General James Oglethorpe, founder of Georgia, signed a treaty with the Spanish government of Florida on October 22, 1736.
On October 22, 1832, the Cherokee Land Lottery began in Milledgeville, with more than 200,000 Georgians competing for 53,309 lots of land.
Georgia Governor John B. Gordon signed legislation on October 22, 1887 that increased the number of justices on the Georgia Supreme Court from 3 to 5.
President Grover Cleveland arrived in Atlanta for the Cotton States and International Exposition on October 22, 1895.
On October 22, 1991, the Braves played Minnesota in the first World Series game in Atlanta.
The Atlanta Braves won Game 2 of the 1995 World Series, beating Cleveland 4-3, on October 22, 1995.
Georgia artist Howard Finster died on October 22, 2001.
One of my dogs is named Finster, after the artist.
Georgia Politics, Campaigns, and Elections
Governor Brian Kemp issued Executive Order #10.21.24.01, ordering flags to half-staff on state properties, in honor of the late Houston County Sheriff Cullen Talton.
Houston County Sheriff’s Chief Deputy Billy Rape will serve the rest of Talton’s term until Talton’s successor is elected and sworn in, according to 13WMAZ.
Under Georgia Code § 15-16-8, when the sheriff dies, the sheriff’s office chief deputy becomes the local sheriff, unless there is a local law saying otherwise. In Houston County, that means Chief Deputy Billy Rape is in charge after Talton’s death, serving as interim sheriff of Houston County.
The law says that Rape will finish out Talton’s last term because there are less than six months before his time in office ends.
Had it been over six months since Talton’s term ended, the election superintendent could have called for a special election to elect the new sheriff.
But with the time between his term ending being less than six months, Georgia law says that Rape will serve as the sheriff until the people have voted and a new sheriff has been elected and sworn into office.
If there was not a chief deputy, the law also had a procedure for what happened then. In that situation, the county probate judge then is empowered to “appoint a qualified person to serve as the interim sheriff.”
Former President Barack Obama will campaign in Georgia with Vice President Kamala Harris, according to WABE.
Former President Barack Obama will campaign alongside Vice President Kamala Harris in Georgia next Thursday, according to a senior campaign official. The Oct. 24 rally will be Harris and Obama’s first joint appearance on the campaign trail this year.
No other details about the city where the rally will occur have been released.
The event is scheduled for the second week of early voting in Georgia, where as of Thursday night, nearly 900,000 voters have cast absentee or early, in-person ballots.
In recent elections, Obama has been deployed to battleground states as a closer — an elder statesman who can also fire up crowds in the final stretch of the campaign. Democrats are looking to retain and expand Obama’s coalition of young voters, voters of color, women and suburban voters.
Obama campaigned in Georgia twice during the 2022 midterms. That October, he rallied for Democrats including Stacey Abrams and Sen. Raphael Warnock. He returned in December ahead of Warnock’s runoff against Republican Herschel Walker.
Whitfield County voters turned out in advance of the November 5, 2024 General Election, according to the Dalton Daily Citizen News.
In the four days that ended Friday, 7,529 residents cast their ballot for the Nov. 5 general election. In all three weeks of early voting in 2020, 18,243 votes were cast. And in 2022 there was a total from all three weeks of early voting of 10,594 votes.
For president, voters are deciding from among Republican former president Donald Trump, Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris, Libertarian Chase Oliver and Green Party candidate Jill Stein.
Claudia De la Cruz and Cornel West are on the ballot as independent presidential candidates. But the Supreme Court of Georgia disqualified them after the ballots had already been printed, saying their petitions did not meet state law. As a result, votes for them will not be counted. De la Cruz is the nominee of the Party for Socialism and Liberation, according to the Associated Press.
— Whitfield County Sheriff Scott Chitwood, a Democrat, faces Republican Darren Pierce, an 18-year veteran of the sheriff’s office who said he has served as a sergeant in both the Uniform Patrol Division and Narcotics Unit.
One proposed amendment to the state constitution would cap the annual rise in home values for property tax purposes to no more than the previous year’s inflation rate for existing homesteaded properties. The change would begin Jan. 1 if the amendment passes. It would not apply to commercial or industrial property or to apartment buildings or to rental houses. It would not apply to new construction or to additions or improvements to existing homes.
The amendment would give county commissioners, city councils and school boards the option to opt out of the freeze before March 1. They would have to hold a public hearing, advertised at least 24 hours in advance, before they could vote to opt out.
The other amendment would create a tax court to handle tax disputes. Currently, such disputes are handled in the executive branch of the state government.
And voters will also decide whether to increase the property tax exemption for tangible personal property such as office equipment to $20,000 from $7,500. Supporters say the goal is to relieve the tax burden on small businesses.
Bulloch County has reported over 7,174 total votes cast as of Monday, Oct. 21. 6,584 of them were done in person while 590 were done by mail-in. Officials are confident that the county could see over 70% in total voter turnout for the election.
Last election, Bulloch County saw 14,408 votes cast by the Nov. 3 election date.
Effingham County numbers show 8,495 votes cast so far. 8,439 votes were cast in person with the other 506 were mail-in votes. Effingham County’s Board of Elections says it is expecting a 75 to 77% voter turnout in this election.
In the 2020 election, Effingham County saw 17,299 votes cast by the Nov. 3 deadline.
Bryan County has seen 7,936 total votes cast to this point. 7,598 votes were in person and the other 338 were done via mail-in. With 21,340 votes cast in the last election, Bryan County has already reached almost 40% of the votes needed to match that previous number.
“This early voting process has been awesome,” said Bulloch County Election Supervisor, Shontay Jones.
Jones says her and her fellow poll workers have been busy with the record-breaking number of voters.
“When we closed out on Saturday, we had voted over 6,000 people, in five days,” said Jones.
Jones says that compared to the 2020 election, there is a massive difference in numbers.
“It looks like in 2020, for the November election, in three weeks and two Saturdays, we voted 14,000 people. We’re close to already voting 7.000 people in just the first week of early voting,” said Jones.
Monday, October 21st marked the eighth day of Early Voting for the November 5th Presidential Election and as of 3:30 p.m. Monday, Georgia voters surpassed the 1.5 million marks with 1,504,332 check-ins, shattering previous Early Voting performance.
On day eight of Early Voting in previous years, 533,283 (2018), 1,010,162 (2020), and 894,412 (2022) voters turned out for in-person Early Voting.
“Georgia voters know we’ve made it easy to cast a ballot. It’s really that simple,” said Secretary Raffensperger. “Over the past four years we’ve worked tirelessly to prepare for this election by adding Early Voting days and investing in infrastructure, only to be rewarded with the lies of Jim Crow 2.0 and a missed All-Star Game. We’re battled tested and ready, despite the critics.”
From the Athens Banner Herald:
Athens-Clarke and Oconee counties set new precedents for the number of people who headed the polls in the first week of advance voting.
In both counties, the early vote turnout has surpassed the election of 2020, which also tallied big numbers at the polls.
There were only four voting days last week due to the Indigenous Peoples Day holiday last Monday, but during the next four days 6,147 people cast early votes in Athens, according to the county’s Director of Elections and Voter Registrations Charlotte Sosebee.
In 2020, the voting turnout for the first five days of early voting was 3,739.
However, in Athens, there were also 1,198 people who voted on Saturday for a five day total of 7,345 and another 459 on Sunday, according to Sosebee.
In Oconee County, there were 7,253 people who voted from Tuesday through Saturday, according to Elections and Registration Assistant Director Jennifer Stone. There is no early voting on Sundays in Oconee County.
“It was slow to start with this morning,” Stone said, “but around 10 or 11 o’clock it started picking up.” Shortly after noon Monday, another 638 people had arrived at the Oconee office to vote.
13WMAZ undertakes to explain the property tax referendum on the General Election ballot.
What is printed on your ballot:
“Shall the Constitution of Georgia be amended so as to authorize the General Assembly to provide by general law for a state-wide homestead exemption that serves to limit increases in the assessed value of homesteads, but which any county, consolidated government, municipality, or local school system may opt out of upon the completion of certain procedures?”
Vote Yes: You want Resolution 1 to implement a statewide homestead exemption.
Vote No: You do not want Resolution 1 to implement a statewide homestead exemption.What does that mean?
Ad Valorem taxes are more commonly known as property taxes.
The homestead exemption is a provision that helps you pay less on your property taxes, but it only applies to properties that 1. you occupy and are 2. considered your legal residence, according to the Georgia Department of Revenue.
If you qualify, then you can apply for a homestead exemption. That wouldn’t change.
But what will change is how local governments assess property taxes on your homestead-exempt home. However, it is important to highlight that local governments can opt out of this amendment if passed.
Essentially, this ballot resolution would have local governments cap property value increases to the rate of inflation on homestead exemption properties.
If your property value increases faster than inflation, then the taxable value of your home would not be your property’s current value, as would be the case right now.
Instead, the tax assessor would look at your previous year’s property value plus the rate of inflation.
This way the taxable value of your home, in theory, would be capped at inflation.
The amendment would apply only to residential homes, and those who have already opted into a homestead exemption would automatically qualify. If you don’t have a homestead exemption, you would have to apply for it.
However, the law carves out some exceptions.
Local governments can opt out of the statewide homestead exemption, meaning they can continue taxing properties in the same way they always have.
Additionally, the law does not stop local governments from increasing their millage rate to cover the revenue lost from the property value cap.
Dougherty County voters will elect a District 1 Commissioner, according to the Albany Herald.
The race between Democrat Larry Harris and incumbent Republican Ed Newsome is one of three local races on the ballot that also includes the District 1 Dougherty County School Board seat and the District 153 House race.
Harris has previously been a candidate for the Ward IV Albany City Commission seat and is a retired radiation dosimetrist. Since his retirement Harris has taken an interest in politics and frequently attends government meetings.
Former President Donald Trump is leading the presidential race in Georgia, according to the AJC.
The Republican nominee has a lead of 47% to 43% over Harris, just outside the poll’s margin of error of 3.1 percentage points. But with 8% of likely voters indicating they’re still undecided, the race could break either way as early voting enters its second week.
Among the most telling takeaways of the poll is the stability of the race. As both campaigns pour time and treasure into Georgia, Trump’s support remains virtually unchanged since the AJC’s last poll in September. Harris’ dropped a fraction of a percentage point. The number of undecided voters has hardly budged.
“It’s a really close race. Neither side has this in the bag,” said University of Georgia political scientist Trey Hood, who oversaw the poll. “And that makes the next two weeks even more important.”
The poll suggests that Harris may still be struggling to woo Black voters, the bulwark of the Democratic coalition. About three-quarters of Black voters say they’ll vote for her, far behind the 88% that Joe Biden won in 2020 when he narrowly flipped Georgia.
That doesn’t mean those voters are gravitating toward Trump. One in 5 Black voters are undecided, while only 8% say they will cast their ballot for Trump. It indicates that Harris’ campaign, which has stepped up efforts to bolster her Black support, should be more worried about apathy than losing those voters to the GOP.
In another sign of concern for Harris, 11% of Democrats say they’re undecided. While few back third-party candidates — the Green Party’s Jill Stein and others registered minimal support — the poll suggests she has more work to do to consolidate her base and little time to do so.
Trump fared better in the AJC poll with his core constituencies. He tallied 95% of support from Republicans and won over 80% of conservative voters. But he’s neck-and-neck with Harris among voters 65 and older — normally an area of strength for GOP candidates — and trails the Democrat 41% to 35% among independent voters.
As with other polls, a combination of the economy (17%) and inflation (19%) tops the list of voter concerns. Even so, about 60% of voters say they’re confident that the U.S. economy will improve over the next year.
Rounding out the list of top voter concerns, about 17% of Georgians say that preserving democracy is the biggest factor in their vote, followed by immigration at 14%. The rest of the issues, including abortion and gun violence, are in the single digits.
Gov. Brian Kemp continues to maintain a positive rating from most Georgians, with 56% of likely voters saying they view him favorably, compared with nearly one-third who give him a negative rating. One in 4 Democrats, along with most independents, give him a positive review.
Democratic U.S. Sen. Jon Ossoff, who is up for a second term in 2026, also has a net favorable rating. Some 43% of voters give him high marks, compared with 28% who have a negative view. Nearly one-third of voters still don’t have an impression of him.
But Vice President Kamala Harris raised more money from Georgians, according to the AJC.
Every month since Vice President Kamala Harris joined the presidential race, her campaign collected more contributions from large-dollar donors in Georgia than former President Donald Trump.
Last month, Harris raised more than $2.4 million compared with Trump’s $1.6 million, according to an Atlanta Journal-Constitution analysis of the latest filings from the Federal Election Commission. September is the third month where Harris’ haul has trumped that of Trump.
The totals are similar to the campaign’s fundraising in prior months. Since Harris joined the race, she has consistently raised more than $2.4 million each month from the state, while Trump’s monthly total ranged from $1.2 million to $1.6 million.
Overall, the Harris campaign has raised over $11.5 million from the state this election cycle. Georgians donated over $10.6 million to the Trump campaign over the same period of time.
The Wall Street Journal looks at Georgia’s demographics in relation to the Presidential contest.
Whether Harris can repeat Biden’s narrow victory in Georgia depends in large part on how many Black voters, like [Gregory] Hannah-Jones, give her a second look late in the race, after polls showed some Black men appearing to sour on the Democratic Party. Georgia, one of the most critical states in the election, is emerging as a test for Trump’s and Harris’s strength with Black men, an all-important group the candidates have jockeyed to win over in the final stretch of the campaign.
The dynamic is playing out nationally, but the stakes are higher in the Peach State, a must-win for Trump and the state with a higher percentage of Black voters than any other presidential battleground. Both candidates have increased their Black outreach in Georgia.
Harris appeared here over the weekend, holding a rally that drew thousands on Saturday and encouraging attendees at two events on Sunday at Black churches to vote early. The Atlanta appearance capped a blitz of beefed up efforts by Harris to convince Black men she would be a better president for them than Trump—and to not sit out the election altogether. “Right now, each of us has an opportunity to make a difference,” Harris said at New Birth Church near Atlanta.
Democrats are blanketing new apartment complexes in Atlanta with get-out-the-vote efforts, looking to capitalize on growth that has come from young voters of color, including Black Americans.
Trump’s campaign is holding meetings in Atlanta with Black men, and the former president Tuesday stopped by Atlanta and sought to appeal directly to Black voters, alleging that migrants were stealing their jobs.
“Any African-American or Hispanic…that votes for Kamala, you gotta have your head examined, because they are really screwing you,” Trump said. Trump was never expected to win a majority of Black men or Black voters overall, but his campaign is seeking to peel away enough support to cost Harris the election.
In addition to Black men specifically, Harris must win strong support from young and minority newcomers overall, who are fueling Atlanta’s growth, according to political observers in both parties. Metro Atlanta, about 6.3 million people of Georgia’s total population of 11 million, has been booming for decades but has seen a growth spurt—like many southern cities—since 2020, thanks to growth in tech, the film industry, manufacturing and other sectors. Much of that growth is from Democratic-leaning groups such as young people and people of color, according to the Atlanta Regional Commission, a government agency tracking the region’s economy and demographics.
Polling this month from The Wall Street Journal suggests Harris is making up ground from March, when Biden was at the top of the Democratic ticket. In the seven most competitive states, 24% of Black men said they were either definitely or probably going to vote for the Republican former president. In the Journal’s March swing-states poll, Trump’s support among Black men was at 30%.
But Harris is still behind where Biden was in 2020. That year, Black voters sided with Biden 90% to 8%, according to the AP VoteCast survey. Polling ahead of Election Day in 2020 also showed Trump with double-digit support from Black voters.
Andra Gillespie, a political-science professor at Emory University who follows Georgia elections, said the growth of Atlanta has benefited Democrats and has shown “under the right conditions” that they can win. That includes boosting turnout among Black voters.
“Republicans still have the slight numerical advantage in the state,” she said. “Democrats, to win, must have a superior get-out-the-vote operation.”
But metro Atlanta’s growth first began to challenge the GOP’s dominance beginning around 2016. In that election, Trump comfortably won Georgia, but he lost two populous counties in Atlanta’s fast-growing northern suburbs, Gwinnett and Cobb, which had been longtime Republican strongholds. In 2018, Democratic gubernatorial nominee Stacey Abrams marshaled metro Atlanta voters and Black voters across the state. She was unsuccessful, losing to Gov. Brian Kemp, a Republican, who won a little over 50% of the vote. But she came closer than any Democrat to winning a Georgia gubernatorial election since 1998.
Bruce LeVell, a Black businessman in Atlanta and a Trump adviser, said Black people in Atlanta and beyond are turning to Trump because of the problems of inflation and illegal immigration. They see “a stark contrast of where we’re at now versus when he was president, whether the person likes him or not.”
United States Senator Jon Ossoff (D-Atlanta) said farmers need federal aid, according to the Valdosta Daily Times.
Speaking to press and political leadership in a Zoom call, Ossoff said 34 senators had agreed in a bipartisan effort to press for such relief to help an agricultural industry crippled by Hurricane Helene.
Ossoff said initial estimates showed losses of 35% of the cotton crop, 10-30% of peanuts and four million acres of timberland attributed to the recent hurricane. Fall crops were defoliated and Georgia’s citrus crop also took a hit, the senator said.
“Damage assessments are needed for agriculture across the entire Southeast, not just Georgia,” he said. “There were very significant impacts across the entire ag economy.”
Georgia State House Speaker Jon Burns (R-Newington) joined several of his peers in signing a letter requesting post-hurricane aid, according to the AJC.
In a letter addressed Monday to Speaker of the U.S. House Mike Johnson (R-La.), House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.), Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), Burns and his peers say recent storms have caused “generational impacts” in their states. The letter was cosigned by the Republican House speakers of Alabama, Florida, North Carolina, South Carolina and Tennessee.
So far, the White House has approved nearly $2 billion in hurricane recovery assistance across all states impacted by Helene. President Biden has also approved disaster declarations for dozens of south and east Georgia counties, stretching from near the Florida border all the way northeast to the Augusta area.
But state leaders says more help is needed, especially for farmers.
Helene, in particular, “could not have made landfall at a worse time for the agriculture industry,” the state house speakers wrote.
“Farmers across our states had already begun Fall harvest and no commodity was spared,” the letter says.
While damage assessments are underway, the state leaders asked for more time to assemble loss data and submit it to Congress. Earlier this month, Agriculture Commissioner Tyler Harper estimated Hurricane Helene caused direct damages of at least $6.46 billion to Georgia’s agriculture and forestry industries, the state’s largest economic sector.
The speakers also requested that disaster aid be distributed through a federal block grant — similar to what was done after Hurricane Michael slammed South Georgia in 2018.
This time, Burns and the other cosigners say speed is imperative to help get farmers back on their feet.
“Timely delivery of disaster assistance is extremely important as farmers will be unable to secure financing for planting next year’s crop without this support,” the letter says.
On top of the agriculture aid, the signees say they need supplemental disaster assistance to help communities rebuild, infrastructure funding to repair damaged roads and bridges, as well as a Department of Housing and Urban Development grant to boost housing and economic development opportunities.
Georgia Agriculture Commissioner Tyler Harper (R-Ocilla) spoke about the industry, according to the Moultrie Observer.
Harper said that agriculture truly was the backbone of Georgia’s economy and gives more than $83 billion economic output to the state every year. He added that agriculture was almost 17% of the state’s GDP with one in seven Georgians employed in the industry.
He told how the Georgia and Florida Departments of Agriculture, the University of Georgia and Clemson University had worked together to combat a pest common to the states. “The partnerships that your commissioners of agriculture have, especially in the Southeast, is phenomenal. Our friendship, our partnership, our working together. We truly do work together as a team,” Harper said.
Harper told the audience that the Georgia Department of Agriculture was established in 1874 so it has existed for 150 years.
“We’re proud to be and to claim the nation’s first Department of Agriculture,” he added.
He also told them that there was a 150th anniversary display at the Expo that showed the work that had been done over the years to ensure that the agricultural industry was successful.
“And we’ve go a lot of work to do to continue to make sure it’s successful and we’ve got to strap-up our boots and we’ve gotta make sure that that happens,” he said.
“I’m concerned about America’s ag economy. I’m concerned about where we are. High interest rates. High input costs, low commodity prices. All of those are combining for what is going to put our farm families in a very desperate and tight situation, in some cases,” Harper said.
He added, then you throw in on top of that Hurricane Helene and Hurricane Milton that have completely devastated farms and timber operations all over the Southeast.
He then paraphrased what the Florida Commissioner of Agriculture Wilton Simpson had said earlier at the luncheon, “At the end of the day, agriculture is national security. Feeding, clothing and putting shelter over our head every single day is a key component for our nation to be successful. A nation that can’t feed itself, can’t defend itself.”
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is considering expanding the boundaries of the Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge, according to the Capitol Beat News Service.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is proposing an expansion of the Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge, including land currently held by a company looking to open a titanium mine near the swamp.
The federal agency is seeking public comment on the plan to add about 22,000 acres adjacent to the existing refuge, according to a news release issued Friday.
“If adopted, the proposed minor boundary expansion would enable the service to work with willing landowners to explore voluntary conservation actions, including potential acquisition, that would further protect the refuge’s globally significant freshwater wetland system and wildlife habitat,” the news release stated.
There is precedence for adding to the wildlife refuge to head off proposed mining, said Josh Marks, president of Georgians for the Okefenokee, who led a successful effort to stop DuPont’s mining project at the swamp in the 1990s.
“Having helped with the last major addition to the refuge in 2003, which was the product of the DuPont company deciding to donate its land for conservation instead of mining it, I know first-hand the importance of public/private partnerships for securing the integrity of the Okefenokee,” Marks wrote in an email to Capitol Beat.
“Now that the federal government has taken this critical step in the face of this latest mining threat, it’s now Governor (Brian) Kemp’s turn to stop the review of TPM’s permit application and instead join in helping permanently protect Georgia’s greatest natural treasure.”
Bipartisan legislation aimed at stopping the mine has been introduced in the General Assembly but has failed to win passage. Also, at least 19 local governments across Georgia have passed resolutions calling for protecting the Okefenokee.
Warner Robins City Council voted to double their salaries to $20k per year, according to 13WMAZ.
According to the proposal, the salary bump would go into effect in during January 2026. It would raise salaries for city council members from $10,000 – their current mark – to $20,000.
“The amount that our council makes, $10,000 a year, is extremely, extremely low from what our council makes across the state,” Mayor LaRhonda Patrick said at the meeting
At the council meeting earlier in October, several Warner Robins citizens spoke out against the raise during the public forum. They said they felt that money might be better served in other ways.
By the time the potential raises would be implemented in 2026, three council seats will be up for election.
The Muscogee County Board of Education voted in favor of an 18% pay raise for Superintendent Dr. David Lewis, according to WTVM.
In addition to the superintendent’s pay raise, employees will also see an increase in their paychecks. The Muscogee County School Board approved a one-time retention supplement of $1,000 for some employees and $500 for others, depending on their qualifications.
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