The United States Senate ratified a treaty with France on October 20, 1805, closing the deal on the Louisiana Purchase.
On October 20, 1905, President Theodore Roosevelt stopped in Roswell to visit his mother’s girlhood home at Bulloch Hall.
Lewis Grizzard was born on October 20, 1946 at Fort Benning, Georgia.
On October 20, 1977, a small twin-engine plane carrying members of Lynyrd Skynyrd from Greenville, South Carolina to Baton Rouge, Louisiana crashed in a swamp in Gillsburg, Mississippi. Singer Ronnie Van Zant, guitarist Steve Gaines, vocalist Cassie Gaines, assistant road manager Dean Kilpatrick, pilot Walter McCreary and co-pilot William Gray died in the crash.
Georgia Politics, Campaigns, and Elections
Headline of the week: No. 1-ranked Worth County fries Bacon, 52-14 in the Albany Herald.
Last week, Governor Brian Kemp issued Executive Order # 10.16.25.01, ordering flags to half-staff on government buildings and properties in honor of the late State Rep. Mandi Ballinger (R-Canton).
As of the latest Absentee Voting file from the Secretary of State’s Office, 104,830 ballots have been cast ahead of the November 4, 2025 elections.
On this date in 2024, 1,444,521 ballots had been cast; by October 20, 2020, 1,572,179 ballots had been cast.
Early voting is open in the Statewide Special Election to be held November 4, 2025. From the Savannah Morning News:
Election day in Georgia is quickly approaching, with a little over two weeks until Nov. 4. Early voting has already started in Chatham County, with ballots featuring municipal elections, a special election for the Public Service Commission and other measures like SPLOST. Here’s how and where to early vote and what’s going to be on the ballot, explained.
Early in-person voting began on Oct. 14 and lasts until the end of the month.
Georgia Public Service Commission
The Georgia Public Service Commission regulates the state’s utility services like electricity, phones and gas. The special election on Nov. 4 is for two of the five seats on this commission, including for District 2 which is the eastern side of the state and includes Savannah and Athens.
Incumbent Tim Echols (R), who was first elected in 2010, will face Savannah resident Alicia Johnson (D), for the District 2 seat.
[NOTE: Incumbent Republican Fitz Johnson, who was appointed by Gov. Brian Kemp, faces Democrat Peter Hubbard for the District 3 seat.]
SPLOST
The Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax is a penny sales tax that goes towards capital projects, like roads, infrastructure or recreation. There have been seven SPLOST collections since 1985 when it was first approved, and they run in six-year cycles. SPLOST 8 is on the ballot in November, and will allocate an estimated $700 million in revenue for various projects in the municipalities and Chatham County for the next six years, starting next year.
Chatham County Schools Tax Relief Act
House Bill 782, the Chatham County Schools Tax Relief Act, will create a “floating” homestead exemption. This means that property-owners’ school property taxes will be capped at the home’s base-year value, with no more CPI increases. School officials have expressed concern about the potential impact on education funding, including possibly significant funding shortfalls.
Municipal Elections
Four Chatham County municipalities will be electing members to council, or even a new mayor, during this election.
Gainesville Board of Education District 2 voters will elect a new board member in a Special Election on November 4, according to AccessWDUN.
Gainesville City School Board District 2 candidate Amy Kerr shared her vision ahead of the Nov. 4 special election for the seat.
The role was left vacant by Kris Nordholz, who resigned in June because he moved out of the district.
Kerr is running against Trey McPhaul for the seat. McPhaul previously told AccessWDUN he also plans to prioritize teacher retention and “high-quality learning opportunities for students.” Both Kerr and McPhaul are parents of students attending schools in GCSS.
Lula voters will elect a new Mayor, according to AccessWDUN.
Early voting started this week, and voters in Lula have their choice for the next mayor.
The incumbent mayor, Joe Thomas, is not seeking reelection. One of the candidates, local business owner Amanda Browning, actually spearheaded an effort in 2023 to remove Thomas from his seat.
“Whether it be a development or anything currently going on … I don’t see very much interaction with him,” Browning said. “I don’t feel the last mayor was taking it in the right direction.”
Browning, who has lived in Lula for 32 years, said she was a bookkeeper for 22 years for a multimillion dollar business and now runs Amanda’s Farm to Fork at the Tea Room, giving her a solid financial background to be the Mayor of Lula.
Bruce Lane is also running, and says he has lived in Lula for 22 years. He’s been in the transportation industry for nearly 40 years, and has run trucking companies. He says his background in logistics and problem solving will transfer over to running Lula.
“Over the last few years, I’ve seen a lot of issues arise out of Lula … people just generally not happy with the current administration and current decisions,” Lane said. “A lack of somebody that is willing to stand up for the people, somebody that’s willing to stand up against development.”
Gwinnett County voters will decide whether to extend the Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax for Education (E-SPLOST) on November 4, according to the Gwinnett Daily Post.
On Nov. 4, Gwinnett voters will be asked for the seventh time in three decades to approve a one-cent sales tax — which would raise nearly $1.5 billion — to help fund the county’s school systems.
The referendum has always passed and usually by wide margins, with supporters saying the tax is necessary to accommodate rapid growth. But opponents say growth has stagnated along with school enrollment, so property tax revenue ought to be enough.
The Georgia General Assembly authorized the use of a SPLOST — Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax — in 1985 to allow counties to levy a one-cent tax to fund capital projects such as road improvements, building new parks or purchasing police cars. In 1997, the legislature extended that ability to local school boards, creating the ESPLOST, which allows school districts to levy their own one-cent sales tax to fund capital projects, such as building new schools, or to pay down the debt incurred from selling bonds to fund those projects.
School districts must set out how much money they are trying to raise and specify what projects will be funded. The tax must be approved by voters via referendum and can be implemented for a total of five years or until the funding cap is reached.
Voters approved the first ESPLOST in Gwinnett in 1997 and five more times since then.
What does ESPLOST fund?
Capital projects — basically goods and services. Playground equipment, new carpet, furniture, lights, computer lab technology, software contracts — all can be paid for with ESPLOST funds. But there are limits.
The sales tax funds can pay for a new roof for a school, for example, and pay the salary of the person installing it. But it can not be used to pay the salaries of the teachers and administrators who work in that school, which is a common misconception.
“It is restricted by law in what we can use it for,” said GCPS Chief Engagement Officer Melissa Laramie. “And that’s been a big point of confusion for some communities. They think that this is to support salary increases for staff or (Instructional Support Center) staff specifically, and that’s certainly not the case.”
Unlike the other big funder of schools — property taxes — sales tax isn’t paid just by property owners and/or their tenants. The extra penny is collected on any purchase made in the county. Advocates say this eases the burden on Gwinnett residents by collecting the tax from commuters and others doing business here who live elsewhere.
Opponents say it’s a double whammy for county residents who already fund the schools through property taxes and are likely to spend much more money here than people just passing through.
So what percentage of the tax is paid by outsiders?
“That’s something that we would love to be able to get from the county,” said GCPS Chief Financial Officer Masana Mailliard, but without being able to track every sale — and home address of the purchaser — it’s an almost impossible task, she said. “How would they even be able to determine who’s a resident and nonresident?”
The Eleventh Circuit United States Court of Appeals ruled against an appeal by Olivia Coley-Pearson pertaining to the 2020 Presidential election, according to the Capitol Beat News Service.
A voting rights advocate and longtime city commissioner in Coffee County suffered a loss this week in a federal lawsuit she was pursuing against election officials after she was arrested for helping voters during the contest between Donald Trump and Joe Biden.
Olivia Coley-Pearson is suing the county election board and former election supervisor Emily Misty Martin.
Coley-Pearson was an elected commissioner for the city of Douglas in Coffee County when a city policeman arrested her at a polling site during early voting in 2020.
Martin had called police on Coley-Pearson, complaining she was causing a disruption while helping voters.
Police issued a criminal trespass warning, but Coley-Pearson returned later that day and was arrested.
Coley-Pearson had a long history of helping illiterate voters cast their ballots. After the criminal case against her was dismissed in 2022, she sued Martin and the Coffee County Board of Elections, alleging violation of her constitutional rights to free speech and against false arrest.
A federal judge in Atlanta ruled against Coley-Pearson in 2023, so she appealed to the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals, which ruled against her Tuesday.
Martin had asked police to keep Coley-Pearson away, but the appeals court reasoned that the responding city police sergeant, not Martin, was responsible for the arrest.
“He saw with his own eyes that Coley-Pearson was violating that trespass warning, which led to her arrest,” the court opinion says. “And he testified, without record evidence showing otherwise, that both the language in the criminal trespass warning and Coley-Pearson’s arrest rested ‘entirely’ with him.”
The Southern Center for Human Rights reported in March that it helped Coley-Pearson with her legal battles, including her successful defense in two criminal cases brought against her for helping voters in 2016.
The organization reported that the city of Douglas, which Coley-Pearson also sued in connection with her 2020 arrest, had settled with her.
Coley-Pearson has since retired from the city commission, and Martin is no longer overseeing elections.
In 2022, the news outlet ProPublica reported that Martin resigned from her election post under pressure in 2021.
The report said Martin, who also used the surnames Hampton and Hayes, had allowed several computer experts into her offices, where they may have had access to election systems — and that they were connected with Trump’s effort to challenge his 2020 loss to Biden.
Misty Hampton was among the 19 co-defendants, including Trump, whom Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis charged with racketeering in connection with an alleged attempt to overturn the 2020 election results.
The Georgia Court of Appeals disqualified Willis from prosecuting the case due to an appearance of impropriety involving a romantic relationship with a prosecutor she hired for it. The Georgia Supreme Court declined to consider her appeal of that decision in September, effectively removing her from the case.
The Prosecuting Attorneys Council of Georgia must now find a special prosecutor to handle it.
The Atlanta airport is seeing TSA staffing shortages during the federal government shutdown, according to the AJC.
“Due to TSA staffing shortages, passengers may experience longer than usual wait times at the security checkpoints,” a Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport spokesman told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
“We encourage travelers to allow extra time for screening and appreciate their patience as we work with our partners to maintain safe and efficient operations.”
Security lines stretched longer than normal as a result Monday morning, with some waits reaching more than 30 minutes, according to wait times posted on the airport’s website before 10 a.m.
Last week the officers received their first partial paycheck; if no agreement is reached they’re set to receive zero dollars next week.
State Rep. Rick Townsend (R-SSI) and several fellow legislators were invited to the White House and will meet with members of the Trump Administration, according to The Brunswick News.
“I was invited to the White House,” Townsend said, though noting the meeting with federal government officials may not actually take place there.
“I’m excited. It’s an honor to be up there, to be invited.”
The St. Simons Island Republican and other Georgia legislators will meet with members of President Donald Trump’s cabinet on Tuesday.
Although the invitation did not include a specific agenda for discussion, Townsend said he has a few topics of his own he would like to mention to at least one cabinet member. He hopes to be able to talk to U.S. Secretary of Health Robert F. Kennedy Jr. about kratom, a substance Townsend successfully pushed to be regulated in Georgia.
“To me, it’s a national issue,” he said. “I think the government and the FDA can be a lot more proactive.”
If the opportunity presents itself, Townsend also would like to thank the Federal Aviation Administration for its decision on the military’s request to expand the area of restricted airspace around the Brunswick Golden Isles Airport.
“The whole airport situation was pretty scary at first,” Townsend said. “Right now, FAA says it is not an action it is considering.”
Bryan County Commissioners voted to pay $120,000 for a study of a new jail, according to the Savannah Morning News.
During the county commissioner meeting Oct. 14, the board voted to pay $120,000 to Comprehensive Program Services to conduct a jail study. Research will include data collection, facility conditions assessment, cost estimate, timeline and more.
According to Sheriff Mark Crowe, the Georgia Sheriffs Association did a study three years ago. Their research revealed the need for a 475-bed facility, “to cover housing inmates out to a 20-year future projection,” Crowe said.
The county stated earlier this year that the estimated cost for a new jail ranges $75-$100 million.
“We don’t have that kind of money,” said Bryan County Chairman Carter Infinger. “We would have to more than double taxes but we both agree something needs to be done. There is no sewer capacity out there. The [wastewater infrastructure] won’t be done for a couple years. It’s a process. It will be one of the largest projects the county has ever done. Will it happen? We will figure something out. We need the infrastructure in place to handle it. We are going to work with the sheriff but it is our job to be fiscally responsible.”
The jail in Bryan County currently holds 68 beds and is nearly seven times smaller than the 475-bed facility the sheriff is proposing it needs. Crowe said it remains overcrowded due to arrests being made every day.
“Right now, we have 96-100 inmates between the current facility and 5-6 other jails in and around our area,” said Crowe. “One of the main issues is that we currently have little-to-no ability to properly classify an inmate and then house that inmate in the appropriate cell due to being overcrowded. Also, running all over South Georgia to pick up inmates and carry them to court, the doctor and then take them back to the jail that is housing them costs more money each day.”
Milledgeville Mayor Mary Parham-Copelan is seeking reelection having filed for bankruptcy five times over eleven years, according to 13WMAZ.
Court documents show Milledgeville Mayor Mary Parham-Copelan has filed for bankruptcy five times over the past 11 years — the most recent filing coming in June 2024.
Parham-Copelan, who is seeking a third term as mayor, first filed for bankruptcy in November 2014 — a case that was later discharged, per court records. She filed again in March and September of 2015, May 2022, and June 2024.
Court records indicate the mayor’s financial troubles began before her first term in office in 2015. Her most recent petition, filed independently last year, remains active in court.
Mercer University law professor Ishaq Kundawalia said bankruptcy is more common than many believe.
“There’s no limitation once you’re in bankruptcy on how you can lead and manage, for example, a city or a state,” Kundawalia said. “There are governors and presidents who have filed for bankruptcy relief and still held office.”
He added that while bankruptcy itself doesn’t disqualify someone from public service, filing multiple times in a short period is unusual.
“Usually, people will file when there’s a major financial stress — a looming foreclosure, a car repossession, or medical debt,” he said. “Sometimes, that pressure makes multiple filings more likely.”
In her latest filing, Parham-Copelan estimated about $114,000 in assets, largely tied to her home, and roughly $101,000 in liabilities. Most of that debt stems from $68,000 in student loans and medical bills.
Court documents show she reported earning about $2,300 a month. That includes approximately $1,000 from her mayoral salary and the remainder from Social Security benefits.
When asked about the filings, Parham-Copelan initially scheduled an interview but later canceled. She provided a written statement instead.
“This has nothing to do with my performance as the mayor,” she wrote. “We have a finance department in place. My duties are to ensure that the mayor and council present a balanced budget for the community. For the last eight years, I believe that I have served with integrity and transparency.”
Parham-Copelan added that city audits under her administration have shown “no findings,” meaning auditors found no issues in Milledgeville’s financial records. She said she intends to continue her work if reelected.
Her opponent, Walter Reynolds, declined to discuss the filings in detail but acknowledged the public’s interest.
“While all bankruptcy filings are public record, they are also deeply sensitive matters,” Reynolds said in a statement. “I understand and can appreciate public concern, but I don’t think it’s my place to comment further.”
Early voting in Milledgeville’s mayoral race is underway at the Baldwin County Commission building, open weekdays from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Hall County named interim county attorney Justin Lawhon to serve until the next election, according to AccessWDUN.
County officials said Lawhon began serving as interim county attorney in June.
“Justin has served in an interim capacity for the past several months and has demonstrated exceptional leadership and expertise in the Law Department,” Hall County Board of Commissioners Chairman David Gibbs said. “We are excited to welcome him aboard as Hall County’s official attorney and fortunate to have someone with Justin’s institutional knowledge on our team.”
Lawhon has served in Hall County’s legal department since 2022, working as senior assistant county attorney before being named interim county attorney.
“Hall County looks forward to all that Justin will accomplish in his new role and the continued guidance and leadership he will provide in service to the Hall County community,” Gibbs said.
Lawhon’s official start date as the county’s new attorney is Friday, Oct. 24.
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