cases is approaching two-thirds of active voters. Through Thursday, about 39% of voters in the majority Democratic stronghold of Augusta-Richmond County had cast ballots, while nearly 54% of voters in the neighboring Republican suburb of Columbia County had voted.
From the Capitol Beat News Service:
A record-smashing 4 million Georgians voted before Election Day this year, Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger’s office reported during the weekend.
The 3.76 million who cast their ballots in person and the 242,620 who voted absentee by mail combined to account for 55.3% of the electorate, leaving fewer than half of Georgia voters to cast their ballots at the polls on Election Day Tuesday.
The Trump campaign filed a lawsuit challenging four counties’ decisions to open election offices over the weekend and accept in-person returns of mail ballots, according to WTOC.
The 21-page lawsuit filed in Savannah argues county offices in the state were “illegally” open over the weekend.
“The Republican national committee and team Trump, we filed li[ti]gation,” said Trump Campaign Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt.
Leavitt addressed the filings at an event in Atlanta Saturday.
“We learned that in four counties including Fulton County Democrat election officials were – one trying to process ballots after the deadline last night and two – trying to open additional drop boxes that were not predetermined prior,” she said.
The Republican National Committee filed a similar lawsuit in Fulton County, where it was struck down by a judge. The judge said absentee ballots can be collected until polls close on election day.
County offices across the state were open Saturday and Sunday. However, the court restricted the option for drop boxes.
Gabriel Sterling, Chief Operating Officer for the Georgia Secretary of State, responded claims on Twitter saying, “To be clear, no election laws were broken in Georgia today. The law clearly states that govt buildings can be used to receive absentee ballots. A judge said so this morning. Monitors, observers, & SOS investigators were all in Fulton locations. 104 ballots dropped off there.”
The Trump campaign says they continue to fight the re-opening of the centers at federal and state level.
“We want everyone in Georgia to remain diligent,” said Leavitt.
The Sectary of State’s Office is expected to address the pending lawsuits at a press conference set for Monday morning.
Fulton County spokesperson Jessica Corbitt-Dominguez said 105 ballots were received Saturday at the four locations in that county.
The Trump campaign, the Republican National Committee and the Georgia Republican Party said in a statement Saturday night that they sent letters to six counties demanding that all ballots received after Friday be kept separate from other ballots, saying they intend to sue over the issue. The letters were sent to Chatham, Athens-Clarke, Cobb, DeKalb, Fulton and Gwinnett counties.
The Fulton County lawsuit was filed late Friday and cited a section of Georgia law that says ballot drop boxes cannot be open past the end of advance voting, which ended Friday. But state law says voters can deliver their absentee ballots in person to county election offices until the close of polls at 7 p.m. on Election Day. Despite that clear wording, lawyer Alex Kaufman initially claimed in an emergency hearing Saturday that voters aren’t allowed to hand-deliver absentee ballots that were mailed to them.
Kaufman then argued that voters should be blocked from hand-delivering their ballots between the close of early in-person voting on Friday and the beginning of Election Day on Tuesday, even though he said it was fine for ballots to arrive by mail during that period. It has long been the practice for Georgia election offices to accept mail ballots over the counter.
Fulton County Superior Court Judge Kevin Farmer, in an online hearing, repeatedly rejected Kaufman’s arguments before orally ruling against him.
“I find that it is not a violation of those two code sections for a voter to hand-return their absentee ballots,” Farmer said.
State GOP chairman Josh McKoon accused counties controlled by Democrats of “illegally accepting ballots.” The issue quickly gained traction online Saturday among Republican activists, particularly after a Fulton County election official sent an email to elections workers saying that observers would not be allowed to sit inside election offices while ballots were turned in.
In comments Sunday, state Sen. Brandon Beach, R-Alpharetta, implied the decision to accept ballots over the weekend was an improper extension of early in-person voting, which ended Friday.
“I think the 19 days of early voting we had went off without a problem,” Beach said at the North Fulton Service Center in Sandy Springs, where the county accepted ballots. “The voters were starting to gain confidence back in the process. Now what this has done, these shenanigans have instilled doubt in the credibility in the election process.”
Max Flugrath, spokesman for the liberal voting rights group Fair Fight, said supporters of Republican Donald Trump are spreading false claims and disinformation “with the goal of undermining confidence in our election.”
“The Trump ally plan is clear: spread false claims about election fraud, use those false claims to anger their followers and then encourage them to go cause chaos at election office(s),” Flugrath said. “Elections are decided by voters making a choice, not election deniers using false claims to sow chaos — their plan will fail.”
Because of problems with the U.S. Postal Service, Fulton County spokesperson Jessica Corbitt said people who waited until the Oct. 25 deadline to request an absentee ballot cannot expect their ballots to be delivered on time. She said opening county offices to accept them this weekend makes it convenient for people who work and may not be able to deliver their ballots in person Monday or Tuesday.
Under Georgia law, people can deliver ballots for family members. Corbitt said those who deliver ballots in person are required to complete an affidavit stating they are delivering ballots for themselves or family members allowed under the law.
On Sunday, Beach brushed off the Fulton judge’s ruling that state law allows accepting ballots over the weekend.
“The spirit of the law is we have 19 days of early voting, weekend voting and election voting,” he said. “Everything should’ve stopped on Friday.”
The United States Department of Justice will monitor the election in Macon-Bibb County, according to the Albany Herald.
U.S. Attorney Peter D. Leary has announced that the Justice Department will monitor compliance with federal voting rights laws in Macon-Bibb County for the Nov. 5 general election.
The Justice Department enforces federal voting rights laws that protect the rights of all eligible citizens to access the ballot. The department regularly deploys its staff to monitor for compliance with federal civil rights laws in elections in communities all across the country.
The Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division will coordinate the effort. Monitors will include Justice Department personnel, who will contact state and local election officials as needed throughout Election Day.
The Civil Rights Division’s Voting Section enforces the civil provisions of federal statutes that protect the right to vote, including the Voting Rights Act, National Voter Registration Act, Help America Vote Act, Uniformed and Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting Act and Civil Rights Acts. The division’s Disability Rights Section enforces the Americans with Disabilities Act to ensure that persons with disabilities have a full and equal opportunity to vote. The division’s Criminal Section enforces federal criminal statutes that prohibit voter intimidation and voter suppression based on race, color, national origin or religion.
On Election Day, Civil Rights Division personnel will be available all day to receive questions and complaints from the public related to possible violations of federal voting rights laws. Reports may be made through the department’s website www.civilrights.justice.gov or by calling toll-free (800) 253-3931. The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Georgia also will be available to receive complaints on Election Day at (478) 621-2698, or by email at USAGAM.DEO@usdoj.gov.
Individuals with questions or complaints related to the ADA may call the department’s toll-free ADA information hotline at (800) 514-0301 or (833) 610-1264 or submit a complaint through a link on the department’s ADA website at www.ada.gov.
Complaints related to any disruptions at a polling place should always be reported to local election officials (including officials based in the polling place). Complaints related to violence, threats of violence or intimidation at a polling place should be reported immediately to local police authorities by calling 911. These complaints should also be reported to the department after local authorities have been contacted.
Augusta transit will provide free rides to the polls tomorrow, according to WRDW.
Augusta Transit will offer free rides all day on any bus route for you to exercise your right to vote, conduct grocery shopping and attend medical appointments on Election Day.
All Augusta Transit buses accommodate persons with a disability who require special accommodations under the Americans with Disabilities Act.
Augusta Transit is offering free rides all day this Election Day on all routes in Richmond County.
In a press release sent Friday, Nov. 1, Augusta Transit said the rides are “for you to exercise your right to vote in Richmond County, conduct grocery shopping, attend medical appointments or simply enjoy the ride.”
Lyft and Uber ridesharing services will offer election day discounts for voters, according to CNN via WALB.
Lyft and Uber are offering 50% off rides to polling stations on Election Day as part of its voting access program.
The rideshare apps say people without cars are less likely to vote.
According to a report released by Lyft, a one mile increase in distance to a polling site can reduce voter turnout by 20%.
Lyft users can take advantage of the discount by preloading the code VOTE24 into their app until November 5.
Uber also announced it will offer half-off rideshare costs of up to $10 on Election Day for users in most states.
The Georgia Supreme Court denied an application for a discretionary appeal in the case of former Camilla City Council member Venterra Pollard, according to WALB.
The Georgia Supreme Court passed an order on Friday, Nov. 1, that denied the application for discretionary appeal that was filed by the city of Camilla’s election superintendent.
Venterra Pollard served as a city councilman.
According to court documents, the “Emergency Motion for Supersedeas and Expedited consideration by Non-parties Rhunette Williford, City of Camilla Election Superintendent and Cheryl Ford, City of Camilla Assistant Election Superintendent” was denied.
On Oct 28, WALB reported votes cast for Pollard in the 2024 election will not count, according to a ruling by a superior court judge.
We reported two days later, on Oct. 30, that the discretionary appeal was filed. A sign was also posted at Camilla city hall that read as follows:
“Pollard has been removed from the list of candidates qualified to run for the position of city council member…though his name still exists on the ballot, no votes cast for Venterra Pollard will be counted.”
Governor Brian Kemp announced $100 million dollars in state aid for the agriculture industry, according to a Press Release.
Governor Brian P. Kemp today announced the Georgia State Financing and Investment Commission (GSFIC) has unanimously approved a proposal redirecting $100 million to the Georgia Development Authority (GDA) for the purpose of providing disaster relief financial support for farmers and debris cleanup for timber producers impacted by Hurricane Helene. This funding will provide essential financial assistance to these sectors until businesses begin to recover or other aid is made available.
“As Georgia’s No. 1 industry continues on the road to recovery from Hurricane Helene, I’m thankful our partners on all levels, including the GSFIC board, are working with us to provide relief to those who put food on our tables and provide the materials that build our communities,” said Governor Brian Kemp. “This measure is the latest we’ve taken to help them rebuild their livelihoods, but it will not be the last. We’ll continue to work with stakeholders on all levels to direct resources and support to the hardworking Georgians devastated by this storm.”
“While we are still evaluating the full impact and devastation from Hurricane Helene, we are certain that members of our farming and timber producing communities have experienced generational loss,” said Lt. Governor Burt Jones. “This $100 million investment builds on the efforts already underway by many to help their neighbors recover and rebuild, one step at a time. I want to thank Governor Brian Kemp, Speaker Jon Burns, the GSFIC board, and all other partners who are helping in these efforts. This is the Georgia way, and that’s exactly how we will come out stronger than before.”
The Amended FY 2024 and the FY 2025 appropriations bills (HB 915 and HB 916) established a Capital Projects Fund program to provide direct cash appropriations to GSFIC for the purpose of financing capital projects. At today’s called meeting of GSFIC, a proposal was submitted to redirect a total of $100 million of funds originally set aside for defeasance to the GDA to create a new fund providing disaster relief. Of the $100 million, $75 million will provide disaster relief loans to those in the agriculture industry and $25 million will provide disaster relief to those in the timber industry to support cleanup efforts and debris removal on timberland as well as the enhancement of fire control measures.
“Georgia’s No. 1 industry continues to face unprecedented challenges and historic losses in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene and other severe weather events,” said Speaker Jon Burns. “This measure will provide necessary financial relief to farmers and foresters as we continue to work alongside our federal partners to secure every available asset and resource for the Georgians impacted by this disaster.”
Contributing approximately $83.6 billion each year to Georgia’s economy, disruptions in the agribusiness industry can have a negative spillover effect in other areas of employment and commerce. A preliminary report from the University of Georgia College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences estimates agricultural damages from Hurricane Helene will cost Georgia’s economy at least $6.46 billion, representing the sum of direct crop losses, losses to businesses that support agriculture and forestry, losses to workers in those related industries, and estimated recovery and restoration costs that agricultural businesses will face. The $6.46 billion impact is more than double the estimated losses causes by Hurricane Michael in 2018, which was the most devastating storm in recent history at that time.
“Help is on the way for thousands of Georgia farmers, producers, and timber operators who need immediate assistance to recover from Hurricane Helene,” said Agriculture Commissioner Tyler Harper. “Here in Georgia, we are taking action to support our farm families and our state’s No. 1 industry. I want to thank Governor Kemp, Lieutenant Governor Jones, Speaker Burns, and the many others who are working tirelessly on behalf of our farmers, and I look forward to continuing our work together to deliver additional federal aid as quickly as possible.”
In addition to this measure, Governor Kemp also previously joined state and Congressional partners in calling for federal relief funds in the form of block grants to benefit farmers impacted by Hurricane Helene. These block grant funds should allow for quick and direct assistance to those affected without bureaucratic delay. Governor Kemp and a bipartisan coalition of stakeholders will continue to urge swift federal action until all affected communities receive the attention and help they deserve.
Governor Kemp called today’s meeting as chairman of the GSFIC with the express purpose of considering the above relief proposal. Other participating members included vice chairman Lt. Governor Burt Jones, secretary and treasurer State Auditor Greg Griffin, Speaker of the House Jon Burns, Attorney General Chris Carr, Commissioner of Agriculture Tyler Harper, and State Treasurer Steve McCoy. Following this morning’s meeting of and approval by the GSFIC board, the GDA board will meet on Monday at 11 a.m. in Macon, Georgia, to plan for disbursement of these funds.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency announced some relief for farmers and agriculture workers, according to the Valdosta Daily Times.
Georgia farmers and ranch hands whose tools or equipment were damaged by Hurricane Helene or Tropical Storm Debby, damage Aug. 4-20, 2024, may be eligible for disaster assistance. FEMA assistance is available to replace disaster-damaged essential tools, supplies, equipment and items required for employment or for self-employment, the Federal Emergency Management Agency said in a press release this week.
Family-owned farms typically have a variety of equipment needed to conduct business. These include, but are not limited to, tractors, plows, seeders or planters, harvesters, sprayers, hay balers and utility vehicles. These items are all potentially eligible for FEMA disaster assistance if the applicant can show that they were damaged by the disaster, the applicant does not have another working item that can meet this need, and the loss of the item was not covered by insurance. Crops and livestock are not “tools and equipment” because they are the products of a farming operation, whereas tools and equipment are the means of production.
Ranch hands may be eligible for assistance to replace disaster-damaged tools and equipment not covered by insurance when they can show these items are required by their employer. Assistance is based on a need to replace disaster-damaged essential tools, supplies, equipment, items required by an employer as a condition of employment or required for education. This includes disaster-damaged tools and equipment, or other items required for a specific trade or profession that are not provided or supplied by the employer, including a computer.
Glynn County voters set a record for early turnout, but a busy election day is still expected, according to The Brunswick News.
As of Thursday, with one day left in early voting, 33,461 people — 55% of registered voters in Glynn County — had cast votes. There are 61,214 registered voters in Glynn County.
The old record set in 2020 when about 24,000 people cast early votes in person or absentee by mail.
Christina Redden, deputy supervisor for the Glynn County Board of Elections and Registration, said another 8,000 to 10,000 people are expected to cast their votes in person on Tuesday.
“There are still Election Day voters,” she said. “I think there will be a lot of people who come out to vote.”
A reason Redden believes there will be a good turnout on Election Day is only a little more than 2,400 absentee by mail votes were cast this year, in comparison with around 10,000 absentee votes in the 2020 election.
One concern in the final days leading to the election is the number of bogus emails and text messages with names that sound official, such as Glynn County Elections, that are sending disinformation to voters about polling place locations and results.
“People will get hit with a lot of disinformation,” Redden said.
“Right now, we are deciding who’s going to be the people that lead those offices,” Georgia State Representative Teddy Reese. “So, I’m excited about the people having the opportunity to vote on that. I hope that people will go to the polls and make their voices known.”
Reese emphasized the importance of each vote in the upcoming election, not only for the presidential race but also for local races. He also highlighted the significance of voting, especially for residents in Muscogee County, where candidates on the ballot have a direct role in addressing issues in Columbus.
“Three of them deal directly with the crime issue we are having,” he explained. “You want to fight the crime you need a representative that is going to make sure the prosecutions are happening…and also making sure everything is happening from a law enforcement perspective.”
Reese explained why people should not only care about the top part of the ballot but also pay attention to local races towards the bottom of the ballot.
“Your local officials, you’re going to have more of a greater contact with them,” he shared. “That’s why it’s important that you weigh in on who that individual is because it needs to be someone you have access to.”
If you did not vote early, you still have an opportunity to vote on November 5.
Statewide, over 55.4% of the state’s active voters have cast their ballots already, totaling just over 4 million votes, according to the Georgia Secretary of State website.
That is “unprecedented” levels of early voting in the Peach State, the Secretary of States Office said.
The early voting numbers for 2024 tower over the most recent presidential election. In 2020, nearly 2.7 million voters cast their ballots early, meaning early voting runout is roughly 49% higher in 2024 than four years ago.
In Central Georgia, voters have also come out in droves to cast their ballots early. There were nearly 229,000 early and absentee ballots cast here in Central Georgia during early voting.
To put that in context, nearly 229,000 early voters represent 51.3% of active voters in Central Georgia, which is just slightly lower than the state average.
13WMAZ has county-level numbers for Middle Georgia in that article.
The Secretary of State’s Office says they’ve seen record turnout, with more than 50% of Georgia voters already casting their ballots.
On the first day of early voting, Chatham County saw about 8,500 people vote.
“It started out with a bang,” said Colin McRae, the chairperson of the Chatham County Board of Registrars. “The first week had unprecedented numbers of in-person early voting.”
“I take from the numbers of early voting that there is even higher than normal enthusiasm about this race, this 2024 presidential cycle election,” said McRae.
So far, McRae said about 50% of registered voters in Chatham County have already voted, which is right on par with how the entire state of Georgia is performing. Some of those voters cast their ballots on the last day of early voting.
If you’re choosing to vote via absentee ballot and already mailed it, you can check to see if it’s arrived by looking at your “my voter” page. If you have not mailed or dropped it off yet, the Chatham County Registrars will be open Saturday, Monday and Tuesday to drop you ballot off in person.
The Chatham County election office continues accepting in-person return of mailed ballots, according to WTOC.
Voters who would like to drop off their absentee ballots in-person will be able bring their completed absentee ballots at 1117 Eisenhower Drive, Suite E, Savannah Georgia, 31406.
If you would like to drop off your absentee ballot, you can do so:
• Saturday, Nov. 2nd from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.
• The office is closed Sunday, Nov. 3rd.
• Monday, Nov. 4th from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.
• Tuesday, Nov. 5th (Election Day) from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m.If you drop off your absentee ballot at the Chatham County Board of Registrars (Voter Registration Office) you must bring it before the polls close 7 p.m. on Nov. 5th.
Chatham County law enforcement agencies developed an election security plan, according to the Savannah Morning News.
The Chatham County Police Department and Sherriff’s Office have coordinated with the Chatham County Board of Elections to develop a “security plan” for election day voting locations, according to a statement from Chatham County Assistant Director of Public Information Will Peebles.
County law enforcement is also coordinating with Chatham’s municipalities to have a presence at polling locations within each jurisdiction, Peebles said in an email.
“These steps were taken to ensure the safety and security of all voters and poll workers and to assist in the efficient process of elections,” Peebles said.
The county’s police chief says the divisiveness surrounding this election is forcing officers to boost their presence.
“We’ve increased our security presence from the past presidential election,” said Chatham County police chief Jeff Hadley.
His officers and Chatham County sheriff’s deputies are working with municipal departments to patrol voting precincts with either a full time or floating presence on Election Day.
“Understanding the current climate in America and the divisiveness that can exist around the current election, we wanted to make sure we’re providing a safe atmosphere around all the polling locations to the extent that we can so people feel comfortable exercising their constitutional right,” said Hadley.
According to local law enforcement officials, officers will mainly patrol outside precincts and plan to continue their presence long after polls close.
“When those ballots need to be transported from a polling location to the central headquarters down on Eisenhower, then we’ll provide the escort for that,” said Hadley.
Police say no major incidents were reported during their patrols of early voting locations.
Acting Vice President Kamala Harris campaigned in Atlanta on Saturday, according to the Capitol Beat News Service.
Vice President Kamala Harris delivered the closing arguments in her presidential campaign in Georgia Saturday afternoon, likely her last appearance in the Peach State since replacing incumbent President Joe Biden on the Democratic ticket.
“We have three days left in one of the most consequential elections of our lifetimes,” Harris told an enthusiastic crowd of supporters in the parking lot of the Atlanta Civic Center. “We have an opportunity in this election to finally turn the page on a decade of Donald Trump. … It is time for a new generation of leadership in America.”
Harris has headlined a series of rallies in the swing state of Georgia in recent weeks. Georgia is one of seven battleground states where what has been a tight race against the Republican former president likely will be decided.
On Saturday, Harris focused on a combination of themes she has used throughout the campaign, warning that Trump poses a threat to American democracy while countering with what she wants to do if elected president.
“Unlike Donald Trump, I don’t believe the people who disagree with me are the enemy,” she said. “He wants to put them in jail. I will give them a seat at the table.”
Harris said her top priority as president would be to bring down the cost of living by cutting taxes for 100 million middle-class Americans, imposing the first-ever federal ban on price gouging, extending Medicare to cover the costs of home health care, and lowering the costs of child care.
On the other hand, she said, Trump is advocating tax cuts for the wealthy, to be paid for with a national sales tax in the form of a 20% tariff on all goods imported into the U.S.
“My plan will strengthen the economy,” Harris said. “His plan will weaken it.”
Harris attacked Trump for nominating three justices to the U.S. Supreme Court he knew would vote to overturn the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision that legalized abortion, which has led to restrictive laws on abortion in Georgia and every other Southern state except Virginia. She said Trump would go further if elected to a second term in the White House by pushing for a national abortion ban, a charge he has denied.
Just as Trump often doesn’t mention the abortion issue at his rallies, Harris didn’t talk about illegal immigration on Saturday. Trump has promised to secure the U.S. border with Mexico and deport millions who came to this country illegally.
“Her policies have … allowed millions of illegal immigrants to cross our wide-open border and dangerous drugs like fentanyl to pour into our communities,” the Trump campaign wrote in a statement issued Saturday. “That’s why Georgians are ready to elect President Trump on Tuesday to fix our problems and fire Kamala Harris.”
Trump is scheduled to return to Georgia Sunday for a rally in Macon, probably his last stop in the Peach State before Election Day.
Former President Donald Trump campaigned in Macon on Sunday, according to 13WMAZ.
With less than 48 hours before the polls open on election day, Donald Trump called upon the people of Georgia to help him secure another term as president during a 1.5-hour speech.
He described his competitor Kamala Harris’ time as vice president as a failure — and painted himself as the man to solve it.
“You have to do one little thing,” Trump said. “I don’t want your money, I don’t want anything. The only thing I want is to get out and vote, get out to vote, finish it.”
After falling behind schedule earlier in the day, Trump took the stage at Macon’s Atrium Health Amphitheater 1.5 hours late. But Trump was greeted with raucous applause and chants of “U.S.A.” as he took the podium at around 8 p.m.
“I’ll tell you, I love this state – I love Georgia,” Trump said. “I’m thrilled to be back in this incredible place.”
Coming off two rallies earlier in the day, Trump’s voice was noticeably weak, but Trump made the case that the Biden Administration has weakened the country and that re-electing him would improve the lives of Americans.
“Are you better off now than you were four years ago?” Trump asked. “With your vote on Tuesday, I will end inflation, will stop the invasion of criminals coming into this country and I will bring back the American dream.”
Before Trump made it to Macon, over 13 speakers took the stage. Many argued conservatives are being persecuted and looked down upon by the left, pointing to Trump’s ongoing legal cases in New York, Georgia and by the Department of Justice as evidence of that.
He singled out two cases of illegal immigrants accused of killing Georgians: the deaths of Minelys Zoe Rodriguez-Ramirez and Laken Riley. Trump sought to tie those cases to Harris, who served as the Biden administration’s “Border Czar.”
Rodriguez-Ramirez — who was known as “Mimi” to her friends and family — was killed on Tuesday after being abducted at a Walmart in Habersham County, Trump said.
Rodriguez-Ramirez’s mother, Carmen Ramirez was brought up to the stage with a blanket saying “Don’t blame us we voted for Trump.” She spoke to the crowd and offered her endorsement of Trump.
“I lost my daughter but I didn’t lose my faith,” she said. “I know Donald Trump is the best choice for the U.S. — and not the best choice, but he’s the only one who can save our country.”
Trump also called for the death penalty for any illegal immigrant who kills an American citizen or law enforcement officer.
While Trump said he believed immigration is the top issue, Trump also honed in on the economy and inflation, as voters rank the cost of living as a major issue heading into the election.
“We’re going to turn this economic nightmare into an economic miracle,” Trump said.
Harris was campaigning in Atlanta on Saturday, the same day that Jill Biden campaigned in Macon.
“Kamala, you’re fired,” Trump said. “Get out – you’re fired.”
Prominent Georgia Republicans, including vocal Trump supporter Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, were in attendance. Also in attendance prior to the event were Herschel Walker, a former University of Georgia running back who unsuccessfully ran for Senate in 2022, and former Georgia GOP Chair David Shafer, who was indicted as part of a Fulton County probe into election interference in Georgia by Trump.
While the rally was set to begin at 4:30 p.m. with Trump delivering remarks at 6:30 p.m., the event didn’t begin until 5:30 p.m. when Georgia Senate Pro Tempore John F. Kennedy took the stage and opened with an invocation. Trump himself didn’t take the stage until about 8 p.m.
Guest speakers including Walker, Greene, Florida Senator Marco Rubio and former Georgia Sens. David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler filled about 30 minutes of time while Trump made his way to the venue.
The remarks from guest speakers echoed many of Trump’s talking points he has emphasized while on the campaign trail. During her speech, Greene denied that Jan. 6 was an insurrection, and called the U.S. government’s response to COVID-19 “tyrannical.”
“The government shouldn’t lock people up because they protested an election,” Greene said. “The government shouldn’t lock you down, force you to take a vaccine and muzzle you with a mask.”
Trump also mentioned Laken Riley, a nursing student who was allegedly killed on the University of Georgia’s campus in February by an undocumented immigrant.
“I will not let these animals into our country any longer, I will not let them spill one more precious drop of American blood,” Trump said.
He closed his appearance by urging supporters to head to the polls on Election Day.
“We win this state and it’s over,” Trump said.
[I]n a rare interview [Herschel Walker] said he couldn’t resist attending former President Donald Trump’s campaign rally on Sunday since it was roughly an hour’s drive from where he has been residing.
“I said, I’ll come here and do this,” he told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “And I have one more class left. I graduate in December. And this is so important; I think this election is so, so important.”
Walker ran for U.S. Senate in 2022 with Trump’s endorsement. He was defeated by U.S. Sen. Raphael Warnock in a December runoff.Asked whether he believes more Black men will join him in supporting Trump this year, Walker said it shouldn’t take much convincing.
“I don’t need to tell people who to vote for; vote your situation,” he said. “Everyone knows, if you want to be honest with yourself, this economy is terrible.”
He also mentioned the death of Laken Riley, a nursing student who was killed on University of Georgia’s campus. The man accused of murdering Riley entered the United States illegally. That current administration should not have allowed that to happen, Walker said.
“We’ve got to get this right,” he said. “This is a great country, and we just got to get things right. And I think we will.”
When it comes to his own political future, Walker said he has not decided if he will seek office again.
“I haven’t thought about it,” he said. “Going back to school was so important, because as I’ve said many times, education is so important. You know, I think education is an equalizer.”
After returning to the University of Georgia, Walker said he noticed how there are relatively few Black men on campus. He said he wants to encourage young people to further their education, whether it’s at a four-year university or a trade school.
First Lady Jill Biden and U.S. Senator Raphael Warnock (D-Atlanta) campaigned in Savannah for the Harris-Walz ticket, according to the Savannah Morning News.
Following recent campaign visits from Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff and Walz, Democrats continued to blitz Georgia, and particularly Savannah, ahead of Tuesday’s presidential election. Biden and Warnock essentially shared the same message that the country needed to move beyond the divisiveness of Donald Trump into a new era of leadership.
After stops in Atlanta and Macon, Jill Biden landed in Savannah on Saturday afternoon to appear at a canvassing kickoff event held a Harris-Walz campaign field office located in Garden City, Georgia.
She drew boisterous cheers from the crowd by saying Democrats will win Georgia again because, “the other guy only cares about himself.” She also highlighted Harris’s plans to lower costs for average Americans and protect freedoms like women’s rights. She then asked attendees to bring other voters into the fold so as to “meet this moment as if our democracy is on the line, because it is.”
Savannah Mayor Van Johnson, who rallied the crowd ahead of Biden’s arrival, underscored Chatham County’s importance on the national stage. He noted other major political figures who have visited the Hostess City over the last few months, including Harris herself at the start of her campaign back in August.
While Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger’s office announced Thursday that “Georgia voters exceeded 50% statewide turnout among active voters” through early voting, Johnson said that Chatham County’s turnout was around 42%. He wants it to reach at least 50% come Tuesday.
A day before Biden’s visit to the Hostess City, roughly 150 Harris-Walz supporters gathered Friday night for the Get Out the Vote “block party,” which Savannah native Warnock attended.
Attendee Randy Zurcher said he started canvassing for the Harris campaign “several weeks” before the Savannah rally. “I feel like this thing has momentum that I didn’t even see with Obama in ’08,” he said. He pulled out his phone and showed a picture of him with VP Harris at The Grey during her August visit to Savannah where she met with volunteers and canvassers as part of her Coastal Georgia bus tour.
Friday’s event was just yards from Herbert Kayton Homes, where Warnock grew up. Johnson called it “poetic.” He also said that Savannah has “without a doubt” seen an unprecedented level of campaign activity this campaign season. “Whether you are the red or blue spectrum, for us it’s great. We get to tell the story of Savannah every time someone comes here,” he said. Other local public officials who attended the block party were former mayor and current State Rep. Edna Jackson and Chatham County Board of Commissioners District 7 Candidate Orlando Scott.
In an interview after his remarks, Warnock said people he has met on the campaign trail around the country have a “profound sense” of what is at stake in the election, and the excitement in the air is “electric.” While he referenced his own narrow margins of victory in recent elections, he knows the presidential race will be close. “I am heartened by the turnout, but we need people to continue through election day. We cannot let up. We have to leave it all on the field,” he said.
During his remarks to the crowd, he also offered this advice to supporters: “Tell your Republican friends that voting for Kamala Harris in a moment like this doesn’t make you a Democrat, it makes you a patriot.”
“And this election will come down to just a handful of votes in key battleground states like Georgia. In 2020 we only won Georgia by about 12,000 votes. Amazing, right? And we are going to win it again!”
“With three days left, I know you are weary, but you need to find the strength to keep going. For just a moment, I want you to remember the day after the 2016 election when we fell short,” said Biden.
Mayor Van Johnson stressed that although Georgia has historically been a red state, Savannah is a key factor in turning the state blue again in this election.
First Lady Biden also campaigned in Macon, according to 13WMAZ.
First lady Jill Biden made her first campaign visit back to Macon on Saturday since 2020.
The Central Georgia city was along her route on the campaign trail, as she continued to campaign and rally for Vice President Kamala Harris and Tim Walz to campaign volunteers and supporters. Biden recalled her last visit to Macon and was just happy to see people without masks on.
“As we were preparing for today, we were thinking back to four years ago,” Biden said. “We gathered just before election day outside of the Tubman Museum, but we were in masks and we were seated six feet apart. It’s sort of a good memory I guess. The pandemic was raging, schools were closed, Donald Trump (was) creating chaos at every turn. That was four years ago. So today, it’s so nice to be here with all of you to see your faces.”
Biden flew into Macon after a trip to Atlanta. She’s traveling to Savannah to continue on the campaign trail with just three days left until the election.
Biden and other representatives at the event encouraged people to vote on Tuesday, Nov. 5 but celebrated the early voting numbers across the state.
According to Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, Georgians smashed 2020 and 2022 early vote totals, with more than 4 million early and absentee ballots returned as of Saturday morning. Ninety-two counties have reported more than 50% turnout so far as Election Day draws closer.
Biden asked the audience to think back to 2016. She asked those in the audience to recall how they were feeling when the Democrats lost to the Republican party and Trump.
She told them to use that feeling to make a final push for their party and that they “can’t let that happen again.”
Biden, to close out her rally, asked her audience to flash forward, something she did at rallies back in 2020.
“You wake up and you grab your morning coffee and you start to scroll through your favorite news feed you think, thank God, the chaos of late-night tweet-storms is gone,” Biden said. “You read about bipartisan legislation to lower the cost of prescription drugs because Democrats and Republicans can come together to get reasonable things done for the American people.”
Biden continued to speak that, under Harris, she believes that the American people can move on from “the mega extremism of hate and vulgarity.” She closed by making a final plea for those at the rally to come together and help Democrats win.
While the first lady’s remarks were wide-ranging — including repeating Harris’ promise to lower costs for the middle class and criticizing former President Donald Trump’s rhetoric — Biden especially focused on one critical group: women.
Data shows that a significant gender gap has arisen this election, with women significantly more likely to support Harris over Trump than men. The Harris campaign has sought to capitalize on this divide, with Biden putting a spotlight on abortion rights during her visit to Macon.
“No one has to abandon their faith and deeply held beliefs to agree that the government shouldn’t be telling women what to do,” Biden said.
By speaking directly to women, the campaign hopes to turn out an important group in Georgia on Election Day and propel Harris and Walz to the White House.
According to data from an ABC News poll, Harris has a 14-point lead over Trump among women, with 56% of likely female voters supporting the vice president. By comparison, Trump has a six-point lead among male voters.
That’s a wider gap than the 2020 election, where Biden led Trump among female voters by 11 points, according to the Pew Research Center.
While it’s hard to explain with data alone why women are supporting Harris at such a high rate, experts guess they have chosen her because of her stance on abortion rights.
While Jill Biden’s Macon appearance drew a diverse crowd, it was obvious that women dominated the attendance.
While Election Day isn’t until Tuesday, early voting numbers show women have gone to the polls at higher rates than men.
In Georgia — which polls currently show is tied between Harris and Trump — 56% of people who have already voted are women, while just under 44% are men, according to data from the Georgia Secretary of State.
While it’s unclear how Georgia women are voting, Democrats, including Jill Biden, are hopeful that emphasizing women and encouraging turnout will provide a path to win Georgia and, by extension, the White House.
“We have to work harder than we ever have before, we have to push further than we’ve pushed in the past,” Jill Biden said. “We have to meet this moment as if our democracy is on the line, because it is.”
Former President Bill Clinton campaigned for the Democratic ticket in Augusta, according to WRDW.
Augusta Commissioner Jordan Johnson took the stage first urging everyone to get out and vote. Not long after, Clinton took the stage and had this to say on behalf of the democratic party.
While Clinton’s speech was mostly what you would expect from a rally – he did have a message for both sides of the aisle, “There are things we need to do, but we can’t get there if we spend all of our time fighting and bad-mouthing each other.”
The former president also said this was his second to last event on the campaign trail.
Former President Donald Trump his running mate Senator JD Vance were in Macon on Sunday.
And the day before, Vice President Kamala Harris visited Atlanta.
More than 150 people crowded into an upstairs room at the IBEW Local Union1579 headquarters in downtown Sunday evening to see former President Bill Clinton, who has been on a national tour promoting Kamala Harris.
“Hillary and I endorsed her within an hour of her becoming a candidate,” he said. “I said, ‘Send me to the country,’ and I really wanted to go after I saw that vice presidential debate. Oh my goodness, that JD Vance, he gave us hillbillies a bad name.”
“I’m actually a pretty good judge for this election because I had the job … and I know both the candidates,” Clinton said. “Hillary’s known Kamala Harris for 30 years, back from the time they were both lawyers, much younger. Kamala is still younger, and Hillary (she never lets me forget) is younger than me, and I don’t ever let her forget I’m almost as old as Donald Trump. So, we play all these games. But the one thing we should not be playing games with is the health and welfare of the American people.”
“There are things we have to do, but we can’t get there if we spend all our time fighting each other,” he said. “I am sick and tired of everybody going, ‘This is us and them,’ ‘this’ and ‘us’ and ‘them, that.’”
“One thing we should not be playing games with is the health and welfare of the American people and their future,” said Former President Bill Clinton.
Jordan Johnson, Chair of the Richmond County Democratic Party, was able to open the event in his support of Harris. He says this is just what the community needs to go into voting on Tuesday. He says Augusta could be a deciding factor in Georgia’s Election Day turnout.
“People are excited about this election because they understand what’s at stake,” said Jordan Johnson, the chair of the Richmond County Democratic Party. “So, it’s one thing to be excited about going to vote, but it’s another thing to actually go do that action. So, it’s great the folks are excited. The energy was in the room, but we have to translate that energy into action.”
Gwinnett County will be widely watched on election night, according to the AJC.
The Great Recession had a profound impact on housing in Gwinnett, leading to a construction free fall and a dearth of affordable housing. During the COVID-19 pandemic, housing prices exploded, interest rates soared, and rents rose by hundreds of dollars per month.
What’s more, the Democratic leaning county is fast growing and the most ethnically diverse in a battleground state where the race is razor-thin, and The Atlanta Journal-Constitution’s most recent polling shows Trump with a slight lead.
Biden was the first Democrat to win Georgia since Bill Clinton in 1992, in part due to his performance among Black voters in Gwinnett, who account for more than a quarter of the county’s population. But the AJC poll suggests Harris is underperforming Biden among Black voters in the state. Biden won 88% of their vote, while she can only count on three-quarters, according to the poll.
The results are sobering for a campaign that might have hoped to better Biden’s numbers with Black voters. For Harris, that means not just turning out voters like Riley and Berry but others in a county where the housing crisis is sowing discontent.
According to Gwinnett County’s blueprint for growth and community development, called the 2045 Unified Plan, roughly 56,000 households, or 18%, are burdened by housing costs — spending more than 30% of their income. A more recent study by S&P Global Ratings put the percentage of cost-burdened households in Gwinnett at 34% in 2022.
There is a large disparity between white and Black homeownership in the county. According to the Atlanta Regional Commission, though metro Atlanta has the highest rate of Black homeownership among the most populous U.S. cities, the gap is nearly 30 percentage points in Gwinnett.
Nicole Love Hendrickson, chair of the Gwinnett County Board of Commissioners and a Democrat, said the current cost-of-living crisis and the economy could be a “black eye” on the Biden administration and that high housing costs are contributing to the malaise.
Anecdotally, she had heard from voters that the Trump campaign was targeting the county’s Black male Democrats in a bid to flip their votes.
“I think Republicans feel like: ‘We can probably pull at the hearts and minds of some of the Democrats who are feeling the squeeze of the economy, and get them over to our side,’” she said.
Gwinnett County Republican Party Chairman Sammy Baker said door-to-door canvassers are leaning on concerns about the economy under Biden and Harris, including the cost of groceries, rent and homes which are “lumped together.” He believes it’s unlikely Trump will flip a county that Biden won four years ago by 18 points. But in a race that could be decided by thousands of votes, pushing the needle even by a small amount could tilt the state in Trump’s favor.
Trump only won 40% of Gwinnett’s vote in 2020 but secured more votes there — 166,000 — than in any other county in the state.
“We only need to increase it 2%, 3%. We don’t have to win the county,” Baker said.
Asian-American voters are a significant part of Gwinnett County’s electorate, according to the Gwinnett Daily Post.
When state Rep. Sam Park was first elected to the Georgia House of Representatives, there hadn’t been much of a history of Asian-Americans winning office in Gwinnett County.
In fact, he was only the second Korean-American to win a legislative seat in the county, and the first member of that community to do so — former state Rep. BJay Pak — was leaving office in 2016, which was the first year Park was elected to the legislature. Their tenures in the House didn’t even overlap.
Eight years later, there are more than a handful Asian-American from Gwinnett serving in the legislature and the county has also had an Asian-American commissioner for nearly six years — and more than a dozen AAPI candidates are on the ballot in Gwinnett this fall.
“I think Asian-Americans are recognizing the political power they have,” Park said. “We’ve seen an increase … for the last four election cycles, going back to 2016, of the Asian-American participation rate as well as their share of the electorate.”
The fact that Asian-Americans, which make up about 13.6% of Gwinnett’s population, are running for offices in Gwinnett County is nothing new. There has been at least one member of Gwinnett’s AAPI community in office, at the very least, since Pak was first elected to the state legislature in 2010.
Currently, more than half a dozen members of Gwinnett’s Asian American community hold elected office, whether it be a state office or a local one.
But, what is perhaps most notable about this year’s election cycle is the fact that there are 13 local Asian-Americans who are on the Nov. 5 ballot in Gwinnett County. They include both Republicans and Democrats who are seeking federal, state and local offices.
Looking at the voter registration data for Asian-Americans in Gwinnett, however, they make up 74,713, or 11.25%, of the county’s 663,984 registered voters while Hispanic voters make up 11.1%.
Narrowing those numbers down to just the active voters, there are 68,161 Asian-American voters who regularly participate in elections in Gwinnett, which is about 11.67% of the county’s 584,074 active voters.
Dueling explainers on the statewide ballot questions:
WRDW –Before you vote, check out the ballot topics in the CSRA
WJBF – Understanding ballot questions for CSRA voters
AJC– Here’s what you need to know about Georgia’s ballot questions
Voters in Athens-Clarke County and Oconee County will elect a District Attorney, according to the Athens Banner Herald.
With a record early voting ending last Friday across Georgia, the remaining registered voters will have the opportunity Tuesday to cast votes that will help decide many races from the Office of U.S. President to local city and county positions.
The polls open at 7 a.m. and close at 7 p.m.
Voters should have a valid photo identification when they arrive at the precinct.
[V]oters in Athens-Clarke County and Oconee County will also await the outcome of another hotly-debated local race as two candidate are vying for the position of Western Circuit District Attorney
Outside this race that will be decided by voters in the two counties, there are a handful of county offices and state house and senate seats that are contested.
But the most intense race is for district attorney, an office charged with handling criminal cases in the Western Judicial Circuit of Clarke, considered a county leaning Democrat, and Oconee leaning Republican.
Incumbent Deborah Gonzalez is completing her first term, but she is challenged by Kalki Yalamanchili, a former assistant district attorney in the circuit, who is making his first bid for the office.
Gonzalez is running on her “progressive reform” and she has tied her opponent to what she described as “MAGA Republican donors and consultants” whom she said supports a system tied to political connections over “the needs of our community.”
She has defended her role by saying “this office is about more than prosecuting cases. It’s about ensuring that justice is applied fairly and equally.” She is running as a Democrat and has maintained that she is committed to reforms that make the court system more equitable.
Yalamanchili has noted the high number of Marsy’s Law victim’s rights violations by Gonzalez, along with her inability to maintain an adequate staff and her losses of serious criminal cases in the courtroom.
Democratic U.S. Rep. Sanford Bishop (Albany) is running for reelection against Republican challenger Wayne Johnson, according to WALB.
Representative Sanford Bishop, the incumbent, will face off against Republican candidate Wayne Johnson. Bishop has been in the seat for the past three decades, but Johnson said that amount of time isn’t scaring him from putting up a fight.
“Sanford Bishop has been in (the) Congressional Office for 32 years. He’s done noble work over the years, but at the end of the day, it’s time for a change,” Johnson said.
Bishop says his experience is what makes him more qualified.
“It’s a proven record. I have delivered for the people. I’m continuing to deliver for the people of our area,” he said.
Both candidates said they plan to tackle the biggest issues South Georgia neighbors are faced with today: poverty, and a lack of low-income housing and economic development.
“The way I intend to go about it is using the power of the congressional office to cause pilot programs to really focus on doing these things in Albany and doing them quickly,” Johnson said.
Bishop said he’s been successful at bringing in millions of dollars through grants that have gone to various programs. He plans to continue that mission with the concerns of his constituents in mind.
Republican State Rep. Jesse Petrea (Savannah) is running for reelection against Democratic challenger Gay Fortson, according to the Savannah Morning News.
“One of my priorities now is to find a way to accelerate our ability to acquire and protect land from development,” said Petrea. “The state has grown exponentially in population and is so economically successful that we’re growing so rapidly. As we do, I think what we’ve got to do is balance that with making sure we continue to have land that is protected for public use or protected for conservation so that we continue to have economic development but we also continue to have a state that has the opportunities for Georgians that it did when I grew up.”
Petrea has held the position for 10 years and helped to pass a bill that puts more money in veterans’ pockets, as well as legislation regarding immigration in House Bill 1105.
“I have led on removing Georgia income tax from military retirement for veterans,” said Petrea. “I have made some huge reforms on how we deal with criminal illegal aliens in the state. There’s still a lot of things that I want to accomplish and so that’s why I’m running again.”
House District 166 covers the eastern part of Bryan and Chatham counties, including the southside of Savannah as well as a portion of the south end of Bryan County. Petrea pointed to infrastructure improvements, as well as initiatives to support mental health for children, as some of the work he is proud of and is hopeful he can do even more for the coastal communities he serves.
“The ability to be in office is an opportunity to try to make our community better and safer,” said Petrea. “I advocated strongly to build a new child mental health treatment center and we’re getting road projects done like we’re doing on I-95 and 16. I’ve been able to accomplish a lot of things, and I want to keep doing that, because that’s what makes the community a place where people want to live.”
Gay Fortson, Petrea’s opponent, is the democratic nominee. Fortson owns Friendship Coffee Company on Johnny Mercer Boulevard in Savannah. She did not respond to The Savannah Morning News’ request for an interview.
Independent Meredith Gibson is running for Bryan County Commission Chair as a write-in candidate, according to the Savannah Morning News.
“When Buck Holly challenged Carter Infinger in the primary, there was no sense in having a third person come in because that would muddy the waters,” said Gibson. “When we flooded with Debby, my eyes were open to the lack of leadership. It was me there everyday and the city of Richmond Hill with no signs of the county. I couldn’t sleep and there was a burning pit in my stomach. At the very least, I am going to make waves and bring attention to it. At the very best, we are going to win in a landslide.”
Democratic Chatham County Chair Chester Ellis is running for reelection against Republican challenger Joel Boblasky, according to WTOC.
The countywide chairman’s race is historically the most competitive seat on the board, Ellis won the race back in 2020.
“I think we deserve better, you know, in our emergency services, number one. Number two, we need to address our roads, bridges, and drainage, number two. And number three, we need better tax accountability to keep the taxes fair and low for everybody in Chatham County. Unincorporated is included in that. We need to keep our county spending local,” said Boblasky.
“So being in the midst of catching up with the growth spurt, we have laid the foundation for things, and so we need to carry those out. I’m talking about infrastructure, I’m talking about roads, I’m talking about waterways, I’m talking about sewage, I’m talking about draining, I’m talking about flooding, I’m talking about housing. We’re talking about preparing folks for the jobs that are now in the market here, getting our high school kids prepared so that when they come out of high school they can step into a job to make things worthy,” said Chairman Ellis.
WTOC also has full interviews with the candidates online – Incumbent Democrat Chester Ellis and Republican challenger Joel Boblasky.
U.S. Rep. Buddy Carter (R-SSI) voted against Biden’s Investment Reduction Act but wants to keep projects in Georgia that were included in the IRA, according to the Savannah Morning News.
Not a single GOP member of the U.S. House or Senate supported the $891 billion measure, which included the nation’s largest-ever investment in clean energy. But some of those same elected officials who voted against the IRA―such as U.S. Rep. Buddy Carter, whose district includes the Savannah area and the entire Georgia coast―find themselves walking a fine line between supporting their party’s presidential nominee and preserving elements of the IRA that have been a boon for constituents.
Carter was one of 18 Republican House members who urged Speaker Mike Johnson in an Aug. 6 letter to carefully weigh those benefits when calls arise, like Trump’s, to scrap the IRA entirely.
“Prematurely repealing energy tax credits, particularly those which were used to justify investments that already broke ground, would undermine private investments and stop development that is already ongoing,” the House Republicans warned Johnson. “A full repeal would create a worst-case scenario where we would have spent billions of taxpayer dollars and received next to nothing in return.”
One of those projects is the $7.6 billion Hyundai Motor Group Metaplant America in Bryan County, where Carter lined up directly next to Republican Gov. Brian Kemp―himself a vocal critic of the IRA―in October 2022 to help turn the first shovels full of ceremonial dirt at a groundbreaking ceremony for the 2,500-acre complex.
The South Korean automaker chose the 2,500-acre site, just outside Savannah along Interstate 16, before the IRA was signed into law. But Hyundai President and global Chief Operating Officer Jose Munoz said last year that the company’s decision to expedite its production timeline at the Georgia facility was directly tied to the IRA’s electric-vehicle tax credits.
The Georgia Court of Appeals ruled in favor of the company that proposed a “monkey farm” in Bainbridge, according to the Albany Herald.
After months of going back and forth through legal battles, the Georgia Court of Appeals has ruled in favor of Safer Human Medicine (SHM), the company over the monkey facility set to come to Bainbridge.
Back in June, Decatur County District Attorney Joe Mulholland brought his concerns about the legalities of the project to the Court of Appeals. In a legal brief Mulholland filed, he said the trial court should be reversed, and the Validation Order should be vacated in the project.
SHM has continued to argue the project was properly approved by city and county officials.
In the Court of Appeals’ new ruling, they said they ruled in favor of Safer Human Medicine “Because the State petitioned the trial court for the bond validation, it cannot bring an appeal from the trial court’s order granting that petition.”
They also stated “…at the appellate level one cannot complain of a judgment, order, or ruling that his own procedure or conduct procured or aided in causing. The trial court granted the State’s petition to validate the bonds at issue. The trial court’s order, therefore, provides no basis for the State to appeal, and this appeal must be dismissed.”
Port Wentworth launched an app for citizens, according to WSAV.
City officials launched a new app, Port Wentworth GA app is a part of the new age for the rapidly growing city, currently around 16,000 people.
The has been in the works since February. Deputy City Manager David Stahl said the app offers the latest news, events and information about the city and its leaders.
“The city is trying to have a better opportunity to reach out to its residents, improve its quality of life, and create the ease of use with this application to allow individuals to pay their utility bill or sign up for those recreational sports instead of having to drive across the city and fight the traffic.”
Stahl said it enables users to stay informed about facility rentals, recreation classes, senior services and election information. He said the city continues to showcase upgrades as it strays away from the ‘small port city’ feel.
Related Posts
A $59B plan to ease metro Atlantans’ transportation pain | www.myajc.com
Georgia Politics, Campaigns, and Elections for May 20, 2026
Republican Derrick Grayson enters race for U.S. Senate in Georgia
Rep. Rob Woodall: Let Your Voice Be Heard
D.C. more ‘poisonous’ than during ‘95 shutdown, say longtime… | www.myajc.com
Comments ( 0 )